Of the riches in Porco, and how there are large veins of silver near that town.

IT appears from what the Indians now say that, in the times when the Kings Yncas governed this kingdom of Peru, they obtained a great quantity of silver from some parts of this province of Charcas, and Indians were stationed there, who gave the metal to the overseers or their deputies.[509] In the hill of Porco, which is near the town of Plata, there were mines out of which the Indians got silver for their lords. Much of the silver which was in the temple of the sun, called Ccuri-cancha, is said to have been taken from this hill, and the Spaniards have also got a great deal out of it. In the present year a mine belonging to the captain Hernando Pizarro has been cleaned out, which was worth more than two hundred thousand pesos of gold every year. Antonio Alvarez, an inhabitant of this town, showed me, in the City of the Kings, a little ore taken from this hill of Porco, which appeared to be nearly all silver. In short, Porco was in former times extremely rich, and is so still, and it may be believed that it always will be. In many neighbouring hills, within the jurisdiction of this town of Plata, rich mines of gold and silver have been found. It may be held for certain that there is so much of this metal that if there were those to seek and extract it, they would get little less than, in the province of Biscay, they get iron. But as it must be got out by Indians, and as the country is too cold for Negroes, there are reasons enough why such great wealth is lost. I have also to say that in some parts of the district belonging to the town of Plata there are rivers which bring down very fine gold. In the Chichas, villages given in encomienda to Hernando Pizarro, and subject to this town, it is said that there are some silver mines; and great rivers rise in the Andes, near which, if gold mines were sought for, I hold that they would be found.[510]