27(3 MINING IN THE CHAP. x. 



as the history of them illustrates the course 

 which has very commonly accompanied the seek- 

 ing for wealth by exploring the bowels of the 

 earth for silver and gold, it may not be amiss to 

 digress from the immediate subject and to take 

 a succinct view of it. 



TheFuggars obtained possession of the mines 

 about the year 1598. They were the best miners 

 of that age, and it is now visible that their galle- 

 ries and excavations were constructed conform- 

 ably to the best principles of the art; but they 

 viewed their concession as a temporary property 

 from which they were to extract what wealth 

 they could with as much expedition as possible, 

 and with the least expense to themselves. With 

 this view they formed many galleries where the 

 minerals appeared the most rich, arid speedily 

 forsook them to open others. There are now 

 visible as many as sixteen of these openings, the 

 roofs of which were supported by wooden posts, 

 but so slightly that they have all rotted, and thus 

 the passages became choked up. Two circum- 

 stances seem to have accompanied the destruc- 

 tion and abandonment of this undertaking. The 

 Spanish government wished to raise the rent and 

 to impose some taxes, when the Fuggars turned 

 into the mines a stream of water which they had 

 before conducted out of it, by which they be- 

 came completely inundated. They introduced 

 coining-machines, which they worked in the 



