rich veins are struck,
the wages of the miners increase, but in most instances they spend them
in drinking and debauchery, while the proprietors of the mines are
almost equally uncivilised.

Fourteen miles from the town of Caxamarca is an isolated mountain called
the Cerro de San Fernando de Gualgayoc, traversed by numberless veins of
silver. At its summit rise a number of pyramidal pinnacles. Its steep
sides are pierced by several hundred galleries formed for the extraction
of the ore, as well as by numerous natural openings, while in all
directions are seen the huts of the labourers, sticking like the nests
of birds, wherever a ledge has enabled them to be constructed. One of
the richest silver mines of Peru is that of Salcedo, but nothing is now
known of it except its tragical history. A Don Jose Salcedo, a
Spaniard, without a maravedi in his pocket, made love to an Indian girl,
whose mother promised to reveal to him a rich silver lode on condition
that he married her daughter.

Aided by his Indian relatives, with whom he lived on the most friendly
terms, he obtained vast quantities of silver from the mine, the entrance
to which was kept carefully concealed.

His wealth excited the rapacity of the viceroy Count Lemos, who, to
obtain possession of it, accused him of exciting the natives to
rebellion, and cast him into prison. In vain Salcedo entreated that he
might appeal to the mercy of the king, and promised to give the viceroy
a bar of silver daily, from the time the ship left the port of Callao to
her return from Europe, which would probably be upwards of a year; but
the viceroy, instead of listening to the proposal of Salcedo, ordered
him to be hung. No sooner was this known to the natives than they
destroyed the works, and so carefully concealed the entrance, that even
to the present day it is unknown. The tribes afterwards dispersed, and
even cruel tortures could not induce them to reveal the secret.

There can be no doubt that there are many rich lodes in existence worked
by Indians, who, knowing that they will be compelled to labour for the
benefit of their masters, carefully conceal them. In many of the mines
of Peru, the natives having almost been exterminated, the proprietors
endeavoured to kidnap the inhabitants of the Pacific to supply their
places, but after several hundreds had been nefariously captured, the
Governments of England and France interfered and put a stop to the
practice. In a