260

CHILI.

CHAP. XXV.

age of those years afforded annually three hundredand twenty thousand dollars. In the years sincethat, by a private communication from an intelli-gent person, a resident in Chili, lately arrived inthis country, the annual amount is stated to havecontinued at the same rate up to the present time.According to this view the whole amount of silverproduced in Chili in the twenty years from 1810to 1830 will appear to be seven millions two hun-dred and eighty thousand dollars.

Gold was formerly collected in Chili in muchlarger quantities than it has been of late years.The mines of that metal have fallen into disuse,partly from the scarcity of labourers, and partlyfrom the greater wages that can be obtained byminers from working in the silver, but more espe-cially in the copper mines.

During 1810 and 1811, before the revolutionbegan, the produce of gold continued as before atnearly one thousand pounds weight yearly; fromthat to 1815 the amount may be taken at notmore than five hundred pounds weight; from theend of 1815 to the beginning of 1826, at fourhundred pounds, and for the last four years atone hundred and eighty-five pounds.

It appears by this estimate that the whole ofthe gold produced in Chili in the twenty yearsfrom 1810 to 1829, both years included, amountedto forty-eight thousand six hundred and forty