CHAP. XXV.

POTOSI.

2,5 7

going again, all their money having been sweptaway.”

Sir Edward Temple visited the same districts inthe same years as Capt. Andrews, and like himseems to have been employed to purchase mines forsome of those numerous abortive companies at thatperiod formed or projected in England. His ac-count differs but little from that of the other tra-veller. “ The population of Oruro, ” he says,“does not exceed four thousand souls, and thoseare in great indigence, owing to the destruction ofthe mines of silver and tin which formerly sup-ported a brisk and extensive commerce, now nearlyextinct from want of those resources which wereabsorbed in the all-consuming civil war 1 .” Heasserts that all the mines in Potosi put togetherdo not produce near two hundred thousand marcsof silver yearly; that the districts of Potosi, Por-tugalette, and Chayanta, yielded in 1826 of silverone hundred and seventy-seven thousand one hun-dred and twenty-seven marcs, or about one millionfour hundred thousand dollars, and that by sub-sequent disturbances that produce had been less-ened 2 . This amount is represented to be derived“ from the accumulated scrapings of many needyindividuals, employing a few thousand dollars forthe means of mere subsistence, beyond which they

1 Temple’s Travels, vol. ii. p. 29.

2 Idem, vol. ii. p. 252.

VOL. II.

s