87 



one half was finished, Mr. de Manterola began 

 to doubt even of the possibility of carrying the 

 plan into execution. I took the level of the 

 ground with a lunette d'epreuve, on an artificial 

 horizon, and found, that the dam had been con- 

 structed eight feet too low. What sums of mo- 

 ney have I seen expended uselessly in the Span- 

 ish colonies, for undertakings founded on errone- 

 ous levelling ! 



The valley of the Tuy has it's ee gold mine," 

 like almost every part of America inhabited by 

 Whites, and backed by primitive mountains. I 

 was assured, that, in 1 780, foreign gold-gather- 

 ers were seen to pick up grains of that metal, 

 and to establish a place for washing the sand its 

 the ravine of the Oro. An overseer, or major- 

 domo, of a neighbouring plantation, had follow- 

 ed these indications ; and after his death, a 

 waistcoat with gold buttons being found among 

 his clothes, this gold, according to the logic of 

 these people, could only have proceeded from a 

 vein, which the falling-in of the earth had ren- 

 dered invisible. In vain I objected, that I could 

 not, by the mere view of the soil, without dig- 

 ging a large trench in the direction of the vein, 

 well judge of the existence of the mine ; I was 

 compelled to yield to the desire of my hosts. 

 For twenty years past the major-domo's waist- 

 coat had been the subject of conversation in the 

 country. Gold extracted from the bosom of the 



