There were many mines worked in different parts of the island, but Metalla was the principal.  The labour, in days when gunpowder had not become the servant of man, was extremely hard.  The rocks had to be pierced with hand labour, the passages and galleries were of the smallest possible dimensions, the atmosphere was stifling; consequently the mortality was great, and it was necessary to keep up a constant importation of labour.

“If these people did but possess a particle of courage,” Trebon said, “they would rise, overpower the guard, and make for the forests.  The whole island is, as the officer who brought us here told us, covered with mountains with the exception of the two broad plains running through it; as we could see the hills are covered with woods, and the whole Roman army could not find them if they once escaped.”

“That is true enough,” Malchus said, “but there must be at least five or six thousand slaves here.  How could these find food among the mountains?  They might exist for a time upon berries and grain, but they would in the end be forced to go into the valleys for food, and would then be slaughtered by the Romans.  Nevertheless a small body of men could no doubt subsist among the hills, and the strength of the guard you see on the heights shows that attempts to escape are not rare.  Should we find our existence intolerable here, we will at any rate try to escape.  There are fifty of us, and if we agreed in common action we could certainly break through the guards and take to the hills.  As you may see by their faces, the spirit of these slaves is broken.  See how bent most of them are by their labour, and how their shoulders are wealed by the lashes of their taskmasters!”

The officer in charge of the mines told Malchus that he should not put him and the other two officers to labour, but would appoint them as overseers over gangs of the men, informing them that he had a brother who was at present a captive in the hands of Hannibal; and he trusted that Malchus, should he have an opportunity, would use his kind offices on his behalf.

One of the lines of huts near the Roman camp was assigned to the Carthaginians, and that evening they received rations of almost black bread similar to those served out to the others.  The following morning they were set to work.  Malchus and his two friends found their tasks by no means labourious, as they were appointed to look after a number of Sards employed in breaking up and sorting the lead ore as it was brought up from the mine.  The men, however, returned in the evening worn out with toil.  All had been at work in the mines.  Some had had to crawl long distances through passages little more than three feet high and one foot wide, until they reached the broad lode of lead ore.