CHAP. XXI. AMERICAN MINES. 117

country thought little of the obedience due to apower so remote and inactive as that which ruledin the European peninsula. The waste of the in-digenous population was attempted to be suppliedby the importation of negro slaves from the Africanshores; but this inhuman resource was far fromeffectual. The voyage to the river Plate, withthe journey over the Pampas and the Cordilleras,lessened the numbers of the captives and weakenedthe frames of those who arrived at the inhospitablecerro of Potosi, and when there the severity ofthe climate rendered most of them incapable oflabour.

As the country between La Plata and Peru be- Buenoscame more traversed, districts were discovered 0 f Ayres ’great natural fertility and salubrity, and establish-ments were formed near veins of minerals, whichupon more mature examination were found tocontain much silver and some gold. The negroslaves were applied to those operations, as well asthe few native labourers which the scanty popula-tion could furnish. In this way the country thenconsidered a part of Peru , but separated from itin 1788, and added to the viceroyalty of BuenosAyres, and since under the revolutionary regimenconverted into a kind ofindependent republic calledBolivia, with Cuzco for its capital, became peopled,cultivated, and productive of the precious metals.

In a few years mines were opened and workedl n Carangas, Oruro , Andacava, and Chaquiapu