58 PKETENDED GOLD MINES. Book L 
see me. Foremost amongst them was a number of old 
women, who crowded around me, all the time speaking 
of gold mines and silver mines, of yellow metals and white 
metals, and of certain lights or flames seen at night, called 
carbunculos, by which those metals are indicated. As 
they became more and more excited by their recitals, their 
imaginations grew heated, their statements extravagant, 
and their gesticulations violent. A crowd of naked children, 
with mouths and eyes wide open, were standing or sitting 
around. One little boy in particular struck my attention- 
Sitting on the floor, his monstrous globular belly resting on 
his crossed legs, the soles of his feet turned upwards, each 
of his hands holding one of his great toes, while all the 
time he was staring in my face ; he resembled more an 
idol formed of brown clay, than a living human being. 
As the result of my inquiries into the situation of the 
silver mine of which I had heard at Granada, I learned that 
a complete mistake had prevailed ; the metallic vein which 
it had been my intention to inspect being farther distant 
from Jinotepet than from Granada. The cura of the 
place, however, to whom I had a letter of recommendation, 
in explaining the error, took pains to convince me that I 
had no cause to repent my visit to Jinotepet, as he had 
discovered two gold-mines on his own land which would be 
equally worth examination. One of them he called the 
" mina del Salto," the other the u mina de la Conquista." 
Being here, I consented to visit the two places. The 
alcalde of Jinotepet provided me with a fresh horse and a 
guide ; several boys of the village volunteered to accom- 
pany me, and I rode out in the direction to the Pacific. 
The road, after we had left the sugar-plantations of the 
village behind us, passed through a charming landscape of 
hills partially wooded. Towards the Pacific, the country 
