Page:Pictures of life in Mexico Vol 1.djvu/257

Rh table are dancing, in anticipation, before his eyes.

The overseers of the mines take the law into their own hands, for the punishment of delinquent Indians, and they use the lash without restraint. It is no unusual thing on passing a shed, or receiving-house, to hear the cries of offenders undergoing punishment; and they never venture—so abject has the spirit of these people become—to think of expostulation or resistance.

A melancholy and somewhat uncommon circumstance occurred a few days antecedent to my visit. While the valuable metal is undergoing the processes of separation and purification, the workmen in attendance are not allowed to remain for an instant unwatched by the overseer, so that no stray fragments of silver can be unlawfully secreted. When, however, the amalgamated mixture is placed within the smelting-furnace, and the fire is lighted, no such caution is deemed necessary; for the poisonous fumes from the heated mercury, that would escape were the bell-shaped cover of the furnace lifted are judged sufficiently formidable to prevent any such proceeding. Losses incurred by wrongful