Land they did, and traded seventeen
gold disks for just three tinkly bells! The voyagers asked, of course,
where the gold came from, and were told from Veragua, a little farther
south. For once the sign language was correctly understood. Veragua
actually existed. The Spaniards found it just west of the Isthmus of
Darien.
Here plenty more gold was seen. "In two days," wrote Columbus, "I saw
more indications of near-by gold mines than I had seen in four years in
Hispaniola." Not only did he see the precious metal, but he heard that
"ten days inland" lived tribes who possessed quantities of gold and
silver. And then the natives spoke of something far more wonderful, had
Columbus but known it, than gold; for they said, also, that ten days'
tramp westward lay a vast sea. This, Columbus concluded, must be the
immense river Ganges; and his tired brain began figuring how, by a
little "tramping west," and a little river boating, and then some more
tramping, a Spaniard could get from Darien back to Spain, provided the
Moslems did not murder him on the way!
But he was not seeking for gold on this trip. He did not march ten days
inland. He turned a deaf ear to it and to all his importuning crew and
went searching for his "strait"; by which steadfastness of purpose he
just missed discovering the Pacific Ocean.
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