PASSAGE ON A RAFT. 329 



fine gold. The mines, however, during the 

 last year and a half, have proved very unpro- 

 ductive, not paying the expenses of work- 

 ing them ; and which process, at the best 

 time, never produced more than twenty or 

 thirty pounds of gold per annum, from 

 want of capital to work them properly ; 

 so that all the extravagant reports I 

 had heard proved untrue, and I might 

 have spared myself the trouble of visiting 

 them. 



I determined on returning immediately to 

 Purification; but recollecting what I had 

 suffered from heat on my way hither, I en- 

 quired if there were no other road for re- 

 turning, than that by which I came. I was 

 told the only other way was by going down 

 the river on a balsam or raft, which I conse- 

 quently ordered to be constructed. Send- 

 ing my mule back by my guide, I took 

 leave of my civil mulatto friend, who kindly 



