sponse to the arid climate with its extremes of heat and cold is similar to the Arab’s; his two ponchos, the thin one for day travel, the thick one for night, corresponding to the two weights of burnous. As in other primitive industries, where the element of “luck” figures prominently, control by beneficent or malignant influences is a firmly held belief: the number of mines named after the saints is significant. The stress of physi- cal circumstances has not only molded the religious beliefs of the miner but has wakened in him a poetry of the desert, an appreciation of natural phenomena in somewhat the same way that a seafaring life does. For the miner on his day’s work the dissolving mists of the morning are “las amantes del sol;” the tiny drops of dew, so precious on the coast hills, “lagrimas de la Virgen.”’ The appearance of snow on a well-known desert peak is interpreted, “Dona Ties esta de novia.”[1]
But there are less attractive sides to the mining business. The cateador without luck is apt to turn cangallere, receiver of stolen metals—in the old days a good, even an honorable, pur- suit but one now looked upon with little favor. And little love is lost on the porunero, the speculator who cheats all alike. In all the large mining camps the usual abuses have been present. The first silver exploitation in Copiapé was followed by such undesirable social results that the town council drew up pro- tective measures, including the ringing of a curfew. The intro- duction of members of that “army of uitlanders”’ from whom the mines are recruited is unfavorably reported by the man- ager of the Copiapé Mining Company in 1838. ‘‘Before the discovery of the rich silver mines of Chanarcillo and other sil- ver mines the population of the whole district of Copiapé was something below 4000 souls, as docile as any people in the world but sadly addicted to laziness and gambling—it has since increased to 12,000, the increase of 8000 at least the men, chiefly consisting of the most objectionable characters from all parts of Chile and the Argentine provinces and, from the sad mixture during seven years, the original inhabitants have become as corrupt and reckless as any of the newcomers.”
- ↑ F. J. San Roman: Desierto i Cordilleras de Atacama, 2 vols., Santiago, 1890, reference in Vol. 1, p. 24.
