164 aniTEKALs OF CTTBA. 



great misfortune of the natives came from those granitic 

 formations ; traces of that sand are still found in the rivers 

 Holguin and Escambray, known in general in the vicinity 

 of Villa-Clara, Santo Espiritu, Puerto del Principe de 

 Bayamo, and the Bahia de Nipe. The abundance of copper 

 mentioned by the Conquistadores of the sixteenth century, 

 at a period when the Spaniards were more attentive than 

 they have been in latter times to the natural productions of 

 America, may possibly be attributed to the formations of 

 amphibolic slate, transition clay-slate mixed with diorite, 



quently purer than the gold of Sibao in San Domingo. In 1804, the 

 mines of Mexico altogether produced 7000 marks of gold ; and those of 

 Peru 3400. It is difficult, in these calculations, to distinguish between 

 the gold sent to Spain by the first Conquistadores, that obtained by wash- 

 ings, and that which had been accumulated for ages in the hands of the 

 natives, who were pillaged at will Supposing that in the two islands of 

 Cuba and San Domingo (in Cubanacan and Cibao), the product of the 

 washings was 3000 marks of gold, we find a quantity three times less 

 than the gold furnished annually (1790 to 1805) by the small province of 

 Choco. In this supposition of ancient wealth there is nothing improbable ; 

 and if we are surprised at the scanty produce of the gold-washings 

 attempted in our days at Cuba and San Domingo, which were heretofore 

 so prolific, it must be recollected that at Brazil also, tfce product of the 

 gold- washings has fallen, from 1760 to 1820, from 6600 gold kilogrammes 

 to less than 595. Lumps of gold weighing several pounds, found in our 

 days in Florida and North and South Carolina, prove the primitive wealth 

 of the whole basin of the Antilles, from the island of Cuba to the Apal- 

 lachian chain. It is also natural that the product of the gold-washings 

 should diminish with greater rapidity than that of the subterraneous 

 working of the veins. The metals not being renewed in the clefts of the 

 veins (by sublimation) now accumulate in alluvial soil, by the course of 

 the rivers where the table-lands are higher than the level of the sur- 

 rounding running waters. But in rocks with metalliferous veins, the 

 miner does not at once know all he has to work. He may chance to 

 lengthen the labours, to go deep, and to cross other accompanying veins. 

 Alluvial soils are generally of small depth where they are auriferous; they 

 most frequently rest upon sterile rocks. Their superficial position and 

 uniformity of composition help to the knowledge of their limits, and 

 w herever workmen can be collected, and where the waters for the washing? 

 abound, accelerate the total working of the auriferous clay. These consi- 

 derations, suggested by the history of the Conquest, and by the science o 

 mining, may throw some light on the problem of the metallic wealth o 

 Hayti. In that island, as well as at Brazil, it would be more profitable 

 to attempt subterraneous workings (on veins) in primitive and interme 

 diary soils, than to renew the gold-washings which were abandoned in th ! 

 tgeg of barbarism, rapine, and carnage. 



