655 



bia, and that of Europe, gives the same interest 

 to the copper-mines of Venezuela, and New 

 Grenada. Metals are a merchandize purchased 

 at the price of labour, and an advance of ca- 

 pital ; in the countries where they are produced 

 they form a part of commercial wealth, and 

 their extraction vivifies industry in the most 

 barren and mountainous soils. The profits of 

 mines being from their nature often irregular, 

 and as an interruption in the subterranean 

 labors, while it causes an irreparable loss, 

 shackles the plans of a prudent administration, 

 the system of association now applied in Eng- 

 land to the metallic riches of the New World, 

 will produce the most happy effects, if these 

 associations are of long duration, and if the men 

 invested with their confidence, unite, with the 

 practical knowledge of the art of the miner, 

 that of mechanics and modern chemistry ; and 

 do not disdain to avail themselves of the light 

 spread in America among men who have fol- 

 lowed the labors of working and amalgama- 

 tion ; finally, if they know how to guard 

 against those illusions which the exaggerated 

 hope of gain never fails to exci te. 



In the map of Columbia which I now pub- 

 lish (March, 1825), the limits are indicated 

 such as they were when the congress, conform- 



