vouring to find the islands of Solomon were laid
aside.[2]

[Footnote 2: These islands of Miranda appear to have been the
Marquebes, between the latitudes of 8 deg. 45' and 10 deg. 25' N. and long.
139 deg. W. The Solomon islands, or New Georgia, are between 5 deg. and 10 deg. N.
and long. 200 deg. to 205 deg. W. 63-1/2 degrees of longitude farther to the
westwards.--E.]

Sec. 5. _SOME ACCOUNT OF THE MINES OF PERU AND CHILI_.

As the riches of Peru consist chiefly in mines of silver, I shall
endeavour to give some account of them, from the best information I
could procure. There are two sorts of silver-mines, in one of which
the silver is found scattered about in small quantities, or detached
masses, while, in the other kind of mine, it runs in a vein between
two rocks, one of which is excessively hard, and the other much
softer. These certainly best deserve the name of silver-mines, and
are accordingly so denominated. This precious metal, which in other
countries is the standard or measure of riches, is the actual riches
of Peru, or its chief natural commodity; as, throughout the whole of
that vast country, silver-mines are almost every where to be met with,
of more or less value, according as the ore produces more or less
silver, or can be wrought at a greater or less expence. Some of these
mines are to the north of Lima, but not a great many, but to the south
they are very numerous. On the back, or eastern side of the Andes,
there is a nation of Indians called _Los Platerors_, or the _Plate_,
or _Silver_ men, from their possessing vast quantities of silver,[1]
but with them the Spaniards have very little communication. The best
of the mine countries are to the south of Cusco, from thence to Potosi
and the frontiers of Chili, where, for the space of 800 miles, there
is a continued succession of mines, some being discovered and others
abandoned almost every day.

[Footnote 1: This tribe still holds its place in modern geography,
in the vast plain to the E. of the Maranors or Amazons, where there
cannot be any silver-mines, at least that they can explore. They are
so named because of wearing silver ear-rings, which they must, almost
certainly, procure in barter from the tribes in the mountains, far to
the west.--E.]

It is common, both here and elsewhere, for people to complain of the
times, commending the past, as if there had been infinitely greater
quantities of silver dug from the mines formerly than at presen