nt mine
owner of Cerro de Pasco, was banished; an event which had a very
depressing influence on all the mining transactions of that part of
South America. Within the last few years, however, mining has
received a new impetus, and attention has been directed to the
adoption of a more speedy and less expensive system of amalgamation.

As a place of residence Cerro de Pasco is exceedingly disagreeable;
nothing but the pursuit of wealth can reconcile any one to a long
abode in it. The climate, like that of the higher Puna, is cold and
stormy. The better sort of houses are well built, and are provided
with good English fire-places and chimneys. But however comfortably
lodged, the new comer cannot easily reconcile himself to the
reflection that the earth is hollow beneath his feet. Still less
agreeable is it to be awakened in the night by the incessant hammering
of the Indian miners. Luckily earthquakes are of rare occurrence in
those parts: it would require no very violent shock to bury the whole
city in the bosom of the earth.

Silver being the only produce of the soil, the necessaries of life are
all exceedingly dear in the Cerro, as they have to be brought from
distant places. The warehouses are, it is true, always plentifully
supplied even with the choicest luxuries; but the extortion of venders
and the abundance of money render prices most exorbitant. The market
is so well supplied with provisions that it may vie with that of Lima.
The products of the coast, of the table-lands and the forests, are all
to be procured in the market of Cerro de Pasco; but the price demanded
for every article is invariably more than double its worth. House
rents are also extravagantly high; and the keep of horses is
exceedingly expensive.

The population of Cerro de Pasco presents a motley assemblage of human
beings, such as one would scarcely expect to find in a city situated
at 14,000 feet above the sea, and encircled by wild mountains. The Old
and the New Worlds seem there to have joined hands, and there is
scarcely any nation of Europe or America that has not its
representative in Cerro de Pusco. The Swede and the Sicilian, the
Canadian and the Argentinian, are all united here at one point, and
for one object. The inhabitants of this city may be ranked in two
divisions, viz., traders and miners--taking both terms in their most
comprehensive sense. The mercantile population consists chiefly of
Europeans or white Creoles, particularl