Williams news., 1903-12-19
ARKONA'S EARLY HISTORY
The Difficulties Under Which Min-
 ing Was Prosecuted.

Arizona has been we'll named the land of silver, gold and copper. History and tradition have long made famous it's mineral wealth, and the glamour of romance has hung above it since Cabeza de Vaca told his wonderful tales of the "Seven Cities" and Padre Niza em- belished it with all the coloring which his jealous missionary ardor could inspire. The very name of Arizona" is synonymous with vast treasures of glittering gold and vir- gin silver, hidden away in dark re- cesses of rugged mountains, guard ed by the fiercest of aborigines. The daring Spaniards, who braved the perils of hunger and thirst, and the dangers of death at the hands of the uncopquered ssvages, had their imaginations fired by the tales and traditions of the Pimas, and the mystic region to the north of Mexico was a land "fraught with the rarest charms of romance" Its massive mountains, it's jagged and fantastieally shaped peaks, its vast and solitary stretches of plain and mesa, and over all its rich glowing atmosphere that lent such an in expressible charm, was to them a country where anything was possi- ble. A country whose glowing skies eclipsed in brilliancy their own Castile, and whose every breeze waited across mountain and desert, whispered golden tales of inex- haustless wealth, says the Prescott Herald.
 No wonder Coronado and the dar- ing band who followed him were ready to risk life and limb in the eager quest, and undergo any hard ship, however great, to gain the prize in view. They did not find the golden treasures they expected in the Moqui towns, but the hidden wealth which they passed over in their journey thither was greater than that which Pizarro wrung from his Peruvian captive, or that Cortez found in the halls of the Montezumas. But the men who made the expedition to Cibola were not of the kind who dig and delve for gold and silver. If there was a chance to win it by the aid of their good swords and strong arms, they were ever ready to undertake the job; but when it could only be had by laborious toll they preferred that some one else should do the work. So the first white men who penetrated Arizona did nothing to demonstrate it's great treasure of precious metal, and it was not un- til more thana century had elapsed that the first effort was made to de- velop the hidden wealth of this re- zion.
 The Jesuit fathers were the pio- neer. miners of Arizona, and the first Europeans to attempt the ex- < traction and the reduction of rich silver ores. When and where the first mining was done we have no means of knowing; but it could not be long after the establishment of the mission at San Xavier and Tumacacori. That it was prosecu- ted on an extensive scale, there is reason to believe from the old shaft and tunnels which are found in the mountains surrounding the old missions, and from the piles of slae which are yet seen in the vicinity of the ruins.
 In those days the system of min ing was crude and imperfect, and the appliances for ore reduction oi the most primitive kind. Water and ore was packed out of the mines on the backs of peons, and nothing but ore entirely free from base met als could be worked successfully But so rich was the grade that un- der such disadvantages they were made to yield handsomely. The war of Mexican independence put