THE MINES. 



57 



Salt is worth at this place three reals (37-J cents) the arroba, and 

 mercury costs one dollar the pound in Lima. The superintendent is 

 paid twelve hundred dollars yearly; three mayordoinos, thirty dollars 

 each, monthly ; the corporals, or heads of the working gangs in the 

 mines, twenty dollars ; the miners, sixty-two and a half cents per day, 

 (as much more if they work at night;) and the laborers at the hacienda, 

 fifty cents. This, however, is nominal, being more than swallowed up 

 by the supplies. The estimated yearly expenses of these mines are 

 thirty thousand dollars, and the annual yield, seventy thousand dollars. 

 A caxon, of six thousand two hundred and fifty pounds of the ground 

 ore, yields, by the assay on the small scale, fifty marks, though only 

 twenty-five or thirty are obtained by this process, showing a loss of 

 nearly one-half. The quantity of silver obtained from the relabes, or 

 re-washings, is about twenty per cent, of the whole : that is, if a caxon 

 yields twenty-five marks at the first washing, the re-washing will give 

 five. 



An idea may be formed of the value of these mines when I state that 

 at Cerro Pasco, which is seventy-five miles further from Lima, and on 

 the other side of the Cordillera, ore which yields only six marks to the 

 caxon will give a profit to the miner, though it is saddled with some 

 duties — such as those for drainage and for public works, from which the 

 ore of Parac is exempt. Malarin, the superintendent, said that the 

 caxon must yield fifteen marks here to pay. But granting this, I do 

 not wonder at his expression, that these mines would in a few years ren- 

 der my countryman, Mr. Prevost, the richest man in the country, ("PJl 

 hombre mas poderoso, que hay en el Peru") he owning a third of them. 



May 29. — Visited the mines. These are situated down the valley 

 with regard to the hacienda, and are two leagues W. S. W. of it. They 

 are much nearer San Mateo than is the hacienda, but there is no road 

 to them from that village. The road, or rather path, lay along the 

 side of the mountain, and zigzagged up and down to turn precipices, 

 now running near the banks of the little stream, and now many hun- 

 dreds of feet above it. The ride was bad enough at this time — it 

 must be frightful in the rainy season ; though Malarin says he some- 

 times travels it on horseback. This I am sure I should not do; and 

 when these paths are slippery I would much prefer trusting to my own 

 legs than to those of any other animal. Many persons suffer much in 

 riding amongst these precipices and ravines. Dr. Smith knew a gen- 

 tleman, who, " familiar with downs and lawns, was affected at the steeps 

 of the Paxaron with a giddiness that for some time after disordered his 

 imagination;" and one of a party of English officers, who crossed the 



