The tools with which those Ygolotes worked, or work, their mines are certain stakes of heavy wood fashioned like pickaxes, with the knot of the said stake larger at the end of it, where, having pierced it, they fit into it a small narrow bit of iron about one palmo long.  Then seated in the passages or works, as the veins prove, they pick out and remove the ore, which having been crushed by a stout rock in certain large receptacles fixed firmly in the ground, and with other smaller stones by hand, and having reduced the ore to powder, they carry it to the washing-places.  For that purpose they have some small streamlets near at hand, with two or three hollows in their beds.  There passing the said ore from one to the other until they clean away the mud from it, by means of the sunlight, which floods everything, they discover and collect some dust or grains of gold.  Then they again crush the large grains of ore, and wash and rewash it, until, having passed through the said basins, what remains at last is entirely useless.  To judge by the tools that have been seen and which the said Ygolotes have, as above said, the most usual and only working that they give their ores is the above, and nothing further.  With their little ability for discovering these, if nature and poverty—­which reduces them to subjection without any expense—­did not compel them, they would vainly spend their time, in one way or another, in searching for something to eat, which they do not possess or produce.

All the hills and elevations, mines, passages, veins, and works above mentioned have been examined and entered by the said miners.  They have obtained and assayed metals with the greatest care possible.  Each assay is set down separately so that it will stand as a testimony and token of service, with the day, month, and year, just as they have been made, in the following manner.

Refinement [of metals]. 1.  First, on Palm Saturday, on the night of the thirtieth of March, one thousand six hundred and twenty-four, a refining fire was made by the said Alferez Martin de Vergara and the other miners.  Upon it and seventeen libras of lead was fed the dust and sediment of one-half quintal of ore that was obtained from the hole which I have said was opened in the veins and new mines of Galan, at a depth of ten estados.  A grain of the appearance of silver, and weighing as much as one real, was obtained.

Quicksilver. 2.  On the said day, April six, of the said year, three quintals of ore from the same hole and veins were incorporated with three libras of quicksilver and compounded with salt.  On the tenth of the said month it was washed, and a small grain of gold was obtained that weighed one-half real.  In the said assay ten onzas of quicksilver were lost.

Quicksilver. 3.  On the said day, April six, three libras of quicksilver were incorporated with three quintals of ore from the said hole and vein, which was obtained at a depth of ten estados; and the mixture was compounded with salt.  It was washed on the tenth of the said month, and a small grain of gold of the weight of one-half real was obtained.  Eleven onzas of quicksilver were lost.