60 PRODUCE OF THE MINES CHAP. XVIII. 



sentations seems to require an apology. The 

 differences, however, do not greatly affect the 

 view now taken of the subject, in this case ex- 

 tending over a period of ten years out of fifty-five ; 

 they would not have been noticed, if it had not 

 arisen from a more attentive examination of the 

 accessible documents than the proportion which it 

 bears to the whole view would have induced. 



Humboldt procured correct returns of the 

 amount of the Cobos at Potosi, from the year 

 1579 to 1789, from which he has calculated the 

 quantity of money procured in those years in a 

 manner deserving the highest confidence. At 

 present we have only to do with the years from 

 1579 to 1600. This appears in the twenty-one 

 years to have amounted to twenty-nine millions 

 one hundred and eighty-five thousand nine hun- 

 dred and ninety pesos, or one million three hun- 

 dred and eighty-nine thousand eight hundred and 

 fifty-nine annually, being equivalent to about two 

 hundred and eighty thousand pounds on the 

 average. 



We have thus examined the statement of the 

 Cerro de Potosi with more minuteness than will 

 be necessary to apply to other mining districts, on 

 account of the long and extensive fame which that 

 mountain has enjoyed, and to reduce, as far as can 

 be done, to accurate figures the extravagant re- 

 presentations to which we have all been accus- 

 tomed from our childhood. 



