CHAP. XXV. COLUMBIA. 



industry yields rich returns; and on good au- 

 thority we are assured that, " Lands which were 

 formerly only occupied for the purpose of gold 

 washing, have been converted into the rich fields 

 of Rio Negro, Medillin, and Antoquia, where 

 scarcely any persons now occupy themselves with 

 gold washing." The river washing is at present 

 the most extensively practised. The sand at the 

 bottom of the rivers abounds in particles of gold 

 and platina ; but this labour is attended with 

 little profit. It is carried on by an indolent 

 mixed race of independent peasants, who have 

 few wants, and who, by some exertion and oc- 

 casional success, gain sufficient to subsist on very 

 scanty resources. According to the reports which 

 are entitled to most credit, the chief supply of 

 gold has been derived from this kind of labour, 

 but the representations of its quantity are liable to 

 much exaggeration ; and the accounts transmitted 

 to Europe having been mostly written under the 

 excitement of the temporary mining mania which 

 prevailed a few years ago, should be received with 

 great doubt, and believed with great hesitation. 



We know, generally, that gold and silver in 

 Columbia, as in other parts of South America, 

 only circulate when converted into coin ; that the 

 interest of money in the form of coin is very high, 

 according to several accounts from one to two per 

 cent, per month with the best security, and that 



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