382 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 102 



profit in taking it out. The pulperos, i.e., the tavern keepers, keep 

 bribing and cheating the Indians in order to get their pouches of 

 gold dust ; there is a lot of deceit in this, and His Majesty is defrauded 

 of his royal 20 percent, for there is nobody who will not practice 

 this form of cheating. 



1134. The town and all this region have a hot climate, and there 

 are no trees ; the whole country is rough, full of ridges and ravines. 

 It is well supplied with provisions and merchandise, for in their 

 eagerness for gold, they bring in from Cuenca and other points flour, 

 ham, cheese, etc., for all flock to where this metal occurs, so much 

 sought after and pursued by all the human race. 



1135. The Corregidor of Loja appoints an Alcalde Mayor for 

 this mining camp, for the administration of justice and the allotment 

 of the Indians who come for their mita (forced service) in the 

 mines from the Province of Los Cafiares and other points, giving 

 each miner the number designated by the warrant he holds or the 

 number falling to him by the repartimiento (assignment of Indians.) 

 These mines are at 3° 30' S. The layout of the mills is like those 

 in the silver mines except that they differ in the grinding ; these have 

 a box with a stream of water flowing through it, in which they dump 

 the ore, so that the ore is in water ; there they macerate it with steel 

 hammers ; they have a thick, fine screen through which the clay and 

 mud are carried out ; the ore being heavier stays ; then they let the 

 water and mud and some ore run through a brick-laid channel to 

 a tank where the gold, being heavier, sinks to the bottom and the 

 muddy water runs off. Then when they have crushed their quota of 

 quintals assigned to each mill, they run the water off from the tank 

 and unite and amalgamate the metal with quicksilver, and after the 

 union and amalgamation they squeeze it under great pressure and 

 get the quicksilver out and smelt the residue. That is the way they 

 handle this precious metal in these mines. In the neighborhood there 

 are a few farms and cattle and hog ranches. It is 60 leagues from 

 the port of Paita. 



Chapter XVIII 



Continuing the Description of the Circuit Court of Quito, and the 

 City of Zamora and the Provinces of Zaguarzongo. 



1136. The city of Zamora is in the Corregimiento of Loja, from 

 which it is 20 leagues distant, to the E., and on the other side of the 

 Cordillera ; this is the watershed, some streams running W. to the 

 Pacific, like those which pass near Loja, and others to the Atlantic, 



