CHAP. XXV. 



BUENOS AYRES. 255 



any other part of Spanish America except Colum- 

 bia. The produce of the precious metals before 

 the time of its revolutionary sufferings amounted 

 annually to about four million two hundred and 

 sixty thousand dollars, but since the commence- 

 ment of those disastrous events it has gradually 

 at first and rapidly of late years declined. This 

 seems to have been owing in a great part to the 

 richer proprietors having been attached to the cause 

 of Spain, and to the Indians having followed their 

 benefactors. But when the Liberators invaded 

 those peaceful spots, the proprietors were either 

 banished orput to death, and their followers pressed 

 into the military service of the invaders. Two 

 English travellers have visited those countries, and 

 though it is evident from the spirit of their works 

 that their feelings were engaged on the side of 

 the invaders or liberals, yet the picture they give 

 of the effects of this liberal desolation are so con- 

 nected with the subject of decreased production of 

 the precious metals that they are highly deserving 

 of attention. Their description, though here 

 only applied to one particular portion of the 

 liberated continent of South America, may with 

 few exceptions be considered as equally applicable 

 to every part of that vast tract of country. 



Captain Andrews passed from the city of Buenos 

 Ayres by Juijui Salta and Tucuman to Potosi. 

 Nothing can be more melancholy than the de- 

 scription he gives of the whole district, but espe- 



