Daily Los Angeles herald., 1882-06-24

feet, when we enter the mountains
Twenty six miles out from the railroad
station we reach Punta de Aqua, form
erly held in terror by the Apaches,
where Col. Baker, United States Con
sui, was ambuscaded, | believe III the
year 1866. San Marcial, which is ten
miles further on, is the first town we
reach on our way to the Barranca. 1t
is, like so many other Mexican towns,
too large for the number of its present
inhabitants and in consequence the neg
lected adobe structures yield rapidly to
the rains, which pour down in June,
July and August in quick succession.
Here we find the remains of twenty
stamp mill owned by San Franciscans-
Sandman, the giant powder man, Brick
wedel and others. The mine is not
worked at present and when it was
worked it was badly managed. The
rich ore yielded over million OF dol
lars, but whether it petered out, pinched
or was lost by an abortion Of nature, y
| is hard to tell--and to find this out
expect will require a shaft to 90 below
the old workings, and maybe would be
throwing good money after bad. Some
little agriculture is carried on in the
bottom lands of the San Marcial creek -
now nearly dry--and they have also Il
flour mill, which grinds up the slender
supply of cereals the vicinity produces.
We again plunge into low mesquit
groves, which, however, harbor a great
variety of shrubs and stunted trees,
so that Bret Harte's,
''The sun in the east in the morning,
| Sun in the west at night;
And the shadow of this yer station,
| The only thing that moves in sight"
Would we'll apply if there was only
some shady trees. But the trees and
bushes hereabouts have only thorns and
but show an attempt of sporting shady
leaves.
We follow the monotonous road for
nearly day, now once in while inter-
rupted by slight rise and oftener by
gullies and ravines, when we reach
Aqua Caliente one of the many Aqua
Calientes found over all the land where
the Spanish tongue was spoken or still
is spoken This Aqua Caliente is marked
by tall chimney along the roadway,
built of American brick with American
money. Here were smelling works in
the earlier era of American mining in
Mexico. They built the works before
they had the mine. The "boys" went
down to Guaymas in body regularly
every month to meet the steamer that
brought news from the dear ones at
home. 1t took them five days, in those
days, to reach the port, for they had to
guard themselves against attacks of
Apaches, and some days they spent to
sample the brands of the last importa-
tons before the steamer arrived, then a
few more days were whiled away, when
laden they returned behind the shelter
ing walls that enclosed the Hacienda
just in time to make preparations to
meet the next steamer. To-day only
part of that wall is left standing; the
ajestic chimney still looms up and is q
conspicuous tombstone of an ill-spent
fortune
Tecoripa is within a rife shot, but
tedious to reach by the winding river
bed through which the road leads. This
delapidated town exhibits part of the
tower and of wall of a former church,
which reaches far above the low mud
houses, making the approach rather
picturesque in this monotonous country.
This town is deader and still poorer than
San Marcial. The Morteras mill, which
is but two miles away from the town,
died at its birth. They expended six
hundred thousand dollars of good
American money in a first-class mill and
reduction works, water supply, etc.,
and, although built upon granite foun-
dation, which the country Whereabouts
affords, it was not founded on mine
that would justify such outlay. In fact
they had no mine at ALL They finally
found one nearly fifty miles away in
rocky mountains, whence they packed
down to the mill sufficient ore to cast
one silver brick, and it killed the outfit
This happened also anterior to the Cali
fornia experience in quartz mining, fol
to-day they first find the mine and de-
velop it, and after the development il
made "and so much ore is in sight,
wise men build mill of such size as il
justified by the mine. The road nov
enters the mountains and rapidly change
from bad to worse. We have a hare
days work before us before we enter tn
mining camp of the Barranca, which j
l20 miles away from Guaymas. TIL
mill is owned by Napoleon Graf, Round
tree, of San Francisco, Cubillas, o
Hermosillo, and Mr.. Euch. 1t ha
always been paying property unde
their ownership. They work group o
silver mines, besides owning slice of tn
Yaqui coal field, which extends west
ward to the Bronces, the property @
Mr.. Alsua, south to known distance Q
! about ten miles where, also, good an
thracite coal is mined. To the north
east. on the other side of the river, to