of corn, sugar, grapes, bees-wax, and honey. Great quantities of the latter are procured by the inhabitants of the countries bordering on the Gran Chaco and Chiquitos, from the wild bees which hive in the neighbouring forests. The district of Santa Cruz was settled, as has heen mentioned, by Nuflo de Chaves, in 1558, by reducing sixty thousand Indians, chiefly of the Moxos tribe. The vast forests which stretch towards Paraguay, and the overflowing of the lake Xarayes into the country of the Chiquitos, to what distance westward is not well known, renders it almost impossible to penetrate with any considerable force to Paraguay in that direction; but it is a matter of surprise to me, that no attempt has been made by the royalists, who have possession of Potosi and La Plata, to descend the Pilcomayo; which is well known to be navigable without any interruption.

The district of Moxos, includes an area of four hundred and fifty miles from north to south, and six hundred from east to west. A few Spanish settlements and missions are scattered over this extensive country, and which is capable of supporting an immense population. The Indians are, generally, reckoned amongst the Indios Fieles, or converted Indians, but the sovereignty of Spain over them is precarious, and of little value; the only government which at present exists is military. The air is hot and moist, on account of the many rivers and large forests which this province contains. Its climate is, in every respect, tropical. The cocoa of Moxos is said to be the best in the world.

Chiquitos, in climate and productions, resembles the district just described. The Jesuits succeeded in establishing and in converting some of the Indian tribes in the same manner with those of Paraguay.

In

1732, they had seven villages, which were flourishing, and situated in a delightful country. These Indians, since the expulsion of the Jesuits, have not lost the civilization which they acquired; they are industrious cultivators and manufacturers. Their cotton fabrics are of a much finer kind than usual in these countries; their cabinet-work is also well spoken of. They excel in making musical instruments; such as organs, harps, and violins, and play them with skill. The priests who succeeded the Jesuits, it is said, have followed nearly the same plan in the government and domestic economy at first established over them, which may account for the difference between their missions and those established on the Paraguay. The climate of these provinces is like that of the East Indies; half yearly alternations of dry and rainy seasons. Among their products are cinnamon, ginger, Peruvian bark, gum copal, and a variety of raisins and balsams.

I have now completed the geographical sketch of the upper provinces, and though I have done little more than select some of their more striking features, enough has been said to shew their importance. These rich provinces, lying between the seventeenth and twenty-second degrees of south latitude, and which, at present, contain a million aud a half of civilized inhabitants, possess a greater quantity of mineral wealth than all the rest of the continent, or perhaps than the whole world beside.

The great diminution of theproduce of the mines, since their first discovery, is to be ascribed to the following causes.* 1. The decrease of the Indian popu

The produce of the mines has been gradually diminishing since the first century of their discovery. If I were to make an estimate, I should say that they had diminished to one sixth of their former amount.

lation, and the great amelioration of their treatment. The conquerors sacrificed them by thousands in the unwholesome damps of the mines, where they were urged to their tasks like beasts: at present they are only forced to work in those which belong to the king. The cold air of the mountainous regions in which the mines are situated, is extremely injurious to the constitution of these who come from the warm vallies below the fumes of arsenic and antimony, are still more deleterious. Five times the number of Indians were formerly employed in working the mines, the Spaniards, at an early period, despising every other pursuit; but the increase of civi lized population in the country, and the demand for other articles, at home and abroad, have diverted a considerable portion of industry to a different channel. 2. Experience of the uncertain and precarious profits of mining, the extravagance, luxury, and ruin attendant on it, has, also contributed to bring other employments into better repute. There appears to be something like a surfeit of mining, and agriculture has come in vogue; the profits of which, though not so great, are less precarious; mines in agricultural districts are therefore neglected. The number of mines known at present, is much greater than during the first century, but the delirium no longer prevails. There is no kind of doubt but that the mines of gold and silver are inexhaustible; but the circumstances which caused them at first to be worked, prevail in a much less degree. Their produce must still, however, be in proportion to the extent to which they are worked, and the skill of the miners, and not limited by the quantity they are capable of producing. Fortunately, the ores of gold and silver are found in smaller quantities than iron, or other minerals, and the working of them is much more unhealthy, preca

rious and expensive.* But we have seen that, even in this country, although some have made very large fortunes by iron works, a much greater number have been ruined. 3. The quantity of metal produced from the mines, is dependant on the quantity of quicksilver, of which there must be a limited supply. Here, therefore, is another check to the indefinite increase of the precious metals. Some of the mines, it is true, do not require it, such as that of Laya cota, where the silver was chisselled out, or the papas of Atacama, where lumps of pure silver were dug out of the sand; these, however, are either extremely precarious, or soon exhausted. 4. The richest mines are, in the end, invaded by water, and it requires vast sums to keep them clear; but, from the want of skill, they are abandoned at the moment when they promise most. Even in the operation of separating the metal, (according to Helms,) by adopting a more careful and scientific method, the amount might be doubled. It is a fact well known, that the ore is continually forming. In those mines which were again opened many years after having been abandoned, this was found to be the case-pieces of wood were discovered with veins of silver running through them. Ulloa, in vol. 2, p. 15, after stating the fact, indulges in some curious speculations on this subject. He is inclined to ascribe this effect as well to the natural reproduction of the metal, as to subterranean fires; the greater part of this country being volcanic. This is a

* "The timber fit to be employed in the machinery of the mines

of Potosi is brought from Tucuman.

sand dollars." Wilcock, p. 143.

A single stick has cost a thou

subject much better understood in modern chemistry. 5. The present state of South America is so obvious a cause of the diminution in the produce of the mines, that it scarcely requires to be noticed. I am inclined to think that this is only now beginning to be felt, as there were, previous to the revolution, immense sums in bullion in the possession of individuals in Peru and Mexico, and which have been carried to the mint.

The inhabitants throughout the whole of this elevated region, extending to the Isthmus of Darien, have no exports, or commerce, besides the precious metals, excepting a small quantity of cocoa, Peruvian bark, vicuna wool, and chinchilla skins; industry is, therefore, unknown, and ignorance is its inseparable companion. The precious metals constitute the staple commodity of Peru, and must suffice to procure the necessaries and luxuries of life to all its inhabitants; although they are worked without skill, and the miners are not protected by just and equitable laws.