CONDITION OF THE MINERS OF PERU.
The following correspondence, addressed to the Academical Society of Lima, tends to throw much light on the condition of the Peruvian miners, and on the internal economy of the mines. The first letter is from an individual of the above profession, who stiles himself Egerio Chrysoforo, and is to this effect.
"Mexico has constantly flourished by her mines; while Peru can scarcely maintain herself by hers, notwithstanding they are richer and more numerous. This diversity of successes, in the same order of causes, proceeds solely from the different estimation in which the pursuit is held in each of these kingdoms. In Mexico, a merchant, or an adventurer, advances, on the bare word of the miner, from fifty to a hundred piastres, towards the exploration of a mine, and receives, without abandoning the speculation, the information that the vein has been missed. In Peru, on the other hand, an habilitador[1] has scarcely advanced a sum of ten or twelve piastres, if he can even be prevailed on to supply so much, than he wishes both the miner and his mines to be ground in the mill for the pulverization of the ores, to the end that the pina may be secured to him, and his eventual profits ascertained.
"The enemies of the body of miners seek to justify themselves by the assertion that the individuals of that profession are in general cheats and impostors, from whom punctuality, in the discharge of their debts, is not to be expected. I do not deny but that, in our corporation, as well as in all the classes, of which society is constituted, cheats and impostors are to be found; and that, in despight of the vigilance of the supreme authorities, many improper persons have been admitted into the associated body of miners. Among the apostles a Judas was found; but on that account the punishment due to the atrocity of his crime was not inflicted on his brethren. It oftentimes happens that the most upright miner is obliged, in a manner, to depart from the integrity of his principles. He cannot find protection when he speaks of his mine without enthusiasm, and without exaggerating the advantages it presents. When he shews the ores, they are depreciated; and physical securities are required of him, when he can merely urge a probable perspective. Finally, he is sensible that avarice dictates the succours which are afforded to him. It must be acknowledged that these are powerful temptations, to induce him to begin by exaggeration, and to conclude by falsehood.
"Relatively to the accusation brought against the miners, of a want of punctuality in the discharge of their obligations, much is to be said. Nature at times enriches them; and at times they are oppressed by the cruelty of men. Among those who tyrannize over them, the habilitadores or money-lenders, are the most conspicuous. In payment of the sums they have advanced, they receive the pina at the low rate of six piastres four reals, and occasionally at six piastres two reals, although, in proportion to the price of the fused metal, it is worth seven piastres three reals; thus gaining eighteen per cent, in the short space of three or four months, when the credit expires. They are, notwithstanding, loud in their complaints, if the miner is in arrears in the smallest degree. Furthermore, the latter requires, I shall suppose, two thousand piastres for the current expences of his mine, and makes his arrangement accordingly with the habilitador. In such a case, the latter never supplies the whole of the sum at one time, but in small proportions, accompanied by fair promises. Thus it happens that the unfortunate miner is prevented from taking advantage of the seasons and opportunities, in laying in his supply of necessaries. But this is not all: of the two thousand piastres I have supposed, the whole is not paid in specie, but a great part in baize, and other commodities of a similar nature, charged at a very high rate. As the miner is under the necessity of distributing these commodities among his Indian labourers, the latter are, by the debts they contract, frequently led to desert. He is thus not only defrauded, but deprived of their valuable services,
"Finally, the reply to the two antecedent charges may be reduced to the following propositions. Whenever impossibilities shall be no longer expected from them, the conduct of the miners will be more correct. Let them be treated with equity and candour, and there will be few among them who will fail in the punctuality of their payments.
"With respect to the accusation of prodigality, it can only have been urged against us by those who confide in the assertions of the colle6lors, and obscure dealers in the produce of the mines. Men mounted on mules, on which they have wearisome journeys to perform over their grounds; eternally clad in a wretched poncho[2]; habituated to a coarse and sparing diet; lodged in wretched huts; and unceasingly exposed to the inclemencies of the weather in climes of unusual rigour:—men, I say, of this description, are stiled prodigals,- if they celebrate their saint's day with the harp and the guittar, or put on decent clothes when they pay a visit to the capital! The times are past, when the flourishing and adventurous miner was wont to stake a bar of silver, of the value of a hundred marks, on the hazard of a die; and when the simple overseer entered the mine with a flute and violins. The passions which in a city absorb a capital, are gratified in a mine by a sack of potatoes, and a jacket of English baize."
REPLY OF THICIO ANTROPOPHOBO.
"I do not know whether I ought to announce myself by saying, I have the honour to be a miner, or whether I should pronounce, with all humility, I am a miner, craving your pardon. By the different degrees of estimation in which the world holds those of my profession, it would appear that the two phrases are equally appropriate. Not an opulent merchant is to be found who does not speak of us with the utmost contempt. The poor envy our lot, and the prospects which lie before us. The man of letters treats us as uncouth rustics. We are flattered by the courtier, and by the ladies. In Europe we are considered as the arbiters of the riches of the earth; while in America we are regarded as a species similar to that of the negroes at the mint, who sweat and grow old in coining for others the gold and silver of which they are themselves denied the enjoyment. Amid so many contradictory judgments, I fancied that your society would pronounce a definitive opinion, so as at once to fix the true estimation in which we ought to be holden. I was persuaded that the miners would be covered with laurels and encomiums, by the means of your panegyrics. It appeared to me that you would load us with honours; and, in short, I entertained a thousand other ideas of the same description, of the futility of which I am now persuaded. I perceive, gentlemen, that, with a determination to have a pluck at our mantle, you set out by revealing our necessities, and endeavour to oblige us to obtain relief, encouragement, and wealth, by the rugged path of first exposing our miseries, and the deficiencies which are to be noticed in the fundamental principles of our association. The letter of Egerio Chrysaforo which you have published, has electrified my spirit. At first sight it appears to be a simple vindication of the miners, in whose favour it offers an emphatical apology ; but being examined with more circumspection, it turns out to be a relation of their calamities, and a detail of the multiplied obstacles by which their progress is impeded. I, at least, suppose it to have been direCted to such an aim; and, on this supposition, I find in it a palpable defect, which I shall endeavour to demonstrate and supply in the best manner possible.
"Policy, or it may be fear, or self-love, has occasioned Egerio to avoid the explanation of the sentence in his letter, in which he observes, that the miners are oppressed by the cruelty of men. The same principles may have inspired him with the idea of pointing out, as the cause of the backwardness 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 to circulate through every part of the body? Of what import is it that a miner has money in his hand, if those belonging to the labouring class flee from his possessions, or cannot be persuaded to work on them? Under similar circumstances, I think I see a skilful and valorous general, an Epaminondas, or a Marlborough, provided with ammunition, and entrenched in an advantageous position, but without soldiers. In such a case what is he to do? He is unquestionably either obliged to surrender to the enemy, or to betake himself to flight.
"The negroes in Peru are absolutely unfit for the labours of the mines. A residence alone in the rigid climates of the mountainous territory, renders them incapable even of domestic service. Their complexion undergoes a change, and becomes of an ashy paleness. The greater part of them fall sick, and die. A thousand attempts have been made to employ negroes instead of Indians, in the gold mines even of the provinces of La Paz, &c. where the temperature of the air is warm and benign; but the results have been invariably fatal. Whether it be that the particles of antimony which float in the mines operate more forcibly, and with a greater malignance, on the temperament of Africans; or that the mechanical labour of ascending and descending, with heavy loads, by the orifices of the mines, is more painful to them; or, lastly, that this employment is repugnant both to their strength and inclination; it is certain that this class of individuals cannot be resorted to, when it is intended to people a mine.
"The Spaniards are as little qualified for this task. I have seen many robust young men, the greater part of them from the sea- service, who, being actuated either by necessity, or by avarice, applied themselves to the different labours of the mines; but who were in a short time forced to discontinue the pursuit, through a failure of their health and strength, and in consequence of the sufferings to which they had been exposed. A few years ago, a Peruvian undertook to harbour and conceal the deserters from the Spanish ships, and to send them to the mineral territory of Huarochiri, where, by his direction, they were immediately lodged and engaged in the operations of the mines. Not one of them was able to resist for the space of four months: those who did not perish, were forced to abandon their employment, overwhelmed with diseases. The mestizos, whether through pride, or for reasons of physical impossibility, do not apply themselves to this painful career, in which, to conclude in one word, the Indians alone are able to maintain themselves. The Indian, I say, accustomed to the rigorous climes and bad qualities of the countries in which the mines are generally situated, is alone calculated to work them. His arm is what we need; and in him consists the true prosperity of the miner's pursuit.
"I think I have proved my assertion, and thrown a new light on the letter of Egerio. In mine, it may have happened that the rules of logic have not been well observed; but it is within the comprehension of every one. What I have not dared to say, I have insinuated. I am persuaded that many miners will find cause of exultation in the perusal of this letter; and that, when they have proceeded thus far, they will expert of me to propose arbitrary measures by which the Indians may be compelled to labour in the mines, seeing that, out their aid, they cannot subsist[3]. I do not extend my ideas so far; nor have I the talents requisite for such a task. All that I can do further on this subject is, to express my wishes.
"I could wish, for instance, that the sub-delegates would not allow idle and vagrant Indians in their provinces; and that those who, after having been once solemnly admonished, should be found to have relapsed into an indolent mode of life, should be apprehended and sent to the mine territories. I could wish (and here I repeat and enforce whatever Egerio has insinuated) that those who supply the funds should make their advances in specie, and not in commodities at an exorbitant price, to the end that the miners may be enabled to pay their labourers daily in current money, instead of reducing them to a kind of slavery by an opposite procedure. It is my ardent desire that the miners should be persuaded, how truly it is a paralogism, an egregious mistake, to believe that the Indians are the children of rigour only, and rebels to kind treatment; and that they should, consequently, act with more humanity and charity, when the welfare of this unfortunate class of beings is concerned.
"Finally, if there be any mineral territories, in the case of which neither the allurements of prompt payment, and of a progressive increase of stipend, nor a wise and courteous 
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Overseer of a royal Peruvian mine.
Pub. Feb. 1. 1805 by Richard Philips 6 New Bridge Street
"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[4], 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.
- ↑ The habilitadores are speculators who establish themselves in the vicinity of the mines, to make advances to the miners. They are repaid in the pina, that is, the silver, after it has been freed from the mercury with which it was amalgamated, without having been fused.
- ↑ A kind of covering, borrowed from the ancient Indians, which will be more particularly described hereafter.
- ↑ In the royal mines, compulsory measures are resorted to. By metas is implied the personal service of the Indians, who, perforce, and respeflively to the number by whom the tribute is paid, are made to repair from different pi evinces to the mines of Huancavelica and Potosi. If they fail in their personal attendance, a fine of thirty piastres, named by the Indians faltriqueras, is imposed on them.
- ↑ This territory lies to the north-west of the city of Pasco, from which it is distant about half a mile. The mines it contains have been very recently discovered. Their ores are of the kind denominated negrillos, on account of their dusky hue. Although blended with a small proportion of copper, they are so rich as to yield from fifty to sixty marks of silver per caxon.