ious terrors.

Notwithstanding the enormous amount of wealth, which the mines of Peru
have already yielded, and still continue to yield, only a very small
portion of the silver veins has been worked. It is a well-known fact,
that the Indians are aware of the existence of many rich mines, the
situation of which they will never disclose to the whites, nor to the
detested mestizos. Heretofore mining has been to them all toil and
little profit, and it has bound them in chains from which they will not
easily emancipate themselves. For centuries past, the knowledge of some
of the richest silver mines has been with inviolable secresy transmitted
from father to son. All endeavors to prevail on them to divulge these
secrets have hitherto been fruitless. In the village of Huancayo, there
lived, a few years ago, two brothers, Don Jose and Don Pedro Yriarte,
two of the most eminent mineros of Peru. Having obtained certain
intelligence that in the neighboring mountains there existed some veins
of pure silver, they sent a young man, their agent, to endeavor to gain
further information on the subject. The agent took up his abode in the
cottage of a shepherd, to whom, however, he gave not the slightest
intimation of the object of his mission. After a little time, an
attachment arose between the young man and the shepherd's daughter, and
the girl promised to disclose to her lover the position of a very rich
mine. On a certain day, when she was going out to tend her sheep, she
told him to follow her at a distance, and to notice the spot where she
would let fall her _manta_; by turning up the earth on that spot, she
assured him he would find the mouth of a mine. The young man did as he
was directed, and after digging for a little time, he discovered a mine
of considerable depth, containing rich ore. Whilst busily engaged in
breaking out the metal, he was joined by the girl's father, who
expressed himself delighted at the discovery, and offered to assist
him. After they had been at work for some hours, the old Indian handed
to his companion a cup of chicha, which the young man thankfully
accepted. But he had no sooner tasted the liquor than he felt ill, and
he soon became convinced that poison had been mixed with the beverage.
He snatched up the bag containing the metal he had collected, mounted
his horse, and with the utmost speed galloped off to Huancayo. There,
he related to Yriarte all that had occurred, described as accurately
as he c