like spilt
corn.

"Why do you quarrel over this trash?" he asked. "If this gold is so
precious to you that you leave your homes, invade the land of peaceable
nations and endure desperate perils, I will tell you where there is
plenty of it."

The Spaniards' attention was instantly caught and held. The young Indian
went on, with the same careless contempt, "You see those mountains over
there? Beyond them is a great sea. The people who dwell on the border of
that sea have ships almost as big as yours, with sails and oars as yours
have. The streams in their country are full of gold. The King eats from
golden dishes, for gold is as common there as iron is among you,"--he
glanced at the cumbrous armor and weapons of his guests. Indeed the
panoply of the Spaniards, made necessary by the constant possibility of
attack, and the weight of their cross-bows and other weapons, was a
source of continual wonder to the light and nimble Indians, and of much
weariness and suffering to themselves. Many in time adopted the quilted
cotton body armor of the natives, and used pikes when they could in
place of the musketoun, which was like a hand-cannon.

This was not the first time that Balboa and many of the others had heard
of the Lord of the Golden House, but no one else had told the story with
such boldness. The young cacique said that to invade this land, a
thousand warriors would be none too many. He offered to accompany Balboa
with his own troops, if the white men would go.

Here indeed was an enterprise with glory enough for all. Balboa returned
to Darien and began preparations. Valdivia, the regidor of the colony,
had been sent to Hispaniola for provisions, but the supply he brought
back was absurdly small. One of the serious difficulties encountered by
all the first settlers in the New World was this matter of provisioning
the camps. For the Indians the natural fruits and produce of the country
were sufficient, and they seldom laid up any great store. The small
surplus of any one chief was soon exhausted by a large body of guests.
Moreover, the country had no cattle, swine, fowls, goats, no domestic
food animals whatever, no grain but the maize. The supply of meat and
grain was thus very small until Spanish planters could clear and
cultivate their estates. On the march the troops could and did live off
the country with less trouble.

Balboa decided to send Valdivia back to Hispaniola for more supplies. He
also sent by him a l