CHAP. xxv. MINES IN PERU. 253 



small quantity of silver is now produced. The 

 mines of Huantajaya have lately been purchased 

 by an English merchant, who has proceeded to 

 England for the purpose of engaging a company 

 to work them. The disadvantage of these mines 

 is the want of fresh water. 



Silver abounds in this department. The famous intendancy, 



/> T i / r-< nowdepart- 



mme of Layacota is now the property or an Jbn- ment, of 

 glish merchant. The principal obstacle to its 

 working is the great lodgment of water in the 

 shaft, which, it is said, can be drained off by an old 

 adit. 



It will be seen by these extracts that the chief 

 hope of restoring the mines of Peru to a state of 

 tolerable productiveness depended on the expecta- 

 tion that the various companies in England formed, 

 or about to be formed in 1825, would furnish the 

 capital required for their restoration. The fate of 

 those companies is now too well known to afford 

 any expectation that they have supplied any effective 

 aid since 1826. We therefore conclude, that the 

 mines which had been abandoned at that time have 

 continued in the same dismantled and unproduc- 

 tive state. 



For the purpose of completing the plan here 

 adopted, it is necessary to have recourse to some 

 assumption, and we shall take as the ground of 

 that assumption the highest estimate that is to be 

 found in any accounts we have been able to col- 

 lect. This, written in 1826, expresses an expecta- 



