196 PRE-COLUMBIAN COPPER-MINING 



"The uiinerall they say is Wassader which is copper, but they call 

 by the name of wassader every mettall whatsoever; they say it is of 

 the colour of our copper, but our copper is better than theirs, and the 

 reason is for that it is redder and harder, whereas, that of Chauuis 

 Temoatan is very soft and pale. - - - Of this mettall the Man- 

 goaks have so great store, by report of all the savages adjoining, that 

 they beautify their houses with great i)lates of tlie same." Chauuis 

 Temoatan, or the mineral country, was said to be twenty days' journey 

 from the Mangoaks. 



This account contains a variation of the descrii)tion given the French 

 twenty years before, of washing or panning out, but in the English 

 account there is a distinct reference to melting or smelting. The Indi- 

 ans told Lane that after the material from the stream was caught in a 

 bowl it was "cast into a lire, and forthwith it melteth, and doeth yield 

 in live parts at the first melting, two parts of mettall for three parts of 

 oare." It is impossible to understand this statement as it stands. It 

 may ]»ossibly have referred to the use of fire in getting out the mica, or 

 may have been a tradition of some Spanish operations obscured by 

 time and confused by interpretation. The story survived into the next 

 century. The English, however, did not see this operation, nor did 

 they see any " greate plates" of copper. The 0]ily things of the kind 

 were small, probably like those found in graves and mounds. "An 

 hundred and fifty miles into the maine," Lane continues, " in two towns 

 we saw divers small plates of copper, that had been made, as we under- 

 stood, by the inhabitants that dwell further into the country, where, as 

 they say, are mountains and rivers that yield also white grains of 

 mettall wijich is to be deemed silver." If the Indians had possessed 

 large plates the English would doubtless have seen them as well as the 

 small, and some of them would have turned up before now, as the 

 smaller ones have, in graves. 



That extensive mines really existed in the region indicated by the 

 Indians, which produced a peculiar mineral in abundance, Avill appear 

 when we put together the Spanish, French, and English accounts of the 

 rumored mineral wealth and the region from which it came, and com- 

 pare them with the results of modern discovery. The Spaniards were 

 after gold, and learned, as they believed, that it was to be found in the 

 Appalachians, because when they asked after a country rich in mineral 

 they were referred there. Laudonniere sx)eaks of a singular mineral 

 which was sent to him, which occurred in plates and was found in the 

 ApiJalachians, together with "christal" and slate stone; and Kalph 

 Lane hears of a "marvellous and strange" mineral which occurred in 

 large plates with which the Indians adorned their houses. The mine, he 

 says, was " notorious" in the M^liole country, and was in the mountains 

 to the west of Ivoanoke, This mineral, which was not copper or any 

 ore of copper, occurring in large plates which were paler and softer 

 than copper, was undoubtedly mica, and the ancient mines Avhich were 



