Villa de la Purificacion is on the southern bounds of this province, on the west bank of the Magdalena.
Tocaima is fifty-six miles west of the capital, at a little distance from the river Pati or Bogota, in 4° 16ʹ north latitude, 74° 59ʹ west longitude, and near the confluence of the Pati with the Magdalena. It was founded in 1544 in a bad situation, destitute of springs, exposed to violent heats, and infested with venomous creatures. It has however fertile plantations of cacao, tobacco, sugar, maize, yuccas, plantains and potatoes, and there are abundance of fish in the rivers Pati and Fusagasuga, which are however infested with alligators. The inhabitants are poor, and amount only to about 700. In its vicinity are some mines of copper, but these are at present unworked.
Tunja or Tunia in 5° 5ʹ north latitude, 72° 56ʹ west longitude, sixty miles north-east of Santa Fé, is famous for the tradition concerning the disappearance of Bochica; it was enlarged into a town by the Spaniards in 1539, and was formerly a very opulent place. The great church is so spacious that it might pass for a cathedral, and there are three convents of considerable dimensions remaining, but the present population of Tunja does not exceed 400 souls; though it is the chief place of one of the districts, into which the province of Santa Fé is divided.
PROVINCE OF SANTA FÉ DE ANTIOQUIA.
This province, also called Antioquia, is bounded on the north by Carthagena and Darien, east by Choco; west by Santa Fé; and south by Popayan; of which it is a district or government.
It is famous for its mines of gold, &c., and consists almost entirely of mountainous land, having part of the central ridge of the Andes, which divides the valley of the Magdalena from that of the Cauca, within its limits.
Quicksilver, that precious article, in a mining country, is occasionally discovered in Antioquia, as sulfuretted mercury is found in the valley de Santa Rosa on the east of the Rio Cauca.
Gold is found in veins in micaceous slate at Buritoca, San Pedro, and Arenas, but is not worked on account of the difficulty in procuring labourers, as the province is only accessible on foot; gold is also collected in grains in great abundance on the alluvial grounds of the valley of Santa Rosa, the valley de la Trinadad, and the valley de los Onos. It is chiefly found by negro slaves, employed for that purpose, and sent to Mompox, which is the great mart where the gold found in this province is disposed of; the gold of Antioquia is only of nineteen or twenty carats fineness, and it has been computed that 3400 marcs of this precious metal are annually exported.