by disappointment, they pursue the career in which they have
embarked. Even when ruin appears inevitable, the love of money subdues
the warnings of reason, and hope conjures up, from year to year,
visionary pictures of riches yet to come.

Joined to this infatuated pursuit of the career once entered on, an
inordinate passion for cards and dice contributes to ruin many of the
mineros of Cerro de Pasco. In few other places are such vast sums staked
at the gaming-table; for the superabundance of silver feeds that
national vice of the Spaniards and their descendants. From the earliest
hours of morning cards and dice are in requisition. The mine owner
leaves his silver stores, and the shop-keeper forsakes his counter, to
pass a few hours every day at the gaming-table; and card-playing is
the only amusement in the best houses of the town. The mayordomos,
after being engaged in the mines throughout the whole day, assemble
with their comrades in the evening, round the gaming-table, from which
they often do not rise until six in the morning, when the bell summons
them to resume their subterraneous occupations. They not unfrequently
gamble away their share of a boya before any indication of one is
discernible in the mine.

The working class of miners is composed of Indians, who throng to Cerro
de Pasco from all the provinces, far and near, especially when boyas are
expected. At times, when the mines are not very productive, the number
of Indian laborers amounts to between three and four thousand; but when
there is a great supply of metal, the ordinary number of mine-workers is
more than tripled. The Indians labor with a degree of patient industry,
which it would be vain to expect from European workmen similarly
circumstanced. This observation applies to the hapires in particular.
Content with wretched food, and still more wretched lodging, the hapire
goes through his hard day's work, partaking of no refreshment but coca,
and at the end of the week (deduction being made for the food, &c.,
obtained on credit from the minero), he, possibly, finds himself in
possession of a dollar. This sum he spends on his Sunday holiday in
chicha and brandy, of which he takes as much as his money will pay
for, or as he can get on credit. When excited by strong drinks, such
as maize beer, chicha, and brandy, to which they are very much
addicted, the Indian miners are exceedingly quarrelsome. The laborers
belonging to the different mines go about th