Page:Mexico in 1827 Vol 2.djvu/468

450 Marquis in 1805. It is a stupendous undertaking, the shaft being an octagon, like that of the Valenciana, but exceeding it in diameter by two varas and a half. The depth, however, is only 450 varas in lieu of 635.

When the Civil War broke out, 318 varas of this shaft had been sunk, but the Marquis was too much impoverished by the Revolution to carry on so Herculean a labour out of his own resources, after the declaration of Independence in 1821; and was consequently compelled to apply for assistance to the British United Company, of which his cousin, Don Lucas Alaman, is the principal director. The Company, finding it impossible to attempt the drainage of the mine by the shaft of Santa Rosa, or by that of San Mĭgūĕl, which has now fallen, entirely in, agreed to undertake the continuation of the Tiro General, which, when concluded, will lay open the rich levels called La Sangre de Cristo, and render accessible a large portion of the vein that has never hitherto been explored.

In November, 1826, forty-nine varas had been added by the Company to the 318 sunk by the Marquis: eighty varas still remained; but the work was proceeding at the rate of one vara and a half weekly, and it was expected that as soon as the number of malacates, which it was intended to apply, could be increased from six to eight, half a vara more might be accomplished. It is in the erection of these malacates that the principal