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As the Cerro del Potosi belongs from its position to the Cordilleras of Peru, I have brought together in this table, the mines situated on the ridge of the chain of the Andes, from the 6° to the 21° of south latitude, for a length of 500 leagues. The metalliferous part of Mexico, comprehended between the 16° and 51° of north latitude, at present supplies twice as much silver, as the two viceroyalties of Peru and Buenos Ayres; and this part is only 450 leagues in length. The following table specifies the proportion between the gold and silver drawn from the mines of the New Continent from their discovery, till 1803.

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According to this estimate which is merely an approximate, the mass of silver furnished by the Cordilleras of America for three centuries, amounts to 117,864,210 kilogrammes* in weight.

* 316, 023,883 lb. troy.

It would form a solid sphere of a diameter of 27.8 metres*, or 856 Paris feet. When we recollect that the that the iron extracted from the mines of France alone, amounts to 225 millions of kilogrammes per annum, we see that with respect to the relative abundance, or distribution of the substances in the exterior crust of the globe, silver is to iron merely in the relation of magnesia to silice, or baryte to alumine.

We must not however confound the quantity of precious metals extracted from the mines of the New Continent, with what has really flowed into Europe since the year 1492. To judge of this last sum, it is indispensable to estimate, 1st. The gold and silver found at the period of the conquest among the natives of America, and which became the spoil of the conquerors; 2dly. What has remained in circulation in the New Continent; and 3dly. What has passed directly to the coasts of Africa and Asia, without touching Europe.

The conquerors found gold not only in the regions where it is still produced, as in Mexico, Peru, and New Grenada, but also in countries of which the rivers actually appear to us very poor in auriferous sands. The natives of Florida, Saint Domingo, and the Island of

* 91.206 feet English. Trans.

Cuba, of Darien, and the coast of Paria, had bracelets, rings, and necklaces of gold; but it is probable that the greatest part of that metal was not derived from the countries in which these tribes were found, at the end of the, fifteenth century. In South America as well as in Africa, commercial communications existed, even among the hordes the most remote from civilization. Coral and sea shells were frequently found in the possession of men who lived at a great distance from the coast. We. ascertained during our journey on the Orinoco, that the famous Mahagua stone, the jade of the Amazons, comes by means of an exchange established different tribes of savages, among from Brazil to the banks of the Carony, inhabited by the Caraib Indians. Besides, it is to be remarked, that the people found by the Spaniards in Darien, or the Island of Cuba, had not always inhabited the same countries. In America, the great migrations have taken place from the north west, to the south east: and frequently whole tribes have been forced by wars to quit the mountains, and settle in the plains. We can conceive therefore in what manner the gold of Sonora, or the valley of the Rio Cauca, might have been found among the savages of the Darien, or the mouths or the river Madalena. Besides, the smaller the population, the more

deceitful the appear

ance of wealth. The accumulation of gold is particularly striking, in countries where all the metal possessed by the people, is converted into objects of ornament. We must not then judge of this pretended wealth of the mines. of Cibao, of the coast of Cumana, and the isthmus of Panama, from the recital of the first travellers. We must recollect that rivers become less auriferous, in proportion as during the course of ages, their course becomes less rapid. A horde of savages who settle in a valley, where man had never before penetrated, find grains of gold accumulated there for thousands of years; while in our days, the most careful washing hardly produces a few scattered particles. These considerations, to which I wish to limit myself in this place, may serve to clear up the problem, so frequently agitated, why those regions which immediately after the discovery of America, and especially between 1492 and 1515, were considered as eminently rich in precious metals, furnish no longer any in our days, although very laborious and well directed trials have been made in several of them.

To form some idea of the spoil in gold and silver, transmitted by the first conquerors to Europe, before the Spaniards began to work the mines of Tasco in Mexico, or Porco in Peru, let us cast our eyes over the facts re

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