66 



is a still greater diversity in their gangas ot matrices. 

 A great number of mines have been opened, but 

 those only are worked whose ore is so rich as to 

 yield at least one half its weight in refined copper ; 

 those of. a less product having been relinquished as 

 too expensive ; notwithstanding which, between the 

 cities of Coquimbo and Copiapo there are now in 

 work more than a thousand mines, besides those in 

 the province of Aconcagua. 



The most celebrated copper mine in Chili was 

 the old mine of Payen, but the working of it has 

 been for many years relinquished, in consequence of 

 the opposition of the Puelches, who inhabit that dis- 

 trict.* On its first discovery this mine furnished 



* Mines of copper are very frequent in the vicinity of Coquim- 

 bo, at three leagues distance to the north-east of that city. It 

 is also said, that mines of iron and of quicksilver are found 

 there. — Frazier^s Voyage, vol. i. 



All the parts of the Cordilleras near St, Jago and Conception 

 abound in copper mines, and particularly a place called Payen, 

 some of which were formerly wrought, and pieces of pure copper 

 of fifty and a hundred quintals weight obtained from them. — 

 American Gazetteer ; article Chili. 



Among the mountains of the Cordilleras a great number of 

 mines of all kinds of metals and minerals are to be met with, par- 

 ticularly in two ridges, distant only twelve leagues from the Pam- 

 pas (or great plains) of Paraguay, and a hundred from Conception ; 

 in one of which have been discovered mines of copper so produc- 

 tive that they have yielded pieces of pure ore of a hundred quin- 

 tals "weight. To one of these spots, which the Indians call Payen, 

 that is copper, the discoverer, Don Juan Melendez, gave the name 

 of St. Joseph. I saw at Conception a piece of ore of forty quin- 

 tals weight, from which, when smelted, were cast six field pieces 

 of six pounds caliber. And nothing is more common than to meet 

 =with stones composed partly of pure and partly of impure copper, 

 •which has given rise to the observation, that the soil of this country 



