METALS AND MINERALS. 139 



New Grenada, has doubtless contributed to foster those 

 illusions. It cannot be doubted that the gold-washings ot 

 New Grenada furnished, in the last years of public tran- 

 quillity, more than 18,000 marks of gold; that Choco and 

 Earbacoa supply platinum in abundance; the valley of 

 Santa Rosa, in the province of Antioquia, the Andes of 

 Quindiu and Gauzum, near Cuen9a, yield sulphuretted 

 mercury; the table-land of Bogota (near Zipaquira and 

 Cauoas), fossil-salt and pit-coal ; but even in New Grenada, 

 subterranean labours, on the silver and gold veins, have 

 hitherto been very rare. I am far, however, from wishing 

 to discourage the miners of those countries : I merely 

 conceive that for the purpose of proving to the old world 

 the political importance of Venezuela, the amazing terri- 

 torial wealth of which is founded on agriculture and the 

 produce of pastoral life, it is not necessary to describe as 

 ivalities, or as the acquisitions of industry, what is, as yet, 

 founded solely on hopes and probabilities, more or less un- 

 certain. The republic of Columbia also possesses on its 

 coast, on the island of Marguerita, on the Bio Hacha, and 

 in the gulf of Panama, pearl fisheries of ancient celebrity. 

 In the present state of things, however, fishing for these 

 pearls is an object of as little importance as the exportation 

 of the metals of Venezuela. The existence of metallic 

 veins on several points of the coast cannot be doubted. 

 Mines of gold and silver were worked at the beginning of 

 the conquest at Buria, near Barquesimeto, in the province 

 of Los Mariches, at Baruta, on the south of Caracas, and at 

 Ixeal de Santa Barbara, near the Villa de Cura. Grains 

 of gold are found in the whole mountainous territory be- 



: i Itio Taracuy, the Villa de San Felipe and Nirgua, 

 as well as between Guigue and Los Moros de San Juan. 

 M. Bonplaud and myself, during our long journey, saw 

 nothing in the gneiss granite of Spanish Guiana to con- 

 firm the old faith in the metallic wealth of that district; 



it seems certain, from several historical notices, 

 t hat there exist two groups of auriferous alluvial land ; 



!> -tween the sources of the Eio Negro, the Uaupes 

 and the Iquiare ; the other between the sources of the 



juibo, the Carom, and the Rupunuri. Hitherto only 

 one working is iound in Venezuela, that of Aroa: it fur- 



