Gold! Discs of great size, half-moons, crescent moons, pierced for a
cotton string. Small golden beasts and birds, poorly carved but golden.
They traded freely; we gathered gold. And there was more and more, they
said, at Veragua, wherever that might be, and south and east it seemed
to be.

Veragua! We would go there. Again we hoisted sail and in our ships,
now all unseaworthy, crept again in a bad wind along the coast of
gold,--Costa Rico. At last we saw many smokes from the land. That would
be a large Indian village. We beat toward it, found a river mouth and
entered. But Veragua must have heard of us from a swift land traveler.
When a boat from each ship would approach the land--it was in the
afternoon, the sun westering fast--a sudden burst of a most melancholy
and awful din came from the forest growing close to water side.

One of our men cried "Wizards!" The Admiral spoke from the stern of
the long boat. "And what if they be wizards? We may answer, 'We are
Christians!'"

The furious din continued but now we were nearer. "Besides," he said,
"those are great shells and drums."

Our rowers held off. Out of the forest on to the narrow beach started
several hundred shell-blowing, drum-beating barbarians, marvelously
feathered and painted and with bows and arrows and wooden swords.

An arrow stuck in the side of our boat, others fell short. The Admiral
rose, tall, broad-shouldered, though lean as winter where there is
winter, with hair as white as milk. He held in his hand a string of
green beads and another of hawk bells which he made to ring, but he did
not depend more upon them than upon what he held within him of powerful
and pacific. He sent his voice, which he could make deep as a drum
and reaching as one of those great shells. "Friends--friends! Bringing
Christ!"

An arrow sang past him. 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 o