nothing, but are excellent imitators, had able masters and excellent models, they would at least make good copyists. At the close of the last century, some works of a Peruvian painter, named Michael de St Jacques, were brought to Rome; and the connoisseurs discovered marks of genius in them.

Though the Peruvians were unacquainted with coins, they knew the use of gold and silver; for they employed them in different kinds of ornaments. Independent of what the torrents and accident procured them of these metals, some mines had been opened of little depth. The Spaniards have not transmitted to us the manner in which these rich productions were drawn from the bowels of the earth. Their pride, which has deprived us of so much useful knowledge, undoubtedly made them think, that, in the inventions of a people whom they called barbarous, there was nothing that was worthy to be recorded.

The difference as to the manner in which the Peruvians worked their mines, did not extend to the mines themselves. The conquerors opened them on all sides. At first the gold mines tempted the avarice of the greater number. Fatal experience discouraged those whom passion had not blinded. They clearly saw, that, for some enormous fortunes raised in this manner, great numbers, who had only moderate fortunes, were totally ruined. These mines sunk into such discredit, that, in order to prevent them from being abandoned, the government was obliged to take the tenth part of their produce, instead of the fifth which it at first received.

The mines of silver were more common, more equal, and richer. They even produced silver of a singular species, rarely found elsewhere. Towards the seacoast, great lumps of this metal are found in the sands.

There are a great number of other mines which are infinitely more important, and are found in the rocks and on the mountains. Several of them gave false hopes. Such, in particular, was that of Ucuntaya, discovered in 1713. This was only an incrustation of almost massive silver, which at first yielded several millions, but was soon exhausted.

Others which were deeper have been alike deserted. Their produce, though equal to what it was originally, was not sufficient to support the expense of working them, which augmented every day. The mines of Quito, Culco, and Arequipa, have experienced that revolution which awaits many of the rest.

There are greater numbers of very rich mines which the waters have invaded. The disposition of the ground, which from the summit of the Cordilleras goes continually declining to the South sea, must necessarily render these events more common at Peru than in other places. This inconvenience, which with greater care and skill might often have been prevented or diminished, has been in some instances remedied.

Joseph Salcedo, about the year 1660, had discovered, not far from the town of Puma, the mine of Lavacota. It was so rich, that they often cut the silver with a chisel. Prosperity had so elevated the mind of the proprietor, that he permitted all the Spaniards who came to seek their fortune in this part of the New World, to work some days on their own account, without weighing or taking any account of the presents he made them. This generosity drew around him an infinite number of people. people, whose avidity made them quarrel with each other, and the love of money made them take up arms and fall upon one another; and their benefactor, who had neglected no expedient to prevent and extinguish their sanguinary contentions, was hanged as being the author of them. Whilst he was in prison, the water got possession of his mine. Superstition soon made it imagine that this was a punishment for the horrid act they had perpetrated against him. This idea of divine vengeance was revered for a long time; but at last, in 1742, Diego de Bacna associated with other opulent people to avert the springs which had deluged so much treasure. The labours which this difficult undertaking required, were not finished till 1754. The mine yields as much now as it did at first. But mines still richer than this have been discovered. Such, for example, is that of Potosi, which was found in the same country where the Incas worked that of Porco.

An Indian, named Hualpa, in 1545, pursuing some deer, in order to climb certain steep rocks laid hold of a bush, the roots of which loosed from the earth, and brought to view an ingot of silver. The Indian had recourse to it for his own use; and never failed to return to his treasure every time that his wants or his desires solicited him to it. The change that had happened in his fortune was remarked by one of his countrymen, and he discovered to him the secret. The two friends could not keep their counsel and enjoy their good fortune. They quarrelled; on which the indiscreet confidant discovered the whole to his master, Villarrell, a Spaniard who was settled in the neighbourhood. Upon this the mine became known, and was worked; and a great number of them were found in his vicinity; the principal of which are in the northern part of the mountain, and their direction is from north to south. The most intelligent people of Peru have observed, that this is in general the direction of the richest mines.

The fame of what was passing at Potosi soon spread abroad; and there was quickly built at the foot of the mountain a town, consisting of 60,000 Indians and 10,000 Spaniards. The sterility of the soil did not prevent its being immediately peopled. Corn, fruit, flocks, American stuffs, European luxuries, arrived there from every quarter. Industry, which everywhere follows the current of money, could not search for it with so much success as at its source. It evidently appeared that in 1738 these mines produced annually near 978,000l. without reckoning the silver which was not registered, and what had been carried off by fraud. From that time the produce has been so much diminished, that no more than one-eighth part of the coin which was formerly struck is now made.

At the mines of Potosi, and all the mines of South America, the Spaniards, in purifying their gold and silver, used mercury, with which they are supplied from Guanca Velica. The common opinion is, that this mine was discovered in 1564. The trade of mercury was then still free: it became an exclusive trade in 1571. At this period all the mines of mercury were shut; and that of Guanca Velica alone was worked, the property of which the king reserved to himself. It is now found to diminish. This mine is dug in a prodigiously large mountain, 60 leagues from Lima. In its profound abysses are seen streets, squares, and a chapel, where the mysteries of religion on all festivals are celebrated. Millions of flambeaux are continually kept Peru, Perugia.

Private people at their own expense work the mine of Guanca Velica. They are obliged to deliver to government, at a stipulated price, all the mercury they extract from it. As soon as they have procured the quantity which the demands of one year require, the work is suspended. Part of the mercury is sold on the spot, and the rest is sent to the royal magazines throughout all Peru; from whence it is delivered out at the same price it is sold for in Mexico. This arrangement, which has occasioned many of the mines to drop, and prevented others from being opened, is excusable in the Spanish system. The court of Madrid, in this respect, merits the same reproaches as a ministry in other countries would incur, that would be blind enough to lay a duty on the implements of agriculture.

The mine of Guanca Velica generally affects those who work in it with convulsions: this and the other mines, which are not less unhealthy, are all worked by the Peruvians. These unfortunate victims of an infatuated avarice are crowded together and plunged naked into these abysses, the greatest part of which are deep, and all excessively cold. Tyranny has invented this refinement in cruelty, to render it impossible for anything to escape its restless vigilance. If there are any wretches who long survive such barbarity, it is the use of cocoa that preserves them.

In the Cordilleras, near the city of Paz, is a mountain of remarkable height, called Illimani, which doubtless contains immense riches; for a crag of it being some years ago severed by a flash of lightning, and falling on a neighbouring mountain, such a quantity of gold was found in the fragments, that for some time that metal was sold at Paz for eight pieces of eight per ounce; but its summit being perpetually covered with ice and snow, no mine has been opened in the mountain.

The city of La Paz is of a middling size, and from its situation among the breaches of the Cordilleras, the ground on which it stands is unequal; and it is also surrounded by mountains. When the river Titicaca is increased, either by the rains, or the melting of the snow on the mountains, its current forces along large masses of rocks with some grains of gold, which are found after the flood has subsided. Hence some idea may be formed of the riches inclosed in the bowels of these mountains; a remarkable proof of which appeared in the year 1739, when an Indian washing his feet in the river, discovered so large a lump of gold, that the marquis de Castel Fuerte gave twelve thousand pieces of eight for it, and sent it as a present to the king of Spain.

In a period of ten years, the Peruvian mines, without including those of Quito and Buenos Ayres, yielded 35,359 marks of gold, 22 carats fine, and 3,739,763 marks of silver. This has been estimated at 7,703,545l. sterling. The above period is included between the years 1780 and 1790.

Balsam of Peru. See Myroxylon, Botany and Materia Medica Index.