Travels in Peru, on the Coast, in the Sierra, Across the Cordilleras and the Andes, into the Primeval Forests

by Johann Jakob von Tschudi

It is impossible to form anything like an accurate estimate of the yearly produce of the mines of Cerro de Pasco; for a vast quantity of silver is never taken to the Callana, but is smuggled to the coast, and from thence shipped for Europe. In the year 1838, no less than 85,000 marks of contraband silver were conveyed to the sea port of Huacho, and safely shipped on board a schooner. The quantity of silver annually smelted and stamped in the Callana is from two to three hundred thousand marks—seldom exceeding the latter amount. From 1784 to 1820, 1826, and 1827, the amount was 8,051,409 marks; in the year 1784 it was 68,208 marks; and in 1785, 73,455 marks. During seventeen years it was under 200,000 marks; and only during three years above 300,000. The produce of the mines is exceedingly fluctuating. The successive revolutions which have agitated the country have tended very considerably to check mining operations. On the overthrow of Santa Cruz, Don Miguel Otero, the most active and intelligent mine owner of Cerro de Pasco, was banished; an event which had a very depressing influence on all the mining transactions of that part of South America. Within the last few years, however, mining has received a new impetus, and attention has been directed to the adoption of a more speedy and less expensive system of amalgamation.

As a place of residence Cerro de Pasco is exceedingly disagreeable; nothing but the pursuit of wealth can reconcile any one to a long abode in it. The climate, like that of the higher Puna, is cold and stormy. The better sort of houses are well built, and are provided with good English fire-places and chimneys. But however comfortably lodged, the new comer cannot easily reconcile himself to the reflection that the earth is hollow beneath his feet. Still less agreeable is it to be awakened in the night by the incessant hammering of the Indian miners. Luckily earthquakes are of rare occurrence in those parts: it would require no very violent shock to bury the whole city in the bosom of the earth.

Silver being the only produce of the soil, the necessaries of life are all exceedingly dear in the Cerro, as they have to be brought from distant places. The warehouses are, it is true, always plentifully supplied even with the choicest luxuries; but the extortion of venders and the abundance of money render prices most exorbitant. The market is so well supplied with provisions that it may vie with that of Lima. The products of the coast, of the table-lands and the forests, are all to be procured in the market of Cerro de Pasco; but the price demanded for every article is invariably more than double its worth. House rents are also extravagantly high; and the keep of horses is exceedingly expensive.

The population of Cerro de Pasco presents a motley assemblage of human beings, such as one would scarcely expect to find in a city situated at 14,000 feet above the sea, and encircled by wild mountains. The Old and the New Worlds seem there to have joined hands, and there is scarcely any nation of Europe or America that has not its representative in Cerro de Pusco. The Swede and the Sicilian, the Canadian and the Argentinian, are all united here at one point, and for one object. The inhabitants of this city may be ranked in two divisions, viz., traders and miners—taking both terms in their most comprehensive sense. The mercantile population consists chiefly of Europeans or white Creoles, particularly those who are owners of large magazines. The keepers of coffee houses and brandy shops are here, as in Lima, chiefly Italians from Genoa. Other shops are kept by the Mestizos, and the provision-dealers are chiefly Indians, who bring their supplies from remote places.

The mining population may be divided into mine owners (mineros) and Indian laborers. The majority of the mineros are descendants of the old Spanish families, who, at an early period, became possessors of the mines, whence they derived enormous wealth, which most of them dissipated in prodigal extravagance. At the present time, only a very few of the mineros are rich enough to defray, from their own resources, the vast expense attending the operations of mining. They consequently raise the required money by loans from the capitalists of Lima, who require interest of 100 or 120 per cent., and, moreover, insist on having bars of silver at a price below standard value. To these hard conditions, together with the custom that has been forced upon the miners of paying their laborers in metal, at times when it is very abundant, may be traced the cause of the miserable system of mine-working practised in Cerro de Pasco. To liquidate his burthensome debts the minero makes his laborers dig as much ore as possible from the mine, without any precautions being taken to guard against accidents. The money-lenders, on the other hand, have no other security for the recovery of their re-payment than the promise of the minero, and a failure of the usual produce of a mine exposes them to the risk of losing the money they have advanced.

Under these circumstances it can scarcely be expected that the character and habits of the minero should qualify him to take a high rank in the social scale. His insatiable thirst for wealth continually prompts him to embark in new enterprises, whereby he frequently loses in one what he gains in another. After a mine has been worked without gain for a series of years, an unexpected boya probably occurs, and an immense quantity of silver may be extracted. But a minero retiring on the proceeds of a boya is an event of rare occurrence. A vain hope of increasing fortune prompts him to risk the certain for the uncertain: and the result frequently is, that the once prosperous minero has nothing to bequeath to his children but a mine heavily burthened with debt. The persevering ardor of persons engaged in mining is truly remarkable. Unchecked by disappointment, they pursue the career in which they have embarked. Even when ruin appears inevitable, the love of money subdues the warnings of reason, and hope conjures up, from year to year, visionary pictures of riches yet to come.

Joined to this infatuated pursuit of the career once entered on, an inordinate passion for cards and dice contributes to ruin many of the mineros of Cerro de Pasco. In few other places are such vast sums staked at the gaming-table; for the superabundance of silver feeds that national vice of the Spaniards and their descendants. From the earliest hours of morning cards and dice are in requisition. The mine owner leaves his silver stores, and the shop-keeper forsakes his counter, to pass a few hours every day at the gaming-table; and card-playing is the only amusement in the best houses of the town. The mayordomos, after being engaged in the mines throughout the whole day, assemble with their comrades in the evening, round the gaming-table, from which they often do not rise until six in the morning, when the bell summons them to resume their subterraneous occupations. They not unfrequently gamble away their share of a boya before any indication of one is discernible in the mine.

The working class of miners is composed of Indians, who throng to Cerro de Pasco from all the provinces, far and near, especially when boyas are expected. At times, when the mines are not very productive, the number of Indian laborers amounts to between three and four thousand; but when there is a great supply of metal, the ordinary number of mine-workers is more than tripled. The Indians labor with a degree of patient industry, which it would be vain to expect from European workmen similarly circumstanced. This observation applies to the hapires in particular. Content with wretched food, and still more wretched lodging, the hapire goes through his hard day's work, partaking of no refreshment but coca, and at the end of the week (deduction being made for the food, &c., obtained on credit from the minero), he, possibly, finds himself in possession of a dollar. This sum he spends on his Sunday holiday in chicha and brandy, of which he takes as much as his money will pay for, or as he can get on credit. When excited by strong drinks, such as maize beer, chicha, and brandy, to which they are very much addicted, the Indian miners are exceedingly quarrelsome. The laborers belonging to the different mines go about the streets rioting and attacking each other, and they frequently get involved in dangerous affrays. No Sunday or Friday passes over without the occurrence of battles, in which knives, sticks, and stones are used as weapons; and the actors in these scenes of violence inflict on each other severe and often fatal wounds. Any effective police interference to quell these street riots, is out of the question.

When an unusually abundant produce of the mines throws extra payment into the hands of the mine laborers, they squander their money with the most absurd extravagance, and they are excellent customers to the European dealers in dress and other articles of luxury. Prompted by a ludicrous spirit of imitation, the Indian, in his fits of drunkenness, will purchase costly things which he can have no possible use for, and which he becomes weary of, after an hour's possession. I once saw an Indian purchase a cloak of fine cloth, for which he paid ninety-two dollars. He then repaired to a neighboring pulperia,[72] where he drank till he became intoxicated, and then, staggering into the street, he fell down, and rolled in the kennel. On rising, and discovering that his cloak was besmeared with mud, he threw it off, and left it in the street, for any one who might choose to pick it up. Such acts of reckless prodigality are of daily occurrence. A watchmaker in Cerro de Pasco informed me that one day an Indian came to his shop to purchase a gold watch. He showed him one, observing that the price was twelve gold ounces (204 dollars), and that it would probably be too dear for him. The Cholo paid the money, and took the watch; then, after having examined it for a few minutes, he dashed it on the ground, observing that the thing was of no use to him. When the Indian miner possesses money, he never thinks of laying by a part of it, as neither he nor any of his family feel the least ambition to improve their miserable way of life. With them, drinking is the highest of all gratifications, and in the enjoyment of the present moment, they lose sight of all considerations for the future. Even those Cholos who come from distant parts of the country to share in the rich harvest of the mines of Cerro de Pasco, return to their homes as poor as when they left them, and with manners and morals vastly deteriorated.

Besides the mines of Cerro de Pasco, which in point of importance are nowise inferior to those of Potosi, there are numerous very rich mining districts in Peru. Among the most prolific may be ranked the provinces of Pataz, Huamanchuco, Caxamarca, and Hualgayoc. In this last-named province is situated the Cerro de San Fernando, on which Alexander Von Humboldt has conferred so much celebrity. The rich silver veins were discovered there in the year 1771; and there are now upwards of 1400 bocaminas. On the insulated mountain the veins of metal intersect each other in every direction, and they are alike remarkable for being easily worked and exceedingly prolific. The mines of Huantaxaya, situated on the coast in the neighborhood of Iquique, were also very rich, and the silver obtained from them was either pure or containing a very slight admixture of foreign substances. They yielded an incredible quantity of metal, but they were speedily exhausted; and are now totally barren. The chains of hills in the southern districts of Peru contain a multitude of very rich mines, of which the most remarkable are those of San Antonio de Esquilache, Tamayos, Picotani, Cancharani, and Chupicos; but owing to bad working and defective drainage, many of the veins are in a very ruinous state, and the metal drawn from them bears no proportion to the quantity they contain. The Salcedo mine is very celebrated for the vast abundance of its produce, and the tragical end of its original owner.