I had heard the story of the Indian hunter, and fancied that silver in Potosi was almost as abundant as common earth. When I reached the mines, however, I found the fact to be otherwise. The openings to these mines are small holes, which are entered by getting down upon the hands and knees. In this manner, you crawl along for a number of yards, when the space widens, and you are able to stand upright. There are a great many of these shafts, and some of them penetrate to a considerable distance into the bowels of the mountain. The silver ore is found in veins, and in following these, the miners have wrought out irregular winding caverns, sometimes ascending, and again descending. They work by blasting the rock with gunpowder. The ore, thus broken off, is carried out in the leather aprons of the workmen. Most persons have no other than pleasant ideas in regard to silver; but if they could see the miserable Indians toiling in the mines, shut out from the light of day, grimed with soot and gunpowder, and haggard from the want of pure air, and all to obtain this precious metal, they would ever after feel that even this is purchased at almost too dear a rate. I was not a little shocked and disgusted to observe the severe and painful toil required at the mines. After the ore is obtained, it is broken into pieces about the size of a hen’s egg. It is then put into a mill, and reduced to powder. In this state, it is mixed with salt and quicksilver, and remains fifteen days. By this time the silver has become mixed with the quicksilver. The earthy particles are then washed away, and the silver is separated from the quicksilver by squeezing. Such is the laborious process of mining; yet, notwithstanding the severe nature of the occupation, I found the wages to be but fifteen cents a day. The urgency of the case conquered my feelings, and I agreed that Balbo should go to work the next day. This he accordingly did, and I found that, by the utmost economy, we could both of us subsist upon his earnings. I was now at leisure to pursue my inquiries in relation to the object of my journey. It is unnecessary to detail the careful investigation that I made, or to say with what anxiety I pursued my search. I may sum up the whole in stating that my uncle was not in Potosi, and that if he had ever been there, he had removed to some other part of the country at least three years before.