along by the waters, and the little pure silver that could be dug out of a pit, which, in many instances, did not exceed a fathom in depth.
The most moderate computations of the Spanish writers, among whom may be particularly cited Moncada, Navarrete, and Ustariz, fix at nine thousand millions of piastres the sums which Spain received from America during the two hundred and forty-eight years that followed its conquest, up to that of 1740. The mine of Potosi alone, during the first ninety years of its being worked, produced three hundred and ninety-five millions six hundred and nineteen thousand piastres;—a prodigious extraction, which appears more surprizing, when it is considered that metallurgy had hitherto been treated, not according to the principles and rules of art, but according to the adoption and practice of an ancient and blind usage. Whether this abundant source of riches ought to be encouraged in preference to the other gifts of the earth; or whether the natural productions and primary substances by which agriculture is augmented and extended, should be the objects of an equal, or, perhaps, of a more sedulous attention, is a problem of political economy which may be easily decided by forming an idea of the position, soil, and productions of the Peruvian territory.
The viceroyalty of Peru, which, since various disjunctions, and the erection of that of Buenos Ayres, commences, to the north, at Tumbes, and, to the south, at Vilcanota, the southern extremity of the province of Tinta, running through a space of five hundred itinerary leagues to that confine, and proceeding thence, by the-coast, to the desert of Atacama, a distance of more than six hundred leagues, is divided into se-
