252 INTERVIEW WITH TREVITHICK. CHAP. XIII. 



in 1816, with powerful steam-engines, intended for the 

 drainage and working of the Peruvian mines. He met 

 with almost a royal reception on his landing at Lima. 

 A guard of honour was appointed to attend him, and it 

 was even proposed to erect a statue of Don Ricardo 

 Trevithick in solid silver. It was given forth in Corn- 

 wall that his emoluments amounted to 100,0007. a year, 1 

 and that he was making a gigantic fortune. Great, 

 therefore, was Eobert Stephenson' s surprise to find this 

 potent Don Ricardo in the inn at Cartagena, reduced 

 almost to his last shilling, and unable to proceed further. 

 He had indeed realized the truth of the Spanish proverb, 

 that " a silver mine brings misery, a gold mine ruin." 

 He and his friend had lost everything in their journey 

 across the country from Peru. They had forded rivers 

 and wandered through forests, leaving all their baggage 

 behind them, and had reached thus far only with the 

 clothes upon their backs. Almost the only remnant of 

 precious metal saved by Trevithick was a pair of silver 

 spurs, which he took back with him to Cornwall. Eobert 

 Stephenson lent him 50/. to enable him to reach Eng- 

 land ; and though he was afterwards heard of as an 

 inventor there, he had no further part in the ultimate 

 triumph of the locomotive. 



But Trevi thick's misadventures on this occasion had 

 not yet ended, for before he reached New York he was 

 wrecked, and Robert Stephenson with him. The fol- 

 lowing is the account of the voyage, " big with adven- 

 tures," as given by the latter in a letter to his friend 

 Illingworth : " At first we had very little foul weather, 

 and indeed were for several days becalmed amongst the 

 islands, which was so far fortunate, for a few degrees 

 farther north the most tremendous gales were blowing, 

 and they appear (from our future information) to have 

 wrecked every vessel exposed to their violence. We 



1 ' Geological Transactions of Cornwall,' i., 222. 



