324 



CHILE. 



Sept. 1834. 



would prefer having the latter alone ; but their masters, find- 

 ing they cannot work so hard upon this^ treat them like 

 horses, and make them eat the beans. Their pay is here 

 rather more than at the mines of Jajuel, being from 24 to 

 28 shillings per month. They leave the mine only once in 

 three weeks; when they stay with their families for two 

 days.^ One of the rules in this mine sounds very harsh, 

 but answers pretty well for the master. The only method 

 of stealing gold, is to secrete pieces of the ore, and take them 

 out as occasion may offer. Whenever the major-domo finds 

 a lump thus hidden, its full value is stopped out of the wages 

 of all the men; who thus, without they all combine, are 

 obliged to keep watch over each other. 



When the ore is brought to the mill, it is ground into an 

 impalpable powder ; the process of washing removes all the 

 lighter particles, and amalgamation finally secures the gold 

 dust The washing, when described, sounds a very simple 

 process ; but it is beautiful to see how the exact adaption of 

 the current of water to the specific gravity of the gold, so 

 easily separates the powdered matrix from the metal. The 

 mud which passes from the mills is collected into pools, 

 where it subsides, and every now and then is cleared out, and 

 thrown into a common heap. A great deal of chemical action 

 then commences, salts of various kinds effloresce on the sur- 

 face, and the mass becomes hard. In the heap which I 

 examined, an angulo-concretionary structure was also super- 

 induced, and what was very remarkable, these pseudo-frag- 



* Bad as all the above treatment appears, it is gladly accepted of by the 

 miners ; for the condition of the labouring agriculturists is much worse. 

 The wages of the latter are lower, and they live almost exclusively on 

 beans. This poverty must be chiefly owing to the feudal-like system on 

 which the land is tilled. The landowner gives a small plot of ground to 

 the labourer, for building and cultivating, and in return has his services 

 (or that of a proxy) for every day of his life, without any wages. Until a 

 father has a grown up son who can by his labour pay the rent, there is no 

 one, except on chance days, to take care of the patch of ground. Hence 

 extreme poverty is very common among the labouring classes in this 

 country. 



