266 A VISIT TO THE PROVINCES 



Besides the silver exported in 1850, there were also sent from the province: 



Making an aggregate of $5,867,691, of which $2,659,021 was shipped from Copiapo to Valpa- 

 raiso, and the remainder direct to foreign markets ; equal proportions having followed like 

 destinations from Huasco. 



In 1849 the mineral district of Tres Puntas was found. It is within the desert of Atacama, 

 and distant from the city of Copiapo, in a northwest direction, some seventy-five miles. A road 

 known as the "camino de los Incas," which proceeds to the north, in an almost arrow-like line, 

 from the vicinity of the city, for the first time in that distance makes a detour round the base 

 of these hills, and resumes its original direction on the opposite side. It would thus appear that 

 the followers of "the children of the sun" never learned of the entombed wealth beside the path 

 so strangely departed from, the stones marking which are elsewhere in an undeviating line over 

 hill and valley. The summit of the hill is about 7,500 feet above the ocean. Within many leagues 

 of the mines there is not a drop of water; yet so astonishing were the accounts of its riches, that 

 professional mine-hunters immediately flocked to it from all parts of the province, and already 

 it rivals Chanarcillo, both in the number of mines wrought and operatives. Most extraordinary 

 are the accounts respecting veins found in some of its mines, the almost fabulous narrations of 

 the early discoveries at Chanarcillo being cast into the shadow by the millions that it is said may 

 be embraced in a glance in the "Buena Esperanza." Only such fortune can compensate one for 

 remaining in a country utterly arid, where even the air is so parched that the skin of the face and 

 hands cracks during the first four or five days, and the nostrils, eyelids, and ears become painful 

 to the touch. At first it was necessary to transport everything from Copiapo; though latterly 

 provisions have been sent from the southern provinces to the little roadstead of Flamenco, about 

 twenty-five leagues to the westward. Chanarcillo, also, derives a portion of its supplies through 

 the port of Totoral, twelve leagues west of it, by the road across an equally desert plain. Yet 

 the cost of every necessity can only be properly appreciated from a statement of the actual 

 prices. In 1850 they were as follows: 



Prices of Articles most consumed at the Mines. 



With such inevitable expenses, it is impossible to work many of the multitude of copper- 

 mines found in almost every part of the province, those only which are near the coast repaying 



