624 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 102 



working and exploitation of the mines, both those which have 

 been discovered, those now discovered, and those which shall be 

 discovered. It is the duty of the Corregidor of Potosi to have them 

 rounded up and to see that they come in from all the provinces 

 between Cuzco over the whole of El Collao and as far as the frontiers 

 of Tarija and Tomina ; this Potosi Corregidor has power and authority 

 over all the Corregidors in those provinces mentioned ; for if they 

 do not fill the Indian mita allotment assigned each one of them in 

 accordance with the capacity of their provinces as indicated to them, 

 he can send them, and does, salaried inspectors to report upon it, 

 and when the remissness is great or remarkable, he can suspend 

 them, notifying the Viceroy of the fact. 



These Indians are sent out every year under a captain whom they 

 choose in each village or tribe, for him to take them and oversee 

 them for the year each has to serve ; every year they have a new 

 election, for as some go out, others come in. This works out very 

 badly, with great losses and gaps in the quotas of Indians, the villages 

 being depopulated ; and this gives rise to great extortions and abuses 

 on the part of the inspectors toward the poor Indians, ruining them 

 and thus depriving the caciques and chief Indians of their property 

 and carrying them off in chains because they do not fill out the mita 

 assignment, which they cannot do, for the reasons given and for others 

 which I do not bring forward. 



1653. These 13,300 are divided up every 4 months into 3 mitas, 

 each consisting of 4,433 Indians, to work in the mines on the range 

 and in the 120 smelters in the Potosi and Tarapaya areas; it is a 

 good league between the two. These mita Indians earn each day, 

 or there is paid each one for his labor, 4 reals. Besides these there 

 are others not under obligation, who are mingados or hire themselves 

 out voluntarily : these each get from 12 to 16 reals, and some up to 24, 

 according to their reputation of wielding the pick and knowing how 

 to get the ore out. These mingados will be over 4,000 in number. 

 They and the mita Indians go up every Monday morning to the 

 locality of Guayna Potosi which is at the foot of the range; the 

 Corregidor arrives with all the provincial captains or chiefs who have 

 charge of the Indians assigned them, and he there checks off and 

 reports to each mine and smelter owner the number of Indians 

 assigned him for his mine or smelter ; that keeps him busy till i p.m., 

 by which time the Indians are already turned over to these mine 

 and smelter owners. 



After each has eaten his ration, they climb up the hill, each to 

 his mine, and go in, staying there from that hour until Saturday 



