The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898 — Volume 20 of 55 / 1621-1624 / Explorations by early navigators, descriptions of the islands and their peoples, their history and records of the Catholic missions, as related in contemporaneous books and manuscripts, showing the political, economic, commercial and religious conditions of those islands from their earliest relations with European nations to the close of the nineteenth century.

by Unknown

“The magistral is a mixture of pyritous copper and sulphuretted salt, roasted for some hours in a reverberating oven, and slowly cooled” (Humboldt’s New Spain, Black’s trans., iii, p. 260).

[10] Spanish, greta, an old word used for almártaga; oxide of lead in the form of small scales, and lustrous; commonly called “litharge of silver,” or “of gold,” as it resembles those metals.

[11] Also written temesquitato; a Mexican word, applied to the dross from the surface of lead into which pulverized silver ore is introduced.

[12] See Humboldt’s account of the mining methods and processes in vogue in Nueva España, in his New Spain (Black’s trans.), iii, pp. 231–280.

Various laws and ordinances concerning the discovery and operation of mines in the Spanish colonies may be found in Recopilación de leyes. mainly in lib. iv, tit. xix, xx, and lib. viii, tit. xi.

[13] The first figure refers to the number of onzas loss of quicksilver, and the second to the number of the assay. Thus ten onzas of quicksilver were lost in the second assay.

Bibliographical Data

The following documents are obtained from MSS. in the Archivo general de Indias, Sevilla, the pressmark of each being thus indicated: