ers and workmen to
that district, to the great injury and oppression of the Indians;
as the Spanish magistrates not only take away their lands for the
purposes of mining, but their horses also, which they sell to the
new adventurers, under pretence of serving the king and improving the
settlements. There is also abundance of magnet and _lapiz lazuli_,
of which the Indians know not the value; and some leagues within the
country, there is plenty of salt and salt-petre, which often lies an
inch thick on the ground. On the _Cordelieras_, about an hundred miles
to the east, there is a vein of sulphur about two feet wide, so fine
and pure that it needs no cleaning. This part of the country is full
of all sorts of mines, but so excessively barren, that the inhabitants
have to fetch all their subsistence from the country about Coquimbo,
over a desert of more than 300 miles extent, in which the earth
abounds so much in salt and sulphur that the mules often perish by
the way, for want of grass and fresh water. In that long road there
is only one river in the course of two hundred miles, which is named
_Ancalulae_ or the Hyporite, because it runs only from sun-rise to
sun-set. This is occasioned by the great quantities of snow melted on
the Cordelieras in the day, which freezes again by the excessive cold
of the night. Hence _Chili_ is said to derive its name, as _chile_
signifies cold in the Indian language; and we are told by the Spanish
historians, that some of their countrymen and others, who first traded
to this country, were frozen to death on their mules; for which reason
they now always travel by a lower road, towards the coast.

The mine countries are all so cold and barren, that the inhabitants
have to procure most of their provisions from the coast; this is
caused by the exhalations of salts and sulphur from the earth, which
destroy the growth of all vegetables. These are so stifling to the
Spaniards who dwell about the mines, that they are obliged often to
drink the _mattea_, or tea made of the herb _camini_, to moisten their
mouths. The mules also, that trip it nimbly over the mountains, are
forced to walk slowly in the country about the mines, and have often
to stop to take breath. If these vapours are so strong without and in
the open air, what must they be within the bowels of the earth in the
mines, into which, if a fresh man go, he is suddenly benumbed with
pain. This is the case with many, but seldom lasts above