Personal Narrative Of Travels To The Equinoctial Regions Of America During The Years 1799-1804 - Volume 1 - By Alexander Von Humboldt And Aime Bonpland.
- Page 681 of 779 - First - Home
In Several Spots Of The Valley Of Caracas, The Gneiss
Contains A Small Quantity Of Gold, Disseminated In Small Veins Of
Quartz, Sulphuretted Silver, Azure Copper-Ore, And Galena; But It
Is Doubtful Whether These Different Metalliferous Substances Are
Not Too Poor To Encourage Any Attempt At Working Them.
Such
attempts were, however, made at the conquest of the province, about
the middle of the sixteenth century.
From the promontory of Paria to beyond cape Vela, the early
navigators had seen gold ornaments and gold dust, in the possession
of the inhabitants of the coast. They penetrated into the interior
of the country, to discover whence the precious metal came; and
though the information obtained in the province of Coro, and the
markets of Curiana and Cauchieto,* (* The Spaniards found, in 1500,
in the country of Curiana (now Coro), little birds, frogs, and
other ornaments made of gold. Those who had cast these figures
lived at Cauchieto, a place nearer the Rio de la Hacha. I have seen
ornaments resembling those described by Peter Martyr of Anghiera
(which indicate tolerable skill in goldsmiths' work), among the
remains of the ancient inhabitants of Cundinamarca. The same art
appears to have been practised in places along the coasts, and also
farther to the south, among the mountains of New Grenada.) clearly
proved that real mineral wealth was to be found only to the west
and south-west of Coro (that is to say, in the mountains near those
of New Grenada), the whole province of Caracas was nevertheless
eagerly explored.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 681 of 779
Words from 185011 to 185268
of 211363
