Atacama virtual: English
www.geovirtual2.clMining at Atacama
W. Griem, 2021
Charles Darwin
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De: Hunter (1866)
Nota: Se adapto el texto en gran partes a la ortografía
actual y se actualizaron los nombres geográficas y las unidades.
W. Griem, 2005.
The Voyage of the Beagle
The Voyage of the Beagle
Charles Darwin
Chapter 16 (1834)
Captain Head has described
the wonderful load which the "Apires," truly beasts of burden, carry
up from the deepest mines. I confess I thought the account exaggerated:
so that I was glad to take an opportunity of weighing one of the loads,
which I picked out by hazard. It required considerable exertion on my
part, when standing directly over it, to lift it from the ground. The
load was considered under weight when found to be 197 pounds. The apire
had carried this up eighty perpendicular yards, -- part of the way by
a steep passage, but the greater part up notched poles, placed in a
zigzag line up the shaft. According to the general regulation, the apire
is not allowed to halt for breath, except the mine is six hundred feet
deep. The average load is considered as rather more than 200 pounds,
and I have been assured that one of 300 pounds (twenty-two stone and
a half) by way of a trial has been brought up from the deepest mine!
At this time the apires were bringing up the usual load twelve times
in the day; that is 2400 pounds from eighty yards deep; and they were
employed in the intervals in breaking and picking ore.
These men, excepting from accidents, are healthy, and appear cheerful.
Their bodies are not very muscular. They rarely eat meat once a week,
and never oftener, and then only the hard dry charqui. Although with a
knowledge that the labour was voluntary, it was nevertheless quite
revolting to see the state in which they reached the mouth of the mine;
their bodies bent forward, leaning with their arms on the steps, their
legs bowed, their muscles quivering, the perspiration streaming from
their faces over their breasts, their nostrils distended, the corners of
their mouth forcibly drawn back, and the expulsion of their breath most
laborious. Each time they draw their breath, they utter an articulate
cry of "ay-ay," which ends in a sound rising from deep in the chest, but
shrill like the note of a fife. After staggering to the pile of ore,
they emptied the "carpacho;" in two or three seconds recovering their
breath, they wiped the sweat from their brows, and apparently quite
fresh descended the mine again at a quick pace. This appears to me a
wonderful instance of the amount of labour which habit, for it can be
nothing else, will enable a man to endure.
In the evening, talking with the "mayor-domo" of these mines about the
number of foreigners now scattered over the whole country, he told me
that, though quite a young man, he remembers when he was a boy at school
at Coquimbo, a holiday being given to see the captain of an English
ship, who was brought to the city to speak to the governor. He believes
that nothing would have induced any boy in the school, himself included,
to have gone close to the Englishman; so deeply had they been impressed
with an idea of the heresy, contamination, and evil to be derived from
contact with such a person. To this day they relate the atrocious
actions of the bucaniers; and especially of one man, who took away the
figure of the Virgin Mary, and returned the year after for that of St.
Joseph, saying it was a pity the lady should not have a husband. I heard
also of an old lady who, at a dinner at Coquimbo, remarked how
wonderfully strange it was that she should have lived to dine in the
same room with an Englishman; for she remembered as a girl, that twice,
at the mere cry of "Los Ingleses," every soul, carrying what valuables
they could, had taken to the mountains.
The original texts were digitized, converted to ASCII and edited by Dr. Wolfgang Griem. Sketches and drawings are digitally cleaned.
en grande: Casona derrumbada
en Copiapó
History of Atacama
Places of interest
Historical records
Darwin
en Vallenar
Darwin en Sauce
Darwin in Copiapó
Darwin and the Copiapo river
►
Miners and Mining (Darwin)
Charles Darwin
Timeline Darwin en Chile
Darwin en Vallenar
Darwin en Sauce
Darwin en Copiapó
Darwin y el río Copiapó
Terrazas Coquimbo
Minas Arqueros
Darwin trabajos históricos
Visitantes de Atacama
Listado de Visitantes
R.A. Philippi en Atacama
Paul Treutler en Atacama
Charles Darwin, Atacama (1835)
Ignacio Domeyko y Copiapó
Kunz en Copiapó
Hugo Kunz en Chañarcillo
Gilliss Mineros en Chañarcillo
Información adicional
Cronología histórica de la Región
Minería de Atacama
El Ferrocarril en Atacama
Cartas y Mapas de Atacama
Cartas históricas de Atacama
Listado de personajes de Atacama
El sector Copiapó
Viaje al valle interior
Paso San Francisco
Ruta a - Diego de Almagro
La Panamericana
más rutas de Atacama
Literature:
● DARWIN, CH. (1876): Geological observations
on the volcanic islands and parts of South America visited during the voyage
of H.M.S. Beagle.
link:
Texto completo (Literature org.)
• Domeyko, I. (1909): Jeología. – Tomo Quinto, edición oficial;
Santiago de Chile (Imprenta Cervantes). (Collection W. Griem).
● HUNTER, D. (1866): A sketch of Chili. - Impr. Hellet
(New York).
● Rojas Carrasco, Guillermo (1929): El Liceo de Hombres
de Copiapó, su Historia. - 158 páginas, Imprenta Nascimiento - Santiago
de Chile.
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