To Thomas Jefferson from Francis Da Costa, 20 November 1804
From Francis Da Costa
Philadelphia The 20th. November 1804
Sir—
The interest you have constantly manifested for all discoveries, connected more or less with the prosperity of the United States, will I hope make you forbear the liberty I have taken of Sending you the Sample of a lead mine discovered on my plantation and which I causd. but lately to be opend. The vein has appear’d off the Surface of a Hill almost eighty feet above the highest rise of a creek at the bottom of it: at first the vein went down under an angle of about 40 degrees, but altered very Soon to a course almost perpendicular encreasing So much in about nine feet depth as to have enlarg’d from two to fifteen inches Solid ore duly walled in on each Side with the mineral Stones usually enclosing real veins of ore.
Having made a regular opening to ascertain the Course direction and thickess and broke down the mineral bank, about two tons of fine ore was collected in less than four hours, one ton more remaining at the bottom of the pit—The Samples I have The honor to Send you has been taken from a piece of pure galena weighing nine hundred weight at least. The strata of the Country is a Specie of red Slate in this the vein has been discovered. Other places on the plantation have evident Signs of the Same mineral So as to induce a belief that the vein I have been upon is a branch only of one more valuable and running to a Considerable extent. My farm lays at the mouth of perkiomen Creek, County of Montgomery State of Pensilvania, distant about twenty two miles from Philadelphia—The ground being much broken abounds with Springs which and the never-failing-water of the Creek will admit extensive water works to carry on the extracting of lead and its manufacturing in any nature or Shape whatsoever—
This Short account of this Discovery I have thought was due to the Eminent Philosopher and naturalist I have The honor of addressing and Should it prove acceptable I request it may be Considered as a proof of the great respect with which
I am Sir—Your Most obedient & Humble Servant
Fcis. Da Costa
RC (DLC); at head of text: “Thomas Jefferson—president of the united States”; endorsed by TJ as received 22 Nov. and so recorded in SJL.
Originally from Nantes, France, Francis Da Costa served as a temporary engineer for the War Department in 1797-8. He acquired a half share of the Mill Grove farm outside Philadelphia and was the guardian of naturalist John James Audubon. After a falling out with Audubon over the young man’s engagement to marry, Da Costa purchased the other half of the property. The discovery of the lead mine was widely covered in the newspapers after Relfs Philadelphia Gazette published a story lauding it as “one of the first discoveries yet made in the U. States.” After acquiring full title to the property in 1806, Da Costa formed a joint stock company to manage the mine and, when the company failed in 1811, sold the land. Da Costa also sold imported goods in Philadelphia (, s.v., “Audubon, John James”; Message from the President of the United States, Accompanying a Statement of Expenditures from the 1st of January, 1797, by the Quarter Master General, and the Navy Agents [Washington, D.C., 1803], pt. 2:47, 51, 53; Francis Hobart Herrick, Audubon the Naturalist: A History of His Life and Time, 2 vols. [New York, 1917], 1:113-26; Rebecca Anne Hunt, “ ‘Blessed Spot’ along the Perkiomen; An Historical Analysis of Mill Grove” [M.A. thesis, University of Pennsylvania, 1994], 41, 58, 63-4, 65; Relfs Philadelphia Gazette, 13 Nov., 7 Oct. 1806, 9 Jan. 1808, 18 Apr. 1817).