CHAP. X.
MIDDLE AGES.
283
It is then possible that, by such means as theypossessed, the Roman and the Arab chiefs wereable to extract by washing the sand a greaterportion of gold than can now be obtained by themore mild and better regulated governments ofmodern Europe.
We find, accordingly 1 , that in 938 the Ara-bian viceroy Abdoulrahman sent a present tothe caliph which, among other valuables, con-sisted of four hundred pounds of virgin gold,and the value of four hundred and twenty thou-sand sequins (about twenty-one thousand poundssterling) in silver. But the viceroy had ruledSpain twenty years at that time, and in such aperiod it must, with the number of chiistianslaves he could command, have been easy tohave collected such a quantity.
No notices in ancient writings have been dis-covered of mines of the precious metals in Por-tugal distinct from those of Spain . Both theRomans and Moors considered Portugal , underthe name of Lusitania, as a province of Spain , andthe productions of the two countries are blendedtogether. No modern writer has noticed minesof silver, and only one has made mention ofgold. It is at a place called Adissa, in the di-strict of St. Ubes . We have no accounts of itsorigin or past condition, but recently it has been