CHAP. XXI. AMERICAN MINES. H7 



country thought little of the obedience due to a 

 power so remote and inactive as that which ruled 

 in the European peninsula. The waste of the in- 

 digenous population was attempted to be supplied 

 by the importation of negro slaves from the African 

 shores ; but this inhuman resource was far from 

 effectual. The voyage to the river Plate, with 

 the journey over the Pampas and the Cordilleras, 

 lessened the numbers of the captives and weakened 

 the frames of those who arrived at the inhospitable 

 cerro of Potosi, and when there the severity of 

 the climate rendered most of them incapable of 

 labour. 



As the country between La Plata and Peru be- Buenos 

 came more traversed, districts were discovered of 

 great natural fertility and salubrity, and establish- 

 ments were formed near veins of minerals, which 

 upon more mature examination were found to 

 contain much silver and some gold. The negro 

 slaves were applied to those operations, as well as 

 the few native labourers which the scanty popula- 

 tion could furnish. In this way the country then 

 considered a part of Peru, but separated from it 

 in 1788, and added to the viceroyalty of Buenos 

 Ayres, and since under the revolutionary regimen 

 converted into a kind of independent republic called 

 Bolivia, with Cuzco for its capital, became peopled, 

 cultivated, and productive of the precious metals. 

 In a few years mines were opened and worked 

 in Carangas, Oruro, Andacava, and Chaquiapu 



