Page:The Present State of Peru.djvu/105

Rh, combined with a benevolence which experience has confirmed, suffice to attract the Indians to the laborious operations of the mines, it is incumbent on the proprietors to submit to the determination of heaven, and to wait patiently for that happy epoch when a remedy for their necessities may be fallen on, which may be compatible with the liberty and inclination of those by whom alone they can be efficaciously served.

"In what I have advanced, I have not been influenced by any motive of self-interest, inasmuch as my situation secures me from the necessities into the detail of which I have entered. My mines are situated in the mountainous territory of Colquijilca, where I have a sufficient number of Indian labourers for every practical purpose. I have merely attempted to illustrate the letter of Egerio, by proving that, without Indians, neither talents nor pecuniary advances are of any avail to the miner, in the prosecution of his plans."

Plate IV. represents an overseer of a royal Peruvian mine. The portrait of the horse on which he rides, is after Nature; and this animal does not appear to have degenerated from the primitive Spanish race by which Peru was stocked after the conquest. PART