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Show 4.20 NORTHERN CHILE. May, 1835. for particular metals (as tin) which were soon fou~d not .to exist in the country; contracts to supply the mmers. with milk, in parts where ther~ were no cows; machmery, w h ere sue h coul d not Possibly be used; and a. hundred similar arranO'ements, bore witness to our absurdity, and to this day afford amusement to the natives. y e.t there ca~ be no doubt, that the same capital well employed m thes~ mmes would have yielded an immense return : a confidential man of business, a practical miner and assayer, would have been all that was required. . Captain Head has described the wonderful load whiC~ the ~' Apires," truly beasts of burden, carry up from deep mmes. I confess I thought the account exaggerated ; so that I was lad to take the opportunity of weighing one of the loads, g h" h I picked out by hazard. It required considerable ex-w lC l"f . f ertion on my part, when standing directly over it, to. 1 t 1t rom the ground. The load was considered un~er ":mght ~hen found to be 197 pounds. The apire had earned this up eighty perpendicular yards,-part of the way by a .steep passag.e, b~t the greater part up notched poles, placed m. a zigzag h~e ~n the shaft. According to the general regulatwn, the apire IS not allowed to halt for breath, except the mine is six hundred feet deep. The average load is considered as rather more than 200 pounds, and I have been assured that one .of 300 pounds (twenty-two stone and a half) by way of. a ~nal has been brought up from the deepest mine ! At this time the apires were bringing up the usual load twelve times in the day; that is, 2400 pounds from eighty yards dee~ ; ~nd they were employed in the intervals in breaking and piCkmg ore. These men, excepting from accidents, are healthy, and appear cheerful. Their bodies are not very muscular. They rarely eat meat once a week, and never oftener, and then only the hard dry charqui. Although with a knowledg~ that the labour is voluntary, it was nevertheless quite revoltmg to see the state in which they reached the mouth of the mine; their bodies bent forward, leaning with their arms on the steps, their legs bowed, the muscles quivering, the perspiration May, 1835. COQUIMBO. 421 streaming from their faces over their breasts, their nostrils distended, the corners of their mouth forcibly drawn back, and the expulsion of their breath most laborious. Each time, from habit, they utter an articulate cry of "ay-ay," which ends in a sound rising from deep in the chest, but shrill like the note of a fife. After staggering to the pile of ores, they emptied the '' carpacho ;" in two or three seconds recovering their breath, they wiped the sweat from their brows, and apparently quite fresh descended the mine again at a quick pace. This appears to me a wonderful instance of the amount of labour which habit (for it can be nothing else), will enable a man to endure. In the evening, talking with the mayor-domo of these mines, abnut the num her of foreigners now scattered over the whole country, he told me that, though quite a young man, he remembers when a boy at school at Coquimbo, a holiday being given, to see the captain of an English ship, who was brought to the city to speak to the governor. He believes that nothing would have induced any boy in the school, himself included, to have gone close to the Englishman; so deeply had they been impressed with an idea of the heresy, contamination, and evil to be derived from contact with such a person. 'ro this day they relate the atrocious actions of the bucaniers ; and especially of one man, who took away the figure of the Virgin Mary, and returned the year after for that of St. Joseph, saying it was a pity the lady should not have a husband. I heard also of an old lady who, at a dinner in Coquimbo, remarked how wonderfully strange it was that she should have lived to dine in the same room with an Englishman ; for she remembered as a girl, that twice, at the mere cry of "Los lngleses," every soul, carrying what valuables they could, had taken to the mountains. MAY 14Tn.-We reached C9quimbo, where we staid a few days. The town is remarkable for nothing but its extreme quietness. It is said to contain from 6000 to 8000 inhabitants. On the morning of the 17th it rained lightly |