62 



nie. Crystals of tin, of various colours, arc also 

 common throughout Chili. 



M. de Pauw, with a dash of his pen, has driven out 

 of this country all its iron mines, since he boldly 

 asserts that Chili does not contain a single mine 

 of iron." But Frazier, and other writers who have 

 been in that country, declare the contrary.* 



So plentiful is this metal in the country, that as I 

 have already observed, the brooks and rivers deposit 

 great quantities of sand, replete with particles of 

 iron upon their shores, the sea also washes it up at 

 times in great abundance. 



The provinces of Coquimbo, Copiapo, Aconca- 

 gua and Huilquiiemu, are very rich in mines of 

 iron ; it is found under various appearances, as a 

 black, a grey compact ore, or crystallized in bluish 

 cubes. From the essays that have been made, the 



* " In order the more to depreciate America, Pauw asserts, 

 that there are but few iron mines in that quarter of the world. 

 And, what is still njore singular, that the iron procured from 

 them is of a very inferior qurility to that of the old ct)ntinent, so 

 much so that it will not answer even for ijails ; and that, in con- 

 sequence, it is so dear as to be sold in Peru at the rate of a crown, 

 and steel at a crown and a half for the pound weight." 



The iron, however, so much decried by this author, who sup- 

 poses it to be American, is what is imported from Europe. But 

 supposing his assertion to be true, for what purpose has the Span- 

 ish government prohibited the working ûr selling any iron but 

 that which is brought from Spain ? 



" In the vicinity of Copiapo, besides the mines of gold, there 

 are many of iron, copper, tin and lead, that are not worked.'* 

 And in the year 1710, a number of mines of all kinds of metal, 

 such as gold, silver, iron, lead, copper and tin, wer& discovered 

 at Lampague. — Frazier'' s Fogagc, vol, i. 



