An American Miner in Mexico, Chapters I-VI [pp. 34-45]

A n American Miner in Mexico.
works and sink a winze to meet my raise.
By the time I was able to put in a blast
and knock a hole through, I was still
further in debt, yet the total - only about
$500-would have been a trifle in any
other place.
Where my tunnel cut the vein I found
the silver ore richer than above, but the
streak of gold-quartz was poorer, though
wider than in the upper drifts. I managed to get about $200 out of this gold
quartz, by working it in a mortar (while
the miners were at work on the raise and
winze), and this I doled out to such of
my men as were obliged to have a few
dollars in coin. The men saw that I
would pay as soon as I had the means,
and I heard no complaint from them.
When I had connected my tunnel
with the old works, I put in a good American ladder. The men were then able to
pass through the tunnel in going to the
old works. By putting a line of boxes
in the north drift and down the winze to
the tunnel, (where I made a covered
ditch,) I soon had the whole mine dry.
I then made my men work along the
foot wall, where lay the rich streak of
gold quartz. Being in haste to get out
of debt, I employed every able-bodied
man in Brushtown. I put them to drilling in both the north and the south
drifts; had a dozen gangs strung along
for a distance of two hundred feet. When
all the holes were drilled, I sent every
man out of the mine and charged and
fired them myself.
Manuel and I, and Basilio, whom I had
made foreman of the gangs of drillers in
the south drift, - Manuel occupying that
position in the north,- would then go
into the mine and sack up all the gold
quartz that had been dislodged, the
miners meantime cooking and eating
their meal. When they returned, it was
their first business to pack all the silver
ore into the end of the south drift, which
I was gradually filling up in this way.
The sacks of gold ore were lowered to
the tunnel and thence carried to my
cabin, in the rear of which I had a building in which to store and work it by
pounding it out in a large mortar. In
this way I was getting on finely. I sold
only sufficient dust to keep my men in
good humor, as the only buyer of gold
dust in the town of Guazopares was a
skinflint, who would not have offered a
man more than $I5 for a $20 piece. It
was my intention to take my gold to the
private mint of J. M. Ortiz, at Alamos,
Sonora, as soon as I had accumulated a
sufficient amount to justify such a trip
and the hiring of an escort.
But I kept all this to myself, also the
amount of gold I was taking out of the
quartz I worked. The men could of
course see gold in the quartz occasionally, but they did not know what it paid,
as every man- Manuel not excepted
was searched by me on leaving the mine.
Each man was made to understand that
in his case it was a mere matter of form,
-that some other person was the one
who would bear watching. However, as
this custom of searching miners is common in Mexico, no fault was found with
me for adopting the precaution; it
seemed to be looked upon as a sort of
matter-of-course proceeding. Nor could
they blame me for putting a huge and
strong padlocked door at the mouth of
my tunnel, as I told them that their frequent absence at fiestas made it necessary.
I think that all my men liked me, (as
well as they like anybody,) and had confidence in me, as far as they had confidence in anybody, but in the sequel 1
found out that I was suspected by the
majority of having it in mind in some
way to cheat them out of their earnings,
only giving them enough to keep them
alive and at work. This had no doubt
been their usual experience, even among
the mine owners of their own race and
country.
Whatever the feeling may have been
that prevailed among the people of the
rancheadero in regard to me and my
42
[Jan.