on, has rendered it now perhaps the most considerable
colony on the face of the earth.

This country was first discovered by Americus Vesputio, a Florentine,
who had the good fortune to be honoured by giving his name to the
immense continent found out some time before by Columbus. As Vesputio
was in the service of Portugal, this discovery was settled and planned
by that nation, and afterwards devolved to the crown of Spain along
with the rest of the Portuguese dominions. During the long war between
Spain and the states of Holland, the Dutch possessed themselves of the
northermost parts of Brazil, and kept it for some years; but, when
the Portuguese revolted from the Spanish government, this country
took part in the revolt, and the Dutch were soon driven out of their
acquisitions; since which time it has continued without interruption
under the crown of Portugal. Till the beginning of the present
century, it was only productive of sugar and tobacco, and a few other
commodities of very little importance; but has been lately discovered
to abound in the two mineral productions, gold and diamonds, which
mankind hold in the highest estimation, and which they exercise their
utmost art and industry in acquiring.

Gold was first found in the mountains adjacent to the city of Rio
Janeiro. The occasion of its discovery is variously related, but the
most common account is, that the Indians dwelling on the back of the
Portuguese settlements were observed, by the soldiers employed in an
expedition against them, to use this metal for fish-hooks; and,
on enquiry into their manner of procuring this precious metal, it
appeared that great quantities of it were annually washed from the
hills, and left among the sand and gravel which remained in the
vallies after the running off or evaporation of the water. It is now
[in 1740] little more than forty years since any quantities of gold,
worth notice, have been imported from Brazil to Europe; but, since
that time, the annual imports have been continually augmented by the
discovery of places in other provinces, where it is to be met with
as plentifully as at first about Rio Janeiro. It is alleged that a
_slender vein_[3] of gold spread through all the country, at about
twenty-four feet below the surface, but that this vein is too thin and
poor to answer the expence of digging.[4] However, where the rivers
or rains have had any course for a considerable time, there gold is
always to be collect