"I always told you that the fire-place _in the boiler_ was large enough for coal, but not for wood, and desired you to put it under it. The boiler is strong enough and large enough to work the engine thirty strokes per minute, with 30 lbs. of steam to the inch. I hope to leave Cornwall for Lima about the end of this month, and go by way of Buenos Ayres, and cross over the continent of South America, because I cannot get a passage; none of the South Sea whalers will engage to take me to Lima, they say that they may touch at Lima or they may not, in the whole course of their voyage; therefore, unless I give them an immense sum of money for my passage, they will not engage to put me on shore at Lima, and for me to risk a passage in that way, and to be brought back again to England after two years' voyage, without seeing Lima, would be a very foolish trip; therefore to make a certainty, I shall take the first ship for Buenos Ayres, preparations for which I have already made."[126] [Footnote 126: Unfinished rough draft of letter by Trevithick.] The whole of the machinery having been sent off, Trevithick was prepared to make his way across the then little-known continent of South America in its broadest part, from Buenos Ayres to Cerro de Pasco.[127] His departure was deferred from various causes until the 20th October, 1816, when he sailed from Penzance in the South Sea whaler 'Asp,' Capt. Kenny. [Footnote 127: See Trevithick's letter, December 9th, 1815, vol. ii., p. 31.] [Illustration: PENZANCE IN OLDEN TIME. [W. J. Welch.]] "DEAR SIR, "PENZANCE, _20th August, 1817_. "I am enabled to furnish you with a few particulars which led to the introduction of steam-engines into Spanish America, which you will embody into your interesting paper for our next Geological meeting, as you deem most proper. "Captain Trevithick was born in Illogan, Cornwall, 1771, but he has generally resided at Camborne, the adjoining parish. He has devoted the greatest part of his life to mechanics and to improvements in the high-pressure steam-engine, and many engines of Captain Trevithick's construction are now working in different parts of England. "Mr. Francisco Uville, a native of Switzerland, visited Lima and the rich Peruvian mines in the neighbourhood of Lima, at an early age, and being a gentleman of great intelligence, he thought it possible that the silver mines at Pasco, about 150 miles from Lima, which were fast falling into decay for want of machinery to drain the water, might be restored to their former celebrity by the introduction of steam-engines.