BOOK II. CHAP. XI. 241 



pound weight: and this way of procuring gold is juftly thought 

 far more profitable than digging for it in the mines. In Popayan, 

 the procefs is very little different. They fl:ir and dilute the mafs 

 in the bafons till the mofl ponderous parts, as little flones, fand, and 

 gold, remain at the bottom. They then go into the bafon, with 

 wooden buckets, made for the purpofe, in which they take up the 

 fediment; then moving them circularly and uniformly, at the fame 

 time changing the waters, the lefs ponderous parts are feparated ; 

 and at laft the gold remains at the bottom of the buckets, clear 

 from all mixture. It is generally found in grains, as fmall as thofe 

 of fand, and, for that reafon, called oro en po ho ; though fome- 

 t'lmes pep/fas, or feeds, are found among ft it, of different lizes ; but 

 generally they are fmall. The water ifluing from the firft bafon is 

 flopped in another, contrived a little beneath it, where it undergoes 

 the like operation, in order to fecure any minute particles, which, 

 from their extreme tenuity, might be carried off by the current of 

 water, mixed with earth and other fubftances: and, laftly, this 

 water is palled into a third bafon ; but the favings here are generally 

 inconfiderable. The labourers mofl commonly ufed are Negroe- 

 flaves; and whilfl: fome are bufied in wafhing, others bring earth ; 

 lb that the wafhers are kept in continual employment. The finenefs 

 of this gold is generally of twenty-two carats ; fometimes more, 

 even to twenty-three ; fometimes indeed it is under, but very fel- 

 dom below twenty-one [/?>]. 



There is no doubt but, by a long courfe of praftice, the Spa- 

 niards have made feveral improvements upon the original Indian 

 procefs, which was more fimple and tedious. The Rio Minho, 

 in Clarendon parifh, has by fome been fuppofed to derive its name 

 from the Minho in Portugal. Others imagine it was fo called from 

 fome mine in its neighbourhood, known to the Spanifh inhabitants ; 

 and 1 think there is ground for this conjeflure; for, a few years ago, 

 one of thefe lavaderos was difcovered 01* its bank at Longville 

 plantation, in that parifh, which flill remains tolerably perfedl. 

 Here is a terraffed platform, with feveral bafons chifleled out of 

 rock; the interftices being filled up, here and there, with a very 

 hard cement, or mortar, to render the furface fmooth. Joined to 



[/^] Ulloa. 



Vol. II. I i this 



