306 Statistical Account of 



and this will be a true method of preventing these nations from 

 niassacriog tlteir prisoners of war, as the king ofDahomet does 

 at the present moment. May our feeble voice on this subject 

 reach the ear of royalty ! 



LVII. Statistical Account of the Quicksilver Mines of Idria in 

 Illyria. By M. Payssk, Siiperinlendant of the Mamfac- 

 iiire (f Mercuiial Product ions*. 



JL HE authors who have written upon Idria, and among whom 

 we may reckon Walter Pope, Edward Prown, Walvasor, Fre- 

 derick Stampfer, Scopoli, Ferber and Hacquet, are generally 

 agreed as to the aera of the discovery of this mine, which they 

 date in 149/. 



It is said that towards the end of the thirteenth century the 

 valley and basin of Idria were covered with wood ; that the si- 

 tuation had a savage appearance, two peasants only having hnts 

 there, and which were even far distant from each other. 



One of these peasants, who we are told was a kind of cooper, 

 having one day placed a tub under a spring of water which 

 issued from the hillock on which the church of St. Trinity has 

 sul)scquently been erected, found at the bottom of the vessel, 

 when he emptied it, some globules of a white metallic substance, 

 which struck him with astonishment. On returning home he 

 collected this substance, and carried it to a jeweller in the little 

 town of Bischofflaach, about four leagues off. The jeweller, 

 having ascertained that the substance v/as mercury, employed 

 every method of knowing from the peasant the place where he 

 found it : but neither promises nor rewards could induce hiui to 

 reveal his secret. 



What the je\7el!er could not cftect was obtained by a peasant 

 named Cazian Auderhn, who promised to assist the discoverer 

 as a partner in working the mine. In fact, these two peasants 

 began their researche:? ; and being contented with some very slight 

 excavations in the schistous soil which contained the metal, they 

 soon ceased to find the mercury in a native state^and they aban- 

 doned their labours. 



Already, however, some peasants in the neighbourhood had 

 become acquainted v\Tth the labours of our two miners; and 

 scarcely had the latter desisted, when the former, guided by 

 views of interest, united, and undertook digging in their turn : but 

 being as ignorant as those who preceded them as to the nature 

 of the bodies with v/hich the mercury was united in the bowels 



*' Annates dtCliimk, tome xci. p. 161. 



of 



