SECRET MINES IN MEXICO

Grey River Argus, Volume IX, Issue 636, 15 February 1870, Page 4

SECRET MINES IN MEXICO

The; Acapulco correspondent ..of! the A Ito ■■ ; California writes :— ' *It ' affords pleasujre v tp ; see how this . despised race, (the Indians) commenced to'gain an ascendancy frqm, the very day : . that, the Liberal party pprged. th\ie country 1 of ;' all the..; nobler bipod; /_ who attracted- by lent theiraid to the- unfortunate! Maximilian. You see now many of the ecclesiastical estates • and.: city, houses owned by Jndians who haye escaped from . the turmoils : of , war and. whose modest cottagje.did .not excite the. cupidity' of rpying bands. : They have also gone largely : into minings and the disco very of new mining regions, which now create so.imich excitement, only amount tp ; this,, that- the ; Indians . were long acquainted with their existence,, but pveyiously djd .not djire..to^akejtheip.knowledge ; kho\v;!n. .Among these, one of the. most important r.is the Mineral de Coalcoman- or rather •the galley "of the Chaclanan, on the right' shorelof the Mescala river which has:attracted general attention being rich in gold, jsilver, copper, lead and other mme r rals. ! At. s a.; ; trifling; depth .all the.; old Indian works have re-opened, giving an : interested picture of how the Indian pro-' . cured; the pro in. the time. of thp Monte^u-, niasj and strengthens the belief that the Otomas covered up their minds to prevent their being worked by the Spaniards, that they, burirt: their .villages .and destroyed all traces of .the existence of these miue4, leaying;'their; rememberence only! as a. vague tradition; fijoni. generation to; generation.; I haye!been, ;i6ld repeatedly, that jcerttvih; .tribesjiin/Qojaco and Wther States are : f amiliar withr ;t|ie localities bf ; rich fiilyei'::and.;goid t .nvin;es wirich/tthey only work, in secret^} and. at long intervals, \ whenjin want.of .iujjidSiJin soine religions: festival, thab.'itt.ca^mJ'v Ilage3 tlie= peo^ pie ; have invariably killed the pjirty sus. pected of revealing thojr secra^, and that even! their priests . have\been among the victinis. . Now the3e Tndiaiis commence to take :a" more lively interest in public affairs, they are largely represented in Congress by members of their kin, and: have jpartiy.; withdrawn : froiu the clerical influence wiiichkept them, subjugated for centuries*, « Instead oiburying .thMr doj,* JarSj jas thejs,use,4 tp^M,; they! hav^^pug^.t^ -many of the estates ' whose former owlxers.:. lost tjheir property by QonfiscationjO^fc^.the j>uin 'brought upon them in cfiiji^; quence of the eternal wars ; these I^?i& become'- ambitious and they are the ; first to explore their minet^j ,i larger scaje, and thus reconq£jgp_4^-: abdr: ginal supremacy which they " KwP lostiiince the Monte&uma. : While the Indians of the interior of Mexyo thus, give! evidence. ..gf a certain' kind of civilisation . thosa Of the. irohtier; States haye' remained, true barbarians driven , to acts of cruelty by -the persecution to which they were subject. The Apaches and Conianches on the north are

doomed to extermination by American and Mexican rifles, while the Mayas and other tribes on the Ên and Chiapas frontier have only to contest with an emaciated Mexican population, who have but limited mbans of defence. In Ohiaphas it oame lately to a ; pitched battle, in .tyhich the Indians defeated, with the toss of 300 nVtof; ; but the affair created so ranch Wdasiness that the question arose whether*it would not be advisable to. remove the capital from San Oristoval to a safer locality. In Yucatan these savage Indians have lately burnt seven large farms near Yzamal ; they have defeated the 150 men sent against them from Sotuta (of whehri only ten soldiers returned), and are threatening the larger places, of which Yaxcaba fell into the hands of the Indians after a valiant defence. The town was plundered and then burnt down. The Vice-Go veruor had raised all the available troops in Merida, and was going to open the campaign in person:"