450 A VOYAGE TO Book VL 



abandoned, the art of working the ore being loft, for 

 want of a fufficient number of people to apply them- 

 felves to it : • and the fame decline is now feen all 

 over the province. The fertility, as natural to the 

 climate, ftill continues in all its plenty : but fcarce 

 the ftiadow of its former luftre and magnificence re- 

 mains ; and that enormous wealth, in which it glo- 

 ried, is now no more. For if its products and ma- 

 nufa6lures bring in confiderable quantities of filver 

 from Lima and Valles, all is expended on European 

 goods ; fo that, as I obferved, little of that gold and i 

 filver, fo common in the more fouthern provinces, is 

 to be feen here. 



The only part of the province of Quito, which, 

 under this unhappy change, preferves its ancient opu- 

 lence, is the department within the government of 

 Popayan, which throughout abounds in gold mines, 

 and great numbers of them are ftill worked. To 

 gratify the curious, I lhall give an account of the 

 principal, and the manner of working the gold ore ; 

 as it is different from that ufed in the mines of Caxa. 

 After which, I fhall mention the other mines known 

 within that province. 



Every part of the jurifdidlion of Popayan abounds 

 in mines of gold ; and though in fome departments 

 more are worked than in others, yet they all yield 

 gold : and new mines are daily difcovered and work- 

 ed ; which, under all the inclemencies of the air, in 

 fome parts fills its towns with inhabitants. Among 

 the departments belonging to the province of Quito^ 

 the richeft in gold are thofe of Call, Buga, Almaguar, 

 and Barbacoas, fome of its mines being always more 

 or lefs worked ; and with this fingular advantage in 

 its gold, of never being mixed with any heterogene- 

 ous body confequently no mercury is requifite in ex- 

 trading it. 



