CHAP. XXV.

PERU.

251

can be obtained, as the tribunal of the mines hadceased to exist. The machinery of the mints atLima and Cusco had been wantonly injured, andall information from them was materially checked.In 1825 no more than eight hundred thousanddollars were coined, and in the present year (1826),though the mints are conducted under British su-perintendence, it is not expected that more thanone million five hundred thousand will be coined.The principal mines have been abandoned, thechief causes of which have been, the want of quick-silver, the decrease of population, and the inun-dations. It is, however, not unlikely that thewhole of the mines between 1820 and 1825 mayhave yielded near three millions of dollars in valueannually, as much of the silver in a rude state wastaken away from the mines by the different armiesthat occupied the country.”

The only estimate which can be formed of whatamount has been produced since 1825 must befrom some communications on the existing stateof the mines in 1826, which are entitled to creditfrom the character of the individual who has trans-mitted them; though subsequent events w r ouldcompel us to make some allowance for the san-guine expectations then entertained.

The following is an abridgment of the commu-nications here referred to of the state of the minesin the several departments into which Peru hasbeen divided by its republican rulers.