The hill of Potosi is in 21° 40´ S. lat., and seventeen thousand feet above the level of the sea. The name is said to be derived from the Aymara word Potocsi (“he who makes a noise”), because, when Huayna Ccapac in 1462 ordered search to be made for a silver mine on the hill, a terrible voice cried out from underground that the riches it contained were reserved for other masters. G. de la Vega.
Zarate says, that in a short time after the discovery of the silver, seven thousand Indians were at work, who had to give two marcs of silver to their masters every week, which they did with such ease, that they retained more silver for themselves than they paid to their employers. Historia del Peru, lib. vi, cap. 4.
In 1563 Potosi was constituted a town, and was granted a coat of arms by Philip II; and in 1572 the viceroy Don Francisco de Toledo went in person to this great seat of mining wealth, and established regulations for its government. This viceroy also introduced the use of quicksilver, a mine of which had been discovered at Huancavelica, by a Portuguese named Enrique Garces, in 1566. Toledo also regulated and legalised the atrocious system of mitas, or forced labour in the mines. He caused a census to be taken of Indians in Peru, between the ages of eighteen and fifty, the result of which gave a total of 1,677,697 men liable for service, who were divided into 614 ayllus or lineages. Of these he assigned a seventh part of those living in the seventeen nearest provinces, or 11,199 Indians, to work at the mines of Potosi, under certain rules for their protection, which were generally evaded. According to Toledo’s law, each Mitayo, or forced labourer, would only have to serve for eighteen months during the thirty-two years that he was liable. They were to receive twenty rials a week, and half a rial for every league of distance between their native village and Potosi. In 1611 there was a population of one hundred and sixty thousand inhabitants in the town of Potosi, of whom seventy-six thousand were Indians, three thousand Spaniards, thirty-five thousand Creoles, forty thousand Europeans, and six thousand Negroes and Mulattoes. The riches accumulated by individuals were enormous, and a man named Sinteros, “the rich,” who died in 1650, was worth twenty million dollars. Mercurio Peruano.
In 1825 there were about five thousand mouths of mines on the mountain, of which only fifty or sixty were then worked. The upper portion of the mountain, indeed, was so completely honeycombed, that it was considered as nearly worked out. The lower part, about one-third of the cone, was then hardly touched, in consequence of the number of springs which impede the working.
[516] Yana, in Quichua, is a “companion,” and also a “servant.” The word also means “black.” Cuna is a particle denoting the plural number. The Yana-cuna were a class of Indians forced to labour as domestic servants, but with the power to choose their masters.
[517] “The domestic animals,” says Padre Blas Valera, “which God has given to these Indians of Peru, are bland and gentle, like their masters, so that a child can lead them where he likes. There are two kinds, one larger than the other. The Indians call the animals llamas, and their shepherds llama-michec. They are of all colours, like the horses of Spain, when domesticated, but the wild kind, called huanacus, have only one colour, which is a washed-out chestnut. The llama stands as high as a deer of Spain, but no animal does it resemble more than a camel without a hump, and a third part of the size. The neck of the llama is long and smooth. The Indians used the skin, softened with grease, as soles for their sandals, but, as they had not the art of tanning, they took them off in crossing brooks or in rainy weather. The Spaniards make very good reins of it for their horses. The skin is also used for girths and cruppers of saddles, and for whips. Besides this, the animals are useful to both Indians and Spaniards as beasts of burden, to carry merchandise whithersoever they list, but they are generally used on the road from Cuzco to Potosi, a distance of near two hundred leagues. They carry three or four arrobas” (75 or 100 lbs.) “weight, and only make journeys of three leagues a day. When they are tired they lie down, and nothing will induce them to stir, for if any one tries to force them to rise, they spit in his face. They have no other means of defending themselves, having no horns like a stag. That they may not be easily tired, some forty or fifty unladen animals accompany the drove, that they may take their turn with the burdens. Their flesh is the best in the world; it is tender, wholesome, and savoury. The doctors order the flesh of their lambs of four or five months, for sick persons, in preference to chickens.
“The Yncas possessed enormous flocks of llamas of all colours, and each colour had a special name. The flocks were divided according to their colours, and if a lamb was born of a different colour from its parents, it was passed into the flock of its own colour. The Quipus had knots for each flock, according to the colour, and thus an account of their number was easily kept.
“There is another domestic kind, called Paco. The Pacos are not reared for carrying burdens, but for the sake of their flesh, and for their wool, which is excellent and very long. The Indians make very fine cloths of it, dotted with rich colours. The Indians do not use the milk of either of the kinds, nor do they make cheese of it. Indeed, they only have sufficient to nourish their lambs, and the Indians call the milk, the udder, and the act of sucking, by the same word nuñu.
“The wild kind was called huanacu, and these huanacus are of the same size and form as the llamas. Their flesh is good, though not so good as that of the domesticated llama. The males always remain on lofty heights, while the females come down into the plains to feed, and when the males see any one coming, they bleat like the neighing of a horse, to warn the females, and they gallop away with the females in front. Their wool is short and rough, yet it was also used by the Indians for their cloths. There is another wild kind called vicuña, a delicate animal with plenty of fine wool. The vicuña stands higher than a goat, and the colour of its wool is a clear chestnut. They are so fleet that no dog can overtake them, and frequent the loftiest fastnesses near the line of snow.” G. de la Vega, i, lib. viii, caps. 16 and 17.
“Among the notable things possessed by the Indians of Peru,” says Acosta, “are the vicuñas and llamas. These llamas are tame and very useful; the vicuñas are wild. The vicuñas live in the loftiest and most uninhabited parts of the mountains, which are called punas. Snow and frost do not harm them, and they run very swiftly. They are not very prolific, and the Yncas therefore prohibited the hunting of these animals, except on special occasions. Their wool is like silk and very durable, and, as the colour is natural and not a dye, it lasts for ever. Acosta also says that vicuña flesh is excellent for sore eyes.