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THE RECORDS OF GOLD-WASHING. 29
worked for years by the Indians, and at Tesorero placer-mining is still carried on.
Expeditions
from Europe in search of one of the many El Dorados have visited this
country and sailed up the Orinoco. Humboldt ("Personal Narrative," vol.
3, pp. 23-44) gives an interesting account of this whole matter.
U.S. of Colombia.—The
annals of gold-mining in the United States of Colombia are replete with
interesting information. The famous El Dorado visited by Sir Walter
Raleigh in 1517, and by the buccaneers in the seventeenth century, is
situated in the province of Cas-tilla del Oro. The Cana mines of this
district, which were worked by slave labor, yielded largely, according
to tradition, during the seventeenth century. The mines of Choco, on
the western side of the Andes, are classed by Schmidtmeyer among the
most productive in the west of America. These mines (which contain gold
and platinum) are located on affluents of the river Atrato.
The
Spaniards in former days carried on extensive mining operations near
Malineca, on the river Tuyra. The Mina Real, in the Cerro del Espiritu
Santo, at Santa Cruz de Cana, is said to have produced a large amount
of gold. Late reports of this mine and mining district are very
unfavorable, and cast grave doubts upon the correctness of the
statements of its former production.
Auriferous
alluvions occur in the vicinity of Piede Cuesta, at the head of the
river Lebrija, in the province of Paraphilia. All the rivers in Darien
which flow directly into the Pacific are said to contain gold. Late
reports (1881) state that the sands of the river Dibulla and the Rio de
Sevilla are highly auriferous. The rivers of Santiago, Concepcion,
Berrera, Zapaterito, San Antonio, and San Bartolomo, which were noted
formerly for their gold-washings, continue to the present time to yield
remunerative returns to the miner. Rich alluvions have been lately
discovered below the Falls of San Jago, where ex-
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