Here I was met by the discoverers of the reputed silver-mine, who came to conduct me to it. We set out on foot, and, after walking about six miles over mountains impassable for mules, fording rivulets, and passing thickets that left me scarcely a single article of dress untorn, we arrived at the miserable hut of these poor men; a perfect contrast to the neat dwelling of Father Thomas. Never in my life was I so exhausted by fatigue; I sat down, unable to go any farther, and rested about an hour, when, being somewhat recovered, I accompanied the men, along the edge of a beautiful stream, to the foot of the mountain, where they shewed me a hole which they had dug, about two feet deep, and informed me that the sand it contained at the bottom abounded with grains of silver. Having ordered a quantity to be taken out, I proceeded to examine the base of the mountain, which I found to be of granite-like gneiss, with garnets, and small crystals of pyrites. Near this place the margin of the rivulet contained rounded stones and sand, but no where was there to be found any metallic substance, except the one before mentioned. Indeed, the very idea of silver appearing here in dust or grains, as gold does, would be preposterous, and contradictory to every principle of nature, as, in such a state, it would probably have been attacked by the sulphur in the pyrites, so as to have assumed the form of a sulphuret.
I returned extremely wearied and much exhausted to Father Thomas’s, where, after some needful repose, I proceeded to examine the sand and stones I had collected at the supposed silver-mine, but no particle of metal was to be found. I then ordered the men to produce their samples, which I examined both by the blow-pipe and by acids, but no silver appeared. After equivocating very much, they acknowledged that they had rubbed and beaten substances to powder, and when they found specular iron ore they thought it was silver. In one of the samples there certainly was silver, but it appeared to have been filed probably from an old buckle or spoon, or rubbed on a stone and mixed with a pulverized substance. The farce could no longer be carried on: I charged them, in a most determined manner, with imposture, which, after some hesitation, they confessed: an officer who was with me would have secured them, but I restrained him; for, having obtained a confession, I was unwilling to bring them to punishment, or to render them more miserable than they already were, by having them sent to the army. Perhaps that would have been doing them a greater service than setting them at liberty; for they were too lazy to work, and would, no doubt, return to their old habits of prowling about, and subsisting on the credulity of the public by spreading fallacious reports about mines, precious stones, &c. Such impositions are not uncommon in South America: I have known instances in which copper-filings, mixed with earth, and afterwards washed, have been produced as samples, in order to enhance the value of land, or serve some other sinister purpose. A passion for mining is fatally prevalent among some of the lower orders of the people: by deluding them with prospects of becoming speedily rich, it creates in them a disgust for labor, and entails want and wretchedness upon them. Even among the few families of this district, I observed some examples of its effects; those who devoted themselves wholly to mining were in general badly clothed and worse fed, while those who attended to agriculture alone were well provided with every necessary of life.