HIDDEN MINES. 121 



intelligence nor spirit to resist, until goaded to 



desperation. 



The colony had progressed very rapidly, 

 the settlements extending into every quarter 

 of the territory — villages, and even towns of 

 considerahle importance were reared in re- 

 mote sections ; of wliich there now remain 

 hut the ruins, with scarce a tradition to tell 

 the fate of the once flourishing population. 

 Many valuahle mines were discovered and 

 worked, as tradition relates, the locations of 

 which have been lost, or (as the MexLicans 

 say) concealed by the Indians, In order to 

 prevent a repetition of the brutal outrages 

 they had suffered in them. Whether this 

 Was the case or not, they surely had cause 

 enough for wishing to conceal those witli 

 which they were acquainted; for in these 

 very mines they had been forced to perform, 

 under the lash, the most laborious tasks, till 

 human strength could endure no more. Even 

 then, perhaps, they would not have ventured 

 upon resistance, but for the instigations of an 

 eloquent warrior from a distant tribe, who 

 pretended to have mherited the power of 

 Montezuma, of whose subjects all these In- 

 dians, even to the present day, consider them- 

 selves the descendants. Tecumseh-like, our 

 hero united the different tribes, and laid the 

 plan of a conspiracy and general massacre of 

 theh oppressors; declaring that all who did not 

 enter into the plot, should share the late 

 of the Spaniards. I have been furmshec^ 

 through the kindness of tlie Secretary ot 



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