ed from all dangers, and
so much exempted from their usual severe drudgery and the unwholesome
vapours they had been subjected to in other mines, that they preferred
working at Potosi to any other situation. So great was the concourse of
inhabitants to Potosi, and the consequent demand for provisions, _that
the sack of maize was sold for twenty crowns, the sack of wheat for
forty, and a small bag of _coca_ for thirty dollars; and these articles
rose afterwards to a higher price. Owing to the astonishing
productiveness of these new mines, all the others in that part of Peru
were speedily abandoned. Even those of Porco, whence Ferdinand Pizarro
had formerly procured great riches, were left unwrought. All the
Yanaconas who had been employed in searching for gold in the province of
Carabaya, and in the auriferous rivers in different parts of southern
Peru, flocked to Potosi, where they were able to make vastly more profit
by their labour than in any other place. From various indications, those
who are most experienced in mining believe that Potosi will always
continue productive and cannot be easily exhausted[27].

[Footnote 27: It has however become very much exhausted, and has been in
a great measure abandoned. The mines of Lauricocha, in a different part
of Peru, are now in greater estimation. But those of Guanaxuato and
Zacatecas in Mexico, notwithstanding the poverty of their ore, have been
long the most productive of the American mines.--E.]

Carvajal did not fail to take advantage of this favourable discovery,
and immediately set about the acquisition of treasure for himself by
every means which his present uncontroulable power afforded. In the
first place, he appropriated to his own use all the Yanaconas, or Indian
labourers in the mines, which had belonged, to such of the inhabitants
as had opposed him, or to those who had died or fled from the province.
He likewise appropriated to his own use above 10,000 Peruvian sheep,
belonging to the Yanaconas of the crown or to individuals, which were
employed in transporting provisions for the miners. By these means, he
amassed in a short time near 200,000 crowns, all of which he retained to
his own use. His soldiers were so much dissatisfied with his conduct, as
he gave them no share of his exactions, that they plotted together
against him. Luis Pardamo, Alfonso de Comargo, Diego de Balsameda, and
Diego de Luxan, with thirty others, who had entered into this
conspiracy, ha