BETAGH's account op PERU. 23 



.what they call the purfe, being the ends of veins, fo rich, that they have fometimes 

 made a man wealthy at once : and this fame inequality fometimes ruins them ; which 

 is the reafon, that it is more rare to fee a gold-miner rich than a filver-miner, or of 

 any other metal, though there be lefs expence in drawing it from the mineral as fhall 

 be faid hereafter. For this reafon, alfo, the miners have particular privileges ; for 

 they cannot 'be fued to execution on civil accounts ; and gold pays only a twentieth *«%*«. jf*^ 

 part to the king, which is call Covo, from the name of a private perfon, to 

 whom the ^ing made the grant, becaufe they ufed before to pay the fifth, as they 

 do of filver. 



On the defcent of this mountain, there runs, during the winter, or rather during 

 the rainy feafon, a pretty brifk flream of water, which, paffing through the gold ore, 

 walhes away abundance of that rich metal, as it ripens and breaks from its bed : and 

 therefore, for about four months in the year, this is accounted one of the richeft la- 

 vaderos in Chili ; and very well it may, fmce there are fometimes found pellets of 

 pure gold, of the weight of an ounce. At Palma, which is but four leagues from 

 Valparaifo, there is another rich lavadero ; and every where throughout the country, 

 the fall of a brook, or rivulet, is attended more or lefs with thefe kind of golden fhowers, 

 the richeft of which fall into the laps of the Jefuits, who farm or purchafe abundance 

 of mines and lavaderos, which are wrought for their benefit by their fervants. The 

 foil about this port is exceffive rich and fruitful ; fo that forty {hips a year go from 

 hence to Lima, laden with corn ; and, notwithftanding their prodigious exportation, 

 that commodity is fo cheap here, where money at the fame time is fo plenty, that an 

 Englilh bufhel may be bought for lefs than three (hillings; and it would be much cheaper 

 ftill, if all the country could be cultivated ; but, as they have dry weather for eight 

 months together, this is impoffible, except where there are brooks or little rills running 

 from the mountains through the vales. 



But before we clofe this fubject, it may not be amifs to obferve, that there is a great 

 trade carried on through all Chili, from the North Seas, by the way of Buenos Ayres, 

 by which they receive fome European goods, and a very large balance of filver in re- 

 turn for their commodities. This is, perhaps, the greateft inland commerce in the 

 world ; for the road, from Buenos Ayres to Potofi, is 1 500 miles ; and, though the 

 diftance from Valparaifo be not above 160 leagues more, yet it is croiTed with greater 

 difficulty than all the reft ; becaufe they are obliged to pafs that chain of mountains fo 

 often mentioned, called by the Spaniards La Cordillera, which paffage can be attempted 

 only during the three firft months in the year, when the pafTages are open, and the 

 merchants come from Mendoza, which is an inland town, about 300 leagues from 

 Buenos Ayres to the city of St. lago, which lies at the opening of the pafles from the 

 Cordilleras. This journey through the mountains takes up fix or feven days, though 

 not above fixty leagues ; and the pafTengers are obliged to carry with them not only 

 provifions for themfelves and their attendants, but provender like wife for their mules, 

 the whole road being a continual track of rocks and precipices, and the country round 

 about fo exceffively barren, and withal fo expofed to fnows in the winter, that there is 

 no living in it. The journey, however, from St. lago to the mines, and from thence 

 to Valparaifo, is equally fafe and pleafant ; and the merchants have nothing to trouble 

 them, but the fear of ftaying too long, and lofing their paffage home through the 

 mountains ; in cafe of which they muft be obliged to ftay at leaft nine months longer 

 than they intended. The reader will obferve, that this journey, from Buenos Ayres 

 to Valparaifo, is diredly athwart the whole continent of South America 5 which is a 



clear 



