water was the main affair of life.” The reiteration of the legis- lative measures becomes wearisome; townsfolk quarreled with hacendados; hacendados with native Indian cultivators; up- valley with down-valley. On occasion military force had to be called in. Changes were rung on the details of the turno and on the suppression of certain cultivations to the advantage of others. But no permanently effective laws were enacted; the measures were only expedients of the moment. Even the at- tempt of the able Governor O’ Higgins to adjust the water sup- ply on a more equitable basis came to nothing, and his attempt to introduce cotton cultivation likewise failed on account of drought.
While land communications remain poor, progress was made during the eighteenth century in the use of the sea as a high- way. This came largely with the trade opening offered to French ships as a result of the War of the Spanish Succession. The export trade of Copiapó was promoted ; Caldera became a recognized port,[1] although of it could still be written at the close of the eighteenth century, ‘“The arrival of a boat was a novelty, and Caldera, usually devoid of people save Changos, became a scene of excitement. Merchants then repaired to port to receive their merchandise; citizens prepared to buy new goods, foundries despatched bars of metal; officials were in attendance to certify against stolen goods and see that no fugitive nun, wife or runaway son escaped."[2]
The Second Stage: Silver Mining
By the eighteenth century several silver mines were being worked in the Copiapó and Coquimbo districts, though few of them were really profitable. The riches of Potosi and Lipez strengthened the native tradition that silver was generated in the “snowy cordillera,” and this diverted attention away from the sub-Andean zone that was to become the great silver- producing region of Chile. Poor mining methods were re- sponsible for the reckless squandering of the earlier labor sup-
