598 South American Sketches : (Dec. 
continually in his debt. Sometimes he will remit a portion of what is 
owing ; so that, partly by fear and partly by affection, he keeps them all 
dependant on him. Whenever he visits the town of La Rioja, he is almost 
constantly at the billiard-table, and is the best player there. Occasionally, 
when a player has nearly lost a game, he will purchase his chance of him, 
and invariably turns the tables on his antagonist. 
While Quiroga was. leading the kind of life described above, the 
pedlar-governor, Agueros, was also busy in his department, making the 
most of his office, which he was conscious he only held at the pleasure 
of a demi-savage, who could depose him with the same facility with which 
he had placed him in power, whenever his caprice or interest prompted 
him soto do: The mint of the province consisted of a coarse wooden 
frame, through which a coarser iron screw worked with a double lever, 
weighted with lead. This rude machinery served to cut out the plan- 
chets, and also to stamp the coin, which was performed by the repetition 
of two or more strokes. A mud furnace, a hammer, and anvil, for 
making the plates from the ingots, a pair of hand-shears, and a small 
laminating-mill, worked by hand, completed the equipment. At this 
elegant establishment, the miners had formerly been permitted to have 
their bullion coined, at a moderate per centage ; but the governor now 
took the concern into his own hands, and coined for the state, buying the 
bullion of the miners at his own price. For gold he paid at the rate of 
14 dollars per ounce, which, when coined, produced him about 19 dollars, 
Silver he purchased at 6 doilars per mark, and it produced him 9 dollars 
in the state of coin. And against this species of plunder the poor miners 
had no remedy ; for, if they-went to the shopkeepers to purchase goods 
with their bullion, they had to pay for them at a greatly increased rate. 
About a twelvemonth after the period of Agueros taking the coining 
department into his own hands, a man in Chilecito finding what enor- 
mous profits were made by the governor, contrived to procure some 
files, hammers, chisels, stamps, and an anvil, with the intention of 
making money on his own account; but the governor hearing of it, 
went and took possession of the whole plant without ceremony. 
Things were in this state until about the beginning of June 1825, 
when the wife of the governor, Agueros, wrote a letter (a great indica- 
tion of superior education) to a friend in the Llanos, in which she de- 
scanted very freely on the character of Quiroga, saying, that both her 
husband and herself considered him as a savage gaucho, without any 
pretensions to the station which he held. This letter, by some chance, 
fell into the hands of Quiroga, who opened it without hesitation, and 
read it. He then sealed it up again, and sent it forward to its destina- 
tion; so that nothing was known of the discovery he had made. But, 
from that moment, he determined in his own mind the deposition of 
the governor, for which he only wanted a convenient plea. This scon 
presented itself. On the pretence that it was necessary to lay out a new 
town for the residence of the miners, who were now increasing in num- 
bers, Quiroga caused it to be intimated to the new governor that he 
wished this to be done. The governor, delighted at the idea of being 
able to execute his masteris wishes, and thus curry favour with him, 
proceeded to the performance of the task with all the fawning com- 
plaisance of a slave. He certainly selected the best situation for such a 
purpose, viz. the site of a small village called Anguinan, situated about 
a league to the south-west of Chilecito. This village, composed of a 
