248 MINES IN COLUMBIA. CHAP. xxv. 



it will give a result different from the views we 

 have formed, it may be admitted at least as fair 

 and candid, though it may somewhat over-state the 

 actual produce. We assume, then, that the twelve 

 years yielded on an average six hundred and sixty- 

 one thousand four hundred and forty-eight dollars, 

 or the whole twenty years thirteen million two 

 hundred and twenty-eight thousand nine hundred 

 and sixty dollars, or two million seven hundred 

 and one thousand and thirty-three pounds, or an- 

 nually one hundred and thirty-five thousand and 

 fifty-one pounds 1 . 



We thus arrive at a result, deficient certainly 

 in accuracy and depending on probability only, 

 that the mines of the whole of Columbia yielded 

 in the twenty years in question of gold and silver 

 together to the amount of six million nine hun- 

 dred and eighty-seven thousand five hundred and 

 fifty-four pounds sterling, or at the rate of three 

 hundred and forty-six thousand seven hundred 

 and fifty-nine pounds annually. 



We have given no importance to the attempts 



1 An anonymous work published by Murray in 1827, by 

 an English officer in the Columbian service, says, page 304, 

 " The quint or fifth of the gold yielded to the government 

 this year (1826) thirty- two thousand seven hundred and forty- 

 seven dollars, but the minister anticipates for the present year 

 an improvement in this branch of the revenue which will raise 

 it to fifty thousand." If this be a correct statement, the esti- 

 mate here made of the recent produce of Columbia must be 

 far too high. 



