192 



TRAVELS IN BRAZIL. 



crusadoes. All the gold dust brought from the 

 Comarca do Oiro Preto, comes first into the weigh- 

 ing room, where the escrivao da receita weighs it, 

 and separates the fifth part from it as due to the 

 king, and the escrivao da conferencia enters in the 

 lists, the quantity of each owner without and with 

 the deduction. The parts belonging to the king 

 are thrown together, mixed, and melted into large 

 bars, but the four parts belonging to private in- 

 dividuals into single smaller bars. For this pur- 

 pose, the gold dust is put into a crucible of pro- 

 portionate size, and as soon as it begins to melt, 

 it is kept there for some time with sublimate of 

 mercury. When it appears to be perfectly melted, 

 the metal is poured into a square iron mould, fur- 

 nished with handles, in which it cools. These 

 moulds are of very different sizes, containing from 

 ten octaves to an arroba of gold. The various 

 combinations of the gold to be melted, with iron 

 antimony, manganese, or arsenic, determines the 

 time necessary to melt it. Gold which is more 

 difficult to melt is mixed with a greater proportion 

 of sublimate; this is particularly the case with that 

 with which much iron is mingled. The workmen, 

 by long experience, generally know the quantity 

 of the addition which the gold of each mine re- 

 quires. Very pure gold is perfectly melted in 

 three hours. The colour of the gold smelted here, 

 is of very different hues, from the most beautiful 

 gold yellow, to reddish copper colour, bright yel- 



