CHAP, XVIII.
61
Besides those mines in Peru which have beenalready noticed in the period immediately follow-ln g the discovery, and which continued in activityduring this second period, some others wereopened, though upon a small scale, at Huantajayoand Porco, within that viceroyalty. Chili, in thisperiod, came into the possession of the Spaniards,and the products of that district, chiefly consisting°P gold, augmented the supply. Antioquia , asWe ll as Choco, furnished some gold as early as1^39, and continued to do so from the time ofthe conquest to a late period. The greatest pro-duce of gold and silver, even in that day, wasfrom the Mexican mines; some of the most richWere in this period in a state of activity, though farinferior in the quantity they yielded to the pointthey had reached in the course of the two follow-ln g centuries, when the supply of quicksilverbecame more abundant and was more extensivelyemployed in the process of amalgamation. Brazil 111 the hands of the Portuguese , at the same time,bad employed the natives and some negro slavesm washing for gold; the quantity thus procuredCa nnot be accurately ascertained. There is only4 be statement of Raynal on the subject, and nonehis accounts are entitled to credit, unless sup-ported by some better authority, which in thisc ase he has not furnished.
. the estimation of the quantity of gold ands dver added to the previous stock, which in 1546