The most remarkable part of this story is that on the day of Salcedo's death the mine became full of water, and the Viceroy was thus disappointed in his expectation of succeeding to the wealth of which he had deprived his victim. This curious coincidence made a great impression on the Indians, which is not yet effaced; and they still point out a small lake or pond that is said to cover the once rich vein or "Veta de la Candelaria." Salcedo's son, the Marquis of Villa Rica, attempted to reach his father's source of wealth by cutting a horizontal adit or _socabon_ in the side of the hill looking on lake Titicaca; and he is said to have penetrated nearly 700 yards, and within sixty yards of his father's perpendicular shaft; but his funds failed him, and he died mad. In spite, however, of the filling up of the "Candelaria," great numbers of other shafts were sunk, and much silver was extracted, both by the Marquis, and by other speculators. A report, dated 1718, mentions as many as forty-six shafts on the hills near Puno, which were then being worked.[138] In 1740 a native company attempted to finish the _socabon_ which had been commenced by the Marquis, but their workmen were unable to cut through the masses of porphyry, and, after vast expense, it was abandoned a second time. From 1775 to 1824 the mines near Puno yielded ores worth 1,786,000 marcs of silver, at seven to nine dollars the marc; the richest year being 1802, when the yield was 52,000 marcs; but since 1816 it has been steadily decreasing, and in 1824, the year after the expulsion of the Spaniards, it had sunk very low. In 1826 the _manto_ mine, to which the socabon leads, which was excavated by the Marquis of Villa Rica, was granted to General O'Brien, a gallant and enthusiastic old Irish hero of South American independence, who resumed the work, but without any success. Mr. Begg, an enterprising English merchant, undertook the completion of the _socabon_ in 1830. He imported expensive machinery from England, employed an intelligent engineer named Patterson, and continued to work the _manto_ mine until 1839. He built himself a house furnished with every English comfort, and lived in very good style; but the speculation was a failure, and he left the country a poor man in 1840, and died in Chile. After the departure of Mr. Begg, some Peruvian speculators continued to work at the same mine, but without any energy; and, at the time of M. de Castelnau's visit in 1845, only thirty workmen were employed.[139] When Lieut. Gibbon, U.S.N., passed through Puno in 1851, the _manto_ was still being worked, but at the time of my visit it had been entirely abandoned since 1858.