272 A VOYAGE TO Book Vlli. 



fanv; qnarrer, but farth^T ro the northward along 

 the Cordillera, are alio ricii gold mines, and the mrtal 

 twenty-three carats fine. In 17 lo, in the mountains 

 of Lun-'panqui near the Cordillera, were difcovered 

 mines of gold, filver, copper, lead, tin. and iron, the 

 gold between twenty-one and twenty two carats fine j 

 but the working from the hardnefs of the flone, where, 

 according to the miner's phrafe, *' the metal arms," 

 was very difficult and laborious. This inconvenience 

 does not however occur in the mountain Llaoin, where 

 the none is fofr, and not lefs rich in metal, equal in 

 fineneis to the former. Befides die^e there are other 

 gold mines, worked with good fuccefs at Tiltil, near 

 Santiago. 



Betwixt Quillota and Valparaifo, in a part called 

 Ligua, is a very rich gold mine, and the meial greatly 

 efieemed. Coquimbo, Cap'.apo, and Guafco, have 

 alfo gold mir^es, and the n.etal found in the two laft, 

 is, by way of pre-eminence, called Oro Capote, being 

 the moil valuable of any yet difcovered. Another 

 kind of mines of the fame metal has alfo been found 

 in this kingdom i but thefe were exhaufted almoft as 

 foon as they were opened. Mines of this kind arc 

 very common, as well as another kind called Lava- 

 deros *, moft of which are between Valparaifo and 

 Las Pennuelas, and about a league from the former. 

 Some of them are alfo found at Yapel, on the fron- 

 tiers of the wild Indians, and near Conception. Thefe, 

 together with the others known in this kingdom, 

 yield gold duft. Somcrimes indeed lumps of gold 

 cf confidcrable magnitude are found; and the hopes 

 of difcovcring thefe animate many to work the 

 mines. 



* Tl-.efe Lavaderos are pits dug in the angles of ravins or trenches 

 made by rain, and in which it is imagined there may be gold, and 

 iii order to diÍTover the mnal, a lirCini cf water is turned through 

 it, and the earth briik'y Ipread, that the gold may be carried down 

 W'iih the currcit, and dcpofiied in the pits. 



6 All 



