3B' 



THE ISTHMUS 



experience they knew them to yield. For the obtaining of gold from the 

 mine, they firft of all break to pieces the mineray or marcafite which holds 

 it ; and then conveying it to the mills, it is ground into a powder as fine as 

 can be imagined : this powder being put into wooden veffels, together with 

 a proportionable quantity of quickfilver, is there wrought into a pafte ; 

 which, after being expofed to the fun for forty-eight hours, is waflied in a 

 particular manner, till there is nothing left but the quickfilver and gold; and 

 then the latter is feparated from the former by diftillation. Such as are 

 verfed in this kind of bufmefs diftinguifh three kinds of gold : the firft is 

 called pepitaSf which is an Indian word, though ufed by the Spaniards, and 

 fignifies the feeds of an apple. They ufe this to diftinguifh the pure gold, 

 whieh is either found in the rocks, or wafhed down by the rivers, already 

 formed into little lumps, which need no refining ; thefe are of feveral iizes, 

 from the bignefs of a large pin's head, to that of a goofe's egg. The fecond 

 is the grain gold, obtained by wafliing only. The third is ingots, cafl out 

 of gold, refined by the help of fire. The inhabitants of Panama are faid 

 lo have gained formerly, by the methods before mentioned, fome thoufand 

 pounds weight of gold in a year j but of late, though the mine has not 

 been difcovered above eighty years, the quantity is confiderably decreafed. 

 Throughout all America the king of Spain receives for his duty a fifth of 

 the filver, and a twentieth of the gold : this duty is called the covoy and 

 when it is once paid, the remainder belongs to the fubjed: ; for he who 

 finds a mine, and will be at the charge of working it, is the abfolute pro- 

 prietor, and has all the encouragement given him that he could wifh. 



But this is a fmall article in the profits of the inhabitants of this rich 

 city, who drive on a prodigious commerce, both in North and South- 

 America. As foon as ever the galleons enter the port of Carthagena, 

 an exprefs is difpatched over land to Tanama, from whence he pro- 

 ceeds by fea to Lima. In the mean time all the neecefiary preparati- 

 ons are made for conveying the treafure, from Panama to Puerto Velo^ 

 The viceroy of Peru, on the other hand, makes ail imaginable difpatch in 

 fending the Lima fleet, efcorted by an armadilla, or fmall fquadron of 

 men of war, to Panama^ where, as foon as they arrive, they are unladen, 



and 



