"He hath increased the power of the three engines above mentioned to the extent of one full third, without making any additional charge for so doing, and he hath agreed to supply the said company with a fourth engine, and to wait for the payment of it, until the return of the said Francisco Uville to Lima, in recompense for all which the said Francisco Uville doth for himself and his partners grant to the said Richard Trevithick one and quarter per cent. of the net produce or profits (all expenses first deducted) of the ore extracted from the said mines, and as a further recompense, doth appoint him sole engineer in Europe for all the machinery that shall be used or required."
The nine steam-engines, with apparatus for minting, crushing ores, draining, winding, and even locomotion, with miners' tools complete down to mine ladders, borers, picks and gads, and hammers, were received by a large and influential body of Spaniards residing near Lima, under the special patronage of the Viceroy. The machinery had then to be taken up precipitous tracks that foot-passengers trembled to walk on, to the height of more than 15,000 feet.
The calculated profit was 500,000l. a year, of which 100,000l. a year was to be Trevithick's share, a portion of which was sold to pay for the engines. A prospectus drawn up in England states that "the whole capital was in four hundred shares, of which Trevithick held eighty, valued at 40,000l., together with special advantages to be accorded to him."
The machinery having left England in September, 1814, reached Peru in the early part of 1815, shortly after which one of the engines was at work in the Mint at Lima, within two years from the giving the order for it in England; for in the early part of the latter year Trevithick wrote to one of his men:—
"I am sorry to find by Mr. Uville's letter that the Mint engine does not go well. I wish you had put the fire under the boiler and through the tube, as I desired you to do, in the usual way of the old long boilers, then you might have made your fire-place as large as you pleased, which would have answered the purpose, and have worked with wood as well as with coal, and have answered every expectation.
"I always told you that the fire-place in the boiler was large enough for coal, but not for wood, and desired you to put it under it. The boiler is strong enough and large enough to work the engine thirty strokes per minute, with 30 lbs. of steam to the inch. I hope to leave Cornwall for Lima about the end of this month, and go by way of Buenos Ayres, and cross over the continent of South America, because I cannot get a passage; none of the South Sea whalers will engage to take me to Lima, they say that they may touch at Lima or they may not, in the whole course of their voyage; therefore, unless I give them an immense sum of money for my passage, they will not engage to put me on shore at Lima, and for me to risk a passage in that way, and to be brought back again to England after two years' voyage, without seeing Lima, would be a very foolish trip; therefore to make a certainty, I shall take the first ship for Buenos Ayres, preparations for which I have already made."[126]
The whole of the machinery having been sent off, Trevithick was prepared to make his way across the then little-known continent of South America in its broadest part, from Buenos Ayres to Cerro de Pasco.[127] His departure was deferred from various causes until the 20th October, 1816, when he sailed from Penzance in the South Sea whaler 'Asp,' Capt. Kenny.
Penzance in Olden Time. [W. J. Welch.]
"Penzance, 20th August, 1817.