CHAP. XXV. POTOSI. 257 



going again, all their money having been swept 

 away." 



Sir Edward Temple visited the same districts in 

 the same years as Capt. Andrews, and like him 

 seems to have been employed to purchase mines for 

 some of those numerous abortive companies at that 

 period formed or projected in England. His ac- 

 count differs but little from that of the other tra- 

 veller. " The population of Oruro," he says, 

 " does not exceed four thousand souls, and those 

 are in great indigence, owing to the destruction of 

 the mines of silver and tin which formerly sup- 

 ported a brisk and extensive commerce, now nearly 

 extinct from want of those resources which were 

 absorbed in the all-consuming civil war 1 ." He 

 asserts that all the mines in Potosi put together 

 do not produce near two hundred thousand marcs 

 of silver yearly ; that the districts of Potosi, Por- 

 tugalette, and Chayanta, yielded in 1826 of silver 

 one hundred and seventy-seven thousand one hun- 

 dred and twenty-seven marcs, or about one million 

 four hundred thousand dollars, and that by sub- 

 sequent disturbances that produce had been less- 

 ened 2 . This amount is represented to be derived 

 " from the accumulated scrapings of many needy 

 individuals, employing a few thousand dollars for 

 the means of mere subsistence, beyond which they 



1 Temple's Travels, vol. ii. p. 29. 



2 Idem, vol. ii. p. 252. 



VOL. II. S 



