a day, and
they are not liable to be affected a second time: Yet vapours often
burst forth suddenly, by which the workmen are killed on the spot;
and one way or another, great multitudes of Indians die in working the
mines. One is apt to wonder that, through all this part of the world,
those districts which are most barren and unwholesome are the best
inhabited; while other places, that seem to vie with our nations of
the terrestrial paradise, in beauty and fertility, are but thinly
peopled. Yet, when one considers, that it is the thirst of wealth, not
the love of ease, which attracts people thither, the wonder ceases,
and we see how much the hope of living rich gets the better even of
the hope of living; as if the sole end for which man was created was
to acquire wealth, at the expence of health and happiness.

In reference to these deserts, the following observation occurs to my
memory, as having happened when we were on the road to Piura. When
we lay down to sleep at night, our mules went eagerly in search of a
certain root, not unlike a parsnip, but much bigger, which contains a
great deal of juice, and, besides serving as food, often answers as
a substitute for water in the deserts. When the mules find these, and
are unable to rake them out of the ground with their feet, they stand
over them and bray with all their might, till the Indians come to
their assistance.

It is generally understood that silver is the peculiar wealth of Peru,
and the Spaniards usually talk of gold-mines as confined to Chili: Yet
there are one or two _lavaderas_, or washing-places for gold in the
south of Peru, near the frontiers of Chili. In 1709, two surprizingly
large _pepitos_, or lumps of virgin gold, were found in one of these
places, one of which weighed complete thirty-two pounds, and was
purchased by the _Conde de Monclod_, then viceroy of Peru, and
presented by him to the king of Spain. The other, shaped somewhat like
an ox's heart, weighed twenty-two pounds and a half; and was purchased
by the corregidor of Arica. In searching for these _lavadores_ or
washing places, they dig in the corners of some little brook, where
they judge, from certain tokens, that the grains of gold are lodged.
To assist in carrying away the earth or mud, they let in a stream or
current of water into the excavation, and keep stirring up the soil,
that the water may carry it away. On reaching the golden sand, they
turn the stream another way, and dig ou