CHAP. X. 



MIDDLE AGES. 281 



de Clonard, formed a company in Paris, and ob- 

 tained a grant of the mines in 1768. After 

 erecting hydraulic machines, and proceeding 

 with the drainage seven years, they discovered 

 that the vein was in another shaft than that on 

 which they had been operating. This company, 

 like the others, dissipated the capital with no 

 other fruits than some curious mineralogical 

 specimens, with which the cabinet of natural 

 history in Madrid was enriched. 



Whoever may have attended much to the hi- 

 story of mining, especially for the precious me- 

 tals, must have seen for the most part similar 

 displays of high expectation followed by disap- 

 pointment, and of real wealth squandered in the 

 vain pursuit of that which existed only in the 

 sanguine imaginations of wild projectors. When, 

 a few years afterwards, the mines of Guadalcanal 

 were noticed by Dillon, they yielded ores to 

 some small extent ; but at present they are in a 

 neglected state, and have been so during the last 

 thirty or forty years. It is, however, probable 

 that the mines of lead in Andalusia, which Spain 

 is now working successfully, and which have 

 lowered the price of that metal in every part of 

 Europe, may produce greater advantage to her 

 than that country ever drew from her lauded 

 mines of silver and gold in the most prosperous 

 times. 



It is asserted by Pliny in the second book, and 



