r dominions at our disposal
to the extent of all they contained. Houses were allotted us, and
servants were instructed to place before us the best the country
produced. We fared sumptuously, for the natural growth in this
sheltered valley is surprising. The bread given us was made from three
kinds of roots, of which there is a great abundance, and they grow
without labour, receiving no more help than being dug up and cooked.
These roots are pleasant to the taste, very nourishing, and keep for a
long while. They are a yard long, and half a yard thick. The fruits,
too, were numerous and good, consisting of oranges and lemons, which
the Spaniards had planted, together with many earth-nuts, almonds, and
other fruit, as well as sweet canes. Of live stock the settlers
possessed goats, pigs, and a few cows. Round the houses were many fruit
trees, with entwined palisades, by reason of the great quantity of
pigs; the town was well arranged, the houses and yards being very
clean.

Queen Barreto kept Pedro with her in her own house, while Hartog and I,
together with the officers and crew of the "Golden Seahorse", were
suitably accommodated and made free of the settlement, where we enjoyed
a run ashore after so much storm and stress at sea.

We had not yet ascertained whether the settlers had been successful in
finding gold in this place. Pearls and silver they possessed as
evidence of their wealth, but we saw no gold among them. Pedro, who
came to consult with us regarding this, informed us that his mother,
the queen, had heard nothing of the place of the painted hands, or of
gold being found there, but had told him that some years previously an
expedition, sent to punish a tribe of natives who had proved hostile to
the settlers, had reported the discovery of caves, very deep and
mysterious, into which the natives could not be induced to enter,
where, it was reported, gold was to be found by washing the sand from
the bed of a subterranean stream which took its course through the
caves from none knew where, and emptied itself into the sea.

To these caves, therefore, now being rested and refreshed, we
determined to direct our steps.

CHAPTER XXXI

THE PLACE OF THE PAINTED HANDS

Upon leaving the Spanish settlement, Queen Barreto provided us with an
escort to guide us to the caves in which it was reported gold was to be
found. The country outside the settlement was of the same rocky, barren
nature as everywhere along t