Star.
London, England, 1820-09-30 00:00:00

CUJZOE ISLAYD.S.

THE GOVERNOR 01 CHILOE TO THE VICEROY OF PERU..
" San Carlos de Chiloe, Sleds Feb. 18110.
" The garrison of this place has j..st given ru 7.':ationa
proof of its readiness and valour, and the Insurp.ciais
of their folly in seeking to subjugate this Provinc... T;i.. capture
of Valdivia, by Cocitraneilea them to suppose they engin eat*,
obtain possession of this Port, with suds weak fortiticattom trail
so small a garrison. On the 14th a schooner hove in sight,
on the inch was joined by a frigate. The followiug night 41. y
landed men to the north of Guachucuroy Point. Owii•g to dis-
tance, this landing could not be prevented by the Crown
in consequence of which it was thought most advisable in aloes-
don. this position, and withdraw to the fort of Aguy. trbitliee
the enemy soon advanced. In Agny I had posted three infantry
companies and a few artillerymen. A deserter informed me tins
enemy amounted to :aOO men, the same who liad captured
divia, where they had kft a garrison of only men.
" At twelve I was colketing the party I had here, a
view to join those at Aguy, or send Comma:ldant Garcia Gm
the rear of the enemy, and completely cut off his let:a.o, aid
prevent his re-embarkation. latter movement was,
ever, tardy; the enemy could not any longer withs.a..e the
keavy fire kept up against him from the fort and a gull-biro see:
tioued near. This, and a sortie made by part ut th • garrisitz.
of the battery with fixed bayonets, under the c.ouniai d of
Lieutenants Raii° and Calvert, obliged him to cloast train: kin
enterprise, and put him in disordered flight, leaving behb.si
20 killed, 40 muskets 17 prisoners, &e. lie :lad ;sr% viou4y gut
off his wounded, aid among them their commander, ter,,
second to Cochrane, who remained on ship-board. The
of wounded could not be ascertained, but it must have b.e. con-
siderable, owing to the many traces of blood which wet e noileeds.
particularly at the point where they re-embarked.
" As soon as Commandant Garcia arrived, he pursued thews.
but they were re-embarked under covet of he v.:is of the De-
lores and Montezuma, anchored ne .r the land, inuitediai. le •et-
tins sail, without waiting to coilect VI the nu iib,rs v 1..1, dis-
persed in the woods. Their killed, wounded, sed,
amount to half their number ; and if the sailing o.
had only been delayed two km, s they wouiv. i..evitably
have fallen into our hauds, for I was rr:•pared to board then
with the sou-boats I had but ready. On our pai twe had ;Erase
wounded. The frigate Isabel struck on coming out of 'Laic i-
ivano, they grounded at Valdivia, and are ii r.
brig Intrepid is also grounded there, without any ki..;•es
getting her off, (Ice. (Signed)
" ANTONIO DE QUINTANTL! f.).
Mere follows the Report of the Commando !t o, • .•••••
of Aguy, relating to the same affair. It states that C!•:guts
rockets were fired without any effect.l

THE SILVER-MINES OF PERU.

The Lima Gazettes and private letters that we have-
received to the end of May last, si.eak in very fa-
vourable terms of the progress now rn.king in the
mining speculations carried on there, with the it**
sistance of individuals from this country. A leer
years ago, a cargo of steam-engines and other ma-
chinery was shipped for Lima, for the purpwe of
draining the mines of Pasco, in the neighbourhood
of that City. This great work, it appears, is now
nearly accomplished, and chiefly through the inde-
fatigable perseverance and public spirit of Doa
PEDRO ABADIA and his friends, who have since pa-
tronised another undertaking, of equal, and, per-
haps, greater importance, that of smelting the hard
ores, whose composition resists the process of amal-
gamation, and which, on this account, have, till now,
been considered useless, the art of smelting having
been hitherto unknown in that country. On the sub-
ject of these undertakings, the Lima Gazette of the
25th November expresses itself as follows :
" Establishments of this kind will doubth ss repair the innu-
merable evils which the Revolution has produced in all parts;
and that of Pasco would have already accomplished this, if the
difficulties attendant upon an undertaking so new to this country,
and the death of some of the foreigners employed in it, had not
retarded its prorrets. In spite of these obstacles, the under-
taking has been extremely beneficial to the kingdom, since all
the metal produced in the last and present year has been ex-
tracted from mines that have been drained by the two engines of
Santa Rosa and Yanacancha. Now that, through the skill and
activity of the new English engineer, not only is the draining of
these two points continued without interruption, but the cone
effect is about to take place in those of Caya and the rich Yauri-
cocha, we cannot but think that the original expectations, which
had begun to abate, will now be very soon realised. (hi a hp,
cure occasion we shall, perhaps, give some detail of the present
state of this concern, whose progress has been so favourable in
these last months, that there is now a certainty of the Company's
being shortly reimbursed the enormous expenses they have sus-
tained in carrying it into effect.
" In addition to the great advantages expected from the Caro
de Pasco, we have the satisfaction of knowing that this is not
the only point in which at the present day the mines are rendered
more productive than formerly. The Smelting Establishment
at Pauli, projected by Mr. Robert Page, and adopted by
Messrs. Abadia and Arismendi, promises equal, if not superior
results to those of the steam-engines, however great they may be.
This new method of extracting the silver, if at all times it would
have been useful to the kingdom, has now become absolutely ne-
cessary, from the interruption attending the ancient method, is
the 'earthy of mules, quicksilver, and salt. From the advantage
it possesses cf rendering useful those ores which before were
considered of no value, it may be foreseen that, in a short time,
industry and prosperity will revive in the many mines which ars
now abandoned, on account of their owners not having been able
to avail themselves of the riches they possess."
The last Lima letters contain some details which do
not appear in the Gazettes ; they mention that in the
steam-engine concern the improvement had been so
great, that the contribution to the Company, which
in the month of July of last year did not exceed 200
cargoes or mule loads of ore per month, had in-
creased in the month of November following to up-
wards of 1500 cargoes weekly; and from the smelt-
ing works it appears that the first plate of silver was
received at Lima in the month of February last, and
that its arrival had given the greatest satisfaction to
the Government and the Public, in whom its success
had excited hopes of very extensive future advan-
tages. Among these are some which were not ant:-
cipated, even by the authors of it, in the great saving
of human life—that it will prevent many hundreds
(perhaps thousands) of the Indians perishing yearly
from the effluvia emitted by some of these ores, in the
miserable and inefficient attempts to render them
available.
Extract of a letter from St. Thomas's, dated the
Ist of August:—" Business remains in the same de-
pressed state as when I wrote you last, and but little
prospect of its revival: a great number of vessels are
here from the United States, and the stock of flour en
hand is very considerable. His Majesty's frigate Tat-
DUNE arrived here a few days ago, with a fleet of
Spanish merchantmen under convoy, from Laguira.
The Patriot cruizers continue their depredations in
this quarter, and have become very troublesome and
insulting, particularly to the American flag : several
vessels from America have been plundered by them:
—there is no protection for our commerce :—many
of the cruizers have no commissions, and the crews
made up of all nations, an object which ought to sti-
mulate Government to send some armed vessels here,
as well as to suppress the Slave Trade, which is car-
ried on to a great extent, and appears to bid de-
' fiance to all vigilance. Lumber, naval stores, India
goods, 8• rx are very abundant, and no Wes for them.'