46 EARLY COLLECTION OF GOLD CHAP. XVll. 



sufficiently near to the richer countries of Mexico 

 and Peru for some of the precious metals to have 

 been derived from those sources. The streams 

 of their own mountains might have furnished 

 some to even the most negligent searchers; and 

 hence, though it is not possible to read the 

 accounts of that period without some suspicion of 

 exaggeration, yet when we consider the ages that 

 may have passed in collecting gold, there seems 

 less reason to suspect any great mistatement in 

 the relation of the facts. In truth, the whole 

 quantity for the first twenty-five years from the 

 date of the discovery to the possession of Mexico 

 and Peru was very small even if compared with 

 the diminished quantity which then existed in the 

 ancient world. 



Humboldt has estimated the average annual 

 amount of gold and silver which America fur- 

 nished to Europe in the period from 1492 to 1500 

 at about 5%,QQOL sterling 1 . No writer, perhaps, 

 is entitled to more implicit credit for any fact 

 which came within his own knowledge; few de- 

 serve more attention to any estimate which he has 

 formed. In this estimation could only be included 

 that which the natives had collected before the 

 arrival of the Spaniards, for the tribute imposed 

 on the Indians by the successor of Columbus did 



1 Political Essay on New Spain, vol. iii. book iv. cap. xi. 

 p. 433. 



