194 



TRAVELS IN BRAZIL. 



and how much was deducted for the king. With- 

 out this instrument, signed by the officers of the 

 smelting house, the bar, which is returned to the 

 owner, cannot legally pass instead of coin. It is 

 strictly prohibited to export it from the province 

 of Minas without notice, because the royal mints 

 are to re-purchase the bars for their nominal value 

 in ready money. But as an agio of ten per cent, is 

 offered for the bars, even on the coasts of Brazil, 

 this species of fraud is very common. 



A correct idea of the great quantity of gold 

 which has been delivered from the smelting houses 

 at Minas, may be best formed by considering the 

 immense works of King John V., the aqueduct of 

 Lisbon, and the convent of Mafra, the expenses of 

 which were entirely defrayed by the royal fifth of 

 the Brazilian gold. It was, however, only in the 

 first half of the last century that the produce was 

 so great ; the patriotic Portuguese, therefore, re- 

 grets to see riches buried in those costly monu- 

 ments, which as they did not return in the sequel, 

 might have been employed with more advantage to 

 the nation in building a navy, At the end of the 

 last century from seventy to eighty arrobas of gold 

 were annually smelted in Villa Rica ; but now, 

 hardly more than forty. The whole of the royal fifth 

 amounted, in the year 1753, to one hundred and 

 eighteen arrobas ; and up to the year to 1812, above 

 six thousand eight hundred and ninety-five arrobas, 

 that is eighty- five millions of crusadoes ; at present. 



