it but Ammoniac which in Greek signifies Salt of the sand and underneath the sand of the Sea shore I suppose it is found congealed in little pieces by its internal heat and the continual burning of the Sun baked so much that it is made the bitterest to taste of all kind of Salt Goldsmiths use it more than the Physicians It is one of those they call the four spirits because the fire will convert them into smoak and so they fly away the other three are 1. Quicksilver 2. Sulphur 3. Saltpeter It hath a particular property to cleanse and colour Gold and is put into the composition of that Aqua-fortis that dissolves it At this day we have little knowledge of the true Nitre which was anciently made of the water of the river Nilus although Albertus Magnus saith that in Goselaria there was a mountain that contained a very rich Mine of Copper and the water that issued out at the bottom of it being dried became Nitre We know little also of Aphonitro which is but as it were the froth of Nitre Borax which is called by the Spaniards Chrysolica and Atincar is an artificial sort of Nitre made of Urines stirred togethet in the heat of the Sun in a Copper Pan with a Ladle of the same until it thicken and coagulate although others make it of Salt-Ammoniac and Allum Nitre is bitterer than Salt but less Salt Saltpeter is the mean between them two and consists of very dry and subtile parts it grows in the walls of old Houses and in Stables Cow houses Hog-sties and Dove-coats it will grow again in the same Earth it was taken out of if that Earth be throwen in heaps and spared and taken care of or if ordinary Earth be cast up into heaps and watered with brackish water after some years it will give a great encrease as profitable as crops of Grain The use of it in making of Gunpowder and Aqua-fortis is very well known It is used also in the melting of Mettals as shall be shewn hereafter CHAP. 9. Of Juices which the Spaniards call Betunes THe Betune is one of the things that does most damage of all unto Mettals especially in the melting of them because it burns them and makes them become dross if they be not cleared of the Betune before they be put into a fierce fire There be twelve sorts of Betune viz. Asphalto Pissasphalto Naptal la Piedra Gagete Azabache Ampelites Maltha Piedra Thracia Carbones de Mina Ambar de Cuentas Ambar Olorosa Alcanfor But few of these sorts are found mixed with Metals All Betunes are the oyliness or fat of the Earth and although some are of opinion that Alcanphor is the weeping or Gum of the Tree Capar in the Island of Zebat and the Amber of another Hearb called Polco in Spanish whereunto it is commonly found sticking And to the smelling Amber they ascribe for its original a great Fish in the Sea like a Whale because there is great resemblance between it and sperma Ceti Nevertheless that doth not hinder that such substances also may like sweat as it were issue forth of the Earth and make these Juices called Betunes Asphalto is found in the Lake of Sodom or the dead Sea in Judea whereinto runneth the river Jordan three leagues from the City of Jericho It is nothing else but an oyly froth that swims on the surface of the water of that Lake agitated and driven by the winds and waves a-shore and there condenses and hardens It is like unto Pitch but harder and of a better colour Before God overthrew those wicked Cities of Sodom Gomorrha Admah and Seboim that fertile valley had little of this Betune in it as may be collected from Gen. Chap. 14. These are found also in many other places and Provinces some whereof use them to make Candles with instead of Oyl and although in Peru they have not been curious in further search then how best to work their Oar of Gold and Silver yet by the plenty of them that the Indians bring it is known that there are of them in the Cordillera de la Chiriguanes in the frontiers of Lomnia although they have little access to them because they be in the power of the Indians that maintain war against the Spaniard The Pissasphalto is a natural composition of Asphalto and Paz and so the colour of it declares and for want of the true natural Pissasphalto they counterfeit it of those two materials La Napthe is a sulphurous liquor sometimes white and sometimes black also and is that which is called Oyl of Peter of admirable vertue to cure old pains proceeding from cold causes It will draw fire to it as the Loadstone does Iron with that force that it will take fire at a great distance from the flame as hath been confirmed by the miserable experience of the Conde de Hercules de Icontrarii of the Country of Ferara who having a Well in his ground the water whereof was mixed with Petreol and by some breaches or cracks in the Well much of this water ran to waste commanded it to be repaired the Laborer that was let down into the bottom of the Well desired a Candle the better to see his work which was furnished him in a Lanthorn and immediately through the holes of the Lanthorn the Napthe suckt the flame into it self and set fire on the whole Well which discharged it self instantly like a great piece of Cannon and blew the poor man into pieces and took off an arm of a Tree that hung over the Well The Conde himself told the story to Matiolo who reports it in his Dioscorides Asphalto and Pissasphalto melt in the fire as Pitch or Wax and by that they are distinguished from the Piedra Gagate or Ascabache and also from Pit-coal which burns and consumes it self away like Tea or any other sort of wood As yet I have not heard whether there be any Betunes in these Provinces although I perswade my self there be if they were sought for CHAP. 10. Of Sulphur and Antimony SUlphur is a Mineral the most universally known of any It is made of an Earthy unctuous substance and very hot to that degree that it is esteemed to be nearest of kin to the Element of fire of any compounded substance The Chymists call it the Masculine seed and Natures first agent in all generation and they say that the difference between one thing and another arises from the divers preparations and mixtures of Sulphur and Quicksilver It hath happened to an Apothecary that going about to make a salve compounded of those two materials he has found the result to be a Plate of fine silver After many considerations of this substance Thophrastus Paracelsus proceeds to contemplate the wonders produced by Sulphur and saith that God by an especial providence hath concealed those mysteries and that it is an evident confutation of those who oppose the transmutation of Mettals for this Mineral doth effect it and he teaches
above the superficies of the Earth and those within the bowels of it run after the same manner other such like signs they give us whereby to know those Brooks or Rivers that have Gold in them but with less reason because the Gold is not engendred there but in the veins of the mountains from whence time and the downfalls of water have worn it away but without disparaging the judgement of those that have thought as abovesaid and have written to that purpose I say that for the most part in the Mines of Europe and of these parts experience hath shewed the contrary which I foresee they will answer by saying that oftentimes an effect is produced contrary to expectation and that these have their exceptions as well as other rules nevertheless if it be lawful for us in this other world and opposite Climate to make new rules from the experiences in the rich Mines of Potosi I should assign the first place of riches and abundance to those veins that run North and South upon the northernside of the mountain which point of the Compass with a very little declination Westward the four principal Mines of this mountain observe namely the Mine of Centeno which was the Descubridora the Rich mine the Tin mine and the mine of Mendieta the second place I should give to them that run North and South on the South side of the hills A point of the Compass parallel whereunto run the best veins of the second famous Mine of this Kingdom which hath its name from the famous City of St. Philip of Austria called Oruro which in the richness of its veins abundance of Mettals depth of its Mines and great concourse of inhabitants deservedly stands in competition with the grandeur of Potosi In divers places very rich veins of Mettal run East and West and also to several other points of the Compass so that the best rule to go by in this matter is to follow the Mettal as it discovers it self and as long as one gains thereby or at least saves himself it is worth the following on because being sure to lose nothing one hath the vein will lead him to great riches and if the vein be large and have any signs of Gold or Silver in it although for the present it doth not quit the cost men go on couragiously in the working of it having such certain hopes of gaining great profit this hath been confirmed by experience in all the Mines of these Provinces a fresh instance whereof we have in the rich Mine of Chocaia where for the instruction and encouragement of Miners after having followed its veins forty years with very little profit at length they have met with the extravagant riches which all of us in this Kingdom have heard and seen If the veins of Mettal be very small they must be extream rich to be worth the following if the Mettal be found clinging about Stones and likewise in the hollows of those Stones it be found in grains like corns of Gunpowder being that which the Spaniards call Plomo and is Silver unrefin'd although these grains be but few and the rest of the Mettal have no Silver in it nevertheless it is a sign of the riches of the vein when it meets with more moisture As it fell out in that great Mine of St. Christopher of the Lipes which they call the Poor man's Treasure if as they dig forwards they meet with more abundance of those grains de Plomo it is a sign that the rich Oar is very near To find Chrisocola Herrumbre Oropimente or Sandaraca in the Mines or iron-colour'd earth next to the Stones that inclose the Oar or Fullers-earth between those Stones are very good tokens of the richness of the Mine it is no ill sign also to meet with dry Earth if it be yellow red black or any other extraordinary colour and 't is the better when there is some shew of Lead mixt with it Chalky-ground is very promising and Agricola doth judge it a good sign to meet with Sand in the Mines if it be exeeding fine and very ill to meet with Earth full of little Flints if it hold long without changing into another soil CHAP. 26. Of Mettals in particular and first of Gold THe most perfect of all Inanimate bodies and the most esteemed of all Mettals is Gold universally known and coveted by all people It is made of the same matter and in the same manner as other Mettals are as hath been already shewn but of parts so pure and perfect and so well compacted togther by decoction that its substance is as it were incorruptible being out of the power of any of the Elements to be corrupted or destroyed The fire that consumes all other Mettals only makes Gold more pure The air and water diminish not its lustre nor can Earth make it rust or waste By the nobleness of its substance it hath most deservedly obtained that estimation which the world gives it and the natural vertue which flows from the admirable equality of its composition is the best medicine against melancholy and the greatest cordial to the hearts of men which perpetually run after this avaritious Mettal as the Needle doth after the Loadstone The qualities that it hath in common with other Mettals have been briefly touched in Chapter 21. The vertue ascribed to Aurum potabile to preserve a body perpetually in youthfulness without infirmity together with the receipt of making thereof depends upon the credit of those Authors who have written concerning the same Many writers upon this subject relate the names of divers Countries Mountains and Rivers famous for the production of Gold but my design is not to be over-large and therefore I not only forbear to translate what other men have written but also to treat of the greatest part of the Mines in this new world even those of divers of the Provinces of Peru and only apply my self to give your Lordship a short account of those which are found in the Royal audiencia de los Charcas the government whereof is worthily committed unto the care of your Lordship Every body knows the name of Carabaya for being a Country stored with plenty of the finest Gold as fine as the finest Gold of Arabia it is of the ley of 23 Corrats and three grains and although an incredible quantity thereof hath been and daily is gotten thence yet now they begin to work again a-fresh and follow the veins of it under ground whereas hitherunto they have only gathered up the fragments of it which were washed off by the rains The Province of Larecaja borders upon Carabaya and abounds with Gold which in divers Brooks of that Country is found in form and colour like unto small shot which being melted and its outward coat and mixture consum'd away becomes of a red colour he that found this first did not know it to be Gold until a friend of his unto whom I discovered it told him so Next
affirm that it is a sign of a Mine of Gold although the experience in these Provinces doth not correspond therewith It is ordinarily found with Copper and in great abundance with the Black mettal which also participates much of it and thence takes the ill smell it hath in working It is a very fine sort of Copperas which the Spaniards call Copaquiras and the best and purest of all is that they call Piedra Lipas from the Mine of it found in that Province although a few years ago a very plentiful Mine of it hath been discovered in the Province of Acatama which is of a greenish colour and that of Lipa is blew There is also whitish and yellow Copperas which the Painters use and different colours of it have caused several names to be given it of this Mineral are those the Spaniards call Mysi Sori Calohitis and Melanteria There is dispute enough about its temperament and qualities as well as about that of Allum Some not allowing it to be hot in the third degree will yet allow it to be so in the fourth and others on the contrary are of the opinion of Juan de Rupecissa who I think follows Raymundus that it is cold in the third degree It is admirable to see its effect in Aqua-Fortis in which all Mettals like Salt dissolve and are turned into water and an ocular demonstration of the possibility of the transmutation of Mettals one into another for with Copperas dissolved in Aqua-fortis without any other artifice Iron Lead and Tin become fine Copper and Silver will lose of its value and be turned into Copper also with a little help of another mettal very easie to be gotten By the force of a most violent heat they extract Oyl from the Copperas which is called Vitriol of wonderful vertue They make two sorts of artificial Copperas blew and green of a mixture of Iron Copper and Brimston put in the fire together Hereafter shall be declared how and what mischief Copperas hath caused in the working of mettals a thing hitherto not taken notice of CHAP. 7. Of Salt SAlt is no less necessary than commonly known in the world And that which is Mineral hath the same vertue as that which is made of the Sea-water or of the waters of brackish Lakes or Springs The only difference is that the Mineral-Salt is more thick and solid whence it comes to pass to be more astringent and not so easily dissolved in water as the made Salt is The Provinces of the West-Indies as much abound in Salt as they do in Mettals and a piece of the Sea between the Lipes coagulated into Christalline-Salt as also the Salt-pits called Garci Mendoca are none of the most inconsiderable wonders of this new world Those Pits are called Garci Mendoza for their bigness because they be forty leagues long and where narrowest sixteen broad and also because that sometimes in the middle of that space are discovered as it were Wells that have no bottom and great over-grown Fishes are seen in them It is very dangerous travelling over this space of ground for fear of losing ones eye-sight because the great glistering of the Sun-beams upon that place of Chrystal puts out ones eyes unless they be defended with black Tiffany There is danger of life also in that journy it having happened that going over that place the traveller and his horse and all have been swallowed up leaving no manner of mark behind of either of them In the Lipes four leagues from the Mines of St. Christopher de Achocolla there is a small Lake upon the top of a little hill in a Country they call Tumaquisa in the middle of which Lake the water boils and leaps up sometimes more sometimes less making a frightful noise Out of curiosity I went to see it and found the noise and motion of it so terrible that with reason there be very few that dare come near the mouth thereof the water is thick to that degree that it looks more like dirt than water there is one small gutter where it runs over and that water issued forth becomes red Salt as it runs along in little channels This is a mighty strong Salt and has twice the vertue of common Salt in the working of Mettals It hath also been found to be an excellent remedy for the Dysentery perchance it hath in it a mixture of the red Allum that gives it both colour and spirit Hard by this Lake runs a vein of Piedra Judaica and the Country thereabouts is full of mines of Copper A league and a half from Julloma in the Province of Pacages there be many Salt Springs that as they gush out of the ground in a short time become pure white Salt without the help of any art and they encrease into heaps of Salt until the winter rains dissolve and sweep them away In the same Province near unto Caquingora there be more Salt-Pits like unto the former and the like there is in several other places In these parts also is found in great abundance of the Mine or Rock-Salt which is massy and transparent looking like the purest Christal Julloma hath in it plentiful veins of this kind of Salt Many years ago the Inhabitants of Curaguara de Carangas have enriched themselves by digging of Rock-Salt and of later years they have discovered veins of it near the River of Langa Collo but the Salt-mines of Yocalla which God hath created near unto the rich mountain and City of Potosi that nothing might be wanting that was necessary for the working of its Oar yields such abundance of Salt as is incredible whereof is daily spent in the melting of Mettals at the least 1500 Quintales and this consumption hath lasted for many years Besides the common vertues of Salt which every body knows Arnaldo de Villa nova in his Treatise for the preserving of youthfulness says that Rock-Salt is beyond any thing in the world for that purpose He calls it the Mineral Elixir and prescribes that it be prepared with things that do not weaken it or alter its properties but he does not name the ingredients nor the manner of doing it Juan Beguino in his Tyrocinio Chymico teaches how to extract Oyl out of it of an extraordinary great vertue and he says that whatsoever is preserved in that liquor shall be kept from putrefaction for many ages and he believes that this was it that preserved the body of the beautiful maid which Rafael Volaterano speaks of that was found in the time of Pope Alexander the Sixth in an ancient tomb so fresh as if she had but just newly died when as it appeared by the Epitaph that she had been buried there 1500 years before CHAP. 8. Of Salt Ammoniac and other Salts AMong all the Salts that Nature alone produceth the scarcest but of greatest vertue is the Salt-Ammoniac they call it vulgarly Armoniac and from that name conclude that it comes from Armenia but that is not the true name of
a way to make an Oyl called in Spanish Epatica Sulphuris which turns Silver into Gold And Heliana the Author of a book called La Disquisition teaches the same thing with raw Sulphur to shew the possibility of it although it be in very little quantity The smoke of it helps to fix the Quicksilver and turn it into Plate whereof there be many eye-witnesses in these Provinces And this Sulphur distilled in a Glass-Still makes the Oyl of Sulphur of such rare and admirable vertue especially for the French Pox taking three or four drops thereof every morning for a week together in some liquor proper to convey it in It is good to cure the difficulty of Urine and the pains of the Gout and many other things as you may see in Diodorus Euchiente and divers other authors There is abundance of Brimston in the Province of the Lipes and in the confines of the Pacages and in la Puna de Tacora or los Altos de Arica and in many other parts besides it 's found incorporated with Mettals in the richest Mines of Peru. The Antimony or Stibium which some Miners call by the name of Alcahole and others particularly in Oruro call it Macacote 't is a Mineral very like unto that they call Sorocha or Lead that is very porous it shines very much and is brittle some of it is of a reddish yellow colour and some there is more inclining to white and very finely grained as Steel shews where it is broken It is made of a very corrupt and imperfect mixture of Brimston and Quicksilver and seems to be an abortion of Nature and the Embrio which would become mettal if it was not taken out before its time Porta Vegino and others do teach a way to draw out of this a kind of Quicksilver which they call Regalo but it is inclining to red and has not so lively a motion as the ordinary Quicksilver By Aqua-fortis also Brimston whereof it is compounded is gotten from it in its proper form of a green colour and burns as ordinary Brimston does Basillius Valentinus in his Triumphal Chariot of Antimony having spoken of many of its excellencies afterwards teaches how to make of it a Fire-stone as he calls it which will turn other mettals into Gold Paracelsus writes much also to the same effect and other Chymists with a continued voice do speak of an oyl which is gotten from Antimony for the same purpose but from a more certain and necessary experience does Matiolus commend his ointmet for the curing of old Ulcers and for other medicinal uses Stibium has a drying and astringent vertue and the preparation which theyc all Hiacint is held to be a very strong purge and a provoker to vomit This Alcahol is very commonly found comprehended in the Silver-Oar and particularly in that which in Peru is called the black Oar nevertheless in many parts it is found in a body by its self It does a great deal of mischif in the working of Mettals as the Betune and Brimston does and therefore must carefully be gotten out before-hand as shall be shewed hereafter CHAP. 11. Of Marcasita Orpiment and Sandaraca MArcasita is also called Pyrites which signifie a stone of fire because being struck with Steel it yieldeth fire in greater abundance than any other Mineral some will have it to be begotten of an undigested vapor others that it is composed of a courser sort of Brimstone or Betune and stone it grows in all sorts of Mines but especially where there is Copper and the black Silver Oar whereof it doth much participate and perhaps that is the reason why Dioscorides saith that the Marcasita is a kind of Copper and notwithstanding Albertus and others do think the Marcasita contains no Mettal in it yet experience has taught the contrary for the farmers of the Mines of Monserrat en los Chichas when they began to dig those Veins they found the Oar to contain as much Silver as it did of Marcasita and in this mountain of Potosi and others there is a fine sort of this Marcasita which is found incorporated with the black Silver Oar and is a certain sign of its richness there be as many kinds of Marcasitas as there are of Mettals whose colours they represent the most common sort looks like Gold being put in the fire it smells like Brimston and flames much which is a sign it is compounded as has been said before Gold Silver and Copper are usually found contained in it it is a great hinderance to the melting that Oar where it is incorporated dividing the Quicksilver into very small particles as shall be shewed hereafter together with the proper remedies for it Orpiment and Sandaraca are of the same nature and vertue and are only made to differ by their greater or lesser concoction in the bowels of the Earth Sandaraca being nothing else but Orpiment well concocted and by consequence thereof heightned in vertue as is demonstrated by putting Orpiment into a Fining pot and setting it on the fire whereby after a convenient concoction it will become red and of as lively a colour as the most perfect natural Sandaraca Where Orpiment is found it is a certain sign of a Mine of Gold wheref also it always contains some seed or little particle as Pliny reports in the time of the Emperor Caligula that he did then extract some Gold out of it since that time it has not been attempted because the cost does much exceed the benefit The best sort of Orpiment is that which is of a shining Gold colour that is not fast compacted and easily breaks into scales as it were the most perfect Sandaraca is that which is reddest purest and the most brittle of the colour of Cinabrio an Indian word of a Gold colour and it hath a strong smell of Sulphur whereby as also by its other qualities and medicinal vertues it is distinguished from Sandix which is of the same colour and is made of Albayalde well burnt in the fire which some also improperly call Sandaraca these are poyson by reason of their strong corroding and burning quality not only upon the bodies of Animals but upon Mettals also in like manner as antimony or Brimston or other dry Minerals for by reason of their oyly parts they take fire and being mingled with Mettal they burn and consume the moisture thereof whereby the mettal moulders away and is lost There be other Juices that are scarcer and not commonly known as they report of one that is found in the Mine of Ancbergo which is white and hard and poysons the cattel that taste it and it maybe of this kind was that vein which persons of good credit have told me was found in the Province of Conchucos in the Archbishoprick of Lyma with which the inhabitants of that Country used to kill those they had a mind to be rid of to prevent which wicked practice the holy Archbishop de los Reyes Don Soribio Alonso de Magrobejo
commanded the Mine to be stopt up CHAP. 12. Of the Generation of Stones IT is most certain that there is some very active principle or vertue that operates in the generation of Stones as well as upon the rest of the matter of the Universe that is subject to generation and corruption but the difficulty lies in knowing what that principle is because it operates in no determinate place but sometimes Stones are made in the air in the clouds in the earth in the water and in the bodies of Animals Avicena and Albertus think the matter whereof Stones are made to be a mixture of Earth and Water and if the greater part be Water it hath the name of liquor but if the greater part of it be Earth then it is called dirt or clay That clay which is fit to make Stones of must be tough and slimy such as Bricks Pots and other Earthen vessels are made of for if it be not such as soon as the fire hath consumed the moisture of the dirt it will not hang together but crumble into earth and dust it is also necessary that the liquor which is to be converted into Stone be very slimy the experience whereof we find in our own bodies the Physicians being generally of an opinion that the Stone is begotten in the reins and bladder of slimy tough humors baked hard by the heat of the body this opinion touching petrifying liquors is confirmed past all question by the experiment of that famous water in this Kingdom of Peru near unto Guancavelica which they take and put into moulds of what form and bigness they please and expose it to the Sun for a few days whereby it is made perfect Stone and they build their houses with it all the cattel that drink it dye and from what has been said before it is not hard to conjecture the reason In a mountain called Pacocava a league from the Mines of Verenguela de Pajages there be Springs of this liquor the colour whereof is whitish inclining to yellow that as it runs along condenses into very hard and weighty Stone of different shapes Moreover any porous substance that can suck this kind of liquor into it is apt to be turned into Stone and of those I have seen Trees and Limbs and Bones of Beasts turned into hard Stone In the City de Plata I have seen sticks of wood taken out of that great River of the same name so much of which as had remained covered with the water being converted into very fine Stone I saw also the Teeth and Bones of Giants that were dug up in Tarija turned into heavy and hard Stone Stones have their substantial forms which makes them differ specifically yet because we cannot come to the knowledge of them in our definitions we are fain by way of Periphrasis to make use of accidents and properties Every several form of the Stones is accompanied with particular vertues as remarkable as those of Animals or Plants and proportioned to the length of time Nature takes in its generation but because Plants and Animals are to have so different dispositions and to produce such various and admirable effects they cannot be of so uniform and well mingled a temperament as the Stones are nor is their soft and gentle substance capable to endure so much force as neither is the hardness of the Stones fitted for the producing variety of several shapes and therefore in them are found no leaves flowers fruits hands nor feet as in Plants and Animals though they have a greater vertue of another kind CHAP. 13. Of the Differences of Stones one from another ALL sorts of Stones are reducible under some of these five following species 1. If they be small very scarce and very hard of substance and have lustre they be called precious Stones 2. If they be of great magnitude although they be rare and have lustre they are some kind of Marble 3. If in breaking they fall into splinters or scales they are a sort of Flints 4. If they be of a small grain they be Pebles 5. Those that have none of the above-said qualifications are Rocks or ordinary Stones But the Miners for the better distinction of the sorts of Stone wherein Mettals are engendred use peculiar names for them for example a kind of Stone like Peble which contains Gold Silver or any orher Mettal they call Guijos which breeds a richer vein of Mettal than any other Stone Cachi another sort of Stone white like Alablaster soft and easie to break in pieces is all this Country called Salt Much Lead is engendred in this kind of Stone in the veins of Metales pacos which is the name the Miners here give unto their Silver Oar. Chumpi which is so called because it is of a grey colour is a Stone of the kind of Esmeril mixed with Iron it shines a little and is very hard to work because it resists the fire much It is found in Potosi and Chocaya and other places with the black Mettals and Rosicleres Lamacrudria is that Stone which is close compacted and solid and shews not the least grain nor porousness when you break it and is of a yellow colour and sometimes high coloured as blood-red Almaclaneta is the name they give another kind of Stone which is very solid and weighty of a dark colour always found in the company of rich Mettals which are engendred in it when it comes to be corrupted and rotten as in like manner is done in the Gouijos It grows upon the Flints of the Gold Mines and those of Copper and Silver Amolaclera or Whetstone is that ordinary Stone which is commonly made use of for that purpose and so known to every body Divers rich Mettals grow upon it but most commonly los Cobriscos The veins of Silver are rare and inconsiderable that are found in Pit-coal although it be a more proper bed for Gold Other Stones that grow in Mines or cleave unto the Mettal they call Ciques and also Caxas which are rough and uneven but not very hard nor very spongy and commonly have nothing of Mettal in them although in some rich Mines they are infected with some little by the vicinity of the Oar. The Stones of Potosi called Vilaciques have been and are very famous for the abundance of Silver gotten out of them and are one of the ingredients that make this Province without comparison Vila signifies blood in Peru or any red thing and for the streaks of red this Stone hath in it they call it Vileciques CHAP. 14. Of Precious Stones PRecious Stones are either transparent as the Diamant is or obscure as the Onix or between both as the Sandonyx and the Jasper It is the water which is the principal cause of clearness and the Earth of the opacity of them So that the reason why they excel one the other in lustre and transparency is from the variety of humors congealed together to compose them which are some of them more
draught or colouring but in bulk and substance I believe it may arise from some petrifying liquor which that matter has sucked into its pores and thereby is become all Stone and so thinks Avicene but although sometimes this may be the cause thereof yet methinks it cannot reasonably be supposed to be so always At the foot of the Mountains Misnenses near unto the Lake of Alsacia Stones are very commonly found that have embossed upon their superficies the images of Frogs and Fishes in fine Copper Anciently they called a sort of Stone Conchites which were in all their lineaments very like unto the Cockles of the Sea and they thought that those fish shells lying a long time in soil where much Stones were begotten the petrifying liquor entring into the pores of the shell converted it into Stone and they ground this opinion upon the certainty that the Sea in old time hath overflown the whole Territory of the City of Magara where only these sort of Stones are found But of later times all colour of reason is taken away from the forementioned conceit by the wonderful veins of Stone some grey some Iron coloured and some yellow which are found in the high way as one goes from Potosi to Oronesta down the Hill There they gather Stones that have in them impressions of divers sorts of figures so much to the life that nothing but the author of nature it self could possibly have produced such a piece of workmanship I have some of these Stones by me in which you may see Cockles of all sorts great middle-sized and small ones Some of them lying upwards and some downwards with the smallest lineaments of those shells drawn in great perfection and this place is in the heart of all the Country and the most double mountainous land therein where it were madness to imagine that ever the Sea had prevailed and left Cockles only in this one part of it There be also amongst these Stones the perfect resemblance of Toads and Butterflies and stranger figurs which though I have heard from credible witnesses yet I forbear to mention and not to over-burden the belief of the Reader Over against this wonderful vein of land on the other side of the valley of Oroncota stands that famous piece of land they call Pucara which signifies in their language fortress it is a place the best fortified by nature of any now known in the world being situate very high seven leagues in compass and all surrounded with high and inaccessible hills only on the one side there is a small avenue after having past a very difficult ascent In its spacious fields on the top there be many fine brooks of water wood pasture-ground commons and wastes very commodious for the support of humane life CHAP. 18. Of the Generation of Mettals IT is no wonder that learned men differ so much in their opinions about the matter whereof Mettals are engendred because the Author of Nature seems to have created them in that obscurity and depth and to have immured them with hard Rocks on purpose to hide their causes and to give check to the ambition of Man The Philosophers who pretend to know the causes of things besides the first matter which is the first principle not only of Mettals but of all other bodies in the world assign another matter remote also which is a certain moist and unctuous exhalation together with a portion of thick and tough Earth from which being mingled together there results a matter whereof not only Mettals but also Stones are made for if the driness prevail Stones are begotten but if the unctuous humidity be predominant then Mettals are begotten Plato Aristotle and their followers are of this opinion From the abundance of this pure and shining moisture made solid proceeds the lustre of Mettals in whom of all the Elements water is experimentally known to be most predominant and therefore they run and are dissolved by the fire From the various temperament and purity of the aforesaid matter comes the divers kinds of Mettals the most pure and fine of all which and as it would seem Nature's principal intention is Gold Many to avoid difficult disputes of this nature do hold with the vulgar that at the Creation of the world God Almighty made the veins of Mettals in the same condition as we now find them at this day herein doing nature a great affront by denying her without reason a productive vertue in this matter which is allowed unto her in all other sublunary things moreover that experience in divers places hath manifested the contrary A clear example whereof we have in Ilva an Island adjoyning unto Tuscany full of Iron Mines which when they have dug as hollow and as deep as they can the circumjacent Earth falls in and fills them up again and in the space of ten or fifteen years at most they work those Mines again and thence draw out abundance of Mettal which that new Earth hath been converted into many do think that the same happens in the rich hill of Potosi at the least all of us know that the Stones which divers years ago we have left behind us thinking there was not Plate enough in them to make it worth our labour we now bring home and find abundance of Plate in them which can be attributed to nothing but to the perpetual generation of Silver The Alchymists a name grown odious by reason of the multitude of ignorant pretenders to that Art with more profound and practical Philosophy have anatomized the mixtures of nature and reduced them from their first principles and concerning the matter of Mettals do discourse in the manner following The Sun say they and all the Stars with their light proper or borrowed continually going round the Earth doth heat the same and with their subtil Rays penetrate through its veins and we see things long burnt in the fire are converted into other terene substances as Wood and Stones into Lime and Ashes so in like manner this Earth calcined by the Celestial bodies mingled and boiled with water changes it self into another kind of species that contains in it self something of the substance of Salt and Allum every day we see the same effects in the lees made of Lime Ashes Sweat and Urine all which by boiling get the taste of Salt This first matter or foundation of the generation of Mettals is Vitriol which is easier to believe since we see that all of them by art may be reduced thereunto and the manner of reducing some of them shall be declared hereafter This Vitriol by the heat of subterranean fire and attraction of the heavenly sends forth two fumes or vapors the one earthy subtil and unctuous and something digested which the Philosophers call Sulphur because it hath the qualities thereof the other vapor is moist waterish slimy and mingled with very fine Earth and this is the next matter whereof Quicksilver is made If these two vaporous exhalations do find a
diminishing the quantities proportionally in such manner that it may go dry and not wet for so there will be no occasion for much Lis and the Pellets themselves will serve to get out the rest of the Silver whereby the refining will be soonest and most securely performed if it be needful to Refine with Lime the rule already prescribed for Materials will not serve but the Lime must be put in all at once and with it repass the Caxon very well two or three days before you put in the Quicksilver taking especial care that you do not put in too much of it because it is the great hinderance that the Quicksilver doth not lay hold of the greater Plate and it is more hard to correct than other materials CHAP. XVII Of the often repassing the Quick silver through the Oar and the effects thereof THe chief and principal end of letting it soak through is to divide the Quicksilver into several bodies that it may every where lay hold of the Plate also with that motion it is heat and better disposed for the work and last of all by that frication the Plate is cleansed and purified which is that they call wasting the Materials all of them things most necessary and important although they cause an unpardonable damage that hath been the loss of many Millions in the wasting and consumption of Quicksilver for the repassings have been the foundation of this inconvenience by squeezing the Quicksilver through the grosser and finer parts of the Meal into such little Atomes which they call Lis that scarce have weight or dimension which when they wash the Caxon doth not fall down into the Tub at the bottom but being over-drowned and mingled with the Lamas or mud of the Meal it stays and is cast away with them this inconvenience may be prevented by two cautions the one is that the first and second day after the incorporating of the Meal of Oar in the Caxon they give not above two gentle repassings so that the Quicksilver may be divided but not into too small parcels because before it hath gotten a good body of Silver it is subject to part it self over finely The second is as abovesaid that they put in the other materials dry and not wetted with Quicksilver putting them in by little and little when most it be in the proportion one part of Quicksilver to two of Pellets Let no body deceive themselves that although the Meal in the Caxon contain other Materials sufficient if it be much bathed with Quicksilver that it shall be secured from the former inconvenience for contrariwise it will rather be subject to a greater prejudice for of necessity the repassings will make Lis and if it happen by some accident as it very well may that the Materials be quite consumed instead of the Lis made of them will remain only Lis of Quicksilver In the Lis of Plate there is not that danger that by the often repassings the Silver should be wasted or consumed rather it is thereby better refined and better embraceth and uniteth it self with the Quicksilver CHAP. XVIII Of divers accidents which happen in the way of Refining by Quick-silver and their remedies IN the progress of this kind of Refining divers accidents are met withall in the Caxones or chest full of Oar grownd to be Refined all which are discovered only by the Quicksilver which as in a glass represents the good or ill disposition of the Mettal which in themselves by reason of the fineness of the Meal into which they are grownd and a mixture of earth in the Oar cannot be discerned If the Quicksilver be very much charged above what it ought with materials that is to say Lead Tin Iron or Lime which the Spaniards call Quicksilver Tocado it will not appear round but flatted or rather prolonged like little Worms and if you stir it about the Tray without water it will make drops with little tailes and stick to the sides of the Tray and when it is of this condition it is a sign that it is killed and its virtue obstructed from laying hold of the Silver this evil is remedied by much repassing not without great cost and expence of time the quickest and most efficacious remedy is Copperas or the water thereof which I have shewed how to make and to keep in the 13. Chapter of this Book put it into the Caxones at the same time as you do the Quicksilver and other Refining Materials more or less according as there is occasion and you shall instantly see the effect of it the reason whereof is plain for as hath been said Copperas dissolved in water converts the baser Mettals into true Copper so that the quality of cold which they had before and wherewith they choaked the Quicksilver being turned into heat the property of Copper it is the cause of reviving the Quicksilver From hence is grounded the practice of putting Copper grownd small into the Caxon which is found very profitable for the purpose aforesaid hence also it comes to pass that all Oar of Copper although it be rich is not proper to clear Quicksilver with or to be used in the Refining to make it Aplomar unless it have a great deal of Verdigrease or Copperas The same account may be given of the Virtue that is found in those they call Magistrates which they use in the Refining to qualifie the Caxones with heat and to make them Aplomar the which effect is produced from the burnt Copperas that is in it as may be seen in their composition which for better satisfaction I shall here set down Burn Oar or Copper and grind it well then with an equal quantity of Salt knead it into a body together and having made it into loaves burn it again Others do mingle but one part of Salt with two parts of Copper Oar which they make up into a body and burn and to one Kintall of that beaten to pouder they add half a pound of filings of Latin Another Magistral is made of Lamas Relabes and Salt an equal portion of either soundly burnt together Another is made of that Oar wherewith they Refine the Relabes and Salt put together in equal portions Another sort may be made of Copper Oar Relabes Meal of that Oar which is to be Refined dross of Iron and Salt all put together in equal portions and burnt in loaves Another is made of three parts of the Lamas burnt and one part of Salt Every one inventing such like compositions or proportions according to his own fantasie and experience the foundation of all these Magistrales being the Copperas which the fire produces in them as may be seen and separated from them by whosoever shall please to go about it according to the rules that have been already delivered which seems to confirm that which Pliny says treating of Copper namely that it is begotten of stones burnt These Magistrales are to be used with the same carefulness as hath been