Platina is the exclusive production of New Gra nada; it is found only in the province of Choco, to the west of the Andes, and in the province of Bar bacoa, between the 2d and 6th degree of north lati tude. It is peculiar to one alluvial spot of ground, about six hundred square leagues. It is found in -Lavaderos, principally at Condotto, Santa Beta, San ta Lucia, and the ravine of fro, between the villages of Novita and Taddo.
To a country abounding with silver mines, mercu ry is indispensable for working them to advantage. The impolicy of the court of Spain, which has placed mercury under a royal monopoly, has, of necessity, imposed great restrictions on the mines of America. The government supplies the wants of the miners from Almadon, in Spain, in some degree, but prin cipally from the mines of Istria. There are, however, in New Granada, as well as in Peru and Mexico, mines of quicksilver, which, with due encouragement and protection, would be sufficient to render the American dominions of Spain independent of Europe for the supply of this important mineral. Sulphuret ed mercury is found in the province of Antioquia, in the valley of Santa Rosa, to the eastward of the river Cauca, in the central Cordillera, between Ibagee and Carthago, and in the province of Quito, between the villages of Azogue and Cuenca. The celebrated Professor Mutis made the discovery of the Cinnabar in the mines of Quindiu. At his own expense, in 1786, he caused the miners of Sapo to examine that part of the granite mountains which extends south ward from the Nevada de Tolima towards the river Saldana. The sulphureted mercury was found in round fragments, mixed with small grains of geld in the alluvial earth, with which the ravine at the foot of the table land of lbague Near the village of Azogue, to the north-west of Cuenca, the mercury is found as in the department of Mount Tonnerre, in Frans, in a formation of quartose freestone, with ar gillaceous cement. This freestone is near 1500 yards in thickness, and contains fossil wood and as phaltum. In the mountains of Guazon and Upar, to the north-east of Azogue, a vein of cinnabar tra verses beds of clay filled with calcareous spar, and contained in freestone. This mine must have been formerly worked, as tbere are the remains of a gallery 180 yards in length. At five leagues distant from the city of Popayan, there is a ravine known by the name of the quicksilver ravine (quebrada de Azogue), from whence it is probable that mercury was former ly extracted, but at present no attempt at working it is made.
In New Granada, there are considerable iron veins, but they are forbidden to be worked, lest they should injure the iron manufactures of the peninsula ; hence, though their situation is well known, and the richness of the ore ascertained, they have not been explored with that degree of diligence which the prospect of reaping benefit by their working would produce. Coal mines exist near the city of Santa Fe de Bogo ta, at the height of more than 8000 feet above the level of the sea ; but, not being wanted for manufac tories, wood being abundant, and the climate too warm to need fires in the apartments, they are not worked. There is also a most abundant mine of rock salt at Zepaquira, and, it is said, in other parts ; but the wants of the inhabitants being abundantly sup plied with salt from the sea-coast, there has been no necessity for bringing the other into use.
It is generally supposed that the richest mines are unexplored, and even unknown to the Spaniards. A sensible resident in Choco, whose notes are before us, _ says, " 1 know that in Choco, the have knowledge of several rich mines of gold, whose ex istence they obstinately conceal from the whites, be cause they say they reserve them for themselves or their heirs, when they shall be freed from the Spa nish yoke, which they all believe will some day hap pen." When this part of America was first visited by the Spaniards, the natives were divided into various tribes, and lived in a state but little removed from the condition of the lowest savages. Some of the tribes had made more considerable advances, and were gradually subduing, and perhaps leading to wards civilization, their ruder neighbours. Two states had risen to more eminence, and formed some kind of regular government. The Moscas or Muys cas had built their capital on the spot on which the present city of Santa Fe stands. Like most rude na tions, their government was founded on superstition, and its origin supposed to be of divine institution. They had a prevalent tradition, that, at some remote period, a child of the sun, designated among them by the name of Bochica, had appeared, in some myste rious manner, and invested with supernatural power ; that, in his contests with malignant beings, he had succeeded in rendering the plains habitable and fertile, and had recommended for their monarch Huncahua. This king mounted the throne ; and,
during a reign of two thousand years, extended his dominions, and introduced religion, and the arts of civilized life. The government was a theocracy ; and the offices of king and high priest were united in him and his successors. The religion was of a sanguinary kind, and required the sacrifice of hu man victims. The first advances only had been made in knowledge ; for, though they had a calen dar which divided the year into weeks and months, they could only express numbers beyond ten by adding to them the word which signifies foot, and then counting the decimals by numbering the toes. They had attained the art of spinning cot ton, and of weaving it, so as to form garments ; and they had workmen who exercised some rude ingenuity in making ornaments of gold and sil ver. The mixed character of Monarch and High Priest, which was borne by their King, impressed a kind of awe on the inhabitants, which kept them in cheerful subjection. Their king never walked on foot, but was carried by men on a species of palan kin, in -paths strewed with flowers, by his willing subjects, whose respect and dread made them con sider it an act of impiety even to look on his counte nance. When the Spaniards first discovered this country, it was designated by the natives with the name of Cundinamarca, and the civil and ecclesias tical government was vested in a chief called Bogota, who was engaged in war, as his predecessors had long been, with the Muses or Muses, a nation whose traditions and superstitions differing, had caused perpetual animosity with the Muyscas. The tradi tion of the Muses, concerning the origin of their race, taught them, that, in a remote period, the sha dow of a man, or a spirit called Ari, was accustom ed to make faces of men and women in wood, and throw them into the river Magdalena, from whence they issued in the shape of human beings, and that, being taught by him to cultivate the soil, they had multiplied, and dispersed themselves, and thus peo pled the whole country; Whilst Benalcazar, who acted under the orders of Pizarro, wag reducing the south, towards Quito, an other of the Spanish commanders was accomplish ing the same object in the north part of the coun try. Gonzalo Ximenes de Quesada was sent in 1536 by Fernando de Lugo from Santa Marta to explore the countries bordering on the Magdalena. His greatest difficulties at first arose rather from the im penetrable thickets that opposed his passage, than from any warlike force which the savage natives, who were few in number, and of little bodily strength, could present. After ascending to the junction of four rivers, be formed an establishment, from whence, after a short interval, he continued his progress. As he advanced to the higher regions, he found the inhabitants more warlike, but much divided among themselves, whilst some, with great vehemence, op posed his passage; their enemies soon formed allian ces with him, and afforded him every assistance in their power. Bogota, the greatest of the monarchs, was his most decided opponent, and collected all his force in the fertile plains of Santa Fe. A pitched battle, whose fate was not long doubtful, -decided the future lot of the principal power, and by the fall of Bogota and his auxiliaries, the Spaniards and their allies were enabled to establish a durable do minion. The conquerors were rewarded with con siderable booty in gold and emeralds, and if we may draw inferences from some facts narrated by their own historians, conducted themselves with both cruelty and fraud to the wretched inhabitants. Quesada lived to an extreme old age, and saw, be fore his death, the country he had conquered, flou rishing in agriculture, in population, and in mines. Cities, towns, cathedrals, and churches were built, and the Catholic re olic religion professed by the old as firmly as by the new inhabitants. He lived sixty years after he had completed the conquest, dying in 1597. During his long life the mixture of races had been completely effected, and those derived from the union of Spanish men with the Indian wo men, were making rapid advances towards an equa lity in numbers with the pure Indians.