158 AMERICAN MINES. 



CHAP. XXII. 



from 1754 to 1799, the gold and silver which 

 paid the duty on its coinage at Lima amounted 

 to two hundred and forty million four hundred 

 and eight thousand and fifty-eight piastres. If 

 we take double that amount for the whole term, 

 in which there can be no material error, it will be 

 four hundred and eighty million eight hundred 

 and sixteen thousand one hundred and sixteen 

 dollars, or one hundred million one hundred and 

 sixty-nine thousand five hundred and twenty-four 

 pounds sterling. 



Columbia. That part of the former Spanish dominion in 

 America to which the name of the Republic of 

 Columbia has been given, and which comprehends 

 the former viceroyalty of New Granada and the 

 captain-generalship of Carraccas, has never been 

 productive of much silver ; indeed, in the latter 

 periods of the Spanish power, remittances of silver 

 were annually made from Mexico to defray the 

 expenses of the government in Carraccas. 



The western part of this territory has from the 

 first yielded a tolerably regular supply of gold. The 

 whole is the produce of stream-works established 

 in the alluvial districts. Gold veins have been 

 found in the mountains of Guamoco and Antioquia, 

 but their working was almost entirely neglected. 

 According to Humboldt, the gold is the produce 

 of three provinces only, of which the insalubrious 

 district of Choco furnishes one-half, and the re- 

 mainder is supplied in about equal portions by 



