8 QUICKSILVER DEPOSITS OF THE PACIFIC SLOPE. 



desirable that (quicksilver mines should be developed on her own soil. 

 Accordingly, as far back as 1783, quicksilver mining was made the subject 

 of special legislation. A quicksilver fund was established out of the public 

 revenues for the purpose of promoting the discover}- and development of 

 quicksilver mines. On every hundred weight of the metal produced a bounty 

 was paid, and a large sum was offered to those who should succeed in pro- 

 ducing a specified quantity annually.' 



Nt)t onlv are there many skillful miners and prospectors in Mexico, 

 but so universal is the interest in the subject that a knowledge of ores has 

 become almost instinctive among Mexicans. It would be supposed that, 

 when their natui'al acuteness in mineralogy was sharpened by the promised 

 rewards, some of the many cinnabar deposits of California would have 

 been discovered within a few years after the promulgation of the edicts of 

 1783; but this did not happen for more than sixty years. 



It has been asserted that the California Indians knew of the cinnabar 

 of New Ahnaden and used it for paint long before the Spanish-American 

 immigrants became acquainted with it. The evidence on this point seems 

 to be quite inconclusive, and it is not impossible that the incident is bor- 

 rowed from the history of Peru, where, as all historians are agreed, the 

 subjects of the Incas were familiar with the u.se of vermilion. The same 

 stor}' has been related within a few years of Nevada Indians. It is hard to 

 say whether it is more probable that the aborigines repeated the same series 

 of discoveries in personal adornment at these three points or that the whites 

 have forced the same characteristic anecdote into service a number of times, 

 with changes of names and dates. It has also been asserted that the Spanish 

 Californians excavated cinnabar at New Ahnaden and used it to paint the 

 mission church at Santa Clara. The occurrence was certainly known as 

 early as 1821, when Antonio Sufiol and Luis Chaboya erected a mill on a 

 neighboring sti'eam and endeavored to extract silver from the cinnabar. A 

 second attempt of the same kind was made in 1835. Late in 1845 Andreas 

 Castillero, a Mexican officer who was on a journey to Sutter's Fort, passed 

 through Santa Clara. The mysterious ore was shown to him, and he is 



' The notes on the history of the discovery of quicksilver in California are derived from the testi- 

 mony in the case of The United States us. Andreas Castillero, decided by the Supreme Court, December 

 term, 1862. (Black's S. C. R., vol. 2.) 



