52 PRODUCE OF MINES 



CHAP. XVII. 



fertile sunny valleys which were their favourite 

 abodes till visited by the Europeans, The Mexican 

 Indians endured less oppression in this respect 

 than those in Peru, but much labour was ex- 

 torted from both, and the fruits of it was an in- 

 creased quantity both of gold and silver, within 

 a short space after the conquest of the respective 

 countries. 



The mines opened in Mexico during the period 

 which followed the conquest have been already 

 noticed, to which may now be added those ex- 

 plored and worked in Peru between the landing 

 of Pizarro in 1527 and the discovery of the mineral 

 wealth of Potosi in 1545. The chief mines opened 

 in Peru before Potosi were those in the provinces 

 of Porco, Carangas, Oruro, Carabaya, and Cha- 

 quiapu, now called La Paz. There are no accounts 

 to be found of the quantities they produced, but 

 merely their names are mentioned respectively as 

 yielding either gold or silver, or both. 



In estimating the addition made to the store of 

 the precious metals by the discovery of America 

 from the year 1492 to 1546, it seems necessary, 

 after much attention to the subject, to deviate but 

 little from the calculation which Humboldt has 

 made, and that chiefly in the earlier years of the 

 series. The annual addition then in the twenty- 

 nine years between the discovery in 1492! to the 

 conquest of the city of Mexico in 1521, at the rate 



