WHOLE VOL. THE WEST INDIES— VAZQUEZ DE ESPINOSA 623 



These ores were treated by smelting for 26 years, because the 

 Spaniards in that Kingdom knew no other method ; they used it 

 from the discovery of the richness of that range in 1545 until the 

 year 1571, when, in the days of Don Francisco de Toledo, they began 

 treating the ore with mercury, the benefits of which had been dis- 

 covered in the Huancavelica mines, as has been noted in its proper 

 place. 



1651. The way they smelted these ores was in little ovens which 

 the Indians set up on the tops and slopes of the sierras and moun- 

 tains ; they fed them with wood or charcoal and when lighted they 

 glowed under the draft of the wind the Indians call guayra, and 

 so they called these ovens guayras ; every night over 6,000 flamed on 

 those ridges and mountains under the fresh wind blowing through 

 them ; it was a pleasant sight to see so many lights at night ; it looked 

 as if there were bonfires all over the hills, and gay celebrations, and 

 so it surely was for the Spaniards, with the Indians getting out the 

 silver for them. They even had rogations, Masses, and other pious 

 acts for God to send them wind for their guayras, just as sailors 

 do when there is a calm at sea for a wind to help them on their 

 course. In this smelting they used the rich ore and dumped in soroche, 

 which is plumbeous, so that it would melt and liquefy better. Thus 

 the slag separated ofif under the flame, the lead melted, and the silver 

 swam or ran on top of it, until the heat consumed it and the silver 

 was left, which kept on refining and purifying itself until it became 

 liquid and pure ; they used tin also in the process. Smelting could 

 not get all the silver except at too great effort and cost ; so they did 

 not smelt low-grade ore, the residue and the discard (desmontes) 

 for the reason given, it being too difficult and the cost more than the 

 profit, until the quicksilver process arrived; that gets it all (varrelo), 

 and so all grades of ore, rich and poor, and whatever discard and 

 residue there was, were treated, and are treated, with it, better and 

 more easily ; and yet at the present day there are many guayras on 

 the Potosi range and its neighborhood, operated by poor miners and 

 Indians. 



Chapter IX 



Continuing to Describe the Magnificence of the Potosi Range ; 

 and of the Indians There under Forced Labor (Mita) in Its 

 Operations. 



1652. According to His Majesty's warrant, the mine owners on 

 this massive range have a right to the mita of 13,300 Indians in the 



