418 ^« Account of the Discovery 



In the autumn of 1810, I discnvered near Bahia a spring of 

 water strongly iniprctj^nated with iron, which was esteemed a 

 most valuable acquisition in that country. This circumstance 

 called to the recollection of the goverinnent, that, about thirty 

 years before, information had been received of the discovery of 

 certain thermal springs, situated at the distance of forty or fifty 

 leagues to the northward ; and :is His Ro\?.l Highness the Prince 

 Regent of Portugal had inquired, during his stay at Bahia, 

 whether the country possessed any thermal waters, 1 was re- 

 quested to visit the spot where they were supposed to exist. 

 The governor-general offered me every facility and protection ; 

 and in order to induce me to undertake the journey, some of 

 my friends described to me an extraordinary stone which had 

 been found still further up the country, in the same direction. 

 It had been supposed to be silver or iron, or that ferruginous 

 agglomeration so common in Brasil, which often envelopes gold, 

 and I believe sometimes diamonds. On the other hand, some 

 persons who pretended to have seen it, asserted that it was not 

 a mass of any metal, but had only the metallic sound on being 

 struck, common to numerous blocks of stone in the same neigh- 

 bourhood, called by the inhabitants " serpent stones," in con- 

 sequence of their exfoliating by decomposition at the surface. 

 As the serpent casts his skin yearly, so they suppose these stones 

 to do. 



Some account of the discovery of this extraordinary mass had 

 been given to the government of Bahia, and through the in- 

 spector-general of the militia, a man of great talents and con- 

 siderable learning, I obtained a sight of the papers on the sub- 

 ject existing at the Government-house. On reading them, I was 

 decidedly of opinion, that the mass described was native or me- 

 teoric iron, and I determined to go to see it. But before I relate 

 my own observations, I will give vou the substance of the notes 

 which I took out of those jjapers. 



In the year 178^, a man of the name of Bernardino da Mota 

 Botelho, while looking after his cattle, noticed the block in 

 question, as being different from all the other stones on the spot, 

 and informed the governor-general of the province of Bahia of 

 his observation. His excellency immediately ordered the head 

 man of a neighbouring village, that is to say, at the distance of 

 near fifty leagues, to go and examine it. He did so, and re- 

 ported very marvellous things, calling the mass sometimes iron, 

 and sometimes stone, but giving to understand that it contained 

 gold and silver. The governor-general commanded him, in 

 consequence, to have it conveyed to Bahia. This man returned 

 to the spot, and after having excavated round the block, so as 

 to be able to get the ends of four powerful levers under it, he 



contrived 



