Page:Vol 3 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/617

Rh labor in general. Thus for the first time a check was placed on the random system of working mines hitherto so customary, although no very important innovations appeared. During the two hundred and fifty years since the first mines were worked, so little progress had been made in working methods that Europeans expressed surprise. The hoisting apparatus was greatly neglected, and instead of ladders for the shafts a series of beams were used about five yards in length, placed in pairs in an inclined position and provided with wedge-shaped notches to serve for steps, ten or eleven inches apart. On this primitive contrivance the carriers would climb for hours, loaded with ore, sometimes three hundred pounds in weight. But the greatest defect was the manner of constructing the pits and galleries, which seldom or never connected, greatly increased the cost of transportation, and prevented ventilation. Equally deficient were the contrivances for draining the mines; pumps were seldom or never used, the water being brought to the surface in large bags of hides attached to the ropes of a windlass moved by horse-power. Toward the close of the eighteenth century several German miners were sent from Spain and distributed over different districts to efiect improvements. They attempted several innovations, and although successful in some parts they failed in others, chiefly owing to the prejudice against them. The reports concerning their utility were contradictory, and after a few years they returned home. Besides the organization of the cuerpo de minería, the reduction in the prices of quicksilver, the greater liberty granted to commerce, and the discovery of