ENGINKS Foil Sol'TII AMKIIKJA. 197 



the talisman he had travelled thousands of miles in 

 search of. The shopkeeper informed him- that it was a 

 model of Richard Trevithick's high-pressure steam- 

 engine, which worked without condensing water, or 

 vacuum. If what he heard was true, why should it 

 not work equally well in the light atmosphere of the 

 mines ? The great engineer at Soho might be in error 

 or ignorance. The experiment, as a last resource, was 

 worth making. He would pay the 20/. for the model, 

 carry it to the mines of Cerro de Pasco, in the high 

 mountains above Lima, where, if it worked as well as it 

 did in London, the rich mines of Peru would again 

 reveal their long-hidden treasure. The model was 

 conveyed by ship to Lima, and then on a mule up 

 the narrow precipitous ascents to Cerro de Pasco, over 

 mountains more than 20,000 feet high. Fire was 

 placed in the small boiler as he had seen it done in 

 London, and with the same result, to the great joy of 

 Uville, who determined to revisit England in search 

 of the inventor of this new and wonderful power. On 

 his return voyage, when rounding Cape Horn, bets 

 were made on the chances of his finding the man 

 who had invented the high-pressure steam -puffer 

 engine, 1 and of his being able to persuade such a person 

 to make the required engines and accompany them to 

 Peru. Such gloomy forebodings ended in an attack of 

 brain fever. The vessel touched at Jamaica, where 

 Uville was landed. On recovering health and strength 

 he embarked for England in one of the packet-ships, 

 and during the voyage still spoke of the object of his 

 search. A fellow-traveller, called Captain Teague, 

 rejoiced him by saying, " I know all about it ; it is the 

 easiest thing in the world. The inventor of your high- 



1 Sec London locomotive, vol. i., }>. IDS, 

 VOL. IT. P 



