290 A VISIT TO THE PROVINCES 



hydrate has been found near the crest of the Andes. Neither of them would repay the expenses 

 of working in any country least of all in Chile, where fuel is so scarce. More than one cateador 

 has reported discoveries of coal mines within a reasonable distance of Santiago ; and I read a 

 letter from an Englishman, stating that samples which he had brought from one such deposit 

 had proved highly satisfactory to the blacksmith who had tried their qualities. But no men- 

 tion of such mineral is made in the report of Seiior Pissis to the government; and the fact that 

 stone-coal is still carted from Valparaiso, casts doubt on the existence of this important com- 

 modity. 



I am not aware that there are any mines in operation in the province of Colchagua except 

 those of Yaquil or Jajuel, mentioned by Dr. Darwin, near Lake Taguatagua. Two lavaderos 

 have been recently announced to the government by the Intendente, but it is probable that they 

 will prove like most of the rest, not worth the attenion of capitalists. Those of Chivato, in 

 the province of Talca, and their products, are mentioned in the Narrative of a Visit to the 

 Southward, Chapter XV. Maule is very little better off. One gold mine, thirty-six lavaderos, 

 three silver veins, and one of copper, are all that have been registered within eighty years. 

 Many of these have been exhausted or abandoned as unproductive, and the whole yield at 

 the last return was less than $10,000 per annum. The efforts which were made by Valdivia 

 and his immediate successors to reconquer and retain the extreme southern provinces, after his 

 temporary success against the Araucanians, is the best evidence we could have of the mineral 

 wealth abounding there. We know that the Spaniards of that day cared only for the precious 

 metals, and thought little of the natives whom they destroyed in their efforts to accumulate 

 wealth. As each new district was reduced to submission, it was apportioned by the leader and 

 his subordinates with all the inhabitants, thousands of whom were sometimes given as the 

 share of a single officer. Avarice was predominant, and the unlettered savage whose previous 

 life had been one of liberty and ease approaching the " dolcefar niente," found himself tasked 

 beyond his corporeal powers to fill the coffers of a master who hesitated not to scourge or starve 

 him to exertion. Imperial, Villarica, Concepcion, and Valdivia, rose into wealth and import- 

 ance under this system with a rapidity almost rivalling the growth of North American towns 

 at the present day, and solely because of the abundance of gold extracted from the mines and 

 lavaderos in their vicinity. Indeed the soil was so productive, that each Indian was said to 

 have been required to pay his master to the value of thirty or forty ducats each week some 

 say, each day.* Frezier, who visited Chile in 1714, tells us : (t Concepcion is situated in a 

 country abounding not only with all the necessaries of life, but with immense riches, particu- 

 larly a place called King's Camp, about twelve leagues to the east, from whence are obtained, by 

 washing, pieces of pure gold, called in the country pepitas, of from eight to ten marks (sixty- 

 four to eighty ounces) in weight." And in another place he says : " I saw at Concepcion a 

 piece of (copper), ore of forty quintals (four thousand pounds) weight, from which, when 

 melted, were cast six field-pieces of six pounds calibre." Although the accounts of this writer 

 and Molina must be received cum grano salis, we know that there was such abundance of gold 

 received in Valdivia as authorized the erection of a mint for its coinage. 



But the Indians who had at first willingly given their glittering grains to those whom they 

 then regarded at least as demigods, were soon painfully made to know the importance of these 

 earth products, and looked with amazement on the cupidity of their tyrannical masters. In the 

 northern and central provinces the gentle aborigines had sunk under harsh usage, as dwindled 

 the snows of their own mountains under summer heats. The climate and habits of the Arau- 

 canians and Cunchos had rendered them more hardy and warlike ; and when extortion, cruelty, 

 and oppression had driven them to rebel against such conquerors and masters, the torch of 

 liberty, rekindled in the darkest hour of adversity by Lautaro, grew brighter and brighter, 

 until the invader was driven from their soil, lighted by the flames of the cities he had erected 

 under the shadows of their Andes. Gold the accursed metal which had drawn these evils on 

 them, which had caused the slaughter of their bravest chiefs, the violation of their wives 



* Sanson's Geography : article CHILE. 



