634 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. I02 



1667. It contains two hospitals in which they care for the indigent 

 sick, both Spaniards and Indians. Both are excellent and wealthy, 

 but one is one of the best in the Indies ; the richest and most im- 

 portant residents of the town have a Confraternity, and so they serve 

 the hospital and the invalids as Brethren and look after its well- 

 being and its progress. Each year they elect a Superintendent and 

 other necessary officials, and they spend annually in the service, care, 

 and comfort of the patients, more than 50,000 pesos, not counting 

 the large donations to be added to that. Its income is over 30,000 

 pesos, part of which comes from the theaters (casas de las Comedias), 

 which bring in every year more than 12,000 pesos. In addition, there 

 are other churches and shrines, and other large donations are collected 

 in the town and go out to many other localities ; but those who support 

 all this elaborate structure of the wealth of the range, are in a state 

 of exhaustion and distress, both on account of the heavy expenses 

 they incur in working the mines and reducing the ore, and in other 

 inevitable expenditures, for all costs are high and the mines are 

 very deep and worn out. And so to uphold this mechanism and 

 keep it from falling at a blow, His Majesty might come to their 

 aid and favor them, which would redound to the profit of His 

 Majesty's Royal Patrimony, as I shall explain in the following chap- 

 ter, which deals with the great losses suffered in the Potosi ore mills 

 in the year 1626, a disaster unprecedented since the discovery of 

 that range ; with this I shall conclude the description of the magnifi- 

 cence of Potosi. 



Chapter XV 



Of the Damage Caused by a Flood in the Potosi Ore Mills in 1626. 



1668. Besides the heavy responsibilities carried by the residents, 

 and their indebtedness for many ducats to His Majesty and private 

 individuals in their extraction and reduction of the ore which has 

 enriched so many Kingdoms and monarchies with its silver, they 

 were dealt a heavy blow in the year 1626 by a flood, caused by the 

 bursting of one of the reservoirs maintained by that town for the 

 ore grinding ; the statement which was sent from there, written by 

 the Factor Bartolome de Astete de Ulloa, is of the following tenor : 

 Corregidor: Sunday March 15, 1626, at 1:30 p.m., the Caricari 

 reservoir burst on the island side, opposite the Rio Panga reservoir, 

 and broke through 22 yards of cutwater ; and the speed and violence 

 with which the water reached town were such that the damage it 

 caused was irreparable ; it was so violent that one saw mountains 



