( 269 .) 



mguei accounts, which have been compiled with little regard to 

 truth, but shall present to the reader the result of my own observ- 

 ations. 



The great quantities of gold, precious stones, iron, &c. produced 

 in this country have been largely treated upon. Galena, or sulphu- 

 retoflead, is found only near Abait^. Antimony abounds in the 

 vicinity of Sahara ; native bismuth is found near Villa Rica ; arseni- 

 cal and martial pyrites are very common ; titanium is found in oc- 

 taedral crystals, also in beautiful prisms and tender spiculae, finely 

 grouped in rock crystal. Platina may be obtained in tolerable 

 quantities at Largos, but the place which produces it has been aban- 

 doned from want of a market. Chromate of lead, I was informed, 

 is found in the vicinity of Cocaes : I saw several pieces in the pos- 

 session of Dr. Gomedez of that place. At Tejuco, also, I was shewn 

 some, and was presented with two pieces, which are uncommonly 

 fine, more brilhant in colour than that from Siberia, and distinctly 

 crystallized on a matrix of granular sand-stone, accompanied with 

 the green oxide of chrome. Copper can scarcely be said to exist in 

 this country ; the only place at present known to produce it, is a 

 mountain twenty leagues from Tejuco, where small particles appear 

 in a rock of quartz and hornblende : the matrix is so hard, and the 

 quantity of copper so trivial, as to afford no encouragement to worh 

 it. The place has been examined by the Intendant, and is known 

 to most persons in Tejuco*. No mines of silver have been discovered 

 in the capitania, but the gold is generally found to contain that pre- 

 cious metal, sometimes in great proportion. No tin, cobalt, or any 

 other metal, except those above mentioned, has been hitherto met 

 with. 



* At a place called Caldrones, near to Oro Branco, I received two bits of this metal, but 

 they were so small and disfigured, as to leave strong doubts respecting their being natural ; 

 the more so, by reason of the many impositions that were attempted to be practised upon me 

 by false specimens of copper ores, silver, &c. 



