ke a last supreme effort to rid
his subjects of the incubus that was sapping the life of the country.

After many bloody encounters in which both sides sustained severe
losses, Manco was killed and the Spanish yoke was firmly fixed on the
neck of the people, who for the greater part were consigned to a most
inhuman slavery. Thousands perished by the brutal treatment inflicted
upon them in the silver mines.

In the course of time Indian slavery was abolished in a great measure by
royal proclamation; nevertheless, Spain continued to rule this land for
three hundred years before the oppressive yoke was cast off by a
successful uprising. It is a pleasure to know that many of the Spanish
leaders who were guilty of this heartless cruelty suffered violent
deaths in quarrels among themselves or in rebellion against the crown of
Spain.

During the period of Spanish rule an immense revenue accrued from
working the rich silver mines. Those that filled the Spanish treasure
ships so eagerly sought by buccaneers were the mines of Potosi. These
silver lodes, extensively worked through Indian slave labor by Hernando
and Gonzalo Pizarro, brothers of Francisco Pizarro, were discovered in
1546.

So rich did the lodes prove to be that the city of Potosi sprang up near
them and was supported by them, although the site was far from being
desirable. Its altitude is about thirteen thousand feet, and it is,
therefore, the highest city in the world. It is situated on the bleak
side of the Andes, from whose snow-clad peaks cold, piercing winds sweep
down over the city. Towering above it is a mountain, honeycombed with
shafts, tunnels, and drifts, from which has been taken silver to the
value of two billion dollars.

At first it was thought that a location so high above sea level would be
unhabitable, but the immense wealth of the silver lodes required many
workmen for their development, and these laborers had to be housed and
fed.

At the zenith of its prosperity Potosi possessed one hundred seventy
thousand inhabitants, and had the distinction of being the largest city
in the New World during the first two centuries of its existence. A mint
built in 1562, at the expense of over a million dollars, is long since
unused. A splendid granite cathedral ornamented with beautiful statuary
still attests to the former grandeur of the city.

Some of the richest veins of silver ore in the Potosi mines have been
worked out and many mines have been a