The largest piece of gold ever found in Choco weighed twenty-five pounds; but the negro who discovered it, did not even obtain his liberty. His master presented it to the Kingʼs cabinet, in hopes of obtaining a title, but it was with much difficulty that he even got the value of its weight, a just punishment for not emancipating his slave. Ten thousand eight hundred marks of gold are the utmost annual produce of the washings of Choco, and the metal is generally about twenty-one carats fine. Platina is chiefly found in this and the neighbouring province of Antioquia. It is in Choco and Barbacoas, that this valuable metal is only discovered in grains, in the alluvious grounds between the second and sixth degrees of north latitude. In Choco, the ravine of Oro, between the villages of Novita and Taddo, yields the greatest quantity; the price on the spot being about thirty-three shillings the pound. The district of _Biriquite_, which is attached to Choco, lies along the coast of the Pacific; in it is the village of _Noanamas_, inhabited chiefly by Indians, and situated on a river of the same name, 170 miles north-west of Popayan. This country was discovered by Pizarro, who called the natives Pueblo Quemado (the burnt people). It is thinly inhabited by some Indian tribes, who, as is the case with their neighbours in Darien, are perfectly independent. _GOVERNMENT OF POPAYAN._ This country, which is subordinate to the presidency of Quito, contains several districts, _Cali_, _Quatro Ciudades_, _Timana_, _Guadalajara de Buga_, _St. Sebastian de la Plata_, _Almaguer_, _Caloto_, _San Juan de Pasto_, _El Raposo_ and _Barbacoas_. Of these the four northern ones are attached to the audience of Santa Fé de Bogota, and the others to Quito. Popayan is bounded on the north by the Llanos de Neiva, on the west by Choco and the Pacific, on the east by the government of Quixos, and on the south by that of Atacames. The country of Popayan possesses from the extent of its surface, a very unequal climate; the district of Barbacoas being on the sea shore, is extremely hot, whilst in the interior, on the mountains, the cold is excessive; but _Popayan_, the capital, enjoys a temperate climate, and an eternal spring. Tempests and earthquakes are more frequent in this government than in Quito itself, though they occur often in the latter place; and the district of Caloto is the one most subject to storms, thunder and lightning. The soil of Popayan varies according to the situations of the districts; it produces grains and fruits in great abundance; and numbers of horned cattle, horses and sheep, are reared by the farmers.