His son would have drawn him down, but, "No--no!" and "Friends--friends! Bringing Christ!" And whether they thought that "Christ" was the beads and the bell, or whether the bowman in him did send over good will and make it to enter their hearts, or whether it was somewhat of both, they did suddenly grow friendly.

Whereupon we landed.
Gold! We took much gold from this place.

One of our men, touched by the sun, sat and babbled.

"Oh, the faithful golden coast! Oh, the gold that is to come! Great golden ships sailing across blue sea! A hundred--no, a thousand--what do I say?
A million Indians with baskets long and wide on their backs and the baskets filled with gold! The baskets are so great and the gold so heavy that the Indians are bowed down till they go on all fours.

Gold,--a mountain of pure gold and every Spaniard in Spain and a few Italians--golden kings--" When we had all we could get, up sail and on! Sail on and on along the golden coast of Veragua! Come to a river and land, for all that again we heard drums and those great shells strongly blown.