INTRODUCTION. 



vii 



Accompanied by two highly respectable 

 Captains of the Cornish Mines, a French 

 Assayer, who had been brought up by the 

 celebrated Vauquelin, a Surveyor, and three 

 miners, I proceeded across the great plains 

 of the Pampas to the Gold Mines of San 

 Luis, and from thence to the Silver Mines 

 of Uspallata which are beyond Men- 

 doza, about a thousand miles from Buenos 

 Aires. 



I then left my party at Mendoza, and from 

 the Mines I rode back again to Buenos Aires 

 by myself, performing the distance in eight 

 days. I there unexpectedly received letters 

 which made it necessary for me to go im- 

 mediately to Chili, and I accordingly again 

 crossed the Pampas, and, joining my party 

 at Mendoza, we went over the Andes to 

 Santiago, and from thence, without any de- 



b 2 



