540 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 102 



down, and the deeper it gets the more it broadens out, so that in 

 the cavity which has been hollowed out within the mine, where they 

 are working to extract the ore, there is room for from 3,000 to 4,000 

 Indians, [such is its size and capacity.] 



1467. Amador de Cabrera had a controversy with the Fisc over 

 this mine, and won a writ for its exploitation; later. His Majesty 

 bought it for 250,000 ducats ; but considering he had been cheated, 

 Cabrera again brought suit over it ; in fact, all those who know and 

 can estimate its wealth, say that it is worth over a million ; it is an 

 astonishing thing that there can be a mine worth such an amount. 

 Much of my account is from my own observations, which I made 

 with special particularity when I was at those mines ; and part I have 

 taken from Very Rev. Father Joseph de Acosta, who wrote a learned 

 and minute account. At the rumor and report of this wealth of 

 quicksilver, many Indians and Spaniards rushed in from all sides 

 to take part in exploiting them; among them was a certain Pedro 

 Fernandez de Velasco, who, up in New Spain, had used quicksilver 

 on their ore ; he offered to treat the Potosi ore with quicksilver, and 

 made the test when Don Francisco de Toledo was governing Peru, 

 in the year 1571 ; he was successful and it was the salvation of the 

 mines, because with this process they got [infinitely] much more 

 silver than by smelting, and gained not only in the valuable metals 

 but also in the excavation (desmontes), for the quicksilver gathers 

 up all the silver, even if the ore is very low grade, and that is not 

 the case with smelting. Accordingly, from the time that the Potosi 

 mines were discovered in the year 1545 — they were filed on under 

 the date of April 21 of that year — the ore was treated with fire for 

 a period of 26 years up to 1571, without any knowledge or realization 

 of the quicksilver process before that year. Taking one year with 

 another, they extract over 10,000 quintals of quicksilver ; much is 

 filched and sold underhand (debajo de la cuerda), as they say; they 

 are worth to His Majesty each year more than 400,000 assay pesos, 

 without reckoning in the profit from the quicksilver at Potosi, which 

 is another great source of wealth. This must suffice, and we will 

 describe some of the properties of quicksilver. 



Chapter LXVHI [69] (70) 



Treating of the Preceding Theme, and the Properties of Quick- 

 silver. 



1468. This metal has no form and consistency like the others but 

 is liquid ; but even so, it is heavier than any of the rest except gold ; 



