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1,165,980 piastres.

II. Gold coined at Popayan.

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Average year 6830 (marcs of gold) or 928,934

piastres.

From 1782 to 1789 the quantity of gold coined at Santa Fe, was at an average, below 7000 marcs annually. During that period the most abundant year was that of 1787, when the produce was 981,655 piastres, or 7218 marcs *. In 1778, the coinage amounted to the value of 693,438 piastres. At Popayan the quantity of coined gold never amounted between 1770 and 1783 to more

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than 5800 marcs. In 1778 the gold coinage was only 792,838 piastres; but in 1787 it amounted to 981,655 piastres. The ingots of gold annually exported from the port of Carthagena, are estimated at three or four hundred thousand piastres. During my stay at Santa Fe de Bogota in 1801, the total produce of the gold mines of the kingdom of New Grenada was computed at 2,500,000 piastres †, viz. 2,100,000 piastres as the produce of the two mints of Santa Fe and Po

*Relacion del govierno del Excellentiss. Señor Don Jose de Espeleta, Virrey de el Nuevo reyno de Grenada, para entregar el mando al Señor Don Pedro de Mendinueta, electo Virrey. This manuscript account in my possession, contains the most minute and accurate statistical information. It is the production of a man of distinguished talents, Don Ignacio Texada, a native of Santa Fe, Se. cretary of the Viceroyalty.

+£507,000 Sterling. Trans.

payan, and 400,000 piastres as the exportation of ingots and wrought gold.

All the gold furnished by New Grenada, is the produce of lavaderos (washings) established in the alluvious grounds. Gold veins have been found in the mountains of Guamoco and Antioquia; but their working is almost entirely neglected. The greatest riches in gold obtained by washing are deposited to the west of the central Cordillera *, in the provinces of Antioquia and Choco, in the valley of the Rio Cauca, and on the coast of the South Sea in the partido de Barbacoas. Dividing the auriferous grounds into three regions, we may reckon for Choco, 10,800 marcs of gold, or more than the half of the total produce of the viceroyalty of Santa Fe; for the province of Barbacoas, and the Southern part of the valley of Cauca (between Chili and Popayan) 4600 and for the province of Antioquia and the mountains of Guamaco and Simiti, 3400 mares of gold. We see from this valuation that the alluvious grounds, which contain the greatest quantity of gold in dust and grains disseminated among fragments of greenstone and porphyry slate (porphyrschiefer) extend from the western Cordillera almost to the shores of the Great Ocean.

* See, as to the division of the Andes into several branches my Vues des Cordilleres, Pl. V.

It is very remarkable also that platina is seldom found in the valley of Cauca, or to the east of the western branch of the Andes, but solely in Choco and at Barbacoas to the west of the freestone mountains which rise on the western bank of the Cauca. These moun

tains of which the height is by no means considerable, separate the famous gold washing places of Novita in Choco, from those of Quilichao and Jelima, situated fifteen leagues to the north of the town of Popayan; and yet a single grain of platina has never been found in these last washing places which I examined with the greatest care during my journey to Quito. At Choco, we sometimes find along with gold and platina, hyacinthzircons, and titanium. This mixture brings us in mind of the formation of the sands of Espailly in Velay. Near the village of Lloro some years ago, a pit was dug in an auriferous ground, to examine the inferior beds; and at six metres of depth there were discovered large trunks of petrified wood surrounded with fragments of trap rocks and gold dust and platina *.

The province of Antioquia, into which we can only enter a foot or on the shoulders of men, contains veins of gold in micaceous slate, at

* Observation of Don Thomas Valencia at Popayan.

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Buritoca, San Pedro, and near Armas; but these veins are not wrought for want of hands. Gold is collected in great abundance in the alluvious grounds of Santa Rosa, the Valle de los Orsos, and the Valle de la Trinidad. The number of negro slaves who collect the gold (negros mazamoreros) amounted in 1770 to 1462; and in 1778 to 4896 individuals. The gold of Antioquia of which the town of Mompox may be considered as the principal market, is only of the fineness of from 19 to 20 carats. At Barbacoas, it is generally 214 carats. În Choco, the northern washing places, and those of the district of Zitara supply a finer gold than the more northern district of Novita. The gold of the mines of Indipurdu is the only gold which rises to 22 carats; for the mean wealth of the gold of Choco is from 20 to 21 carats. The produce of the different washing places, is so constant in its mixture, that it is enough for those who carry on the trade in gold dust to know the place where the metal was procured to know its fineness. The finest gold of New Grenada, and perhaps of all America, is that of Giron, which it is affirmed rises to 23 carats, and 1⁄2 of a of a grain. At Marmato to the west of the river Cauca, and to the south of the rivers of the old Villa de Armas, a whitish gold is procured which does not exceed 12 or 13 carats and

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