The wild, forbidding aspect of the neighbourhood, and the rigorous climate, only a short day’s journey from the loveliest valleys, prove the greatness of the subterranean treasures which could induce so large a population to settle in so harsh a region.
The mines of Pasco, like those of Potosi, were discovered, it is said, by an Indian shepherd, who, accidentally lighting a fire where the ores cropped out, found silver among the ashes. There are two chief lodes, with numerous branches, so that the whole neighbourhood may be considered as resting on a subterranean network of silver. The entrances to most of the mines are situated in the town itself; and, as every proprietor thinks only of his present profits, they are worked in so slovenly a manner that they frequently fall in. Tschudi, who visited some of the deepest of them, always thought himself extremely fortunate when, after descending on half-rotten steps or by mouldering ropes and rusty chains, he returned again to daylight without accident, and mentions an instance where three hundred workmen were buried in the ruins of a mine, in which the necessary props had been shamefully neglected.
When a mine is very productive, it is said to be in ‘boya;’ and when such periods of affluence take place in several of the mines at once, the population of Pasco sometimes increases to double or treble the usual number. The Peruvian miners are no less dishonest than their fellow-workmen in Mexico, and equally cunning in robbing their employers. On the other hand their patience and perseverance are unrivalled. Satisfied with the coarsest food, and with a still more miserable hut, they undergo an amount of bodily toil which no European could endure. Their only solace is the chewing of Coca, the mysterious plant to which they ascribe such wonderfully stimulating powers, and which has at length begun to awaken the curiosity of European chemists and naturalists.[[46]] When a ‘boya’ raises their earnings to a considerable sum, they spend it in drunkenness, and never think of returning to their work until their last farthing or their last credit is exhausted. The mineros, or proprietors of the mines, are almost equally uncivilised. Passionately devoted to gambling and mining speculations, they are commonly deeply in debt to the capitalists of Lima, who advance them money at the rate of 100 and 120 per cent.; and when a ‘boya’ favours them, this sudden increase of wealth is merely the prelude of new embarrassment.
According to law, all the produce of the silver mines should be sent to the Callana or Government smelting-house; but in order to avoid the heavy duties levied by the State, vast quantities are smuggled to the coast. The annual produce registered at the Callana amounts to about 300,000 marks, but perhaps as much again is exported in a clandestine manner. Besides the mines of Pasco, Peru possesses many others of considerable value, situated chiefly in the provinces of Pataz, Huamanchuco, Caxamarca, and Gualgayoc.
The famous Cerro de San Fernando de Gualgayoc, fourteen leagues from the town of Caxamarca, is an isolated mountain traversed by numberless veins of silver. Its summit is sharply serrated by a multitude of tower-like or pyramidal pinnacles, and its steep sides are not only pierced by several hundred galleries for the extraction of the ores, but also by many natural openings or caverns, through which the dark blue sky is visible to the spectator standing at the foot of the mountain. The singularity of aspect is increased by the numberless huts, sticking like nests to the slopes of the fortress-like mountain wherever a ledge allowed them to be constructed. During the first thirty years after the discovery of the mines from 1771 to 1802, they yielded considerably more than thirty-two millions of dollars, and are still very productive.
One of the most celebrated silver mines of Peru was that of Salcedo, renowned alike for its richness and for the tragical end of its possessor. Don José Salcedo, a poor Spaniard who had settled in Puno, fell in love with an Indian girl, whose mother, on condition of his marrying her daughter, revealed to him the existence of a rich silver lode. The fame of Salcedo’s wealth spread far and wide, and excited the envy of Count Lemos, the viceroy, who sought to obtain possession of the mine. As the good-natured and liberal Salcedo had become very popular among the Indians, this circumstance was made use of by the rapacious viceroy to accuse him of fomenting among the natives a spirit of rebellion against the Spanish yoke. He was cast into a dungeon, and the obsequious judges condemned him to death.
While in prison Salcedo begged the viceroy to submit the case to the high court of justice at Madrid, and to allow him to appeal to the mercy of the king. At the same time he offered, as an acknowledgment for this favour, to give the viceroy daily a bar of silver, from the day the ship left the port of Callao to its return from Europe. If we consider that in those times a journey from Peru to Spain and back required at least from twelve to sixteen months, we may form some idea of Salcedo’s wealth. The viceroy, however, would not listen to the proposal, the very brilliancy of which probably inflamed still more his cupidity, and he ordered Salcedo to be hung. But his cruelty met with the disappointment it deserved; for when it became known that nothing could save Salcedo, his Indian friends destroyed the works of the mine, and so carefully concealed the entrance that it has remained undiscovered to the present day. After performing this work of retribution, the Indians dispersed, and neither promises nor tortures could wring the secret from those that were caught.
Though the mines of Peru have yielded and still yield vast quantities of silver, yet probably only a few of the richest lodes are worked; for the Indians, to whom other lodes are well known, will never reveal their existence to the white men. They know by experience how small a benefit they derive from the mines, which are to them but a source of severe labour. Thus they prefer leaving the treasures of the earth undisturbed, or use them only in cases of extreme necessity. In many provinces undoubted proofs exist that the richest silver mines are secretly worked by the Indians, but all efforts to discover them have proved fruitless.
A Franciscan monk at Huancayo, a desperate gambler and almost always in want of money, had by his friendly manners gained the goodwill of the Indians. One day, after a severe loss, he bitterly complained of his distress to one of his Indian friends. After some hesitation the man promised to assist him, and brought him on the following evening a bag full of rich silver ores. This gift he repeated several times. But the monk, greedy after more, begged the Indian to show him the mine—a request which, after repeated refusals, was at length reluctantly granted. On the appointed night, the Indian, with two of his comrades, came to the Franciscan’s dwelling, took him on his shoulders, after first carefully blindfolding him, and carried him, alternately with his friends, a distance of several leagues into the mountains. Here they halted, and the Franciscan’s bandage having been removed, he found himself in a subterranean gallery, where the richest silver ores sparkled from the walls. After feasting on the grateful sight and filling his pockets, he was carried back again in the same way. On his return he secretly loosened the string of his rosary, and let a bead drop from time to time, hoping by this means to be able to find the mine. But, on the following morning, as he was about to reconnoitre, his Indian friend knocked at the door, and saying, ‘Father, thou hast lost thy rosary!’ brought him a whole handful of the loose beads.
In 1850 the mines in the province of Copiapo in Chili yielded 335,000 marks of silver, nearly as much as the entire production of Europe, and the State of Nevada in North America bids fair to rival the riches of Peru. The ores are found on the eastern slopes of the Sierra Nevada, in the region of the Carson River, and have since 1859 attracted a stream of emigrants to the Washoe Mine. At the present time they annually produce about 16,000,000 dollars of silver, chiefly from the Comstock Lode, which may be ranked among the richest mineral deposits ever encountered in the history of mining enterprise.