MINING SYSTEM. 



53 



workmen^ or what is called a Bareta, the habili- 

 tador is entitled to charge a specific sum of forty- 

 five dollars per month, that is, sixteen for wages, 

 and twenty-nine for clothing and food. The 

 habilitador paid the bareta honestly enough their 

 sixteen dollars ; ten to the upper workman, who 

 is called the Baretero, and six to the other, the 

 Apire, who is a mere carrier : but he charged 

 twenty-nine dollars more in his account against 

 the miner for clothing and other supplies, to each 

 bareta, although it was notorious that the real 

 cost for these articles always came to much less 

 than that sum. 



Thus the poor miner went on producing copper, 

 solely for the benefit of the habilitador, without 

 the least diminution in his debt, and without any 

 prospect of ever realizing money enough to make 

 his wished-for purchase of the large farm. The 

 other, indeed, was willing to advance him small 

 sums of money to prevent his sinking into utter 

 despair, and abandoning the mine ; but he had 

 the mortification of feeling, that, for every eight 

 dollars he borrowed, he was bound to pay back 

 copper, which the habilitador sold for eleven or 



