f lead.

The consumptions of the Californians in the extraction of the precious
metals consist of quicksilver, salt, and wood; the first they have
purchased in the last years at two dollars a pound, the second at
thirty-seven and a half cents for twenty-five pounds, and the third at
a quarter of a dollar a mule-load. It is to be presumed that when the
quicksilver of Northern California comes to compete with the
quicksilver of Spain in the mineral districts of the interior[86] of the
republic, the price of this principal element for conducting the
working of mines will fall greatly in all the nation, and that the
Mineria will assume a grade of prosperity never yet seen in our
country; and Lower California, by its proximity to the places of the
production of mercury, will obtain it, without doubt, at a still lower
price. The day-laborers, who work the mines of this territory, receive
for their labor from seventy-five cents to one dollar; but there is not
a fixed number, neither is their occupation constant.

[86] This term is applied to all places distant from the capital.

It is not necessary to speak of the existence of companies for
exploring mines in a country where there is such a scarcity of
population, and where there is not an accumulation of capital
sufficient in order that a part of it might be employed in the
hazardous enterprises of mineral industry. The judges of first instance
are the authorities that in Lower California take cognizance of all
accounts concerning the affairs of mines (_a la Mineria_).

In the river which passes by Muleje and Gallinas, the inhabitants of
those places collect the sands, from which they obtain small quantities
of gold in dust. In another placer, which embraces an extension of
seven leagues, they also extract some gold in dust in quantities as
insignificant as those which result from the sands of the river
mentioned.

Silver and gold are the only metals that have claimed the attention of
the Californians, because they derive an advantage from their
extraction, and not because there do not exist other metals less
valuable, but which yield proportionably greater profit to the miners
that undertake the exploration; these are lead, copper, iron,
magistral, crystal of Roca, loadstone, and alum.

E.

THE REMAINS OF CORTEZ.

The account of the disposition of the remains of Cortez, given on page
279, is the one commonly received, and contained in works of standard
aut