LITERATURE.

Globe, Volume XXI, Issue 1776, 29 October 1879, Page 3

LITERATURE.

THE LOST SILVER MINE. {Concluded.") 'We camped by a scanty stream where there was some grass. About midnight the wind went down, and we started over the desert. We crossed the sand with but little suffering, and by four o'clock in the afternoon of the next day were on a little rill of water that issued from a canyon, >nd got speadily lost in the sands of the desert. Jim said that his tribe usually camped higher up this stream, in the mountains, at this season of the year, and suggested that we stay there that night, while he rode on, leaving us to follow the next day. So we unpacked the mules, rested, and ate. At dusk Jim mounted and rode up the black crayon. 'The next morning we followed on the trail leading up the stream. At evening we arrived within sight of the Indian encampment, and Jim came riding rapidly towards us. He told us that we must camp, as the Indians refused to receive us into their village. So we camped. Struck with the despondent looks of our Indian, we asked what was his trouble, and were greatly discouraged to hear that his proposed exposure of the hidden mine had been met with an outburst of savage fury, and that James had been plainly told that if he did what he proposed to do, he would be killed, and his white friends killed, too. • ' What were we to do ? We talked the affair over, and concluded to send Jim back to camp to try and make terms. Reluctantly he rode back. When it was dark we could plainly see the figures around the council fires, could hear the Indian orators harangue the assembled braves; but, of course, could not understand what was said. When we spread our blankets the noise and excitement in the Indian village was great, and we three went to sleep much dispirited. 'lt was an early breakfast next morning. Then we began deliberating on the probabilities of our ever getting out of the country. We had reason to be alarmed at the extreme reserve of the Indians, and feared they might, in a moment of fear and rage, kill us to avert the prophesied calamities. Jim was seen approaching our camp at a sharp gallop. The bearing of the man was more cheerful. Ho rode his horse more confidently than on yesterday, and directly was with us. He smiled and said that the Indians, on his representation and after much debate, had agreed to leave the revelations of the hidden mine to their old medicine man, who was camped by himself some twenty miles away. Incidentally he mentioned, as though it were of no interest to us, that a large party in the camp were in favor of killing us out of hand and summarily ending the trouble. The arrangements was now to go to the valley where the medicine man lived, and there Jim was to argue our case. If the prophet consented to the discovery of the mine, it would be shown to us. If not, then we would all be killed if we moved in the direction of the treasure.

' So we packed up, mounted, and were off. The trail led over hills, across dry valleys, and finally into the mouth of one of the ravines that had water in it: Here, on the banks of a tiny stream, hidden among the willows, stood a small Indian house, and in it was the oldest, most blear-eyed male Indian I had ever seen, and the most withered and decripid old hag that ever gnashed toothless gums at a white man. 'We camped, and the diplomatic James negotiated with the medicine man. At first with no sucoßß, but after much talk and some presents of tobacco and sugar, he was rewarded by being allowed to take us within half an hour's ride of the closed mine, there to leave us, and if we could find the treasure ourselves it was to be ours. But on no account was he to show us the place as in that case the spirits of the murdered Spaniards would hunt] the tribe, would accuse them, and work their destruction by a pestilence. ' This was the best we could do, and with it we had to be satisfied. After a night spent spent here, we started to the south, leaving our pack animals in charge of the old man, but carrying great flasks of water with us. We rode into a rough barren country full of little cross gulches. Leaving this formation we rode up into a table country, where the land gradually rose to the south, until the plain surface suddenly terminated in a range of cross mountains. Biding toward these mountains, and within a couple of miles of them, Jim halted. Telling us to hunt for the mine, he wheeled his horse and rode rapidly back to the medicine man's lodge.

' We hunted not for the mine but for a place to establish a camp, and found one. It was a dry camp, with no water there or any place we could discover. So we rode back to where our pack animals were, and there matured our plans. Jim refused to be one of the party, fearing death from his tribe. We three white men were to divide our work as follows:—Two were to prospect and the other to pack water, food and fuel to the camp near the supposed mine. Every week one of the prospectors was to relieve the man at the males.

' Next morning we filled our water casks and started over the divide. Making our camp, the two who were to prospect went out at once to work. I was one. Knowing, if the tale were true, and the men came up from Mexico in the numbers the Indians asserted they did, that the old trail would still be in existence, we rode right into the mountains, and then separating, searched in opposite directions. I was rewarded by finding an old trail, almost extinct, but still showing that once it had been a heavy, wellworn path. To the south it led right into the mountains, in the direction of a pass that conld be plainly seen. To the north it led—where ? I rode along this trail, satisfied that I was on the track of the lost mine ; bat I was disappointed. |The trail suddenly spread out, fan-like. Into many little trails, and these were soon lost on the plain. I was convinced that this trail was the right one, and so told my partner on my return to camp. He said he had seen nothing on his side, so we moved over trail I had found.

• The next day, full of hopo and confident of success, we went to work and thoroughly searched for some evidence that we were right, and were rewarded by finding the staves and hoops of a water cask. During the next few days we found the remains of an old furnace and a little pile of slag. We scoured the country for miles around. All we could find all the trails would lead to, was a spring, where water in good quantity was to be had. We moved the mules over, and we three went to work in earnest with pick and shovel. We dug and channelled the hills and canyons without success —now encouraged by finding portions of a packsaddle, now by the wreck of cask hoops, heads, staves in a little pile, plainly saying ' We have been here.' We found the ruins of three or four small furaces marked by piles of Blag, and we were duly excited by the find.' Interrupting his tale, Jackson turned to me with, • My God! what was that mine worth ? How many millions would it have brought In. the market? Ore so pure that those Mexicans could melt it in a fireplace !' Then with a ;weary'sigh, he continued—- ' To cut my story short, we three spent two years hunting for that mine ; spent all our money, all our mules, spent everything we

had, and found —nothing! I was utterly ruined in pocket, and came to Whatcom in the time of the Frazer Eiver excitement. That proved to be a sell, and I was stranded here, on the Skagit; and utterly broken ia spirit, I have lived here ever since. I have not written home since leaving San Francisoo for Fraser River, nor have 1 heard from home. My relatives think lam dead,' He stopped talking, and we silently lay on the floor, I thinking of his story, he, probably, regretting his wasted years I could not offer consolation. The wreck was so complete that I felt it to be past help, and so said nothing.