for the purpose; the mine owners contributing thereto, according to the benefit they may derive from them; and that if they shall not agree, the justice shall apportion the expense, and compel them to make good the payment. 4. The first thing therefore, is to ascertain the disposition of the ground, and the advantages which may be derived from the mines being drained; in estimating which, not only the situation of the mines, but also the condition and depth of the lower works, subject to the water, must be taken in to the ac count, that it may be ascertained whether the water will flow out with facility. For if the lower workings be as deep or deeper than the point from which the mouth of the adit is to be commenced, little or no benefit can be expected, but on the contrary, much expense and loss will be incurred. In the first place then, the ground must be inspected, and a nice survey must be made by persons of skill and practice in geometry, to prevent any risk of failure in an undertaking of such extent and importance. For, if the depth of the pit internally, be equal to the external declivity, measured to the point at which the adit is proposed to be commenced, the expenditure of time and money will be in vain, and the object will fail of effect. 5. We alluded, when on the subject of surveys, to the misfortunes which follow from entrusting works of this nicety to mechanical and ignorant miners, or to persons who, although of more intelligence, have not the skill in geometry required to enable them to form an opinion of the proper length, breadth and depth to be given to these works. And as it is an effort of extreme hardihood in a mine owner, considering the contingencies which arise, to hazard this property, even in works for obtaining ore, so is it a still bolder step to resign himself to the guidance of an ignorant miner, in sinking a pit or driving an adit, matters which necessarily involve considerable expense, and much dead work, without affording any certainty of discovering ere, to redeem the expense. 6. And here we must notice the distinguished merit of Don Joseph Alexandro Bustamante, and his fellow supplier and successor, Don Pedro Romero Terreros, of the order of Calatrava, in driving an adit for the mines of the Vizcayna vein, in the mining district of el Monte, and jurisdiction of Pachuca, from the spot called Dona Juana, or Melgarego. This work having been commenced on the 10th July, 1749, it was found, in the month of January, 1754, by surveys and inspections performed every four months, that the length driven was 856 varas; a work certainly worthy of commendation, and with more reason than some others of its class.† This adit was afterwards, by perseverence, activity and energy, carried to a still greater length, and found to be eminently useful: but not till nine years of fruitless labour * Vide sup. chap. 12, n. 14. + Qualis est illa cuniculi de el Venino, qui ducit ad`venam ricam Potosiæ, qui improbo labore per 29 annos constructus, 250 ulnas non excedebat. Laet, America descriptio, lib. 11, cap. 9. had been spent in driving an adit from the place called Asoyatla, and afterwards another year in driving another adit from a place called Omitlan, or Guerrero, the two last being in different directions. What money must have been expended, and what patience exerted in these ten years! Bustamante, wearied of so much ineffectual labour, relinquished the prosecution of the work, and gave up his interest in the privileges granted to him by the superior government of Mexico, in the orders under which he had been authorised to undertake the adit; but the Marquess de Valle-Ameno, a partner in the work, and a proprietor of some adjoining mines, persisted in the enterprise, taking up the work from the extreme point of the adit driven from the place called Dona Juana, towards which the watercourses of the mining district of el Monte flowed, and he finally accomplished his object, although frustrated at the other two points, doubtless from not having taken a correct view of the disposition of the ground, of the distance between the mouth of the adit and the bottom workings, and of the depth of the latter below the former. 7. Gemelli Carreri, in travelling through that country in the year 1697, found the bottom workings of the mines of Pachuca to be of very great depth; the mine of Santa Cruz was more than 700 feet deep; that of Navarro, more than 600; and that of San Mateo, 400. Into the latter of these, with a miner's spirit, he descended, and he declares that it was the most foolish action he ever committed for the mere gratification of curiosity. The mine of Trinidad, consisting of the several mines of Campechana, Joya and Peñol, from which he assures us that forty millions of marcs of silver were raised in ten years, by means of as many as one thousand workmen, was so flooded with water, at the depth of 800 feet, that it required sixteen whims to drain it, and the expense of the timber alone, for preventing the falling in of the ground, was estimated at more than twenty thousand dollars. In the early part of the present century, Don Isidro Rodriguez, of Madrid, of the order of Calatrava, sunk much money in these mines; but the irresistible force of the water overwhelmed the property he laid out in them, and the treasures of the mines themselves still remained buried in its depth. After all this, it is impossible to bestow too much commendation on the laudable energy displayed by Don Joseph de Bustamante, Don Pedro Romero Terreros, the Marquess de Valle-Ameno, Don Juan Varandiaram and Don Thomas Tello, and their partners, in undertaking and pursuing, during more than twenty years, from the year 1739, the great work of the adit, notwithstanding the depth of these mines, and the immense body of water contained in them. And the failure of the two first adits, combined with the success of the last, shews what mature deliberation should be bestowed, in planning works of such extent and expense as these; the failure of which is attended * Gemelli Carreri, in his voyage round the world, 23d April, 1697. Histoire general des voyages, tom. 44, in 12. pag. 11. with the most serious loss to the mine owner, who may, on the other hand, by the successful accomplishment of the work, be rendered both rich and powerful. The only way of effecting the latter object, is by having a practical survey of the ground made, under the direction of persons skilled in geometry. 8. In the second place, after considering the disposition of the ground, the attention must be turned to the arrangements required to be made amongst the mine owners, preparatory to driving the adit. This is the greatest difficulty experienced in carrying the 79th ordinance into effect, for although it directs that adits shall be driven wherever there are conveniences for the purpose, or that the owners shall be compelled by the justice to drive them; yet the fact is, that the labour of these undertakings is so great, and the miners so necessitous and destitute of resources, that unless they happen to be men of very ample means, they are but rarely in a situation to undertake an adit of great length, or to expend many thousands of dollars in advance, upon the bare hope of reimbursement upon the draining being accomplished. On the other hand, if the business be made a partnership concern, the love of money becomes a great bar to its success, and the profit not being of a nature to admit of easy division, it so happens that very few instances occur, of agreements between different parties for undertaking these adits in concert. The miners, provided they have but some ore to work at for the time present, pay but little regard to prospects of a greater profit at a future period, and are alarmed at the idea of expense. They are satisfied with a small profit, and with the ordinary mode of drawing off the water by means of the pit, and they cannot find courage to form a combination for the purpose of driving an adit; not calling to mind, that after a little time, when the works are carried somewhat deeper, their pits will become of little service, whilst an adit or contramina would provide for the permanent and continued working of the mine. And as the veins in mineral regions are found by experience* to incline towards each other, forming junctions at intervals, the consequence is, that having for a time, bread to cut, (as the saying is,) and other mines and veins to work, they are induced, in the hope of benefiting more by pursuing these, to neglect the old and tried mines, which would require an expenditure of money in works of drainage. 9. All these causes combined, render it difficult to put the directions of the ordinance in force, and will in time be the occasion of the ruin and abandonment of the principal mining districts, and indeed may now be observed to operate sensibly in some of them, more particularly in the rich veins of the mining district of Guanaxuato, which has been the Potosi of New Spain, and in those of Pachuca and Zacatecas, which have yielded riches beyond calculation. The productiveness of these veins is matter of notoriety, and has been long well established, and yet a vast number of their *Vide infr. n. 12. mines have been abandoned, on account of the force of the water, notwithstanding that the disposition of the ground is such, that the obstacle might have been overcome, had the owners been inclined to combine in the important undertaking of driving an adit, and so clearing the water from their lower works, which are more liable to be embarrassed by it, in proportion to their depth. And as the source of this water, being the rain which falls, is of permanent continuance, there is room to apprehend that the principal known deposits of treasure will in time cease to be worked, and that the very circunstance of there being such an abundance of mines, will be the cause of their becoming altogether unavailable. Such are the evils which may be anticipated from the non-observance of these ordinances, which are conceived with every view to the public benefit, as is evident from the clear authority given by the 82d, to any person, to drive an adit through the mine of another proprietor, and the express direction of the 81st, that the proprietors shall come to an understanding, or that the justice shall bring them to an agreement. But it is to be observed, that it is advisable that the miners should bring in their contributions, whether voluntary or compulsory, when the state of their mines is such as to supply them with funds for the purpose; that is to say, when they are in a course of prosperity, although liable from their increasing depth, to be soon embarrassed with water; for if they defer it till the water overwhelms them, the circumstance of their money being spent, and the works inundated, renders that difficult to be applied as a cure, which would have been easy as a preventive. 10. We have already noticed the lamentable neglect into which the working of the mines of Spain, the fruitful sources of immense treasure, has fallen. And there can be no doubt that one cause which contributed to the abandonment of the richer districts, was the embarrassment occasioned by the water, and the omission to drive adits and contraminas. This was the case with the rich mines of Guadalcanal and others, belonging to the crown; in which, as well as in other mines of that kingdom, torrents of water broke forth, at a time when they were in most active work. The same misfortune happened with the mines of Carthagena, in the time of Hannibal: and, although one of the latter alone, named Bebulo, from its discoverer, returned him three thousand crowns per day, it was only in consequence of an adit having been driven by the Carthagenians with immense labour, through the mountains, for the length of 1500 paces, through which the water was let off, forming a complete river, as is testified by Pliny.* Peru again, in its vast extent of surface, offers many deposits of gold and silver, as does New * Plin. Naturalis historiæ, lib. 33, cap 31, ibi: "Mirum adhuc per Hispanias ab Hannibale inchoatos puteos durare sua ab inventoribus nomina habentes. Ex queis Bebulo appellatur hodieque qui tercentum pondo Hannibali subministravit indies, ad mille quingentos passus cavato monte, per quod spatium Accitani stantes diebus, noctibusque egerunt aquas lucernarum mensura, amnemque faciunt." Spain, both in its cultivated and its remoter provinces; but there is reason to apprehend, that from the non-observance of these ordinances, the mining districts of the more populous and fruitful provinces will go to decay, although it would be easy to maintain them in their present flourishing state, and at the same time to make a considerable profit, merely by driving adits or contraminas, to drain the principal districts, such as, amongst others, Guanaxuato, Pachuca, Zacatecas, Tlalpujagua, and Sombrerete, the known and approved richness of which, promises the greatest advantage from such works. We know that the mine Quebradilla, in Zacatecas, when worked by a partnership, formed in the year 1741, yielded, in six days and a half, 260, 000 dollars, after which a spring of water broke out in one of the ends, with irresistible force, and inundated the whole vein, which is about 22 varas in width; and hence it appears, how advantageous an adit, or work of general drainage would be, if undertaken. And the same may be said of other mining districts, where nothing but the water prevents the obtaining possession of the mineral treasure. 11. Considering the profit the crown derives from the duties on the silver and gold produced from the mines, which profit must diminish as the mines decay, it would certainly answer to the revenue, in districts of tried and approved richness, to assist the unfortunate miners, in providing means of drainage by contraminas. It has, it is very true, been found by experience, not to be desirable for the crown to undertake the working of mines, nor even to take on its own account, the mine which, under the old ordinances, was set apart for it, contiguous to the discoverer's mine, on account of the risks to which the revenue would be thereby exposed, and because, there being plenty of persons willing to work these mines, the crown is graciously pleased to be contented with the fifth, tenth, or other proportion justly allotted to it but these reasons do not apply to the driving an adit in a mining district of notorious richness, where the presence of the water is the only obstacle to the working of the mines, the situation of the latter being such as to afford facilities for the purpose. For in such a case, there is, morally speaking, no risk at all, and the crown might have the benefit of two fifths, or tenths; one by virtue of its original right, and the other in consideration of the funds expended upon the work of drainage. So that the work being performed on the part of the crown and miners together, the loss could be but trifling, even supposing it to fail of effect; but if it should succeed, the advantages to both would be very considerable. Although this is a subject for the judgment of the sovereign and the discretion of his ministers, we think we should be wrong did we omit to place it in this point of view. And it has already been submitted to the sovereigns of Germany and France, as may be seen from the curious reflections in the Journal économique, upon the regulations to be observed in discovering and working mines. In that work, after noticing the ample funds required for this pur |