asserted that large rocks are found in the mountains abounding in gold, and I have seen a fragment of one of these rocks having a considerable lump of gold entangled in it; but, even in this case, the workmen only break off the rocks, and do not properly mine into them; and the great expence of subsisting among these mountains, and in afterwards separating the metal from the stone, occasions this method of procuring gold to be but rarely put in practice. [Footnote 3: The author ought here to have said, _a thin layer_, or _stratum_, to express the obvious meaning intended in the text.--E.] [Footnote 4: The editor was informed, many years ago, by an intelligent native of Rio Janeiro, that the search for gold is confined by law to certain districts, on purpose to secure the royal fifth; and that all over the country round Rio Janeiro, where the search is prohibited, gold, emeralds, and aqua-marines are found in small quantities, on every occasion of digging to any depth into the earth, as for the purpose of a pit-well.--E.] The examining the bottom of rivers and beds of torrents, and the washing the gold there found, from the sand and dirt with which it is always mixed, are performed by slaves, who are principally negroes, kept in great numbers by the Portuguese for this purpose. The regulation of the duty of these slaves is singular, as they are each of them obliged to furnish their master with the eighth part of an ounce of gold daily.[5] If they are either so fortunate or industrious as to collect a greater quantity, the surplus becomes their own property, and they may dispose of it as they think fit; so that some negroes, who have accidentally fallen upon rich washing-places, are said to have themselves purchased slaves, and to have lived afterwards in great splendour, their original master having no other demand upon them than the daily supply of the before-mentioned eighths; which, as the Portuguese ounce is somewhat lighter than our troy ounce, may amount to about nine shillings sterling. [Footnote 5: On the data of the text, and allowing sixty-five days in the year for Sundays and high festivals, the yearly profit of one slave to his master would be L. 135 sterling.--E.]