The celebrated mines of Potosi are in the same mountain on which the city is built. This mountain is three miles in circumference, and is of a sharp conical figure, rising to the height of 4360 feet above the plain, and is known by the name of _Hatun Potocsi_; its summit is crowned by a bed of porphyry, which gives it the well defined conical form it possesses. This famous mine has caused the destruction of thousands of human beings, for in the latter end of the 16th century, 15,000 Indians were constantly forced to work in it; but at present, there are not more than 2000 miners, who are well paid, and usually work from choice alone; 15,000 llamas and 15,000 asses, are constantly employed in carrying the ore to the amalgamation works in the city. The mint of Potosi coined in 1790, 299,246 piastres of gold, and 3,293,173 of silver, or 886,620_l._ sterling. From the discovery of these mines, till the year 1803, they have supplied 1,095,500,000 piastres, or 237,358,334_l._ sterling, which has paid the royal duties; and this also only includes silver, consequently the gold and smuggled metals must have swelled the total furnished by the works to a much greater amount. At present, the minerals are poor, and their abundance only causes the Spaniards to work them; but according to Helms, if they were properly managed, they would still produce from twenty to thirty millions of dollars yearly. The mountain is perforated by about 300 rude shafts; and the numerous furnaces which surround it, form at night a very singular spectacle. Potosi is distant from its metropolis, Buenos Ayres, 1873 miles across a road, which for 400 miles, lies over a rocky mountainous country, very difficult to pass. The annual produce of this mountain at present, is not more than five or 600,000 marcs of silver (each marc being two-thirds of a pound). The richest shafts or workings are in the north-side of the mountain, and are named, _La Descubridora_, _Del Estaño_, _La Rica_, and _La Mendieta_, their direction running south. Other causes occasionally conspire to render the vicinity of these mines more populous than the mere riches they contain; as some hot medicinal baths are found here, called Don Diego, to which many people from the neighbouring towns resort; there is also a great concourse of peasants and merchants to the city, to supply it with provisions, &c., with which articles the district around it is totally unprovided. The district of TOMINA begins about eighteen leagues south-east of La Plata, and borders eastward on the _Chiriguanos_, a nation of independent Indians; it is twenty-four leagues in length from north to south, and seventy in circumference, containing a mountainous country, in the valleys of which there are some sugar plantations, and in its higher parts, it feeds large and small cattle and horses. The climate is in general hot, and in some of the valleys excessively so.