"We took no measurements within the crater, and heights and distances here can only be given by approximation. We only know that all things are on a scale so vast that old Pluto might here have forged new thunder-bolts, and Milton's Satan might have here found the material for his sulphurous bed. All was strange, and wild, and frightful.
"We crawled into several of the 'breathing holes,' but nothing was there except darkness visible. The sides and bottom were, for the most part, polished by the molten mass, which had cooled in passing through them; and if it had not been for the ropes around our waist, we should have slipped and fallen we knew not whither. We almost fancied that, in the moving currents of air, we heard the wailings of the lost in the great sulphurous lake below. The stones we threw in were lost to sound unless they hit upon a projecting rock, and fell from shelf to shelf. The deep darkness was fearful to contemplate. The abyss looked as though it might be the mouth of the bottomless pit. What must have been the effect when each one of these 'breathing holes' was vomiting liquid fire and sulphur into the basin in which we stood? How immeasurable must be that lake whose overflowings fill such cavities as this! It is when standing in such a place that we get the full force of the figures used by the Scriptures in illustrating the condition of the souls that have perished forever.
"Let us turn from great to smaller things—to witness the labors of the men who work, and eat, and often sleep in the volcano. Some are digging sulphur and placing it in baskets, while others are waiting to carry it upon their heads up the side of the crater. Others, again, out of our sight far up the mountain, are working at the oven, when the weather is clear, and there is no cloud between them and the sun, as it is only in the finest weather that men can work upon the top, or carry burdens to the hacienda. When the weather is fine, all the works are in full operation, and good profits are realized by furnishing brimstone for the manufacture of sulphuric acid.
"We are at the top once more; and now that our eyesight, which we lost in climbing the mountain, is restored to us, we will take a view of the lower world. Looking toward the west, every object glows in the brightness of the rising sun, except where the mountain casts its vast shadow even across the valley of Toluca. How strangely diminished now are all familiar objects that are visible! The pureness of the medium through which things are seen presents distant objects with great distinctness, but it will not present them in their natural size, for it can not change the angle of vision. The villages upon the table-land were apparently pigmy villages, inhabited by pigmy men and pigmy women, surrounded with pigmy cattle, and garrisoned by pigmy soldiery. It is, by an optical illusion, Liliput in real life. Had the English satirist placed himself where we now stood, he would have more than realized the picture which his fancy painted. He might have seen the marshaled hosts of Liliput marching to the beat of drum, in the proud array of war.
"If you wish to see all the sights, you must walk around the mountain, and look down its steepest side, where there is no table-land, into the 'hot country.' The distance is so vast, the descent so steep, that an inexperienced climber suffers from dizziness. If you climb to the very summit, 250 feet above the mouth of the crater, you will find more surface about you. But it is a point where few can desire to remain long, or to visit it a second time."
THE SULPHUR MINE.
In Cortéz's letters to the Emperor we read as follows: "As for sulphur, I have already made mention to your Majesty of a mountain in this province from which, smoke issues; out of it sulphur has been taken by a Spaniard, who descended seventy or eighty fathoms by means of a rope attached to his body below his arms; from which source we have been enabled to obtain sufficient supplies, although it is attended with danger. It is hoped that it will not be necessary for us to resort [again] to this means of procuring it." ... "As the Indians told us that it was dangerous to ascend, and fatal to those who made the attempt, I caused several Spaniards to undertake it, and examine the character of the summit. At the time they went up, so much smoke proceeded from it, accompanied by noises, that they were either unable or afraid to reach its mouth. Afterward I sent up some other Spaniards, who made two attempts, and finally reached the aperture of the mountain whence the smoke issued, which was two bow-shots wide, and about three fourths of a league in circumference, where they discovered some sulphur which the smoke deposited."[14] ] (Bernal Diaz says that the crater was perfectly round, a mile in diameter.—Vol. i. p. 186.) During one of their visits they heard a tremendous noise, followed by smoke, when they made haste to descend; but before they reached the middle of the mountain there fell around them a heavy shower of stones, from which they were in no little danger.
In or about the year 1850, Corchado, an active and enterprising white man, had become a favorite with the Indians at the foot of the mountain, who proposed to him that he should accompany them when they again undertook one of their expeditions into the volcano, which of late had been very frequent. This was a proposition that exactly accorded with his adventurous character. Accordingly, on an appointed day, he appeared at the rendezvous, with a rope, a piece of sail-cloth, and an iron bar. Thus provided, the party, which was a large one, started up the mountain, but one by one they gave out, until only Corchado and a single Indian arrived at the mouth of the crater. Here, unfortunately, Corchado fainted from the loss of blood and fatigue; and the Indian, not knowing what better to do, covered him with the sail-cloth, and then started down the mountain for assistance. In a short time he revived under the sail-cloth, and from his dangerous position he drew himself into the volcano, that he might not perish from cold outside. He descended as far as the shelf, and, looking over into the abyss, he found himself so refreshed by the atmosphere of the volcano that he brought down the bar, sail-cloth, and rope, determining to pass the approaching night at the bottom of the volcano. When he had fixed his bar and rope, the relieving party arrived, and all descended, one by one, upon the rope to a point where they passed the night in safety.
Corchado, on his return, gathered up some of the scoria and carried it to Puebla, when it was found to contain so large a percentage of sulphur as to warrant its 'denouncement' as a sulphur-mine. Capital was procured at Puebla sufficient to set up the rude apparatus we have already described, by means of which a very handsome profit on the adventure was realized. But, owing to a lawsuit, in which the affair was at that time (1852) involved, no effort had yet been made to pierce the mountain, or to explore a passage through some vent or fissure. A good path had been made up the mountain, and in the month of May it was considered quite a safe undertaking to visit these sulphur-works.