CHAP. X.

MIDDLE AGES.

239

vert to those which now form a part of theTurkish dominions. The celebrity of the minesof Macedonia in the early ages has been alreadyspoken of, and we now revert to them at a laterperiod. Dr. Belon of Paris , physician to Francisthe first, visited those mines by order of thatmonarch between the years 1546 and 1549. Hefound the mines in the village of Siderocapso,not far from Thessalonica or Salonica . “ Theyare,” he says, “on the side of a mountain, and thesituation very much resembles that of Joachim-tahl in Bohemia .”

The working of the mines and the trade theyoccasioned had drawn together a great numberof people, so that the place had more the appear-ance of a city than a village. The inhabitantswere of various nations—Sclavonians,Bulgarians ,Greeks, Albanians. Besides them were manyJews , who conversed with each other in theSpanish language. These latter people wereaccused of corrupting the gold by mixing withit various alloys. They divided the gold soalloyed into several classes, denominating each,according to their purity, ducat-gold, pistole-gold, crown-gold, or maille-gold.

The manner of working both the mines andthe metal had been introduced by Germans , asthe names of all their implements and of all theoperations which were performed were expressedin that language; but the mode of separating