for particular metals (as tin) which were soon found not to
exist in the country; contracts to supply the miners with
milk, iu parts where there were no cows ; machinery,
where such could not possibly be used; and a hundred
similar arrangements, bore witness to our absurdity, and to
this day afford amusement to the natives. Yet there can be
no doubt, tbat the same capital well employed in these mines
would have yielded an immense return; a confidential man
of business, a practical miner and assayer, would have been
all that was required.
Captain Head has described the wonderful load which the
“ Apires,” truly beasts of burden, carry up from deep mines.
I confess 1 thought the account exaggerated; so that I was
glad to take the opportunity of weighing one of the loads,
which I picked out by hazard. It required considerable exertion
on my part, when standing directly over it, to lift it from
the ground. The load was considered under weight when
found to be 197 pounds. The apire had carried this up eighty
perpendicular yards,—part of the way by a steep passage, but
the greater part up notched poles, placed in a zigzag line in
the shaft. According to the general regulation, the apire is
not allowed to halt for breath, except the mine is six
hundred feet deep. The average load is considered as rather
more than 2 0 0 pounds, and I have been assured that one of
300 pounds (twenty-two stone and a half) by way of a trial
has been brought up from the deepest mine ! At this time
the apires were bringing up the usual load twelve times hi the
day; that is, 2400 pounds from eighty yards deep; and they
were employed in the intervals in breaking and picking ore.
These men, excepting from accidents, are healthy, and
appear cheerful. Their bodies are not very muscular. They
rarely eat meat once a week, and never oftener, and then
only the hard dry charqui. Although with a knowledge that
the labour is voluntary, it was nevertheless quite revolting to
see the state in which they reached the mouth of the mine;
their bodies bent forward, leaning with their arms on the steps,
their legs bowed, the muscles quivering, the perspiration
streaming from their faces over their breasts, their nostrils
distended, the corners of their mouth forcibly drawn back,
and the expulsion of their breath most laborious. Each
time, from habit, they utter an articulate cry of “ ay-ay,”
which ends in a sound rising from deep in the chest, but shrill
like the note of a fife-. After staggering to the pile of ores,
they emptied the “ carpacho;” in two or three seconds
recovering their breath, they wiped the sweat from their
brows, and apparently quite fresh descended the mine again
at a quick pace. This appears to me a wonderful instance
of the amount of labour which habit (for it can be nothing
else), will enable a man to endure.
In the evening, talking with the mayor-domo of these
mines, about the number of foreigners now scattered over
the whole country, he told me that, though quite a young
man, he remembers when a boy at school at Coquimbo, a
holiday being given, to see the captain of an English ship,
who was brought to the city to speak to the governor.
He believes that nothing would have induced any boy in the
school, himself included, to have gone close to the Englishman
; so deeply had they been impressed with an idea of
the heresy, contamination, and evil to be derived from contact
with such a person. To this day they relate the
atrocious actions of the bucaniers; and especially of one
man, who took away the figure of the Virgin Mary, and
returned the year after for that of St. Joseph, saying it was a
pity the lady should not have a husband. I heard also of
an old lady who, at a dinner in Coquimbo, remarked how
wonderfully strange it was that she should have lived to
dine in the same room with an Englishman; for she remembered
as a girl, that twice, at the mere cry of “ Los
Ingleses,” every soul, carrying what valuables they could,
had taken to the mountains.
M a y 1 4 t h .—We reached Coquimbo, where we staid a
few days. The town is remarkable for nothing but its
extreme quietness. It is said to contain from 6000 to 8000
inhabitants. On the morning of the l7th it rained lightly
j' i