Vagabond life in Mexico/Description of, and descent into, a Silver Mine
CHAPTER II.
Description of, and descent into, a Silver Mine.—The Miner's Chapel.
When a mine is first begun, it is always left open to the sky, and the mineral is extracted by following the vein that contains it; but, as the mine gets deeper, two obstacles present themselves: the extraction of the ore becomes more costly, and the workmen are not long in meeting with hidden springs, the waters of which, unless removed, would drown the mine and stop the works. To provide against this danger, shafts are sunk, at the bottom of which a working gallery runs, that follows the vein of metal. The depth of the shaft depends upon the lode, which sometimes stretches so far down into the ground that two or three working galleries, one above the other, are obliged to be constructed. In the richest mines little paths of communication are added to these principal arteries, besides other works to assist in its exploration.
The ore and water are raised out of the mines by means of machines called Malacates, placed at the mouth of the shaft. Large bags, some made of the stringy bark of the aloe, others of ox-hide, are fixed to the ends of ropes wound round an enormous drum, the former for raising the ore, the latter for the water, and these are constantly passing up and down the shaft. The motive power is given by horses, which are kept constantly at the gallop.
Besides the grand shaft (tiro general), the mine of Rayas has two others of less importance, one of which reaches a depth of nearly eight hundred feet. The tiro general, remarkable for the diameter of its shaft, which is thirty-four feet, and for its frightful depth, almost twelve hundred feet, communicates with three principal galleries, one above the other, and these shafts and galleries, together with their accessories, form the most complete series of gigantic workings that are to be found in the country. The exterior appearance of this mine is, however, far from giving one an idea of the constant activity which prevails within it. Some paltry wooden sheds, covered with tiles, which protect the malacates, or shelter the workmen; a few buildings of mean appearance, the offices of the administrators or overseers, and two or three whitewashed houses, huddled together without any regard to order on the neighboring mounds, scarcely convey to the visitor any notion of the wonders he is going to behold.
It was about midday when I arrived with my companion at the opening by which we were to be admitted into the mine. We dismounted, confided our horses to the care of one of the miners, and entered. Desiderio carried in his hand a huge torch. I stood for a short time at the mouth of this vast laboratory, thinking on the millions of money it had been the means of putting into circulation. My guide, his cloak thickly covered with gold lace, that appeared, as the light of the torch fell on its velvety folds, to be seamed with golden links, looked like the lordly genie of this subterranean kingdom. We descended for a long time a series of steps, every one of which had the dimensions of a terrace. Amid the profound darkness, which the torch dispelled but feebly, we made a series of turnings and windings, changing every minute our temperature and direction, and sometimes mounting an inclined plane only to descend it. In about a quarter of an hour I perceived in the distance some wandering lights, then a few gigantic shadows appeared on the moist walls of the vault. I still kept on, and soon found myself in a square which the piety of the miners had converted into a chapel. In the centre rose a low altar, ornamented with wax tapers, which burned before an image of a saint. A man, who seemed to be praying fervently, was kneeling upon the steps of the altar. He was the first human being I had seen since entering the mine.
My guide touched my arm.
"Take a good look at this man," he said, in a low tone. The suppliant miner was entirely naked. With out the light of the flambeau, which allowed you to see his gray hair and angular features, you would not have thought he was an old man, so much youth and vigor seemed still to possess his nervous members.
"Why?" I inquired of Desiderio.
"This man," said he, "is no stranger to the history of the hand upon the wall that you gazed at with so much curiosity this morning; and, though that history is as well known to me as to him, perhaps from his lips it would have an additional interest, as his son was concerned in it."
I fancied that I had at last found an opportunity for shaking off Desiderio by insinuating that the narrator would probably go more into detail if he were telling the story to me alone. This time he took the hint.
"I am neither irritable nor quarrelsome," cried he; "but your lordship seems very desirous to get rid of his devoted servant.""I must protest against the meaning you put upon my words."
Fuentes seemed to be calming down.
"Come," said he, with an air of raillery, "I will renounce my desire of accompanying you through these subterranean abodes, seeing you wish it. Besides, I must find out the meaning of the comedy played this morning by Planillas upon the carcass of the mule. You must visit the mine without me; and I shall tell you what I have learned about this fellow after you have come up the grand shaft, for, to crown your achievement, you must be drawn up by means of the malacate."
I was in such a hurry to be quit of this personage that I promised all he asked, without remarking the ironical smile with which he welcomed my reply. At this moment the miner had finished his prayer. Fuentes exchanged a few words with him in a low tone, and walked rapidly away. I felt relieved.
"Señor Cavalier," said the new-comer to me, "my comrade Fuentes has made me acquainted with your desire to know the story of my son from my own lips—about him who was the pride of the corporation of miners. This desire does me honor; but at present I can not accede to your wish. I am on my way to fire a charge in the mine. If I am still in being after that operation, I shall be with you in two hours, and place myself entirely at your disposal, for I love the brave, to whatever nation they may belong."
"And who told you I was brave?" I asked, with an air of astonishment.
"Caramba! a man who visits a mine for the first time, and who, as Fuentes tells me, has a strong desire to make the perilous ascent by means of the tiro!Well, we shall go up together, and on our journey I shall tell you the story. I shall meet you, then, in two hours at the bottom of the last gallery, close upon the grand shaft."
I could scarcely have avoided this pompous eulogium; but I could not help feeling a certain sinking of heart at the very thought of being forced, as it were, against my will, to make this difficult and dangerous ascent. I was again indebted to Fuentes for this new annoyance. However, I promised to meet the old miner at the time appointed, and, being alone, I profited by my independence so far as to examine at my leisure the new world into which I found myself transported. I had the torch which Desiderio had left with me, and walked about at my pleasure. Above me, fancifully hollowed out in the living rock, and studded with brilliant spangles, stretched vaults of unequal grandeur, some sustained by wooden props, others letting their sharp points descend, like the pendant of a Gothic lamp, till they threatened to fall and bruise one to pieces. A few tiny streamlets, which flowed along the bottom of the rough pilasters, gleamed brightly as the light of the torch fell upon them. At a distance, large drops of water escaped from the fissures in the rocks, and fell on the stony soil with the dull, regular beat of a pendulum. Before me several dark squares opened; the noise of footsteps reverberated in the sombre caves, and died away in the distance. Various lights from time to time struggled through the deep gloom; these were the miners passing and repassing, with a rush-light stuck behind their ear, looking like the gnomes of the magicians, who, with a light on their forehead, watch over the hidden treasures of their masters.I advanced with all caution; for, left without a guide in this labyrinth, I did not know which way to go. I soon heard in the distance the dull sound of the pickaxes with which they were hewing away the rock, mingled with mysterious noises which seemed to come from a lower gallery. These sounds, though very indistinct, served to guide me. Since entering the mine, I had seen only those passages in which the ore had been all extracted. I was now impatient to behold a spot in which the miners were actually at work. Such a locality is called the labor— that is to say, the place where they are following the vein of silver. A dusky, obscure glimmer indicated that the proximity of the place was not far off; and I soon reached the orifice of a shaft not very deep, from which a strong light proceeded. I descended it by means of a wooden ladder placed zigzag. I hesitated at first to trust myself to this rickety ladder; but, emboldened by the shallowness of the shaft, I ventured to descend, and arrived safely at the bottom. A passage about five feet wide, and six hundred in length, conducted me along this underground hive, the air in which was as hot and stifling as if it had left the mouth of a crater. Lost in the midst of this crowd of workmen, who were too busy to notice my presence, I could examine at my ease the fantastic tableau which there met my eyes. A number of candles, stuck to the walls, threw a dull, confused light upon the miners, the greater portion of whom, up to their waists in water, were attacking the living rock with vigorous strokes of their barretas. Others trudged off loaded with sacks of ore, the weight of which brought their muscles into tension, while the lighted rush-light which they carried upon their heads shone full upon their bronzed bodies, trickling with sweat, and their long floating hair. The sharp sound of the pickaxes striking the rock—the splash of the stones in the water—the voices of the miners—their shrill cries, and wheezy breathings, seemed at times to shake the very vault. The red dish glare of the candles reflected in the water—the dust—the vapor, which filled the place like a mist—the coppery veins which ran in all directions through the rock, all combined to increase the singularity of the spectacle.
After spending there a considerable time, I resolved to make my way to a lower gallery, at the end of which I was to meet the old miner. The ascent I was to make from that place did not seem so perilous as I at first imagined, and I should, besides, be saved going over the same ground. I requested one of the miners to conduct me to this place, as I feared to lose my way in the maze, the paths crossing and recrossing each other in all directions. I began, also, to feel the necessity of breathing a purer air, and followed my new guide with pleasure.
I went down an inclined plane so long that the joints of my legs knocked together, and arrived at last, worn out and breathless, at the extremity of the last gallery, which formed a right angle with the grand shaft, whose black mouth yawned right at my feet. This shaft was carried down still lower. The miner had not yet arrived. To a solitary workman, who seemed to have been forgotten in these vast catacombs, was assigned a most dangerous and frightful task. Close at hand, another shaft full of water was in process of being slowly emptied by means of an enormous bag of ox-hide attached to the cable of the malacate. When full, it was raised by means of the invisible machine twelve hundred feet above; but, being violently drawn in an oblique direction toward the axis of the grand shaft, the bag, distended with water, was in danger of being cut against the sharp rocks, had not the workman deadened the impulse it had received from the first motion of the malacate. On a narrow space between the two pits, in the midst of almost utter darkness, the peon held on to a double rope passed round the cable, whose two extremities he held in his hands; then, as he was pulled with a fearful rapidity to the mouth of the gulf, he let go all at once one of the ends of the rope, and the bag struck the opposite side of the rock very gently; but, had he made one false step, or let go the rope a second too late, he would have been dashed down an almost unfathomable abyss. I regarded the unhappy wretch who, every quarter of an hour during the whole day, hazarded his life for scanty wages with a feeling of pity and commiseration.
The bag had already ascended and descended four times; that is to say, an hour had elapsed, and not a single person had yet appeared. I must confess that, at the sight of the dark, gloomy shaft which I had to ascend, I felt my spirits sink somewhat; and as the old miner did not make his appearance, I pardoned him in my heart with a good grace, when, through the thick darkness, the cable of the malacate came in sight. A feeble glimmer lighted up the damp walls, and a voice, which was not unknown to me, called out,
"Halloo! friend, is there not a gentleman waiting here to go up by the tiro?"
I had scarcely answered that I was ready than a packet fell at my feet. I untied mechanically the cord which encircled it. The parcel contained a vest, trowsers of thick wool, a leathern baton, and a kind of plaited rope made of the bark of the aloe. I asked in some terror if the vest and trowsers were quite sufficient to deaden a fall of twelve hundred feet. As for the leathern baton and the plaited strap, I guessed their use at once. The workmen near me described the use of each of these articles. The woolen clothing was to keep me from being wet by the water, which shot forth in fine rain at certain places in the shaft. I was to attach myself to the cable by means of the plaited strap, and the baton was to prevent me from being dashed to pieces on the rock by the oscillations of the rope.
"Make haste!" cried my invisible guide; "we have no time to lose."
I put on the clothes with all speed, drew the cable to ward me, and grasped it firmly with my hands, crossing my legs likewise over it. The peon passed the strap twice or thrice round my body and under my thighs, so as to form a kind of seat, tied the two ends firmly to the cable, and placed the baton in my hands. He had scarcely finished ere I felt myself lifted from the ground by an invisible power. I spun round three or four times, and, when I recovered from my astonishment, found myself already swinging over the gulf. A little above my head I perceived the legs of my guide, who was grasping the cable tightly. Although he carried a torch, I could discover but imperfectly his copper body, half naked, which, at certain moments, gleamed like Florentine bronze. However, I could make out his words quite well.
"Am I well enough tied to the cable, do you think?" I asked, seeing that not a single knot or roughness in the rope could prevent the strap that bound me from slipping to the bottom.
"Well, I suppose you are, unless the peon has done his business ill," replied the miner, in a calm tone; "but, should that not be the case, you can grasp the rope with your hands with all your might."
I clutched the cable convulsively. Unfortunately, I could hardly compass it with my two hands.
"How long shall we be in going up?"
"Twelve minutes commonly, but in this instance half an hour a favor which I have obtained solely on your account, to allow you more time to observe the wonders of the mine."
"And does any accident ever happen in the ascent?"
"Pardon me. An Englishman, who happened to be ill bound to the rope, fell almost from the top to the very bottom, and so suddenly and quietly that a fellow-workman of mine, who was his guide, had not remarked his disappearance till he was at the top of the shaft."
I thought it best to ask no more questions. When I considered that five minutes had elapsed since the first movement of the malacate, I ventured to look above and below me. The shaft seemed to be divided into three distinct zones. At my feet a thick darkness dimmed the horror of that gulf which no eye could fathom; white tepid vapors rose slowly from the dark bottom and mounted toward us. Around me, the guide's torch lighted up with a smoky glimmer the green walls of rock, cut and torn in all directions by the pickaxe and the wedge. In the upper region a column of thick mist pressed round the circle of light produced by our torch, and shut us out completely from the light of day. At this moment the machine stopped to give the horses breath. I clutched the cable anew as if it were slipping from me, and shut my eyes to avoid looking downward.
"This halt is especially for you," said my guide. "I had forgotten that I was to tell you a story, and this affords me time."
Without waiting for my reply, the miner commenced a recital whose incidents and minute details could not, in a dangerous ascent like this, fail to be deeply engraven on my memory. The attention I gave to the narrator kept my mind from dwelling upon the dangerous position in which I was at the moment, and this cessation of thought I would have welcomed at almost any price.