Page:Isaiah Bowman - Desert Trails of Atacama (1924).pdf/186

 foundation the government decreed the foundation of a mint in Serena, an event comparable with the creation of an inde- pendent mint in Nevada by the government of the United States subsequent to the silver discoveries of the sixties. The Agua Amarga and Arqueros mines exercised the most pro-

. 49—Statue of Juan Godoy, discoverer of the silver mines of Chafiarcillo, on the Alameda, Copiapó. The inscription on the statue reads: Juan Godoy descubrid ef mineral de Chafiarcillo el 19 de Mayo de 1832 cuya fuente de riqueza ha clevado & Copiapó á la altura y engrandecimiento en que hoy se halla.

nounced influence on the Huasco and Coquimbo valleys. The turn of Copiapó came next.

In the Alameda of Copiapó stands a bronze statue of Juan Godoy. Eighteen miles southeast of the town on the old Huasco road Godoy enjoys a monument “more lasting than bronze’’—the famous hill of Chafiarcillo. The Chafiarcillo mines, of such importance in the history of Copiapó, were dis- covered in 1832 by the woodcutter Juan Godoy. The mines proved extraordinarily rich, especially in masses of nearly pure silver—one, for example, weighed 6000 pounds. In less than ten years the mines yielded over 12,000,000 pesos, With the