38. The greatest volcanic eruption ever known in Chili, was that of Peteroa on the 3rd of December, 1760, when a new crater was formed, and a neighbouring mountain rent asunder for many miles in extent; the eruption was accompanied by a dreadful explosion, which was heard throughout the whole country. It was not, however, succeeded by any very violent shocks of an earthquake. The quantity of lava and ashes filled the neighbouring valleys, and occasioned a rise of the waters of the Tingeraca, which continued for many days. The course of the Lontue, a very considerable river, was impeded for ten days by a part of the mountain which fell and filled its bed; till at length the water forced itself a passage, overflowed the neighbouring plains, and formed a lake, which still remains. Besides those of the Andes, there are but two volcanoes; the first, at the mouth of the river Rapel, is small, and discharges only a little smoke from time to time; the second is the great volcano of Villarica, in the county of Arauco. This volcano may be seen at the distance of 150 miles; and, although it appears to be insulated, is said to be connected by its base with the Andes. The summit of the mountain is covered with snow, and is in a constant state of eruption. Its base is fourteen miles in circumference, and is principally covered with pleasant forests; from its sides a great number of rivers emerge; and its perpetual verdure furnishes the best criterion of the comparatively trifling violence of its eruptions.

39. The inhabitants of Chili usually calculate three or four earthquakes annually, but they are very slight, and little attention is paid to them. Of the great earthquakes, not more than five occurred from the arrival of the Spaniards to the year 1818, a period of 244 years. It has been ascertained that earthquakes in this country never occur unexpectedly; but are announced by a hollow sound proceeding from a vibration of the air; and, as the shocks do not succeed each other rapidly, the inhabitants have sufficient time to provide for their safety. However, in order to secure themselves from the effects of these catastrophes, they have built their cities in a judicious manner; the streets are so broad, that the inhabitants would be safe in the middle of them, even should the houses on both sides fall to the ground. The houses have also spacious courts and gardens, which would serve as places of refuge; and those who are wealthy have usually in their gardens several neat wooden barracks where they pass the night whenever they apprehend an earthquake. The earthquakes in Chili, owing probably to subterraneous passages communicating with the volcanoes of the Andes, which are so many vent-holes for the inflamed substances, are much more moderate than those of many other parts of the continent, and have never hitherto been attended with any considerable sinking of the earth, or falling of buildings. Were it not for the number of these volcanoes, Chili would in all probability be rendered uninhabitable.

40. In the eastern part of the continent the weather is generally humid; and, in the winter months (June, July, and August), at times

boisterous, and the air keen and piercing. In summer, also, the serenity of the atmosphere is frequently interrupted by tremendous thunderstorms, preceded by dreadful lightning, which frequently damages the shipping, and followed by heavy rain, which sometimes destroys the harvest. The heat is troublesome, and engenders swarms of musquitoes in such numbers that they infest every apartment.

41. By far the greater part of the precious metals used in the world are brought from America, and, with the exception of those from the mines of Mexico, almost all from the southern continent. It is impossible to give any adequate description of the treasure of these mines: many of them are inexhaustible, and many hundreds have ceased to be worked on account of the want of quicksilver, and from their being filled with water. The former objection is owing, in a great measure, to the government monopolies, and the latter to the want of steam-engines. Some of those recently sent have effectually drained the pits; and afforded a lucrative return to the projectors. The Spanish government, since the discovery of this country, has derived its principal resources from these metals; and to secure to itself the undivided enjoyment of them has passed the most rigid laws, to prevent as far as possible all intercourse of the nations with foreign powers. The annual produce of the mines of New Granada, as calculated from the amount of the royal duties, and therefore considerably under the truth, amounts to 18,000 Spanish marks of pure gold, and very few of silver; the value in dollars is 2,624,760, the gold being estimated at 145 dollars, and the silver at 9 dollars the Spanish mark. Besides this we must add for contraband 1,735,240 dollars, and the total produce will then be 4,360,000 dollars.

42. In the northern parts of Peru are the famous mines of Potosi, several of them gold, but those of silver are found all over the country; and never in any country did nature afford to the avidity of man such endless sources of wealth. These mines were discovered in the year 1545 in the following manner, which we give in the terms of a late popular publication: An Indian named Hualpa, one day following some deer, which made directly up the hill of Potosi, came to a steep craggy part of the hill; and, the better to enable him to climb up, laid hold of a shrub, which came up by the roots, and laid open a mass of silver ore. He for some time kept it a secret, but afterwards revealed it to his friend Guanca, who, because he would not discover to him the method of refining it, acquainted the Spaniard his master, named Valaroel, with the discovery. Valaroel in 1545 registered the mine; and, from that time till the year 1638, the mines of Potosi had yielded 95,619,000 pieces of eight, or about 4,255,000 pieces a year. But the annual sum derived from these mines, according to the latest accounts, and as calculated from the produce of the royal duties, and therefore considerably under the truth, amounts to 3,400 Spanish marks of pure gold, and 513,000 of pure silver. The value in dollars of both is 5,317,988; the gold being estimated at 145

Annual average from

GOLD.

SILVER.

Thomas Valaroel was the first person who examined this mine. The mountain is three miles in circumference, and 6000 Castillian yards high above the level of the 'sea, as it was measured by Don Louis Godin, of the academy of the sciences of Paris. It is of a sharp conical figure, and resembles a great pavilion, but is nearly hollow in the interior from the excavations which have been made for so many years. In appearance it resembles an ant-hill, from the multitude of mouths by which it is entered.

44. The silver mines of Esquilache, in Peru, are so rich that the bishop's yearly dues from the labourers amounted to 14,000 dollars; and one of the thirty-six which lay close together in that neighbourhood, was not long since sold for no less than a daily rent of 1,040 dollars. The mines are however but half worked for want of mechanical power, though great quantities of silver are excavated. Alcedo observes, that if these mines were emptied of their water, they would yield twenty times as much ore as at present. In Chili are mines of silver, copper, lead, sulphur, white lime and salt, but the most abundant are of copper; large quantities of this metal have been sent to Spain for founding artillery, and from the same source has been made all the artillery in this kingdom. Of this metal are found two sorts: campanel, which is only fit for founding, and de labrar, which has a mixture of gold, and is an excellent working metal. 45. In the province of Santiago are mines that can be worked only in the summer months, namely, December, January, February, and March, owing to the rains, snow, and severity of the winters. Twenty leagues from the capital is the great mine of Kempu, which has no fewer than sixteen veins. Further south is a mine, named Maipo, discovered more than 100 years ago, and called San Simon, the metals of which are lowered down by engines from a very lofty mountain. Here also are the mines of De San Pedro Nolasco, which render a considerable portion of massy silver. On the north part, by the mountains of the curacy of Colina, are found thirty-four gold mines, independently of 200 others, all of which are worked. Besides these mines there are five lavaderos, or washing-places, in the mountain of Guindo; and some other veins in the old asiento of Tiltil. The top of Calen is covered with lavaderos of the richest gold. The total amount furnished annually in gold and silver, by the mines of what is commonly called Spanish America, is exhibited in the following table:

New Spain

New Granada
Peru and Chili

Buenos Ayres, or La Plata

Making a total of

£ sterling. 5,030,800

507,000

1,730,000

882,000

£8,149,800

to which may be added more than another million for the contraband trade.

Dutch, that the Portuguese began to be aware of 46. It was not till after the expulsion of the the riches they possessed in their mines. The government being under the Portuguese minister, was then vested in some priests of acknowledged virtue: these scattered themselves over the whole coast, founding settlements, and penetrating into the interior; and first discovered the different gold mines which have been since worked to such prodigious emolument; as also the mines of diamonds, topazes, and other precious stones.— Those of Cuiaba have been worked since the year 1740, and yielded great quantities of gold.

47. Formerly Bahia de Todos Santos, or the bay of All Saints, was the principal seat of the government, and chief mart of the commerce of Brazil; but the discovery of the gold and diamond mines near Rio de Janeiro, has given a decided superiority to the latter. The manner in which the former of these minerals was discovered is differently related: we quote the most common account from a late publication: The Indians on the back of the Portuguese settlements were observed to make use of gold for their fish-hooks; and enquiry being made as to their manner of procuring this metal, it appeared that considerable quantities of it were annually washed from the mountains, and left among the gravel and sand that remained in the valleys after the running off or evaporation of the water. From the time of this discovery considerable quantities of gold were imported into Europe from Brazil; and these imports have gradually augmented since new mines have been wrought in many other provinces. The extraction of this precious metal is neither very laborious nor attended with the smallest danger in this part of the new world. The purest sort is generally found near the surface of the soil, though it is sometimes necessary to dig for it to the depth of three or four fathoms. It is usually incumbent on a bed of sandy earth, termed by the natives saibro. Though, for the most part, the veins that are regular and run in the same direction, are the richest, it has been observed that those spaces, the surface of which was most spangled with crystals, were those which furnished the greatest plenty of gold. It is found in larger pieces on the mountains and barren or stony rocks than in the valleys, or on the banks of rivers. But in whatever place it may have been gathered, it is of 234 carats on coming out of the mine, unless it be mixed with sulphur, silver, iron, or mercury; a circumstance that rarely occurs, except at Goyas and Araès.'

48. Every man who discovered a mine was obliged to give notice of it to the government. If it was conceived to be of little consequence by those persons appointed to examine its value, it was always given up to the public; but if, on

the contrary, it was found to be a rich vein, the government never failed to reserve a portion of it for themselves: another share was given to the commandant; a third to the intendant; and two shares were awarded to the discoverers: the remainder was divided among the miners of the district, in proportion to their circumstances, which were determined by the number of their slaves. The disputes to which this species of property gave rise, fell under the cognizance of the intendant, with the right of appeal from his decrees to the supreme court established at Lisbon, under the title of council d'outremer. It is said that a slender vein of this metal runs through the whole country, at about twenty-four feet from the surface; but is too thin and poor to answer the expense of digging. Gold is always, however, to be collected in the beds of rivers which have pursued the same course for a considerable time; and, therefore, to be able to divert a stream from its usual channel is esteemed an infallible source of gain.'

49. The employment of searching the bottoms of rivers and torrents, and washing the gold from the mud and sand, is principally performed by slaves (chiefly negroes), of whom the Portuguese keep great numbers for that purpose. By a particular regulation these slaves are obliged to furnish their master every day with the eighth part of an ounce of gold; and if, by their industry or good fortune, they collect a larger quantity, the surplus is considered as their own property, and they are allowed to dispose of it as they think fit; by which means, some negroes have lived in great splendour, and purchased slaves of their own; the Portuguese ounce is somewhat lighter than our troy ounce. The proprietors of the mines paid to the king of Portugal, as abovementioned, a fifth part of the gold which they extracted by operations more or less successful; and this fifth of the gold obtained from all the mines in Brazil was estimated, at an average, to amount annually to about £300,000 sterling; consequently the whole capital must be nearly £1,500,000 sterling. If we add to this the gold exchanged with the Spaniards for silver, and what was privately brought to Europe without paying the duty, which amounted to £500,000 more, the annual produce of the Brazilian mines was about £2,000,000 sterling.

50. Among the many impediments thrown in the way of trade, may be ranked the prohibition which prevented the people of Brazil from working up the gold of their own mines. Even the tools and instruments used by the artificers for such purposes, were seized and confiscated. It was only about the beginning of the last century that diamonds made a part of the exports from Brazil to Europe. These valuable stones are, like the gold, found frequently in the beds of rivers and torrents. Before they were supposed to be of any value they were often perceived in washing the gold, and were consequently thrown away with the sand and gravel; and numbers of large stones, that would have enriched the possessors, passed unregarded through the hands of several persons wholly ignorant of their nature. The diamonds sent from the new to the old world were enclosed in a

casket with three locks, the keys of which were separately put into the hands of the chief members of administration; and those keys were deposited in another casket, to which was affixed the viceroy's seal. While the exclusive privilege subsisted, this precious deposit, on its arrival in Europe, was remitted to government, which, according to a settled regulation, retained the very scarce diamonds, which exceeded twenty carats, and delivered every year, for the profit of the company, to one, or to several contractors united, 40,000 carats, at prices which have successively varied. An engagement was made on one hand to receive that quantity; and on the other not to distribute any more; and whatever might be the produce of the mines, which necessarily varied, the contract was invariably fulfilled.

51. Before the recent changes in the Portuguese government, that court threw 60,000 carats of diamonds into trade, which was monopolized by a single merchant, who paid for them at the rate of about £1. 11s. 6d. per carat, amounting in the whole to £130,000 sterling. The contraband trade in this article is said, by persons competent to form a just estimate on the subject, to have amounted to a tenth more; so that the produce of these mines, the riches of which have been so much boasted of, did not exceed annually £140,000. The rough diamonds used to be purchased from the Portuguese merchants by the English and the Dutch, who, after cutting and polishing them, and supplying the demand of their own countries, disposed of what remained to other nations of Europe. In the diamond and mine districts are found, between the parasitic stones, amethysts, topazes, sapphires, emeralds, and fine chrysolites. Jacinths or granites are sometimes discovered in the interstices of talc, or micaceous stones; but these, as well as some other precious stones, have never been subjected to a monopoly like diamonds. The annual exportation of these stones from Janeiro, and some of the other ports, seldom exceeded £6,250, for which the government received a duty of one per cent. amounting to the sum of £62. 10s. sterling.

52. Mines of iron, sulphur, antimony, tin, lead, and quick-silver, are found in this and other provinces of Brazil; but the pursuit of gold has diverted the attention of the colonists from more useful speculations. It was long supposed that copper had been withheld by nature from this vast and fruitful region of the new hemisphere; but later researches have shown this to be an unfounded suspicion. In Rio de Janeiro there exists a rich and copious mine of cupreous pyrites (pyrites cupri); one cwt. of this mineral yields 25lbs. of pure copper. Similar mines of this metal have also been discovered in Minas Geraes, and other districts.

53. In fruit-trees, vegetables, and nutritive roots, South America is extremely rich, and in different kinds of wood for building, dyeing, &c. Independently of many kinds peculiar to this country, vast numbers have been introduced since the sixteenth century. The inhabitants of western Europe have deposited in America what they have been receiving for 2,000 years, by their communications with the Greeks and Romans,

by the irruption of the hordes of central Asia, by the conquests of the Arabs, by the crusades, and by the navigations of the Portuguese. All these vegetable treasures, accumulated in an extremity of the Old Continent by the continual flux of nations towards the west, and preserved under the happy influence of an increasing civilization, have become almost at once the inheritance of Mexico and Peru. In Peru, as well as in other parts, the culture of maize, pimento, and cotton, which was found established there, has not been neglected; and that of wheat, barley, cassava, potatoes, sugar, and the olive and vine, is attended to. Humboldt classes the Mexican wheat amongst that of the first quality, and as superior to that of Monte Video, which, according to Azara, has the grain smaller by one half than the Spanish. Maize, or Indian wheat, is used much by the natives; it is a genus of the monœcia triandria. The plant is one single stalk, which shoots out leaves more than a yard in length and three inches in breadth, and' the fruit is a sort of cone, about a span in length, very closely set with grains of different colours; but generally white and yellow. They reckon five species, or rather varieties, of maize, which differ very little from each other. The method of sowing it is to make a hole, throw in a few seeds, and cover them, and without any further trouble it soon appears above ground, and is fit for reaping at the end of five months at latest : hence they easily obtain two crops in one year. The wheat, made into flour, serves for bread for all the Indians and common people; and is used in the composition of several dishes, as also to feed cattle, pigs, domestic animals, and poultry. The maize is evidently a native of the New World.

54. The plantain, next in importance to maize, is another principal food of the natives, and more particularly of the negroes. The fruit generally is about an inch and a half in diameter, and ten or twelve in length, something curved. It has the appearance of an hexagon, with the angles made round and terminating in hexagonal points. The skin, which is smooth, and of a green colour before it is ripe, afterwards becomes yellow, and contains a substance resembling cheese, without seeds, and only a few large fibres. After the plantain is past maturity the rind turns black, and the pulp becomes sour; but in taste is very similar to the pear. All classes of animals are very fond of it. The tree which bears the plantain gives fruit only once, in large bunches, and is immediately cut, or, if left, withers and falls; but the root, which is large, round, and solid, produces fresh supplies, which, in twelve or fourteen months, yield fruit and decay, and the roots shoot forth again with renewed vigour. The plant is not woody, nor has it any bark, but is a thick, cylindrical body, consisting of a great number of long broad leaves wrapped round each other, the outer ones serving as a rind to the others. It arrives at its full height in about nine months, and is about ten or twelve inches in diameter. This plant requires a moist, rich, and solid land, and if these be wanting ceases to prosper, and gives an inferior kind of fruit. Before it is ripe it is boiled like turnips with

meat, and is eaten after this method by sailors and fishermen. It is also roasted on coals, and used by the negroes instead of bread. When boiled in wine with sugar and cinnamon, it assumes a beautiful red colour, and acquires a delicious taste and fragrant smell; and is one of the best preserves which the Creoles make. Of plantains there are four species, distinguished by the names of bananas, guanas, dominicos, and cambures.

55. Of the vegetables, there are none (after the manioc and the papas, or potatoes), more used for the subsistence of the common people than the oca (oxalis tuberosa), the batate and the igname. The first of these grows only in the cold and temperate climates, or on the summit or declivity of the Cordilleras; and the others belong to the warmer regions of the valleys and sea-coasts. The igname or dioscorea alata, like the banana, appears indigenous to equinoctial regions. The account of the voyage of Aloysio Cadamusto (Cadamusti Navigatio ad Terras incognitas. Grynæus Orb. Nov. p. 47), informs us that this root was known by the Arabs.

56. Among the most useful plants proper to this continent, the cacomite, or oceloxochitl, a species of tigridia, of which the root yielded a nutritive flour to the inhabitants of the valley of Mexico; the numerous varieties of love-apples, or tomat (solanum lycopersicum), which was formerly sown along with maize; the earthpistachio, or maui (arachis hypogea), of which the root is concealed in the earth, and which appears to have existed in Cochin China (see Loureiro, Flora Cochinchinensis, p. 522,) long before the discovery of America; lastly, the different species of pimento (capsicum baccatum, c. annuum, and c. frutescens), called by the Mexicans chilli, and the Peruvians uchu, o which the fruit is as indispensably necessary to the natives as salt to the whites. The Spaniards call pimento chile, or axi (ahi). The topinambours (helianthus tuberosus), which, according to M. Correa, are not even to be found in the Brazils, are not known to be cultivated elsewhere on this continent, though, in all our works on botany, they are said to be the natives of the country of the Brazilian Topinambas. The chimalatl, or sun with large flowers (helianthus annuus), came from Peru to New Spain; and was formerly sown in several parts of Spanish America, not only to extract oil from its seeds, but also for the sake of roasting it, and making it into bread. Rice (oryza sativa) was unknown to the people of the new continent, as well as to the inhabitants of the South Sea islands. Whenever the old historians use the expression small Peruvian rice (arroz perquenno), they mean the chenopodium quinoa, which is very common in Peru and the beautiful valley of Bogota. The cultivation of rice, introduced by the Arabs into Europe, and by the Spaniards into America, is but of little importance. The great drought which prevails in the interior is by no means favourable to its cultivation.

57. Almost all the garden stuffs and fruit-trees of Europe are now common in South America, and it is not easy to say which of the former existed in the new continent before the arrival

of the Spaniards. The same uncertainty prevails among botanists as to the species of turnips, sallads, and cabbage cultivated by the Greeks and Romans. The Americans were always acquainted with onions (in Mexican xonacatl), haricots (in Mexican ayacotli, in the Peruvian or Quichua language perutu), gourds (in Peruvian capulla), and several varieties of cicer; and Cortes, speaking of the eatables which were daily sold in the market of the ancient Tenochtitlan, expressly says, that every kind of gardenstuff (legume) was to be found there, particularly onions, leeks, garlic, garden and water cresses (mastuerzo y berro), borrage, sorrel, and artichokes (cardo y tagarninas). No species of cabbage or turnip (brassica et raphanus) was cultivated in America, although the indigenous are very fond of dressed herbs. It appears that the Mexicans had originally no peas; and this fact is the more remarkable, as our pisum sativum is believed to grow wild on the north-west coast of America. In general, if we consider the garden-stuffs of the Aztecs, and the great number of farinaceous roots cultivated in Mexico and Peru, we see that America was by no means so poor in alimentary plants as has been supposed by some learned men, who were acquainted with the New World only through the works of Herera and Solis. The degree of civilization of a people has no relation with the variety of productions. Hence we must not be astonished at not finding among the Mexicans of the sixteenth century the vegetable stores now contained in our gardens. The Greeks and Romans even neither knew spinach nor cauliflowers, nor scorzoneras, nor artichokes, nor a great number of other kitchen vegetables.

58. The central table-land of New Spain produces in the greatest abundance cherries, prunes, peaches, apricots, pine-apples, figs, grapes, melons, apples, and pears. In the environs of Mexico, the villages of San Augustin de las Cuevas and Tacubaya, the famous garden of the convent of Carmelites at San Angel, and that of the family of Fagoaga at Tenepantla, yield, in the months of June, July, and August, an immense quantity of fruit, for the most part of an exquisite

taste.

59. The maguey, so abundant in every part of South America, is much esteemed by the Indians, because it supplies them with water, wine, vinegar, oil, balsam, honey, beams for building houses, tiles, thread for sewing and weaving, needles, and with its shoots for victuals. It may be classed with the aloes. The leaves, when half roasted, afford a quantity of liquor something sweet, which, when boiled to a syrup, is an excellent remedy for cleansing old wounds. It may also be taken in the quantity of half or a whole drachm, in warm water, to dislodge any crudity from the stomach, and to expel bile or extravasated blood. This plant is very abundant; and is sometimes employed in making pulque, a sort of liquor, which is the common drink of the South American Indians. When the tree is eight years old they cut the corazon, or bundle of central leaves, and insensibly enlarge the wound, covering it with lateral leaves, which they raise up by drawing them close, and tying

them to the extremities. In this wound the vessels appear to deposit all the juice which would have formed the colossal hampe loaded with flowers. This is a true vegetable spring, which keeps running for two or three months, and from which the Indian draws three or four times a day. We may judge of the quickness or slowness of the motion of the juice by the quantity of honey extracted from the maguey at different times of the day. A foot commonly yields in twenty-four hours four cubic decimetres, or 200 cubic inches (242 cubic inches English), equal to eight quartillos. Of this total quantity, they obtain three quartillos at sun-rise, two at mid-day, and three at six in the evening. A very vigorous plant sometimes yields fifteen quartillos, or 375 cubic inches (454 cubic inches English), per day, for from four to five months, which amounts to the enormous volume of more than 1100 cubic decimetres, or 67,130 cubic inches. This abundance of juice produced by a maguey of scarcely a metre and a half in height, or 4 feet, is the more astonishing, as the agave plantations are in the most arid grounds, and frequently on banks of rocks hardly covered with vegetable earth. The value of a maguey plant near its efflorescence is, at Pachuca, five piastres, or £1. 2s. 4d. In a barren soil the Indian calculates the produce of each maguey at 150 bottles, and the value of the pulque furnished in a day at from ten to twelve sols. The produce however, like that of the vine, is unequal. Plantations of the maguey are found in New Mexico, which bring in annually nearly £2000. sterling. The cultivation is an object of such importance for the revenue, that the entry duties paid in the three cities of Mexico, Toluca, and Puebla, amounted in 1793 to the sum of 817,739 piastres, or £178,880 sterling. The expenses of collecting were then 56,608 piastres, or £12,383 sterling; so that the government drew from the agave juice a net revenue of 761,131 piastres, or £166,497, or more than 3,800,000 francs. A very intoxicating brandy, called Mexical, is formed from the pulque. The grape of the best quality is that of Zapotitlan, in the intendancy of Oaxaca. The wine of Passo is in great estimation.

60. The Spaniards, who first learnt from the Indians the method of decocting the fruit of the cacao, have since diffused this knowledge amongst other nations. Herera, the historian, compares the leaves with those of the chestnuttree; the plant is so delicate that, to preserve it from the rays of the sun, they always set it near some tree which is capable of shading it. The flower is white, and produces fruit twice a year, in a pod grooved like a melon, and covered with a white skin in the bud of each flower; each one contains from twenty to fifty nuts compactly set, and of the size of large almonds. There are two kinds of cacao, the wild and bitter, which the Indians used to prize highly, and, as it is still in some repute, they endeavour to cultivate and improve it; the other is distinguished by its quality according to the soil or country in which it grows. The best cacao is produced in the province of Soconosco, but very little is brought to Europe. The second,