Hiftorie of the Indies, Jib. 



0//A? qttalitie And nature of the earth where the mettaB? 

 are found, and that all thefe mettalls are not im ployed 

 at the Indies, and how the Indians vfcd them. 

 CHAP. 3. 



Hereafon why there is fo great aboundance of 

 mettalls at the Indies, (cfpecially at the weft of Pe~ 

 ru, aslhavefaide,)' is the will of the Creator, who 

 hath imparted his giftesas itpleafed him. But com- 

 ming to a naturall and philofophicall reafon , it is veiy Th il9 /rf 

 true, which Philonz wife man writes,faying, that gold, Gemf.mttn 



filver, and mettalls , grow naturally in land that is moft 

 Tiarren and^niruitemll. And we fee, that in lattdTof 

 goocTteiupcrature, the which are fertile with grade 

 andfruites, there are feldome found any mines 5 for 

 that Nature is contented to give them vigour to bring Eft u ^ 

 forth fruites more neceflarie for the prefervation and 

 maintenance of the life of beafts and men. And con- 

 trariwife to lands that arc very rough, drie, and barren, 

 (as in the higheft mountains and inacceffible rockes of 

 a rough temper,) theyfmde mines of filvcr,ofquicke- 

 filvcrand of gold,and all thpfe rkhesf which are come 

 into Spaincfiscc thcTWeftj^ 

 been drawne out ot iiich places which arc^rough and 

 full,bare and fruitle(Te:yet the tafte of this mony,makes 

 thefe places pleafing and agreeable, yea, well inhabited 

 with numbers of people. And although there be, as I 

 have faid, many mines of all kinds of mettalls as at the 

 Indies , yet they vfe none but thofeofgold and filver, 

 and as much quicke-filver as is neceflarie to refine their 

 gold and filver. Theycarric yron thither from S faint 

 and China. As for copper, the Indians have drawne 



P2 Of 



