# Mexico in 1827/Volume 2/Chapter 4

SECTION IV.
It is to Baron Humbolt's Essai Politique that Europe is indebted for whatever knowledge it now possesses of the peculiarities by which Mexico is distinguished as a Mining country. How little was known before his time may be inferred from the fact, that Robertson, celebrated, as he so justly is, for the diligence and accuracy of his researches, in his view of the Colonial Policy of Spain, confounds, every where, the climate of Mexico with that of Peru and Chilé, and deplores the mortality occasioned amongst the natives, (whom he supposes to have been compelled to work in the mines,) "by the sudden transition from the sultry climate of the valleys, to the chill, penetrating air, peculiar to high land in the torrid zone." I need hardly state that, the idea is a mistaken one; and that however miserable the lot ​of those poor wretches may be, whose sufferings, amidst the eternal snows of the Andes, (at Upsallata, and San Pedro Nostoli,) Captain Head so forcibly describes, there is no sort of analogy between their situation, and that of the mining population of New Spain. Compulsory labour has never been known there; and the temperature of Zăcătēcăs and Guănăjūātŏ, where the first mines were worked, differs but little from that of Tlăscălă, Chŏlūlă, and Tĕnōchtĭtlān, where the population was found to be most concentrated at the time of the Conquest.
So little, indeed, are the metalliferous ridges, which have been, hitherto, the seat of the great mining operations of the Spaniards, elevated above the level of the Table-land, that, with the exception of Jesus Maria, (North-west of Chihuahua,) I hardly know one mining district, in the vicinity of which the snow remains long on the ground. Real del Monte, and Tlalpujahua, are certainly not warm; and the first is liable to be occasionally enveloped in clouds, as is the district of El Oro, near Zĭmăpān, and many others on the Eastern branch of the Cordillera. But the difference between their level, and that of the Capital, does not exceed 1,500, or 2,000 feet, (as will be seen by a reference to the map of Routes and elevations annexed to this volume,) and the cold felt there by visitors from the warmer districts, is merely relative; the Thermometer seldom falling below 40° of Fahrenheit, except in the nights, which are sometimes severe. This temperature seems ​well adapted to the constitution of the Indians, who flock to these mountain districts with their families, on the report of any new discovery, and appear to thrive there as well as upon the Table-land. There are particular tribes of Natives, who have been miners from generation to generation, and who lead a roving life, migrating, with their wives and children, from one district to another, as they are attracted by the fame of superior riches. A mine in Bonanza, in whatever part of the country it may be situated, is sure of a sufficient supply of workmen, because the system of payment by Partido, (a share in the ore raised,) which is usually resorted to upon such occasions, is always preferred to regular wages, however high, for dead works. It was by employing liberally this powerful incitement to exertion, that the Old Spaniards found means to create a population in the most distant and desolate districts, without having recourse to the Mita or Tanda, which, in Peru and Chili, was in such general use; while it is not improbable, that the absence of that system of forced labour, which was adopted South of the Equator, has contributed not a little to encourage that love of mining, which prevails at the present day, amongst the natives of New Spain. Far from looking upon it with dread or repugnance, they regard it as their natural occupation, and appear to feel, in many parts of the country, a sovereign contempt for the agricultural population, which is reduced to vegetate upon a scanty daily pittance, without a ​chance of acquiring that sudden wealth, which sometimes falls to a Barretero's lot. In addition to these accidental advantages, the ordinary wages of a miner are high; and although the money which passes through his hands is usually as ill spent, as it is rapidly acquired, still, to ensure the means of indulging in a weekly excess, (the necessity of which seems to be an article of the mining creed in every country,) there are few Indians who will not enter gladly upon a week of labour.
It is not, therefore, to be apprehended, that the late change of institutions in Mexico will occasion any difficulty in finding hands to carry on mining operations there, to whatever extent they may be pushed by the Companies, although there have been great complaints upon the subject, hitherto, in many districts, from the total dispersion of the population during the Civil War. Things revert, however, gradually, to their former state, and that without the necessity of any extraordinary exertion. At Tlălpŭjāhuă, for instance, upon the first arrival of the Company, (in 1825,) one hundred and fifty labourers were collected with difficulty. In 1827, from twelve to sixteen hundred persons were in daily employment in the mines, besides from six to seven hundred more, who were occupied in cutting wood, and making charcoal in the neighbouring mountains. At Guanajuato, within one year after the establishment of the Anglo-Mexican and United Mexican Companies, the population increased from thirty to ​nearly forty-five thousand. A similar change took place at Zăcătēcăs, Sŏmbrĕrētĕ, and Real del Monte. Hundreds of Indians emerged from the fastnesses, in which they had been dragging on a precarious, and almost savage existence, in the midst of every kind of privation, to seek a livelihood by active labour; and this disposition must necessarily increase, as the advantages derived from it become more apparent.
It will not, however, produce its full effect, until the mines begin to yield ores anew, for it is only the really industrious part of the population that has sought employment, hitherto, in the preparatory works; but, from the moment that these are concluded, it is very generally thought that there will be no deficiency of labourers.
I have already pointed out the fact, that the importance of the mines of Mexico consists not merely in the amount of the Mineral treasures which they produce, but in the impulse which is communicated by them to all the other great interests of the State.
In a country, the largest and most fertile portion of which, (the Table-land,) is precluded, by the peculiarity of its position, and by the want of a water-communication with the Coast, from exchanging its produce for that of European industry, the great mass of the population would be reduced to the lowest state of indigence, were it not for the home-market created by the mines. In this respect, the very poverty of the ores of Mexico was an advantage, by increasing enormously the scale upon which ​Mining establishments were necessarily formed. We have seen that the Three millions of marcs of silver, to which the average annual produce of the country amounted, were extracted from Ten millions of Quintals of Ore; and I have endeavoured to give, in the second Section, some idea of the process, by which the separation of the Silver from this mass of extraneous substances was effected. The number of men and animals employed in it was immense, and in every place where they were thus congregated, a demand was created for Agricultural produce, which rose, as the importance of the mines increased, and called gradually into existence a cultivation, of which no trace was to be found before. Such has been the progress of civilization, and of Agricultural industry, throughout New Spain. With the exception of the Capital, which, as the seat of Government, derived its importance from other sources, and the towns of La Pūēblă, Guădălajāră, Văllădŏlīd, and Ŏăxācă, which were selected as the seats of the great Episcopal establishments of the country, there is hardly a single town in Mexico, that does not derive its origin, directly or indirectly, from the Mines; while, in like manner, cultivation will be found to extend in a long line from South to North, with occasional inclinations to the East and West, (following always, in its direction, that of Mining discoveries,) the course of which may be easily traced upon the map.
The most fertile portions of the Table-land are, ​the Băxīŏ, which is immediately contiguous to Guănăjūātŏ, and comprises a portion of the States of Văllădŏlīd; Guădălajāră, Qŭerētărŏ, and Guanajuato: The Valley of Tŏlūcă, and the Southern parts of the State of Valladolid, which supply both the Capital and the Mining districts of Tlălpŭjāhuă, Ēl Ōrŏ, Tĕmăscāltĕpēc, and Ăngăngēŏ; the plains of Păchūcă and Āpăm, which extend, on either side, to the foot of the mountains, upon which the mines of Real del Monte and Chico are situated; Ītzmĭquīlpăn, which owes its existence to Zĭmăpān; Āgŭascălĭeñtĕs, by which the great Mining town of Zăcătēcăs is supplied; a considerable circle in the vicinity of Sŏmbrĕrētĕ and Frĕsnīllŏ; the valley of the Jaral, and the plains about San Luis Pŏtŏsī, which town, again, derives its name from the mines of the Cerro de San Pedro, (about four leagues from the gates;) the supposed superiority of which to the famous mines of Pŏtŏsī, in Peru, gave rise to the appellation of Pŏtŏsī. A little farther North we find the district of Mătĕhūālă, which is now a thriving town, with seven thousand inhabitants, created by the discovery of Catorce; while about the same time, (the latter part of the last century,) Durango rose into importance from the impulse given to the surrounding country by the labours of Zămbrānŏ, at San Dīmăs and Guārĭsămĕy. Its population increased in twelve years, from eight to twenty thousand; while whole streets and squares were added to its extent by the munificence of that ​fortunate miner. To the extreme North, Santa Eŭlālĭă gave rise to the town of Chĭhūāhuă; Bătŏpīlăs, and El Părrāl, became each the centre of a little circle of cultivation; Jesus Maria is, at the present day, producing a similar effect; Măpĭnī, Cuēncămē, and Ĭndēĕ, (a little more to the Southward,) served to develope the natural fertility of the banks of the river Nāzăs; while in the low hot regions of Sŏnōră and Cĭnăloă, on the Western Coast, almost every place designated in the map as a town, was originally, (and generally is still,) a Real, or district of mines.
Such was the case with Ălămŏs and Cūlĭăcān, and Cŏsălā and El Rŏsārĭŏ; and such will be found to be the case with an infinity of other towns and villages scattered over the territory of the Mexican Republic, which, but for the mines, never would have existed at all. When once formed, these establishments, as Humboldt very justly observes, often survived the mines which gave them birth; and turned to agricultural labours, for the supply of other districts, that industry which was at first devoted solely to their own. Some, however, are so unfavourably situated as necessarily to follow the fate of the mines; in which case their population goes to swell that of the nearest district where there is a demand for labour, but might easily be diverted into more distant channels, were the advantages held out sufficiently great to compensate the difficulties of the removal. ​An examination into the sources of the wealth of the principal families of the Mexican nobility will confirm what I have stated with regard to the towns, by leading us nearly to the same result. The family of Rēglă, which now possesses landed property to an immense extent in various parts of the country, purchased the whole of it with the proceeds of the mines of Real del Monte. The Făgŏāgăs owe their present importance to the great Bŏnānză of the Păvĕllōn at Sŏmbrĕrētĕ. The estates of the family of Vĭbāncŏ proceeded from the mines of Bŏlāñŏs. The houses of Vălĕnciānă, Rūhl, Pĕrĕz, Gālvĕz, and Ŏtērŏ, are all indebted for their possessions to the mines of Valenciana and Vĭllălpāndŏ, at Guănăjūātŏ. The family of Sărdănētă (Los Marqueses de Rayas), takes it rise from the mine of that name. Cātă and Mĕllādŏ gave to their first proprietor (Don Francisco Matias de Busto) the Marquisate of San Clemente, with immense wealth, a part of which has been transmitted to his descendants. The Cañada of Laborde, at Tlalpujahua, with the mines of Quĕbrădīllă and San Ăcāsĭŏ, at Zăcătēcăs, all contributed towards the three fortunes of Laborde. The family of the Ŏbrĕgōnĕs owes its beautiful estates, (near Leon,) to the mines of La Purisima, and Concepcion, at Catorce; as does the family of Gordoa, the estate of Malpasso to the mine of La Luz. The son of Zămbrānŏ, (the discoverer of Guārĭsămĕy,) wasted as his rightful property has been, is still in possession of four of the largest estates in ​Dŭrāngŏ: and Bătŏpīlăs gave to the Marquis of Bŭstămānte, both the means of purchasing his title, for which he paid by a loan of 300,000 dollars, (60,000l.) to the Royal Treasury, during the Revotion, and the affluence which he is now enjoying in the Peninsula.
The above is a most imperfect sketch of the origin of the fortunes of the leading families in Mexico. With some few exceptions, such as the Conde de Āgrĕdă, whose fortune was made by trade, the descendants of Cortes, who received a Royal grant of the Valley of Ŏăxācă, (the value of which is now much reduced by the abolition of the Indian Capitation tax,) and the families of some of the Spanish merchants established at Jălāpă and Vĕrăcrūz, it will be found that almost the whole landed property of the country is in the hands of Mining families, and has, in a great measure, been brought into cultivation by the mines. They furnished the means of building the vast Presas de Agua, or Reservoirs, without which agriculture can so seldom be carried on successfully upon the Table-land; and thus rendered productive districts, the fertility of which, had nature not been assisted by art, would never have been developed; while the constant demand, in the Mining towns, for every article of agricultural produce, rendered this mode of investing capital preferable to any other then open to a Native. The Civil War has, indeed, reduced almost to nothing the value of these possessions, and there is little, at ​present, to demonstrate the wealth, to which, under more favourable circumstances, the principal families of the Republic will find themselves restored: but time alone is wanting in order to bring things round to their natural level; the seeds of opulence are there, and, in proportion as the country advances towards a more settled order of things, the period approaches, at which they may be again expected to produce their former fruits.
Melancholy, indeed, would be the fate of Mexico, if the source from which all her riches have hitherto been derived, were, as some suppose, exhausted and dried up! She could not only find no substitute for her mines in her Foreign Trade, of which they furnish the great staple, Silver, but her resources at home would decrease, in exactly the same proportion as her means of supplying her wants from abroad. Her Agriculture would be confined to such a supply of the necessaries of life, as each individual would have it in his power to raise;—Districts, formerly amongst the richest in the known world, would be thrown for ever out of cultivation;—the great Mining towns would become, what they were during the worst years of the Revolution, the picture of desolation; and the country, would be so far thrown back in the career of civilization, that the great majority of its inhabitants would be compelled to revert to a Nomade life, and to seek a precarious subsistence amidst their flocks and herds, like the Gaucho of the Pampas, of whose Indian habits Captain Head ​has given us so spirited, and so faithful a picture. I desire no better proof of this than the contrast, which exists, at the present day, in every part of New Spain, between the degraded situation of the husbandman, or small landed proprietor, in any district without an outlet, and that of a proprietor, (however small,) in the vicinity of the mines. The one, is without wants, and almost without an idea of civilized life; clothed in a leather dress, or in the coarsest kind of home-made woollen manufactures;—living in primitive simplicity perhaps, but in primitive ignorance, and brutality too;—sunk in sloth, and incapable of exertion, unless stimulated by some momentary excitement: while the other, acquires wants daily, with the means of gratifying them; and grows industrious, in proportion as the advantages which he derives from the fruits of his labour increase; his mind opens to the advantages of European arts; he seeks for his offspring, at least, that education which had been denied to himself; and becomes, gradually, with a taste for the delights of civilization, a more important member, himself, of the civilized world! Who can see this, as I have seen it, without feeling, as I have felt, the importance, not only to Mexico, but to Europe, of a branch of ​industry capable of producing such beneficial effects? And alone capable of producing them: for Mexico, without her mines, (I cannot too often repeat it,) notwithstanding the fertility of her soil, and the vast amount of her former Agricultural produce, can never rise to any importance in the scale of nations. The markets of the Table-land must be home-markets, and these the mines alone can supply. On the Coasts, indeed, the productions of the Tropics, which we term Colonial Produce, might serve as an object of barter; but these, supposing their cultivation to be carried to the greatest possible extent, could never cover the demand upon European industry, which the wants of a population of eight millions will, under more favourable circumstances, occasion, as their value must decrease in proportion to the superabundance of the supply, until they reach the point, at which their price, when raised, would cease to repay the cost of raising them. Thus the trade of Mexico would be confined to her Vanilla, and Cochineal, (of which she has a natural monopoly;) while the number of those who consume European Manufactures in the Interior, (which does not yet include one half of the population,) would be reduced probably to one-tenth. Fortunately, there is no reason whatever to apprehend the approach of that scarcity of mineral productions, with which many seem to think that New Spain is menaced. Hitherto, at least, every step that has been taken in exploring the country, has led to fresh indications of ​wealth, which, in the North, appears to be really inexhaustible. To the European manufacturer, it is a matter of indifference whether the silver, which is transmitted to him in return for the produce of his labour, proceeds from Guănăjūātŏ, or Dŭrāngŏ, from the centre of the Table-land, or the fastnesses of the Sierra Madre. The capability of the country to produce it in sufficient quantities to ensure a constant market, and an equally constant return, is the only point which it can be of importance for him to ascertain; and of this, from the moment that a sufficient capital is invested in mining operations, I have no scruple in stating that there can be no doubt.
Mining in Mexico has, hitherto, been confined to a comparatively narrow circle: the immense mass of silver which the country has yielded since the Conquest, (Humboldt calculates it at 1,767,952,000 dollars, in 1803,) has proceeded from a few Central spots, in which the capital and activity of the first speculators found ample employment: yet, if we examine those spots, we shall find that three centuries of constant productiveness, have not been sufficient to exhaust the principal mines originally worked in each, while by far the largest proportion of the great Veins remains unexplored. This is the case at Guănăjūātŏ, with the mines of Cātă and Rāyăs, and at Zăcătēcăs, with those of San Ăcāsĭŏ and San Bĕrnăbē,—all of which now belong to the United Mexican Association. Valenciana is a more ​recent discovery, but Mĕllādŏ, (likewise at Guănăjūātŏ,) which belongs to the Anglo-Mexican Company, is supposed to have been the first mine denounced in that district. At Sŏmbrĕrētĕ, the Vein of the Păvĕllōn has been worked from the time of the Conquest, though it was only in the year 1792 that it produced the famous Bonanza of the Făgŏāgăs. The mines of Santa Eulalia, in Chĭhūāhuă, continued to be equally productive during a period of eighty years, and were only abandoned at last in consequence of the incursions of the Indian Tribes.
The riches of Real del Monte can hardly be said to have diminished in a term of sixty years, although the difficulty of the drainage caused the works there to be suspended. The same may be said of Bolaños, which is likewise in the hands of one of the English Companies; (Vide Section II.)—and although, in some of the inferior districts, many smaller veins have been worked out, we have to set against this the immense regions hitherto unexplored, or if examined, only sufficiently so to afford some faint indications of the riches which they are now known to contain.
There is, therefore, so little reason to question the ​producing powers of the country, that, were it necessary to adopt one of two extreme suppositions, there would rather be cause to fear a depreciation in the value of our present circulating medium, from the probability of too great an increase in the average annual produce, than to apprehend any great falling off in its amount. But the progress of discoveries, as we have seen, is liable to be influenced by a thousand circumstances, unconnected with the mines themselves: any great change, in either sense, must be the work of time; and occupied as the Companies now are by extensive undertakings in the more Central districts, it seems probable, not only that the former standard of twenty-four millions per annum will not be reached before the year 1835, but that, while the mines of the South continue to be sufficiently productive to repay the Adventurers, capital will not be employed to any great extent in the less accessible districts of the North, to which, as I have already stated, I am induced to attach the greatest importance.
On the other hand, it may be urged that the Trade which is now opened with Asia, through the ports of Măzătlān and Gūāymăs, will hold out great encouragement to speculations in that quarter, by the facilities which it affords for turning to immediate account riches, which were formerly of (comparatively) but little advantage. All the luxuries of life may now be obtained with as much ease by the inhabitants of the Provinces on the Pacific, as by ​those of the Capital itself; and there can be little doubt that, in proportion as wealth becomes more desirable, it will be more eagerly sought. It is therefore difficult, after allowing a reasonable time for these causes to operate, to suppose that they will not produce their natural effects; in which case I am certainly inclined to think that a very considerable increase in the amount of silver raised in Mexico, may be expected to take place; although it is impossible now to fix the period at which this change will occur, and still more so, to ascertain the extent to which it may ultimately be carried. It is sufficient for the commercial nations of Europe to know that, from the moment that the internal affairs of New Spain assume a more settled character, and that sufficient time has elapsed to allow the new institutions to take root, there is every prospect of an increase in the demand for every article of European manufacture, while that very increase in a country, the revenue of which depends so much upon the customs, will augment the power of the Government to meet its engagements abroad.
It may, and I fear it will, be said, that the chain of evidence is here incomplete, and that I am assuming a fact favourable to Mexico in the first instance, in order to draw from it my own conclusions afterwards. This is by no means my wish; but, at the same time, I confess that, (in common, I believe, ​with all those who have had an opportunity of inquiring into the resources of New Spain,) I do regard it as so well ascertained a fact that her mineral riches are almost unexplored, that I am willing to rest upon it my whole calculation with regard to her future importance as a country. I have not formed this opinion hastily, or without endeavouring to collect all the data respecting it, that it is possible to obtain in the present unsettled state of the country; but having formed it, (whether correctly or erroneously, time alone can determine,) I cannot lay it aside at pleasure, in an investigation, the result of which it must materially influence. I need not, however, remind my readers, that I am here only canvassing probabilities, nor again urge upon their attention the fact, that, whatever be the capabilities of the country, their developement depends upon the general course of events, which may advance or retard the moment, at which the extent of the resources of Mexico can alone be fully known.
I shall now quit a part of my subject; upon which so much uncertainty necessarily prevails, and revert to one that admits of a more accurate investigation, viz. the immediate influence of the mines upon the commercial demand, with a few observations upon which I shall beg leave to close this Book.
In an extensive Mining Negotiation, one-half of the annual produce may be fairly taken as the amount brought into circulation in the country by the expences of working. This half is distributed, ​partly amongst the superintendents, and labourers in the mines, and partly amongst the landed proprietors of the surrounding districts, each, and all of whom, it enables to become consumers of something more than maize-cakes, and home-spun cottons, by bringing within their reach a portion of those Imports, with which the American market is supplied by European ingenuity. Of the facility with which a taste for European productions is acquired, the total downfall of the native manufactures of wool and cotton, in the short space of four years, is a sufficient proof I have not the means of tracing the exact amount of the consumption of British manufactures in each of the Mining districts, but it is certain that, wherever a company has been established, shops have been opened, and regular supplies of goods drawn from the Capital, or the nearest port, not one-fiftieth part of which could have been disposed of, had the Mines continued unworked. The streets of Guănăjūātŏ, Sŏmbrĕrētĕ, and Zăcătēcăs, are full of large magazines; there is a constant communication between Cătōrcĕ and Rĕfūgĭŏ; as there is between the Mining towns of Sŏnōră and Cĭnăloă, and the ports of Măzătlān and Gūāymăs.
At Real del Monte, I was assured that the change which had taken place, in fourteen months, in the appearance of the population, was really wonderful; and at Tlălpŭjāhuă, which, in 1825, was a ruined mountain village, Mr. de Rivafinoli, (the Director of the Company established there,) informed me that ​the Alcavala, (or Excise,) which, on his first arrival, amounted only to 250 or 300 dollars per month, had risen to 1,500, and 2,000 dollars; and that a shop for the sale of European manufactures had been opened there, by the house of Green and Hartley, the monthly receipts of which amounted to six thousand dollars. If we reflect that the money thus brought into circulation is not confined to the Districts, in which I have described its more immediate effects, but extends, more or less, over the whole country, by giving a value to Wheat, Maize, and Barley, hides, tallow. Pita-ropes, coarse sacking, with cattle, sheep, mules and horses, from the great breeding estates in the North, and that all those who are thus enabled to dispose of their own stocks, become instantaneously consumers of ours, it will be seen that the investment of capital, by which this change has been promoted, has not only not been injurious to England, but that, in point of fact, a large proportion of the fifteen millions of dollars, at which I have estimated the investments of our Companies, has already returned to us, in the shape of remittances to our manufacturers at home.
As the Mines improve, these remittances will increase: we have, at present, but little more than the proceeds of that capital, by which the regeneration of the mines is to be effected, in conjunction with a produce, not exceeding one-third of the average standard before the Revolution. When the mines begin to pay, the case will be very different; for, in ​addition to the half, which I suppose to be absorbed by the expences, one moiety of the remaining half will go to the Mexican proprietor, and consequently remain in the country, until it is exchanged there for the produce of European industry.
Upon the amount of that produce consumed, the most important branch of the Revenue depends; and it is to the increase or diminution of the Revenue again, that the creditors of Mexico must look for regularity in the payment of the interest due upon the loans contracted in this country.
Of the ability of Mexico to meet her engagements, under moderately good management, I entertain no doubt; nor would any temporary fluctuations in her receipts or commerce, affect my opinion of her resources. It would be melancholy, certainly, were the bountiful intentions of Nature to be frustrated, by civil dissensions, or by injudicious legislative interference; a little tendency to which will, probably, long remain in all the countries formerly subject to Spain; but my visit to the Interior of Mexico taught me to believe, that the party spirit, which rages occasionally in the capital, ought not to be taken as a criterion of the general feelings of the inhabitants; and to hope, that few causes in fact exist, by which the general tranquillity of the country is likely to be again disturbed. Of those causes, in a work of this nature, I am not at liberty to speak; I shall, therefore, proceed at once to what I must term, in the usual phrase of the day, my Personal ​Narrative, which will contain some account of my first and second visits to Mexico, (in the autumn of 1823, and January 1825,) together with my subsequent journeys to the Mining Districts, (in 1826, and 1827,) in which I shall endeavour to include all the statistical details, of any interest, respecting the different parts of the country through which I passed, not comprehended in the preceding parts of this work.
* ↑ Amongst the young Mexicans who have been sent to England, or the United States, for their education,, I could mention several from the Mining districts, as the sons of Don Narciso Anitua, at Sombrerete, and those of the principal Agent of Count Regla, at Real del Monte.
* ↑ Vide preceding Section.
* ↑ Count Regla possesses an account, given upon oath by the miners employed in 1801, of the state of the lower levels, at the time when the mines on the Biscaina vein were given up, by which it appears that the richness of the vein continued unimpaired.
* ↑ Vide Section V. of Book III.