y those who are owners of large
magazines. The keepers of coffee houses and brandy shops are here, as
in Lima, chiefly Italians from Genoa. Other shops are kept by the
Mestizos, and the provision-dealers are chiefly Indians, who bring
their supplies from remote places.

The mining population may be divided into mine owners (_mineros_) and
Indian laborers. The majority of the mineros are descendants of the old
Spanish families, who, at an early period, became possessors of the
mines, whence they derived enormous wealth, which most of them
dissipated in prodigal extravagance. At the present time, only a very
few of the mineros are rich enough to defray, from their own resources,
the vast expense attending the operations of mining. They consequently
raise the required money by loans from the capitalists of Lima, who
require interest of 100 or 120 per cent., and, moreover, insist on
having bars of silver at a price below standard value. To these hard
conditions, together with the custom that has been forced upon the
miners of paying their laborers in metal, at times when it is very
abundant, may be traced the cause of the miserable system of
mine-working practised in Cerro de Pasco. To liquidate his burthensome
debts the minero makes his laborers dig as much ore as possible from the
mine, without any precautions being taken to guard against accidents.
The money-lenders, on the other hand, have no other security for the
recovery of their re-payment than the promise of the minero, and a
failure of the usual produce of a mine exposes them to the risk of
losing the money they have advanced.

Under these circumstances it can scarcely be expected that the character
and habits of the minero should qualify him to take a high rank in the
social scale. His insatiable thirst for wealth continually prompts him
to embark in new enterprises, whereby he frequently loses in one what he
gains in another. After a mine has been worked without gain for a series
of years, an unexpected _boya_ probably occurs, and an immense quantity
of silver may be extracted. But a minero retiring on the proceeds of a
boya is an event of rare occurrence. A vain hope of increasing fortune
prompts him to risk the certain for the uncertain: and the result
frequently is, that the once prosperous minero has nothing to bequeath
to his children but a mine heavily burthened with debt. The
persevering ardor of persons engaged in mining is truly remarkable.
Unchecked