27^ A V O Y A G E T O Book VIII. 



fame quarter, but farther to the northward along 

 the Cordillera, are alfo rich gold mines, and the metal 

 twenty-three carats fine. In 17 lo, in the mountains 

 of Lumpanqui near the Cordillera, were dilcovered 

 mines of gold, filver, copper, lead, tin, and iron^ 

 the gold between twenty-one and twenty-two carats 

 fine but the working from the hardnefs of the ftone, 

 where, according to the miner's phrafe, ^' the metal 

 arms," was very difficult and laborious. I'his incon- 

 venience does not however occur in the mountain 

 Llaoin, where the ftone is foft, and not lefs rich in 

 metal, equal in finenefs to the former. Befides thefe 

 there are other gold mines, worked with good fuccefs 

 at Tiltil, near Santiago. 



Betwixt Quillota and Valparaifo, in a part called 

 Ligua, is a very rich gold mine, and the metal greatly 

 efteemed. Coquimbo, Capiapo, and Guafco, have 

 alfo gold mines, and the metal found in the two laft, 

 is, by way of pre-eminence, called Oro Capote, being 

 the moft valuable of any yet difcovered. Another 

 kind of mines of the fame metal has alfo been found 

 in this kingdom ; but thefe were exhaufted almofl as 

 foon as they were opened. Mines of this kind are 

 very common, as well as another kind called Lava- 

 deros*, moft of which are between Valparaifo and 

 Las Pennuelas, and about a league from the former. 

 Some of them are alfo found at Yapel, on the fron- 

 tiers of the wild Indians, and near Conception. Thefe, 

 together with the otheb known in this kingdom, 

 yield gold duft. Sometimes indeed lumps of gold 

 of confiderable magnitude are found ; and the hopes 

 of difcovering thefe animate many to work the 

 mines. 



* Thefe Lavaderos are pita dug in the angles of ravins or 

 trenches made by rain, and in which it is imagined there may be 

 gold , and in order to difcover the metal, a ftreara of water is turned 

 through it, and th« earth brifkly fpread, that the gold may be car- 

 ried down with the current, and depofited in the pits. 



Ali* 



