A56 A VOYAGE TO Book VI. 



The whole country of Pallactanga, in the juris- 

 diction of the town of Rio Bamba, is full of mines of 

 gold and silver; and the whole jurisdiction abounds 

 with them to such a degree, that one person with 

 whom I was acquainted in that town, and M'ho, by 

 his civilities to us and the French academicians, 

 seemed to have a soul suitable to his opulence, had 

 entered, on his own account, at the mine-office of 

 Quito, eighteen veins of gold and silver, and all of 

 a good quality. The ore of one of these veins, by 

 the miners called negrillos, being assayed at Lima, in 

 1728, it appeared, from a certificate of Don Juan 

 Antonio de la INIota Torres, that it produced eighty 

 marks of silver per chest ; a very astonishing circum- 

 stance, the usual produce in rich mines being only 

 eight or ten marks per chest, each chest containing 

 fifty quintals of ore. This is the case of Potosi and 

 Lipes, which, after the expence of carrying the ore 

 to other places, in order to its being refined, and other 

 charges, not only answers them all at ten marks per 

 chest, but the surplus is then ver}^ considerable. There 

 are likewise other mines where, after being refined, a 

 chest yields only five or six marks of silver, and in some 

 only three ; which yet will bear the expence of refi- 

 ning, being in a cheap country, where great numbers 

 of people are willing to work for low wages. Be- 

 sides the riches contained in the mountains belong- 

 ing to the jurisdiction of Cuenca, though this rests 

 only on an old Indian tradition, several mines have 

 lately been discovered and worked, but not with the 

 care requisite to reap all the advantages they offer. 

 One of these was in the district of Alausi, at about 

 six leagues from a plantation called Susna ; the 

 owner of which, during the intervals of rural la- 

 bour, used to employ his Indians and Negroes in 

 taking out the ore, which he found to be very rich : 

 but, for want of a sufficient fund to prosecute this 

 1 work, 



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