52 CENTRAL AMERICA. 



long, very long ere they are worked once 

 more. 



The difficulty of finding a pair of grinding 

 stones and renewing them when worn ; cut- 

 ting them, transporting them through track- 

 less forests, and making a mill to turn them ; 

 together with the want of quicksilver, and 

 the treachery of the government would prove 

 too much for the most enterprising; but 

 there is a fair quantity of gold collected in 

 Central America, although in such a way 

 that it does not speak much for the industry 

 of the upper and middle classes, who might 

 organise a better mode of working. 



Some adventurers, generally of the very 

 lowest class both in manners and morals, 

 proceed to the auriferous streams, that run 

 through the south part of the Honduras 

 nearest to Segovia, for two or three months 

 during the dryest part of the year, and when 

 the rains have entirely subsided. Their bag- 

 gage is very light and easily carried on a 

 donkey or half-starved mule, for they only 

 provide each for himself and his female help- 

 mate, a small load of Indian corn, barely 

 enough for the pair ; some tobacco, a small 

 stone for grinding the corn, an earthen pan 

 or two, a hatchet, and a small leathern bag 



