well adapted to the constitution of the Indians, who flock to these mountain districts with their families, on the report of any new discovery, and appear to thrive there as well as upon the Table-land. There are particular tribes of Natives, who have been miners from generation to generation, and who lead a roving life, migrating, with their wives and children, from one district to another, as they are attracted by the fame of superior riches. A mine in Bonanza, in whatever part of the country it may be situated, is sure of a sufficient supply of workmen, because the system of payment by Partido, (a share in the ore raised,) which is usually resorted to upon such occasions, is always preferred to regular wages, however high, for dead works. It was by employing liberally this powerful incitement to exertion, that the Old Spaniards found means to create a population in the most distant and desolate districts, without having recourse to the Mita or Tanda, which, in Peru and Chili, was in such general use; while it is not improbable, that the absence of that system of forced labour, which was adopted South of the Equator, has contributed not a little to encourage that love of mining, which prevails at the present day, amongst the natives of New Spain. Far from looking upon it with dread or repugnance, they regard it as their natural occupation, and appear to feel, in many parts of the country, a sovereign contempt for the agricultural population, which is reduced to vegetate upon a scanty daily pittance, without a
