the President, for the correspondence, which was known to have taken place respecting it in the year 1736.
This correspondence I have seen, and I have in my possession a certified copy of a Decree of Philip the Fifth, dated Aranjuez, 28th May, 1741, the object of which was to terminate a prosecution, instituted by the Royal Fiscal, against the discoverers of Ărĭzōnă, for having defrauded the Treasury of the duties payable upon the masses of pure silver found there.
The Decree states the weight of the Balls, Sheets, and other pieces of silver discovered, (bolas, planchas, y otras piezas de plata,) to have amounted to 165 arrobas, 8lbs., in all, (4033lbs.): and mentions particularly one mass of pure silver, which weighed 108 arrobas, (2700lbs.,); and another of eleven arrobas, upon which duties had been actually paid by a Don Domingo Asmendi, and which, as a great natural curiosity, (como cosa especial) the King states ought to have been sent to Madrid.
The Decree ends by declaring the district of Arizona to be Royal property, as a "Criadero de Plata;" (a place in which, by some natural process, silver was created;) an idea, to which the flexibility of the metal, when first extracted, seemed, in those times, to give some colour of probability; and by directing it to be worked upon the Royal account. This put a stop to the enterprises of individuals;—the district was deserted; an attempt to send a
