CHAP. XVII. AND SILVER IN AMERICA. 4 ( J 



the quantity was small when compared with the 

 product of succeeding centuries, it formed a suf- 

 ficient indication of what might be obtained by 

 more strenuous and persevering operations. 



As soon as the Spaniards had gained full pos- 

 session of the country, they employed the wretched 

 natives in the laborious work of procuring the 

 precious metals. The masters had little skill, the 

 depressed inhabitants but little industry, yet, in 

 the space of thirty or forty years from the sub- 

 jugation, mines were at work at Tasco, at Zulte- 

 peque, and Pachuca, which, if they yielded little 

 treasure when compared with the more modern 

 products of Valenciana and other rich districts, 

 yet brought into activity sufficient to show what 

 great application might effect, and enough, com- 

 bined with a similar process in Peru, to produce a 

 great influence on the transactions of the ancient con- 

 tinent as soon as it had reached the ports of Europe. 



Twenty years after the conquest of Mexico had 

 been achieved by Cortez, Pizarro accomplished a 

 similar conquest in Peru. The inhabitants of that 

 country were of a milder character than those of 

 Mexico ; they had practised more industry gene- 

 rally, and had especially been more successful in 

 their operations for procuring mineral wealth. The 

 process by which the Peruvians had procured their 

 gold and silver before the arrival of the Europeans 

 was, as may be expected from people in such a 



VOL. II. E 



