28o BOOK VIII. 



mouth, lies open ; the bottom is covered with a plate of iron, a palm thick 

 and two palms and as many digits wide, each end of which is wedged into the 

 timber with broad wedges, and the front and back part of it are fixed to the 

 timber with iron nails. To the sides of the mortar above the block are fixed 

 two upright posts, whose upper ends are somewhat cut back and are mor- 

 tised to the timbers of the building. Two and a half feet above the mortar 



" kindred and relations together with them, are sent to work here, both to punish 

 " them, and by their labour to advance the profit and gain of the Kings. There are 

 " infinite numbers upon these accounts thrust down into these mines, all bound in fetters, 

 " where they work continually, without being admitted any rest night or day, and so 

 " strictly guarded that there is no possibility or way left to make an escape. For they 

 " set over them barbarians, soldiers of various and strange languages, so that it is not 

 " possible to corrupt any of the guard by discoursing one with another, or by the gaining 

 " insinuations of familiar converse. The earth which is hardest and full of gold they 

 " soften by putting fire under it, and then work it out with their hands. The rocks thus 

 " soften'd and made more pliant and yielding, several thousands of profligate wretches 

 " break in pieces with hammers and pickaxes. There is one artist that is the overseer of the 

 " whole work, who marks out the stone, and shows the labourers the way and manner 

 " how he would have it done. Those that are the strongest amongst them that are 

 " appointed to this slavery, provided with sharp iron pickaxes, cleave the marble-shining rock 

 " by mere force and strength, and not by arts or sleight-of-hand. They undermine not the 

 " rock in a direct line, but follow the bright shining vein of the mine. They carry lamps 

 " fastened to their foreheads to give them light, being otherwise in perfect darkness in the 

 " various windings and turnings wrought in the mine ; and having their bodies appearing 

 " sometimes of one colour and sometimes of another (according to the nature of the mine 

 " where they work) they throw the lumps and pieces of the stone cut out of the rock upon the 

 " floor. And thus they are employed continually without intermission, at the very nod of 

 " the overseer, who lashes them severely besides. And there are little boys who penetrate 

 " through the galleries into the cavities and with great labour and toil gather up the lumps 

 " and pieces hewed out of the rock as they are cast upon the ground, and carry them forth 

 " and lay them upon the bank. Those that are over thirty years of age take a piece of the 

 " rock of such a certain quantity, and pound it in a stone mortar with iron pestles till it be 

 " as small as a vetch ; then those little stones so pounded are taken from them by women 

 " and older men, who cast them into mills that stand together there near at hand in a long 

 " row, and two or three of them being employed at one mill they grind a certain measure given 

 " to them at a time, until it is as small as fine meal. No care at all is taken of the bodies of 

 " these poor creatures, so that they have not a rag so much as to cover their nakedness, and 

 " no man that sees them can choose but commiserate their sad and deplorable condition. 

 " For though they are sick, maimed, or lame, no rest nor intermission in the least is allowed 

 " them ; neither the weakness of old age, nor women's infirmities are any plea to excuse them ; 

 " but all are driven to their work with blows and cudgelling, till at length, overborne with 

 " the intolerable weight of their misery, they drop down dead in the midst of their insufferable 

 " labours ; so that these miserable creatures always expect the future to be more terrible 

 " than even the present, and therefore long for death as far more desirable than life. 



" At length the masters of the work take the stone thus ground to powder, and carry 

 " it away in order to perfect it. They spread the mineral so ground upon a broad board, some- 

 " what sloping, and pouring water upon it, rub it and cleanse it ; and so all the earthy and 

 " drossy part being separated from the rest by the water, it runs off the board, and the gold 

 " by reason of its weight remains behind. Then washing it several times again, they first rub 

 " it lightly with their hands ; afterward they draw off any earthy and drossy matter with 

 " slender sponges gently applied to the powdered dust, till it be clean, pure gold. At last 

 " other workmen take it away by weight and measure, and these put it into earthen pots, and 

 " according to the quantity of the gold in every pot they mix with it some lead, grains of 

 " salt, a little tin and barley bran. Then, covering every pot close, and carefully 

 " daubing them over with clay, they put them in a furnace, where they abide five days and 

 " nights together ; then after a convenient time that they have stood to cool, nothing of the 

 " other matter is to be found in the pots but only pure, refined gold, some little 

 " thing diminished in the weight. And thus gold is prepared in the borders of Egypt, and 

 " perfected and completed with so many and so great toils and vexations. And, therefore, 

 " I cannot but conclude that nature itself teaches us, that as gold is got with labour and toil, 

 " so it is kept with difficulty ; it creates everywhere the greatest cares ; and the use of it is 

 " mixed both with pleasure and sorrow." 



The remains at Mt. Laurion show many of the ancient mills and concentration works 

 of the Greeks, but we cannot be absolutely certain at what period in the history of these 

 mines crushing and concentration were introduced. While the mines were worked with 



