[506] It is now known as the city of Chuquisaca, or Sucre, and is the capital of the republic of Bolivia.
[507] Pedro de Hinojosa is first heard of as fighting bravely against Almagro the younger, in the battle of Chupas. He afterwards joined the fortunes of Gonzalo Pizarro, and that ill-fated chief entrusted him with the command of Panama and of the fleet. On the arrival of the president Gasca from Spain, Hinojosa, after some months of hesitation, betrayed his trust, and handed over the fleet to the wily ecclesiastic on November 19th, 1546. He was rewarded by being appointed Gasca’s general by land and sea, and commanded the troops at the final overthrow of his old commander on the plain of Xaquixaguana. Gasca granted Gonzalo Pizarro’s valuable estates and mines in Charcas to Hinojosa. He was also appointed corregidor of Charcas, where he was assassinated two years afterwards in a mutiny headed by Sebastian de Castilla.
[508] Before the defeat and death of the viceroy Blasco Nuñez de Vela, near Quito in January 1546, Gonzalo Pizarro had sent his lieutenant Carbajal to reduce the province of Charcas, and put down a revolt headed by Diego Centeno and Lope de Mendoza. Centeno fled, closely pursued by Carbajal, and hid himself in a cave somewhere near Arequipa for eight months. The aged veteran Francisco de Carbajal, having run this fox to earth, then marched into Charcas, and captured Lope de Mendoza and Nicolas de Heredia, both of whom he hung. Carbajal sent the heads of his victims to Arequipa, while he busied himself in collecting silver from the rich mines of Potosi, to supply the needs of his commander.
[509] The ancient Peruvians knew of gold, silver, copper, tin, and quicksilver. They took the silver from mines which were not very deep, abandoning them as soon as the hardness of the ore offered a resistance sufficient to withstand their imperfect tools. They not only knew native silver, but also its chemical combinations, such as the sulphate, antimonial silver, etc. They also knew how to extract the pure metal from these compounds by fusion, or in portable stoves.
[510] The gold mines of Tipuani, to the eastward of the Andes of Bolivia, are the richest in South America. See an account of the method of working them in Bonelli’s Travels in Bolivia, i, p. 268.
[511] The licentiate Polo de Ondegardo was appointed corregidor of Charcas by the president Gasca, and subsequently of Cuzco, where he remained for several years. He was the author of two Relaciones, or reports to the government, the first addressed to the viceroy Marquis of Cañete in 1561, and the second to the Count of Nieva. They contain an account of the laws, habits, religion, and policy of the Yncas. Unfortunately these valuable documents have never been printed, and Mr. Prescott obtained copies both of them and of the equally important manuscript of Sarmiento from Lord Kingsborough’s collection, through the agency of Mr. Rich. Their publication would be a great boon to the student of ancient South American civilisation. See Prescott’s Peru, i, p. 162, etc.
[512] A castellano was worth about £2 12s 6d. of our money.
[513] Acosta says that in his time there were four principal veins of silver on the hill of Potosi, called La Rica, Centeno, Estaño (tin), and Mendieta. They were all on the east side, and ran in a north and south direction. There were many other smaller veins which branch off from these four, and in each vein there were several mines. In La Rica there were seventy-eight mines, which were very deep; and to remedy the evils caused by their great depth, horizontal excavations, called socabones, were made in the sides of the hill, and continued until they met the veins. The mines of Potosi were discovered by an Indian named Hualpa, a native of Chumbivilica near Cuzco. He was climbing up a steep part of the hill in chase of deer, and helping his ascent by catching hold of the queñua shrubs (Polylepis tomentella, Wedd.) which grow there. One of the shrubs came up by the roots, and disclosed a quantity of native silver, which was the commencement of the vein called La Rica. He secretly worked the vein himself for some time, but eventually disclosed the secret to a native of Xauxa, who told his master, a Spaniard of Porco, named Villaroel, and the latter began to work the vein in April 1545. The three other principal veins were discovered between April and August of the same year. People soon flocked from all parts to seek their fortunes at the hill of Potosi. Acosta, lib. iv, cap. 6, 7, 8.
[514] Huayra is “wind” or “air” in Quichua.
[515] Acosta tells us that, when he wrote in 1608, most of the silver was extracted from the ore by means of quicksilver. Formerly, however, he says that there were more than six thousand huayras on the sides and summit of the hill of Potosi. “The huayras were small ovens in which the metal was melted, and to see them burning at night with a red heat, and throwing their light to a distance, was a pleasant spectacle. At present if the number of huayras reaches to one thousand or two thousand, it is the outside, because the melting is done on a small scale, nearly all the metal being extracted by quicksilver.” Acosta, lib. iv, cap. 9, p. 218.