But he outwitted them.

Offering to supply them with guides to conduct them to his gold mines, he really sent them, not to his own mines, but to those of a rival cacique, of Urira.

Here, however, they succeeded in acquiring, by barter and by actual discovery, large quantities of the precious metal, which seemed to be so abundant, that the admiral made sure that he had come to the very Aurea Chersonesus from which Solomon had obtained the gold for the temple at Jerusalem.

He had seen more signs of gold here in two days, he said, than he had seen in St.
Domingo in four years.

His first step was to form a settlement to provide a depot for the gold which might be collected.