NOTES ON BRAZIL. 



529 



which the mine remained open, was stated to be sufficient to repay all 

 the losses, and to leave a surplus for wages, amounting to the rate of 

 about five shillings per day, for each person employed. 



During my residence in Rio application was made to me to advance 

 capital under these circumstances. A poor man said he knew where a 

 mass of native gold existed, which would require extensive works to 

 extract it, and solicited aid upon such securities as should be agreed. 

 The treasure was represented as lying in the bed of a torrent, where 

 the water passes between immense rocks with perpendicular faces, 

 and just at the foot of a cataract, where the spouting fluid has worn 

 itself a deep hollow in the rock upon which it falls. I required a proof 

 that the treasure actually existed, and to procure one a black man, with 

 a crow-bar in his hand, dived into the boiling pit : he soon came up 

 again, and said that in striking at the mass he had dropped his bar. 

 After having recovered breath he again plunged into the foaming torrent, 

 and brought up with him a lump of rich gold ore, as large as a small 

 walnut. It bore two distinct marks where the bar had struck it, and 

 had evidently been broken, or rather cut off, from a larger mass. I was 

 not present at the time when the man dived, nor was I allowed to know 

 precisely the spot where the treasure lay, without entering into such 

 engagements as did not appear to me prudent. The account is given 

 simply as I received it. 



On the whole, whether gold or precious stones be sought in streams 

 or rocks, in masses of clay or schist, the indications of their presence are 

 so precarious, and the hopes built upon them so often delusive, that 

 multitudes are led on to absolute ruin. Much expense might, however, 

 be saved, and success rendered much more probable, by the use of 

 proper instruments, by boring, and, above all, by the application of 

 philosophical knowledge. 



If the hours which we were destined to pass at Lagoa Dourada 



did not all pass pleasantly, it was not for want of attempts to amuse us. 



A few black musicians came to our Estalagem, and the performance of 



3 X 



