CHAP. XVII.

52 PRODUCE OF MINES

fertile sunny valleys which were their favouriteabodes till visited by the Europeans. The MexicanIndians endured less oppression in this respectthan those in Peru , but much labour was ex-torted from both, and the fruits of it was an in-creased quantity both of gold and silver, withina short space after the conquest of the respectivecountries.

The mines opened in Mexico during the periodwhich followed the conquest have been alreadynoticed, to which may now be added those ex-plored and worked in Peru between the landingof Pizarro in 1.527 and the discovery of the mineralwealth of Potosi in 1545. The chief mines openedin Peru before Potosi were those in the provincesof Porco, Carangas, Oruro , Carabaya, and Cha-quiapu, now called La Paz. There are no accountsto be found of the quantities they produced, butmerely their names are mentioned respectively asyielding either gold or silver, or both.

In estimating the addition made to the store ofthe precious metals by the discovery of America from the year 1492 to 1546, it seems necessary,after much attention to the subject, to deviate butlittle from the calculation which Humboldt hasmade, and that chiefly in the earlier years of theseries. The annual addition then in the twenty-nine years between the discovery in 1492 to theconquest of the city of Mexico in 1521, at the rate