859 



at sunset with a reddish fire, still attracts the 

 attention of the inhabitants of Maypures *. It 

 is the islets of micaslate, situate in lake Amucu, 

 which according to the fabulous stories of the 

 natives augment by their reflexion the lustre of 

 the nebulae of the southern sky-f~. " Every 

 mountain/' says Raleigh, " every stone in the 

 forests of the Oroonoko, shines like the precious 

 metals; if it be not gold, it is'madre del oro." 

 This navigator asserts, that he brought back 

 gangues of auriferous white quartz (" harde 

 white sparr") ; and to prove the richness of this 

 ore, he gives an account of the assays, that were 

 made by the officers of the mint at London I 

 have no reason to believe, that the chemists of 

 that time sought to lead queen Elizabeth into 

 error, and I will not insult the memory of Ra- 

 leigh by supposing, like his contemporaries §, 

 that the auriferous quartz, which he brought 

 home, had not been collected in America. We 

 cannot judge of things from which we are sepa- 

 rated by a long interval of time. The gneiss of 

 the littoral chain\\ contains traces of the precious 



* See above, p. 167. 

 + See above, p. 838. 

 % Messrs. Westewood, Dimocke, and Bulraar. 

 § See the defence of Raleigh, in the preface to the Disco- 

 very of Guiana, 1596, p. 2—4. 



|] In the southern branch of this chain, which passes by 

 Yusma, Villa de Cura, and Ocumare ; particularly near 



