[Illustration: EL CHUPIQUIÑA, AN EXTINCT VOLCANO IN TACNA.] [Illustration: A GOLD TRAIN EN ROUTE FROM SANTO DOMINGO TO TIRAPATA WITH BULLION IN BARS.] CHAPTER XXVI MINES OF THE SIERRA AND OTHER REGIONS [Illustration: SCENE AT THE BORAX MINES OF AREQUIPA.] All the world is familiar with stories of the Incas’ splendor and the viceroys’ luxury, based on the enormous riches of Peruvian mines in past centuries. Gold and silver seem to have run in streams of never-failing abundance from the sierras of this wonderful country, their wealth gleaming in temples dedicated to the worship of the Sun in pre-Columbian days and forming a pavement for the footsteps of viceregal princes in the no less flourishing period of colonial Spain. But it is not generally known that the decline of this abundance was due entirely to other causes than an exhaustion of the source of supply, and that the mineral wealth of Peru to-day is, for practical purposes, as great as ever. The progressive spirit of modern enterprise promises to restore the prestige once enjoyed by Peru as the richest mining country of the globe. The natural development of the mining industry was first arrested when repeated uprisings of the Indians interfered with its interests, especially during the latter part of the eighteenth century; and it was still further checked by the war of Independence, which, although it brought the blessings of national freedom, left the country in a condition of political disorder and confusion, with all industry comparatively at a standstill. The young republic had neither funds nor experience adequate to meet the needs of industrial development; and, for many years, political matters held supremacy in the national councils, to the great detriment of trade and financial well-being. But when the effects of constitutional liberty began to be apparent in a more stable government, and the decline of militarism was succeeded by an increasing interest in economic affairs, the nation turned its attention to many sources of wealth that had remained practically unworked for half a century, and the government stimulated this awakening spirit of enterprise by making laws calculated to encourage individual endeavor in every branch of industry. The inauguration of the School of Mines in 1876, and the adoption, the following year, of laws governing mining property so as to ensure perpetual and irrevocable ownership, proved of great importance in promoting the mining interests of the country. Foreign capital was encouraged by the liberal attitude of the Peruvian government to make large investments in mineral lands of the sierra, and from this period date many of the extensive foreign enterprises now established in Peru.