Page:The Present State of Peru.djvu/156

130 known to abound in metallic riches of every kind. The attention bestowed on them ought to correspond with this natural privilege; instead of which, many productive mines have been unnecessarily abandoned, as is proved by the very diminished consumption of quicksilver in Peru.

It cannot be denied that the disposition of the lands, which, from the summit of the Cordilleras, observe a constant declination towards the sea, has frequently occasioned the inundation of very extensive and distinguished tracts of mineral territory. That the small produce of many mines, and the low estimation of their ores, have occasioned them to be abandoned by their proprietors, who were not repaid the expences of working them. And that the scarcity of hands, which has been general in all the provinces, must necessarily have occasioned a smaller extradtion, and a less assiduous culture.

That many of the mines, to come at which deep excavations have been made in the earth, are occupied by running waters, is rather to be ascribed to the want of cultivation and encouragement, than to any defectiveness of the soil. This mischief may therefore be remedied by a certain share of intelligence, and a proper management. In the mean time, a speedy compensation may be found, in the immense number of those which present themselves in an unwrought state, in the greater number of the mountains. If, in the case of others, the inferior quality of the ores does not repay the expences of refining, it is because, in Peru, metallurgy has been reduced to a traditional praftice, in which the waste has been greater than the riches that have been collected.

A century and a half have elapsed since this immense loss was first lamented by a native writer, whose work is of high authority