WHOLE VOL. THE WEST INDIES VAZQUEZ DE ESPINOSA 539 



appear more dashing and gallant ; and when they went to war, they 

 painted themselves so as to appear braver and fiercer in their war 

 paint and impress their enemies with their greater ferocity ; and 

 it was for this alone that they exploited the ore, without appreciating 

 the wealth it contained ; or if they did know about it, they made no 

 use of the metal, either because they did not know what it was good 

 for, or because they were afraid of its bad efifects, which are usually 

 felt by those who have much to do with it. 



1465. The Spaniards also never arrived at this realization for a 

 long time, not until the year 1567, when Licentiate Lope Garcia de 

 Castro had succeeded the Conde de Nieva after his death, as Gov- 

 ernor. A Portuguese named Enrrique Garces, who was an expert 

 in such matters, saw this red ore, or vermilion, recognized it and 

 knowing that it was always associated with quicksilver, went up to 

 the mines with this idea, tested the ore and got quicksilver from 

 his assay. That was how quicksilver was discovered here ; immediately 

 there was a rush from many quarters to exploit it for export to 

 Mexico, where they used quicksilver in all their mining processes 

 (for up to that time the process was not known in Peru) and many 

 got rich from it ; and at the report of such wealth, many flocked in 

 from all sides. 



1466. And so when Don Francisco de Toledo entered on his term 

 as Governor, he ordered the town of Oropesa or Huancavelica to 

 be built at the foot of the range in a valley between two ridges, in 

 the year 1569. The rich deposits of this range have made it grow 

 and keep growing ; there are over 400 Spaniards living here as regular 

 residents (here comes a blank page) and though there are very rich 

 mines of this ore in that range, and many tunnels and caves made 

 by the Indians of old in taking out their llimpi, ychma, or vermilion — 

 I myself have seen many of these great tunnels or pits — the richest 

 of all, which they call La Descubridora, was discovered by a Huanca 

 Indian, a native of the village of Acoria belonging to the encomienda of 

 Don Amador de Cabrera, a resident of the city of Guamanga. Since 

 the village of Acoria is so close to the Huancavelica range, this 

 Indian, Nauincopa, also knew the ground well [living so near it and 

 having trodden it often since it was reputed to be so rich, among 

 others] he found this mine, and notified his master of it. Don Amador 

 de Cabrera filed on it and gave it the name of the Los Santos mine. 

 This is a layer of very tough black flint ; they hack away at it with 

 picks and crowbars and get it out with very great effort [and it is 

 of such remarkable size that it measured over 42(?) varas across 

 and more than 80 long] . All the ore is very rich, and the vein turns 



