but later, as was said, disappeared in a mysterious manner.[1]
The conquerors, more skilled in arms than in arts, were not able to invent or introduce a new miningr system, but adhered to that adopted by the Aztecs. Expert as were the latter in working the different metals, the exploitation of the mines was still in a primitive condition, which was not much to boast of, beintj little more than skimminof the surface of the ground,[2] or washing the sands of the rivers. Their smelting apparatus was likewise deficient, and the only means at their disposition to increase the heat of the small furnaces was the use of blow-pipes of bamboo. This explains why golden jewelry was more common than that made of silver: it was not bv reason of the greater scarcity of the latter, but on account of the increased difficulty in extracting it from the ores. In the course of time intelligent miners came from Spain, and introduced improvements, such as smelting by aid of bellows. Due to the stimulation thus given, new reales[3] sprang up everywhere, especially in the northern region, which proved to be richer in minerals than the southern districts. The discovery, about 1539,[4] of several mines toward the south, among which were those of Taxco, Sultepec, Tzumpanco, and Temazcaltepec, was soon followed by finding the
- ↑ Herrera, dec. iii. lib. viii. cap. xv., gives the matter a miraculous turn, because of an order of 1528, Puga, Cedulario, 24, to take possession of it for the crown. Another supposition, that the Indians buried the mine, is more credible, and strengthened by the fact that difficulties had arisen between the Tarascan ruler, Tangaxoan, and the grasping Spanish miners. See also Hist. Mex., ii. 53, 54, this series.
- ↑ Humboldt, Essai Pol., ii. 482, asserts, however, that the Aztecs were versed in the building of subterranean shafts and galleries. Duport, Mét. Préc., 2-6, gives several reasons why he supposes the Aztecs to have been unacquainted with subterraneous mining.
- ↑ Real de minas was the name given to the small fortress of any settlement, established around a newly discovered mine, meaning only that it was an encampment, not that it belonged to the king.
- ↑ Humboldt, Essai Pol., ii. 498, supposes that the mines of Taxco, Sultepec, Tlalpujagua, and Pachuca were the first ever worked by Spaniards; but there is no doubt that those in the Tochtepec district and the Morcillo mine of Michoacan were of older date. Albornoz, Carta, in Pacheco and Cárdenas, Col. Doc., xiii. 72, speaks in December, 1525, of mining developments in Michoacan.
