e streets rioting and
attacking each other, and they frequently get involved in dangerous
affrays. No Sunday or Friday passes over without the occurrence of
battles, in which knives, sticks, and stones are used as weapons; and
the actors in these scenes of violence inflict on each other severe
and often fatal wounds. Any effective police interference to quell
these street riots, is out of the question.

When an unusually abundant produce of the mines throws extra payment
into the hands of the mine laborers, they squander their money with the
most absurd extravagance, and they are excellent customers to the
European dealers in dress and other articles of luxury. Prompted by a
ludicrous spirit of imitation, the Indian, in his fits of drunkenness,
will purchase costly things which he can have no possible use for, and
which he becomes weary of, after an hour's possession. I once saw an
Indian purchase a cloak of fine cloth, for which he paid ninety-two
dollars. He then repaired to a neighboring pulperia,[72] where he drank
till he became intoxicated, and then, staggering into the street, he
fell down, and rolled in the kennel. On rising, and discovering that his
cloak was besmeared with mud, he threw it off, and left it in the
street, for any one who might choose to pick it up. Such acts of
reckless prodigality are of daily occurrence. A watchmaker in Cerro de
Pasco informed me that one day an Indian came to his shop to purchase
a gold watch. He showed him one, observing that the price was twelve
gold ounces (204 dollars), and that it would probably be too dear for
him. The Cholo paid the money, and took the watch; then, after having
examined it for a few minutes, he dashed it on the ground, observing
that the thing was of no use to him. When the Indian miner possesses
money, he never thinks of laying by a part of it, as neither he nor
any of his family feel the least ambition to improve their miserable
way of life. With them, drinking is the highest of all gratifications,
and in the enjoyment of the present moment, they lose sight of all
considerations for the future. Even those Cholos who come from distant
parts of the country to share in the rich harvest of the mines of
Cerro de Pasco, return to their homes as poor as when they left them,
and with manners and morals vastly deteriorated.

Besides the mines of Cerro de Pasco, which in point of importance are
nowise inferior to those of Potosi, there are numerous very rich