GAMBUCINOS. 173 



reopened, and a great number of the pJa- 

 ceres very extensively and profitably worked. 

 But as New Mexico is governed at present, 

 there is no security in an enterprise of the 

 kind. The progress of a foreign adventurer 

 is always liable to be arrested by the jealousy 

 of the government, upon the first flattering 

 bonanza, as the cited instances abundantly 

 demonstrate. Americans in particular would 

 have httle to hope for in the way of redress; 

 for our government has shown itself so tardy 

 in redressing or revenging injuries done its 

 citizens by foreign states, that they would 

 be oppressed, as they have been, with 



ubjects of 



^dth more impunity than the 



The gold regions are, for flie most part, a 

 kind of common property, and have been 

 wrought chiefly by an indigent class of peo- 

 ple, known familiarly as gambucinos, a name 

 applied to pettv miners who work ' on their 



own hook.' Among these one very seldom 

 finds any foreigners ; for according to the pre- 

 sent simple method of working, the profit is too 

 small and too precarious to entice the indepen- 

 dent American laborer, who is seldom willing 

 to work for less than a dollar a day clear of all 

 expenses; while the Mexican gambucino is 

 content with two or three reales, most of which 

 is required to firrnisli him food. Therefore 

 these poor miners lead a miserable life after all. 

 When short of means they often support theni- 

 selves upon only a real each per day, their 

 usual food consisting of bread and a kind of 



15* 



