CHRONICLES OF THE BUILDERS.

CHAPTER I.

MINES AND MINING-GENERAL REVIEW.

PRIMARY ATTRACTION TO IMMIGRANTS-THE MULTITUDE OF ATTENDANT EVILS-MINING IN SPANISH AMERICA AND THE UNITED STATES— STIMULANT TO PROGRESS-YIELD IN EARLY TIMES-GOLD FEVERS→→ ORIGIN OF AMALGAMATION-ORDER OF UNFOLDING OF MINERAL WEALTH IN NORTH AMERICA-KINDS AND PROCESSES OF MININGENGENDERING OF THE GAMBLING SPIRIT

COUPLED with the pride of discovery and conquest, the search for gold led hand in hand to the revelation of the new world, and was the key note to Spanish performance, as well as to many an Anglo-Saxon adventure. The Englishman moved slower but more strongly, as shown in his achievements compared with those of the Spaniard. The ultimate triumph. of the former was due both to race and occupation, which, on the Atlantic side, was agriculture, while in the north the Spaniard delighted in mines. The difference in race characteristics are visibly displayed in mining, in the relative backwardness of Peru and adjacent regions, as compared with the North American Pacific coast, which advanced in all branches at a pace that, within a decade and a half, transformed it into a series of flourishing states. Men of the Latin race, judging from their past, would not in seven centuries have made the progress achieved by Californians in fifteen years.

The love of gold in the hearts of men is of transcendent influence, above fanaticism, or any feelings of humanity, above love of empire or patriotism, above family bonds or honor, overshadowing all things supernal or infernal, shriveling into insignificance far

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reaching trade and grasping fur companies, the sition of savages or semi-barbarians, the lives of red men, missionaries, or even rum. It here began history

anew.

The gold displayed by the natives to the crews of Columbus transformed itself into an ignis fatuus before the eyes of the Iberians, drawing them in hordes across the sea, whose leg dreaded darkness and pictured monsters now faded before the visions of gold and yer, pearls and precious stones beyond. From the islands where gold was first seen, they were drawn in swift chase for it over the continent. Spreading from Panamá northward, and from Montezuma's realms southward, these avaricious gold hunters met in many a fierce contest for the spoils. Dissatisfied with the harvest gleaned, they seized upon the inhabitants as slaves, to seck compensation for the disappointment, compelling them to labor in the field, or dig in the ground for gold.

Mining among the aborigines was little understood, even by the semi-civilized Nahuas, as shown by the absence of iron in their manufactures, notwithstanding the abundant deposits of ore. Copper was carved out from the compact vein, and hardened with alloys for implements. Tin was also obtained, and a little silver, so little as to render it more costly than gold. The latter was almost wholly gathered from alluvial sources, here and in Central America. Northward even this easy method was ignored, partly because the metal was little esteemed. Nuggets were of course picked up occasionally, but it is doubtful whether the ancient stories of gold mining in New Mexico and Colorado should not be ascribed to the early Spaniards, rather than to the aborigines. The testimony in favor of the latter rests chiefly on the fact that they sought other minerals, such as copper, while in California they had recourse to cinnabar for ornamental purposes.

We might almost imagine them as instinctively

shrinking from the evil lurking within the precious metals. Bitterly they had to rue the time when finally it was uprooted, to scatter death and desolation throughout their land. The more civilized they were, the more they had to suffer. In Mexico and Central America almost general enslavement resulted, under the disguise of encomiendas and conversion, cloaked by royalty and religion. Thousands were driven from their homes and doomed to exhausting labors in the mines, so severe as to quickly undermine their constitutions, unused as they were to such experiences. Hunger and the lash added their quota to the appalling death record. The crown, while pretending to great mercy in the tenor of its laws, in reality added to their miseries, by the exaction of heavy royalties, and by conniving at any outrages which brought

increased returns.

In due time even the oppressors began to feel the effects of the evil in its debasing influence, which overspread the entire peninsula and resulted in bringing about the debasement of Spain, from its lofty preeminence to a minor power, torn by dissensions, deficient in industrial activity, and steeped in superstition. Mark the disturbing influence of emigrations by gold seekers, chosen from the flower of manhood, and the loss in bone and sinew, and capital, to the communities whence they came. Gold hunting loosened moral restraint, engendered vice, and led to bloodshed, always fostering a gambling spirit with its attendant thriftlessness and extravagance. It was the means of consigning to desolation large districts, including fertile river lands, by covering them with hydraulic débris, and of polluting streams, and obstructing navigation therein.

These, and other glaring evils, as bred by avarice and its noxious train, provide certain grounds for the wide spread fashion of condemning the exploitation of the precious metals, and of pointing to their small

usefulness as compared with iron or copper, with coal cr building stone. Nevertheless, gold and silver possess their value not only as commercial mediums, and for numerous arts and industrial branches, but are, in fact, of greater importance than most other minerals, aside from the above drawbacks. They open outlets for surplus population, and give impulse to trade and industries; they filled the northern wilderness of Mexico with bustling camps and towns, and developed the country into a series of rich states; they transformed the so-called deserts of the interior United States into flourishing settlements, built up and sustained by the workers and products of the mines. Even that most unpromising of sections, Nevada, was thereby exalted to statehood. Although unsightly holes, denuded hill-sides, and uptorn riverbeds tell here and there of devastation, yet fields and gardens have sprung into bloom through their instrumentality, and regions have been developed from feeble colonies, into populous and prosperous provinces. Work of such magnitude and general benefit proclaim the might, as well as usefulness, of the metals. But for their aid California and Oregon might still be struggling border colonies, and the vast interior behind them, and north of central Mexico, would have remained a comparative wilderness, without the girdle of railways and connecting steamship lines, which link in profitable trade and stirring intercourse the eastern slope and Europe with Spanish-America, Australia, and the Orient, marking the half century leap forward of the great republic in commercial and political importance. Its western empire Las, moreover, become the cradle for an energetic and powerful race, which is spreading abroad from one end of the continent to the other, and beyond the ocean, to plant the seeds of Anglo-Saxon culture.

It may be argued that if left to themselves the normal course of events would have brought about similar results in a more natural manner, and that the