Besides this force, there is a militia, in which all the male inhabitants of the _capitania_ are enrolled, and are liable to be called out when occasions require. It is a part of the present policy of the Prince’s ministers to stimulate the Creolians to active occupations, by obliging them either to till their grounds, or to enter the ranks and become soldiers.
The known produce of this vast extent of territory comes next under consideration. On this subject I shall not follow a variety of vague accounts, which have been compiled with little regard to truth, but shall present to the reader the result of my own observations.
The great quantities of gold, precious stones, iron, &c. produced in this country have been largely treated upon. Lead ore appears to be rare, as it is found only near Abaité. Antimony abounds in the vicinity of Sabará; native bismuth is found near Villa Rica; arsenical and iron pyrites are very common; titanium is found in octahedral crystals, also in beautiful prisms and tender spicula, finely grouped in rock crystal. Platina may be obtained in tolerable quantities at Lagos, but the place which produces it has been abandoned from want of a market. Chromate of lead, _I was informed_, is found in the vicinity of Cocaes; but I have reason to suspect I was imposed upon. At Tejuco, also, I was shown some, and was presented with two pieces, which are uncommonly fine, more brilliant in color than that from Siberia, and distinctly crystallized on a matrix of granular sand-stone, accompanied with the green oxide of chrome. Copper can scarcely be said to exist in this country; the only place at present known to produce it, is a mountain twenty leagues from Tejuco, where small particles appear in a rock of quartz and hornblende: the matrix is so hard, and the quantity of copper so trivial, as to afford no encouragement to work it. The place has been examined by the Intendant, and is known to most persons in Tejuco[59]. No mines of silver have been discovered in the _capitania_, but the gold is generally found to contain that precious metal, sometimes in great proportion. No tin, cobalt, or any other metal, except those above mentioned, have been hitherto met with.