British exploits in South America; a history of British activities in exploration, military adventure, diplomacy, science, and trade, in Latin American . y thefirst Englishman—I do not know if there has been asecond—born in the shadow of Aconcagua! Numbers of the Cornish miners were occupied in theVenezuelan mines, of which so much was hoped at thebeginning of the nineteenth century. At one of these,the Quebrado Mine, no fewer than three hundred Britishminers and laborers, and artisans were employed. There would seem to be very few of the mountainousmineral nooks of South America into which th
British exploits in South America; a history of British activities in exploration, military adventure, diplomacy, science, and trade, in Latin American . y thefirst Englishman—I do not know if there has been asecond—born in the shadow of Aconcagua! Numbers of the Cornish miners were occupied in theVenezuelan mines, of which so much was hoped at thebeginning of the nineteenth century. At one of these,the Quebrado Mine, no fewer than three hundred Britishminers and laborers, and artisans were employed. There would seem to be very few of the mountainousmineral nooks of South America into which these Cornishminers have not penetrated at some time or two. An epi-sode in support of this is related by Mr. H. C. RossJohnson at a much later date. Writing in 1868, hetells how, when traveling in the very remote Argentineprovince of Catamarca, he quite unexpectedly cameacross a Cornish mine captain and six Cornish foremenminers. They had been engaged for four years, at a temptinglyhigh rate of pay. Their lives must have been monoto-nous in the extreme; for since the date of their arrival atthe spot, three years before Mr. Ross Johnson met with. EARLY TRAVELERS AND TRADERS 263 them, they had not been five miles from the lonely moun-tain mine in which they worked! Although many of the early British travelers suffereddangers and hardship in the passage of the Argentine-Chilean Andes, they were at all events spared a sensa-tion which is related with considerable emphasis by morethan one Englishman who penetrated into the Colombianmountains. These were apt to be carried in a chairstrapped to the back of a powerful native mountaineer,known as a sillero. The experience of these travelers asthey sat like portmanteaus on the backs of the moun-taineers panting across precipices of a sickening depthcould have been no enviable one. It is related that in the course of the War of Independ-ence a Spanish officer, who was being carried in this way,caused himself no little brutal amusement
Size: 956px × 2616px
Photo credit: © The Reading Room / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, booksubjectsouthamericahistory
