Among the Library of Congress collections about the Andean region are that of Potosí, the largest of the South American silver mines, and easily one of the most famous mines in the Americas. With observations on the inhabitants, as well as Indians and Spaniards the cities, commerce, fertility, and riches of that part of America (1698), by Acarete du Biscay, who recounts his experience in South America.

The quote that opens this story is part of the book, An account of a voyage up the river de la Plata, and thence over land to Peru. The best and finest Silver in all the Indies, is that of the Mines of Potosi, the principal of which are found in the Mountain of Aranzasse, where besides the prodigious quantities of Silver that have been taken out of Veins, in which the Mettal evidently appear’d, there is almost as great quantities of it found in places where they had not digg’d before… (1698, p. Please check back at the end of the week for the second part of Pamela’s research project. This is a two-part blog post by Pamela Padilla, 2022 Summer participant in the Library of Congress Internship (LOCI) program with the Hispanic Reading Room, and a Library Science and History graduate student at Queens College, City University of New York.

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