CHAP. xxir.

AMERICAN MINES.

157

period under consideration, about eight hundredthousand ounces of silver.

Some mines in the province of Truxillo, knownby the names of Hualgayac, Gumachuco, andConchuco, have been worked ever since the year1772, and have produced from four hundredthousand to eight hundred thousand ounces ofsilver annually. The ores of the district are saidby Humboldt to be richer than those of Potosi,more regular in their product than those of Huan-tajaya, and more easy to work than those ofYauricocha.

Some gold was found in Peru , in the districtsof Pataz and Huailas, on the ridge of the Cor-dilleras ; some on the plains of Curimayo, nearthe town of Caxamarca ; and small quantities inother parts.

As the gold and silver extracted in Peru wereordered to be carried to Lima to be coined, the onlycalculation of the quantity actually produced mustbe framed from the returns of the mint in that city.Of those returns no regular series is at presentattainable earlier than the year 1754. It has there-fore become necessary to assume—relying uponthe reports of all writers that no great alterationhad taken place between 1700 and 1754—theannual produce for the whole one hundred andten years between 1700 and 1810 to have beenat the same rate as for those years of which wehave statistical reports. In the fifty-five years