CHAP. XVIII. OF SOUTH AMERICA. 61 



Besides those mines in Peru which have been 

 already noticed in the period immediately follow- 

 ing the discovery, and which continued in activity 

 during this second period, some others were 

 opened, though upon a small scale, at Huantajayo 

 and Porco, within that viceroyalty. Chili, in this 

 period, came into the possession of the Spaniards, 

 and the products of that district, chiefly consisting 

 of gold, augmented the supply. Antioquia, as 

 well as Choco, furnished some gold as early as 

 1539, and continued to do so from the time of 

 the conquest to a late period. The greatest pro- 

 duce of gold and silver, even in that day, was 

 from the Mexican mines ; some of the most rich 

 were in this period in a state of activity, though far 

 inferior in the quantity they yielded to the point 

 they had reached in the course of the two follow- 

 ing centuries, when the supply of quicksilver 

 became more abundant and was more extensively 

 employed in the process of amalgamation. Brazil 

 in the hands of the Portuguese, at the same time, 

 had employed the natives and some negro slaves 

 in washing for gold ; the quantity thus procured 

 cannot be accurately ascertained. There is only 

 the statement of Raynal on the subject, and none 

 of his accounts are entitled to credit, unless sup- 

 ported by some better authority, which in this 

 case he has not furnished. 



In the estimation of the quantity of gold and 

 silver added to the previous stock, which in 1546 



