LETTER FROM FRANCIS SUARES ad. 



1596. 



five moneths after, the sayd barkes come downe this river T'he shortnesse 



againe laden with reals of plate, and bring downe from ^fj^y'^^^^^'^ 

 1 1 1 J- • 1 ^ . of the voyage 



those places no other commodities but treasure. It is ;^ p^^^ 



a woonderfuU thing to beholde the great gaine and profit 



which is gotten in this river and in this countrey. I am 



ashamed to write it, fearing that I shall not be beleeved. 



For the imployment of one hundred ducats in Spaine, 



being brought hither, will yeeld twelve hundred and fif- 



teene hundred ducats profit. This trade hath beene used ^^^^ ^^^^ , 

 1 . , . , . ^ ^ ^ ^1 • t7-ade zvas be- 



but within this yeere. V or wee can goe up to the mines ^^^^ .^, ^^^ 



of Potosi, which are the best and the richest mines in ^^r^ j-^-. 



all Peru. If the merchants of Spaine and Portugall did 



know this trade, they would not send nor venture so much 



merchandise to Cartagena as they doe. For up this river 



is a great deale the neerer way, and the easier to go to 



Peru. For the Peruleros or merchants of Peru, which 



dwell there, come downe to this harbour and river 



of Jenero, and bring with them fifteene thousand and 



twentie thousand ducats in reals of plate and gold, and 



imploy it heere in this river in commodities : and when 



heere are no commodities to be had for money in this 



place, then these merchants of Peru are constrained to go 



to Baia and Fernambuc, and there to imploy their money. 



I would I had brought good store of silks, and not these 



kinde of commodities which I did bring. For heere is The voyage ^ 



more profit to be had a great deale then in the voyage /f^-ir^^^'^' 



of Angola. For heere with five hundred ducats in five 



moneths space a man may get sixe thousand ducats. And 



this is no fable, but most true, and a great deale more then 



I can expresse. For a rapier which doeth cost in Spaine 



foure and twenty and sixe and twenty reals, is solde heere 



for forty and fifty ducats : a bridle for a horse is solde 



for fifteene ducats : a locke of a doore and the key is solde 



for ten ducats : a pound of benjamin is solde for fifteene 



ducats : a yard of velvet is solde for twenty and five and 



twenty ducats : taffataes are solde for sixe and seven ducats 



the vare : an ownce of muske is solde for forty ducats : 



and all kinde of commodities after this rate. So one 



41 



