322 THE AEIZONA COPPEK MINE. 



tains, and -which according to history had been worked by the Mexi- 

 cans, at an early period, with extraordinary success. One in 

 particular, known as the Planche de la Plata mine, had a wide reputa- 

 tion, having yielded masses of pure silver, weighing more than twenty 

 arrobas, a Spanish weight of twenty-five pounds. Necessity, how- 

 ever, arising from remoteness of situation, ami the war whoop of the 

 savage, had long since occasioned the abandonment of this mine ; 

 audit was gradually sinking into oblivion, when attention was direct- 

 ed to it by Count Rousset. This daring Frenchman, having obtained 

 from Santa Anna a grant of the mine in question, made an expedition 

 to Sonora, intending to explore the Arizona mountains in search of 

 silver, and to take possession and work the mine ceded to him. 



Great and unforseen difficulties were encountered, and his follow- 

 ers becoming disheartened, after months of toil and privation, he was 

 reluctantly forced to suspend, though not entirely to abandon the 

 enterprise. Meanwhile fresh troubles befel him, which it would be 

 foreign to our present object to enter upon ; getting embroiled with 

 the Mexican authorities, his capture, trial and execution were the 

 consequences. 



Aware of these circumstances the Arizona Company set out from 

 San Francisco, immediately after its preliminary organization, in the 

 latter part of 1854, with the view of taking possession of the noted 

 silver mine; the Frenchman's right to which, it was assumed, had 

 been confiscated by the manner of his death. Arrived in the Gads- 

 den Purchase, the little band of adventurers, numbering twenty men, 

 well armed, separated into detachments, one of which under Mexican 

 guidance, succeeded in making its Avay to the location pointed out 

 as the Planche de la Plata mine. There were, however, unmistakable 

 signs of the nearness of hostile Indians, consequently, after spending 

 a little time in examining the plain, which bore evidence of having 

 been superficially dug over, and picking up a lump of virgin silver 

 weighing 21 lbs. they returned to their camp, satisfied that the Planche 

 de la Plata mine was a reality ; but, at the same time, convinced that 

 its appropriation was for the present impracticable, from its remote- 

 ness with respect to supplies, and from the hostility of the surround- 

 ing Indians. Another portion of the company, arriving at Sonorita, 

 heard of a copper mine forty miles to the north, in a barren and un- 

 known country; proceeding thither, and being struck with indica- 

 tions of the great richness of the mine, they resolved to keep pos- 

 session ; the remainder of the company at length joining them, the 

 further search for silver mined was abandoned. One of the explorers 



