Highland recorder. (Monterey, Highland County, Va.) 1877-1972, 1916-04-28
Mexico, Treasure
House of The World

onethird of all the silver in the
world today having come from the
mines of Mexico, the metallurgic
history of this country has fully
justified Humboldt's famous de-
scription of it as the treasure house
of the world, according to a bulle-
tin issued today by the National
Geographic Society of Washington,
which says:
A close contender with the
United States for the first place in
the production of silver the two
having produced nearly 70 per
cent. of the worries output in 1914
and ranking fifth as q gold pro
Queer, Mexico, is easily maintain
ing its position as one OF the worlds
richest nations with respect to
minerals, position it has held
since the Spanish conqulstadores
first began to extort gold from the
vanquished Aztecs.
When Cortez landed in Mexico he
told the natives that the Spaniards
suffered from "a disease which only
gold could cure" and the chival-
rous, credulous Aztecs, it is said
sent the Europeans great wheels of
precious metal, as we'll as orna-
ments of all sort, which, reckoned
in values of today, were worth
$50, 100000
Immediately after the conquest
the Spaniards began to work the
gold and silver mines of Mexico,
but many mineralogists are of the
opinion that there are gold mines
which were known to the Aztecs
and worked by them, but which
oven to this day have been hidden
from the white man, the Indians,
actuated by superstition, keeping
their secret. As if to substantiate
this attitude of the natives, the
handsomest monument that graces
the City of Mexico, between the
capitol and the castle of Chapultepec
stands.to the memory of Cuauhte-
moe, the Aztec prince who refused
to reveal to the conquerors the
source of his peoples wealth, even
through his tortures, in their en-
deavor to make him disclose the
whereabouts of this vast wealth,
burned the soles from his feet.
The modern investigator of social
and industrial conditions paints
brad pictures of the natives in some
of the Mexican mines, but these
are bright pages compared with
the black chapters of the early
days in the rich mines of Guiana
Iiuato, were the laborers, under
cruel taskmasters, toiled from great
depths up notched poles. bearing
lO0.pound bags of ore on their
backs, and thenwere driven back
after scarcely time for breath of
fresh air. 1t was not until about
the time of the death of Shake
speare, whose tercentenary the
world is celebrating this month,
that a law was passed in this min
ling distict "forbiding the branding
of slaves on the face" Brutal
taskmasters did not always escape
UNPUBLISHED, however. For instance
in the Valenciana mines, which
produced S3OO,O00,OO0 worth of
silver in so years, the slaves rose in
176O and massacred every white
man in that region.
All the stories of early mining
operations in Mexico are not
blotched with the blood of poems.
There is the interesting, authentic
account of the famous Avino mine,
worked as an open quarry and
decided by the owner to all the
white men who would build their
houses close together for mutual
protection against hostile tribes.
This was the beginning of the pros
porous City of Sunshine, Durango.
No ancient mines of Mexico we're
more important to the aborigines
than those of odsidion, the CLASSY
volcanic rock from which the
Aztecs made most of their edged
tools and many of their weapons of
war. Innumerable are the stories
of lost mines which imaginative
prospectors are constantly REGIS,
covering for the benefit of credulons
investors. About the searches for
some of the eldorados there could
be written histories which would
rival in picturesqueness and thrill
ling adventure the most extrava-
CANT romances of a Rider Haggard,
a James Fenimore, Cooper, or a