very different from the prices which the most princely fortunes can afford to pay for them. The diamond in question cost about one hundred and thirty-five thousand pounds sterling; and the one called the PITT or REGENT, although it weighed one hundred and thirty-six carats only, was, on account of its greater brilliancy, purchased of a Greek merchant for one hundred thousand pounds sterling. Several other large diamonds are preserved in the cabinets of the Sovereigns and Princes of Europe.

GOLD AND SILVER MINES.

The mines of LA PLATA, so denominated on account of the abundance of silver they contain, are chiefly situated in the provinces which were strictly considered as Peruvian, before the new partition of territory in 1778; Charcas, Tucuman, and even Buenos Ayres, being then considered as dependencies of Peru. With the exception of New Spain, the upper part of the Viceroyalty of La Plata is the richest country in silver which has yet been discovered, and contains innumerable mines both of that metal and of gold. All its northern provinces teem with mineral opulence; and those of Laricaja and Carabaya are distinguished by the production of the latter, and still nobler metal, in its virgin state.

The mountain of Potosi alone produces weekly about five thousand marks of silver, that is, from thirty to forty thousand dollars-a surprising produce, when it is considered that it has been wrought since 1545, at which time it was accidentally discovered by an Indian. At the commencement it was still more abundant, and the metal was dug up in a purer state; but it is still considered as the most sure and permanent mine. The silver is often found in shoots imbedded in the earth. Six thousand Indians are sent every eighteen months, from the provinces of the Viceroyalty, to work this mine. The expedition is called mita; and these Indians, having been enrolled and formed into parties, are distributed by the governor of Potosi, and receive a small daily stipend, (equal to about eighteen pence English) until the period of their labour is completed. They are thus condemned to a forced service, which is nothing less than slavery, so long as it lasts, and which the

Spaniards endeavour to justify by the plea that labourers could not otherwise be procured. The mita having thus, according to them, been rendered indispensable, they observe that it is conducted with all possible humanity; which those may believe who have never heard of the cruelties they have exercised, it may be said habitually, on the wretched Indians, since the conquest.

Lumps of pure gold and silver, called papas, from their resemblance to the potatoe, are often found in the sands. The poor likewise occupy themselves in lavederos, or in washing the sands of the rivers and rivulets, in order to find particles of the precious metals.

To compensate for the mines which are rendered useless by the irruption of water, or other accidents, rich and new ones are daily discovered. They are all found in the chains of mountains, commonly in dry and barien spots, and sometimes in the sides of the quebredas, or astonishing precipitous breaks in the ridges. However certain this rule may be in the Viceroyalty of Buenos Ayres, it is contradicted in that of Lima, where, at three leagues distance from the Pacific Ocean, not far from Tagna, in the province of Africa, there was discovered not many years ago the famous mine of Huantajaya, in a sandy plain at a distance from the mountains, of such exuberant wealth that the pure metal was cut out with a chisel. From this mine a large specimen of virgin silver is preserved in the royal cabinet of natural history at Madrid. It attracted a considerable population, although neither water nor the common conveniences for labour could be found on the spot, nor was there any pasturage for the cattle.

In the mint of Potosi about six millions of dollars are annually coined; and the mines of the viceroyalty of La Plata, taken collectively, are reckoned to yield about sixteen millions. The new viceroyalty of Buenos Ayres contains thirty gold mines, twenty-seven silver mines, and sixteen of other metals.

The mines of MEXICO, OF NEW SPAIN, have been more celebrated for their riches than those of La Plata, notwithstanding which they are remarkable for the poverty of the mineral they contain. A quintal, or one thousand six hundred ounces of silver ore, affords, at a medium, not more than three or four ounces of pure silver, about one third of

what is yielded by the same quantity of mineral in Saxony. It is not, therefore, owing to the richness of the ore, but to its abundance, and the facility of working it, that the mines of New Spain are so much superior to those of Europe.

The fact of the small number of persons employed in working them, is not less contrary to the commonly received opinion on this subject. The mines of Guanaxato, infinitely richer than those of Potosi ever were, afforded from 1796 to 1803, nearly forty millions of dollars in gold and silver, or very nearly five millions of dollars annually, being somewhat less than one fourth of the whole quantity of gold and silver from New Spain; notwithstanding which, these mines, productive as they were, did not employ more than five thousand workmen of every description. In Mexico, the labour of the mines is perfectly free, and better paid than any other kind of industry, a miner earning from five to five dollars and a half weekly, while the wages of the common labourer do not exceed a dollar and a half. The tenateros, or persons who carry the ore on their backs, from the spot where it is dug out of the mine, to that where it is colleeted in heaps, receive a sum equal to five English shillings for a day's work of six hours. Neither slaves, criminals, nor forced labourers, are employed in the Mexican Mines.

In consequence of the clumsy, imperfect, and expensive mode of clearing them from water, several of the richest of these mines have been overflowed and abandoned; while the want of method in the arrangement of the galleries, and the absence of lateral communications, add to the uncertainty, and greatly increase the expense of working them. Labour is not, as in the working of the European mines, abridged, nor the transport of materials facilitated. When new works are undertaken, a due con sideration is not bestowed on the preliminary arrangements; and they are always conducted on too large and expensive a scale.

More than three-fourths of the silver obtained from America is extricated from the ore by the means of quicksilver, the loss of which, in the process of amalgamation, is immense. The quantity consumed annually in New Spain alone is about sixteen thousand quintals; and, in the whole of America, about twenty-five thousand quintals are an