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AMERICAN MINES.

CHAP. XXI.

the soil. Labourers were easily procured for themines by the assistance of the native caciques, whowere always ready to send their vassals to thespots where mines were opened, who either workedbelow the surface for the metals, or cultivatedthe land to raise food for those who performedthat labour, whilst their hereditary superiors drewsome gain to themselves from the employment ofthose of their respective clans. Humboldt assertsthat in the time he visited Mexico the work ofthe mines was executed alone by free labourers,and the knowledge obtained since a more con-stant intercourse has been admitted confirms theassertion.

Whatever the health and strength of thosenatives of Mexico who inhabited the moist andsultry plains may have been, it seems that thosewho live on the elevated levels are far betteradapted for severe labour, and far more capable ofenduring continued exertion, than any of thetribes that have been carried from Africa toAmerica . The burdens these men are now inthe habit of carrying on their backs up a steepascent from the bottom of the deepest mines tothe surface excite surprise in Europe , wheresuch labour is almost exclusively performed bymachinery. “ The Indians, Tenateros ,” saysHumboldt , “ who may be considered as the beastsof burden of the mines of Mexico , remain loadedwith a weight of from two hundred and fifty to