the arrival of the Company, 60,000 dollars more were laid out in a similar way by the only miner who had a command of capital in the district. But it was not by the insulated efforts of an individual that the injuries done by the Revolution could be repaired.
The State of Valladolid was constantly the scene of action between the contending parties; and as one of the Insurgent chiefs (Răyōn) occupied two fortified camps in the immediate vicinity of Tlălpŭjāhuă, (the Cerro del Gallo, and Coporo,) this district was exposed, for several years, to all the horrors of the war. To escape from these, its inhabitants abandoned their homes; and, in June 1825, Mr. de Rivafinoli found, upon his arrival, most of the houses in ruins, and the mines without a building of any kind to denote their existence.[1] The population was so reduced, that one hundred and fifty workmen were procured with great difficulty, and although the surrounding country is remarkably fertile, supplies of every kind were scarce from the total ruin of the neighbouring Haciendas.
It was gratifying to behold the change which ten
- ↑ The shaft of a mine is always surrounded by a Galera, in which the tools, candles, powder, &c. are kept; and an account taken of the labourers, who enter or quit the mine, as well as of the ores raised by them. In the Galera the Mălăcātĕs (horse-whims) are likewise placed; so that where two or more of these are at work, the space covered in is very considerable.
