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456 A V O Y A G E T O Book VI. 



The whole country of Palladanga, in thejurif- 

 di£lion of the towil of Rio Bamba, is full of mines of 

 gold and filver; and the whole jurifdiftion abounds 

 with them to fuch a degree, that one perfon with 

 whom I was acquainted in that town, and who, by 

 his civilities to us and the French academicians, 

 feemed to have a foul fuitable to his opulence, had 

 entered, on his own account, at the mine-office of 

 Qiiito, eighteen veins of gold and filver, and all of 

 a good cjuality. The ore of one of thefe veins, by 

 the miners called negrillos, being aflfayed at Lima, in 

 1728, it appeared, from a certificate of Don Juan 

 Antonio de la Mota Torres, that it produced eighty 

 marks of filver percheft a very aftoniihing circum- 

 ftance, the ufual produce in rich mines being only 

 eight or ten marks per ched, each chell containing 

 fifty quintals of ore. This is the cafe of Potofi and 

 Lipes, which, after the expence of carrying the ore 

 to other places, in order to its being refined, and other 

 charges, not only anfwers them all at ten marks per 

 cheil, but the furplus is then very confiderable. There 

 are likewife other mines where, after being refined, a 

 cheft yields only five or fix marks of filver, and in fome 

 only three ; which yet will bear the expence of refin- 

 ing, being in a cheap country, where great numbers 

 of people are willing to work for low wages. Be- 

 fides the riches contained in the mountains belong- 

 ing to the jurifdidiion of Cuen^a, though this refts 

 only on an old Indian tradition, feveral mines have 

 lately been difcovered and worked, but not with the 

 care requifite to reap all the advantages they off^er. 

 One of thefe was in the diftrid of Alaufi, at aboj^t 

 fix leagues from a plantation called Sufna; the 

 owner of which, during the intervals of rural la- 

 bour, ufed to employ his Indians and Negroes in 

 taking out the ore, which he found to be very rich ; 

 but^ for want of a fufficient fund to profccute this 

 . . worka 



