5799. ] 
of the commercial houfes became metamor- 
phofed into picce and other goods, and all 
the ready money by degrees emigrated to 
Cadiz; which neceffarily occafioned an ex- 
ceflive fall in the value of European arti- 
cles of merchandize. A pair af French 
filk-ftockings, which then coft 40 pialtres, 
may now be purchafed for fix ; and in like 
manner al] European goods have funken 
to one-third of their former price, and 
éyen lower. Thus the merchant eradu- 
_ally loft the capital which he had rifked in 
trade, and was totallyruined. ‘The fame 
is faid to be the cafe in all the other com-. 
mercial cities of the Spanifh colonies in 
South America. ‘The confequent f{carcity 
of money caufed an almoft total foppage 
in the working of the mines; and it feemed 
as if this fource of wealth in Peru would 
be wholly dried up. To prev nt this, the 
Viceroy, La Croix, an inteltigent, difin= 
terefied, and generally beloved Nether- 
lander, had requefted of the King to fend 
over to Peru {fkilful German miners and 
mineralogifts, pofleffed of the requifite ta- 
lents and knowledge* ; and in the mean 
time erected, at the expence of the pro- 
prietors of the mines, a fupreme tribunal 
of the mines, on the plan ‘of the like tri- 
bunal in Mexico. The members, how- 
‘ever, who compofed this fupreme court 
were entirely deftitute of mineralogical 
knowledge: and the Peruvian Board of 
Mines has not yet expended a fingle penny 
for promoting the working of any of the 
numerous mines under their jurifdiction ; 
of which the proprietors loudly complain ; 
but their complaints are nowhere attended 
to. Government not only leaves them-to 
themfelves without any fupport, but like- 
wife deprefles them ‘by vexatious proceffes 
and chicanery, and by. executions on the 
flighte(t refufal; by which many have 
been driven from their homes. More ef- 
pecially the fub delegates are the greateft 
of villains, who ah aS themfelves by their 
unjuk aéts of tyranny, and continually ac- 
cule the fubjeéts of fedition and rebellion ; 
while the Viceroy, who refides in the ca- 
pital, and is a ftranger to the extenfive 
region committed to his care, gives him- 
felt little trouble about the burthens and 
oppreflions under which the people groan. 
The following ftatements may ferve as 
an additional proof of the richnefs of the 
Peruvian mines. The mountain Gual 
gayoc, in the province of Truxillo, and 
the. filver-mountain Jauricocha, not far 
i 
* Helms and his German affociates, how- 
ever, only arrived in Pery when La Croix was 
Seturning to Europe. 
Travels in South America. ' 855 
from the fmall town named Pafco, in the 
province of Tarma, yield above one-half 
of the whole mafs of filver furnifhed by 
the kingdom of Peru; that is, annually 
about 280,000marks. Thelatter of thefe 
mountains Helms himfelf examined. It 
contains a prodigious mafs of ore (half a 
mile iong, equally broad, but in depth 
only 15/ fathoms), of fine porous brown 
iron-ftone, which is throughout inter- 
fperfed with pure filver.. This iron-ftone 
itfelf contains, indeed, at moft nine marks 
of filver in every socwt. of which, how- 
ever, the unfkilful Indian metallurgift 
gains from the fmelting-furnace only from 
tour to feven marks. But a friable, white 
metallic argil in the middle of the mafs of 
ore, about one-quarter of an ell in thick- 
nefs, yields from 209 to 1000 marks of 
fine filver in every socwt. Wherever the 
miner hits upon this immenfe vein, he 
finds ores containing more or lefs of filver. 
This has induced a number of needy and 
ignorant adventurers to perforate the mafs 
of ore with innumerable holes, without 
order or regulation; fo that it is wonder- 
ful that the whole mine had_not long ago 
fallen in: fingle pits frequently tumble in 
and kill the workmen; but fuch accidents’ 
excite very little attention. 
Above 200 private proprietors and 
workers of mines have their pits on this 
mountain, and annually extract about 
200,000 marks of filver; that is, three 
times as much as is produced from all the 
Saxon filver-mines. ‘The mines of Guan- 
tajaya, in the government of Ariquipa, 
300 miles from Lima, and clofe to the 
fea-port Iquigue, annually yield 38,000 
marks of filver: but might yield a confi- 
derably greater.quantity, if it were not 
fituated in the dry burning fandy defert on 
the {ea-fhore. Freth water muft be fetched 
from a diftance of from 20 to 30 miles; 
and a common drinking-glafs full is 
fometimes fold at the rate of a piaftre. 
The ores there dug out are for the moft 
part rich horn-ores; and fometimes they 
meet with large lumps of pure filver. Peru 
and Potofi abounds fo much with gold and 
filver that the mines there, if worked with 
but a tolerable degree of metallurgic fkill, 
might yield confiderably more than the 
quantity neceflary for the fupply of the 
whole world. . The ignorance, then, of the 
inhabitants of ceien countries, and the 
oppreffive meafures of the Government, 
fortunately combine to hinder the depre- 
ciation of the nobler metals from their too 
great abundance. Almoft all the mines 
in Pern, &c. were opened by deferters 
from the army and navy, failors, and other 
5R2 vagabonds ; 


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