CHAP. XXV. 



PERU. 251 



can be obtained, as the tribunal of the mines had 

 ceased to exist. The machinery of the mints at 

 Lima and Cusco had been wantonly injured, and 

 all information from them was materially checked. 

 In 1825 no more than eight hundred thousand 

 dollars were coined, and in the present year (1826), 

 though the mints are conducted under British su- 

 perintendence, it is not expected that more than 

 one million five hundred thousand will be coined. 

 The principal mines have been abandoned, the 

 chief causes of which have been, the want of quick- 

 silver, the decrease of population, and the inun- 

 dations. It is, however, not unlikely that the 

 whole of the mines between 1820 and 1825 may 

 have yielded near three millions of dollars in value 

 annually, as much of the silver in a rude state was 

 taken away from the mines by the different armies 

 that occupied the country." 



The only estimate which can be formed of what 

 amount has been produced since 1825 must be 

 from some communications on the existing state 

 of the mines in 1826, which are entitled to credit 

 from the character of the individual who has trans- 

 mitted them ; though subsequent events would 

 compel us to make some allowance for the san- 

 guine expectations then entertained. 



The following is an abridgment of the commu- 

 nications here referred to of the state of the mines 

 in the several departments into which Peru has 

 been divided by its republican rulers. 



