Page:The Present State of Peru.djvu/99

Rh of the miners in fulfilling their payments, the avarice and exactions of those by whom the advances are made. I, who have the satisfaction to address myself to a learned and unprejudiced body, such as that of the Academical Society of Lima, do not consider these reticences to be requisite. I am aware of the merit of Egerio's letter, and am free to confess that his complaints are well-founded. They are, however, of a very trivial description. The first, principal, and most vital cause, of the little success which attends the working of the Peruvian mines, is the want of labourers, and the precarious system of labour which has been introduced.

"If it were necessary to have recourse to rhetoric, to prove this proposition, I should set out by an eloquent exordium, describing, with every minuteness, the different operations which the refining of the metallic substances requires. I should analyze the degrees of heat or cold; the elevation or profundity; the nature of the works or defences; and all the other circumstances, whether adverse or favourable, to which the labourer in the mine is subjected. I should venture my conjectures on the proportion of physical strength which is required for this task, and on those who are best qualified to discharge it with efficiency. But as, in this letter, I am to speak from my experience exclusively, on the testimony of that experience I assert, without hesitation, that Indians alone can be employed in the internal labours of the mines.

"This is my mode of thinking; and I shall proceed to adduce proofs in support of my assertion. It is beyond a doubt, that the advances made to the miners are the blood of their enterprizes. But what should we do with that fluid, if we were to want the arteries and veins by which it is vivified and made