THE LEAD MINES OF POTOSI.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 5288, 7 March 1878, Page 3

THE LEAD MINES OF POTOSI.

. (From an .Exchange.) ■ When De Soto, with his followers came to America and worked their way up the Mississippi River, they were told by the Indiana that west of the river, somewhere towards the setting sun,.was land rich in silver!, , . i It was to obtain, this silver that, De'Sotp left the river and made his way slowly up the rising ground to Potosi in the Ozark range of mountains, about 675 feet above the'level o' the river. This was about 300 years ago. Not finding silver here, he was prevailed upon bjthe Indians to continue his journey from there until he reached the place now known as Joplin, noted for its lead mines. Here he became convinced that the silver of the Indians was gdena, or lead, and that it was not the valuable metal he was in search of. The strength of his men, and their ammunition began to give out, and he retraced his. steps until he reached a point now known as Helena, in Phillipes county, Arkansas, on the western bank of the Mississippi River, where he erected a fort for the protection of. himself aud comrades from the Indians, who had, begun to be hostile. Here it was that he commenced to build a boat large enough to convey himself and band down the river to New, Orleans. Before the boat was finished he sickened and .; died. , In 1802 France ceded this territory to Spain, in order to save it from the grasp of England.-, About the year 1803 Spain, in order to savp it to herself from ;the grasp of England, which threatened her western possessions, again ceded it .to France. In. 1801, Napoleon being greatly in’ want Of money, sold all the Territory of; Louisiana to the United States, for ever extinguishing the claim of France thereto, for the sum of 12,0d0,000d01i In the year 1719 there came to this country, as agents of John Law, the; great ScotchFrench commercial; speculator, and banker, three men ,who afterwards became quite pro l - . minent. They were , Messrs. Renault, La Mott, and Breton. These three came as the agents of Law, and were the officers, managers, and directors of a company ,of followers or adherents to the number of about 100. ~ ~..; Following the trail of information; os given by the Indians, they, came up from the river bottom lands to, the higher grounds towards the top of the Ozark range of mountains. They were told that far towards the west and north-west was a . land rich in silver. That the metal, bright and shining, could be found away up there somewhere, merely lor the picking of it up! Mining aud smelting, or boiling of lead out of the mineral or ore, was carried on for years by the early French and their descendants, working with the rudest aud moat primitive contrivances. Miles of this country is full of minerals. The woods are full of holes where prospectors or diggers have hunted for lead. The old style of reducing or melting the ore was slow and tedious. Those who found it in cubes, of all sizes, from a sixteenth of an inch square to five or six inches, would pile it into the cavities of old stumps or hollow trees,’ from which the tops had been blown. Then fire was applied to the stump or tree; brush, sticks, and roots were piled on to the fire to make it hot and still hotter, until at last the heat operated upon the mineral or ore and melt-d it, when the lead would trickle out in a small stream, to be puddled by allowing it to run into holes prepared in the ground, or in a cavity out ia some piece of green timber, and then allowed to cool.

In this manner was made the Irregular shape, or pig of lead. These pigs were transported on the backs of horses and mules to the nearest point on the Mississippi, there to be laden on boats or batteaux, aud in time by the traders or pioneer merchants taken down the river to a market in New Orleans, aud from there, in some instances, transported to Mexico. The Potosi mines are very valuable. The mineral runs in veins of regular galena. There is under-surface and upper-surface of placer mining, as men go down deep into the ground to find veins or lodes of mineral, or dig near the surface to find small deposits of it, which seem to have been left there by nature, as a boy would leave his bag of marbles somewhere by the roadside, to be found in after years. We believe that inhabitants of all mineral countries become more or leas shiftless and indolent in proportion as there is easily obtainable mineral, or metal which they can use in market, using the proceeds forimmediate wants. Mineral, as unsmelted lead is here called, is found all about in the woods on the hills and under the soil for miles in every direction. It is worth now about three half-pence per pound.