12 
TRAVELS IN 
for Pkitus, than for Apollo. A man in the time of the go- 
vernor, whose name the mountain perpetuates, intent on 
making his fortune by imposing on the credulity and igno- 
rance of the Company's servants, melted down a quantity of 
Spanish dollars, and presented the mass to the governor as a 
specimen of silver from a rich mine that he had discovered 
in this mountain. Enraptured at this proof of so important 
a discovery, a resolution was passed by the governor in coun- 
cil, that a sum of money should be advanced to the man to 
enable him to follow up what he had so successfully begun, 
and work the mine, of which he was to have the sole di- 
rection ; and in the mean time, to convince the public of the 
rising wealth of the colony, the mass of silver was ordered 
to be manufactured into a chain to which the keys of the 
Castle gates should be suspended. The chain was made, and 
still remains in the same service for which it was originally 
intended, as a memorial of the credulity of the governor and 
the council. The traces of the operation carried on by this 
impostor are still visible in the side of the mountain. 
The Paarlberg, on the left of the pass into the valley, is a 
hill of moderate height, and has taken its name from a chain 
of large round stones that pass over the summit, like the pearls 
of a necklace. Of these the two that are placed near the 
central and highest point of the range are called, par excellence, 
the pearl and the diamond : and a particular description of 
them has been thought worthy of a place in the Philosophical 
Transactions. From that paper, and Mr. Masson's descrip- 
tion, it would appear that these two masses of stone rested 
upon their own bases, and were detached from the mountain : 
