POTOSI, a city of Bolivia, capital of the department of Potosi, 47 m. S.W. of Sucre, or 106 m. by the post-road. Pop. (1932, est.), 35,900. Potosi stands on a barren terrace on the northern slope of the Cerro Gordo de Potosi, 13,612 ft. above sea-level, and is one of the highest towns in the world. The famous cerro from which its name is taken rises above the town to a height of 15,381 ft., a barren, white-capped cone, honeycombed with mining shafts. The foundation of the city dates from 1547, two years after the first discovery of silver on the cerro by an Indian herder. Charles V. conferred upon it the title of "villa imperial." From 1545 to i800 the crown tax of one-fifth upon the mineral product amounted to £32,600,000, showing an acknowledged output of L163,000,000. The total output to 1864 has been estimated at more than £400,000,000, but the annual output at the beginning of the 20th century barely exceeded 400,00o oz. The town is regularly laid out with streets crossing each other at right angles. The age-begrimed buildings many of which are unoccupied and in ruins, are commonly of adobe. A large plaza forms the con ventional centre, around which are grouped various religious edi fices, the government house, town hall, national college, the old "royal mint" dating from 1585, and the treasury. The city has a massive, plain cathedral, which in part dates from early colonial times, and in part from the closing years of Spanish rule. The
water supply is derived from reservoirs constructed during the years of the city's greatest prosperity. Potosi, long accessible from the outside world only by rough mountain roads, now has rail con nection with Rio Mulato on the Antofagosta-Bolivia line and an additional railway is under construction to Sucre. In 1611 the population of Potosi was reported to be 160,000, which probably included the whole mining district. A part of the diminution since then is explained by the fact that the great majority of the mines on the cerro were abandoned. In recent years valuable deposits of tin have been found and many of the mines have re-opened. POTOTAN, a municipality (with administration centre and 62 barrios or districts) of the province of Iloilo, island of Panay, Philippine Islands, on the Jaluar river, and located along the railway, about 17 m. N.E. of Iloilo, the provincial capital. Pop. (1918), 25,869. The principal industries are the cultivation of sugar, corn, rice, tobacco and aback and the breeding of cattle, carabao and horses. In 1918, it had three sugar mills; and 105 household industry establishments with outputs valued at 21,900 pesos. Of the 14 schools, 12 were public. The language spoken is a dialect of Bisayan.