The villages inhabited by the negroes are Novita, Zitara, and Taddo; the first settlers came to it in 1539, and it contains about 5000 persons at present. The gold washings of most consequence are Novita, Zitara, and the river Andegada; all the ground between this river, the river San Juan, the river Tamana, and the river San Augustin, is auriferous.
The largest piece of gold ever found in Choco weighed twenty-five pounds; but the negro who discovered it, did not even obtain his liberty. His master presented it to the Kingʼs cabinet, in hopes of obtaining a title, but it was with much difficulty that he even got the value of its weight, a just punishment for not emancipating his slave.
Ten thousand eight hundred marks of gold are the utmost annual produce of the washings of Choco, and the metal is generally about twenty-one carats fine.
Platina is chiefly found in this and the neighbouring province of Antioquia. It is in Choco and Barbacoas, that this valuable metal is only discovered in grains, in the alluvious grounds between the second and sixth degrees of north latitude.
In Choco, the ravine of Oro, between the villages of Novita and Taddo, yields the greatest quantity; the price on the spot being about thirty-three shillings the pound.
The district of Biriquite, which is attached to Choco, lies along the coast of the Pacific; in it is the village of Noanamas, inhabited chiefly by Indians, and situated on a river of the same name, 170 miles north-west of Popayan. This country was discovered by Pizarro, who called the natives Pueblo Quemado (the burnt people). It is thinly inhabited by some Indian tribes, who, as is the case with their neighbours in Darien, are perfectly independent.
GOVERNMENT OF POPAYAN.
This country, which is subordinate to the presidency of Quito, contains several districts, Cali, Quatro Ciudades, Timana, Guadalajara de Buga, St. Sebastian de la Plata, Almaguer, Caloto, San Juan de Pasto, El Raposo and Barbacoas.
Of these the four northern ones are attached to the audience of Santa Fé de Bogota, and the others to Quito. Popayan is bounded on the north by the Llanos de Neiva, on the west by Choco and the Pacific, on the east by the government of Quixos, and on the south by that of Atacames.
The country of Popayan possesses from the extent of its surface, a very unequal climate; the district of Barbacoas being on the sea shore, is extremely hot, whilst in the interior, on the mountains, the cold is excessive; but Popayan, the capital, enjoys a temperate climate, and an eternal spring.