Captain Merlotte and my chief mate bestowed their time so well, and obliged the natives so much, by the toys and trifles they gave them, that they presently told them that the gold, which they called Aarah, was picked up in the rivers that came down from a mountain which they pointed to, a great way off. Our men prevailed with three of them, to go with them to one of these rivers, and gave them beads and such things to encourage them, but no hatchet; that was kept up at a high rate, and as a rarity fit only for a king, or some great man who wore Aarah on his ears.
In a word, they came to the river where they said they found this Aarah; and the first thing our men observed there, was an Indian sitting on the ground, and beating something upon a great stone, with another stone in his hand for his hammer: they went to see what he was doing, and found he had got a lump of gold from the sand, as big as a swan-shot, of no regular shape, but full of corners, neither round nor square; and the man was beating it flat as well as he could.
One of our men, who had a hatchet in his hand, made signs to him to let him flatten it for him; and so turning the back part of the hatchet, which served the purpose of a hammer, he beat the piece of gold flat in an instant; and then turning it upon the edge, beat it that way until he brought it to be round also.
This was so surprising to the man who had been beating, that he stood looking on with all the tokens of joy and amazement; and, desiring to see the hatchet, looked this way and that way, upon those of his countrymen who came with us, as if asking them if ever they saw the like.
When our man had done, he made signs to know if he had any more Aarah; the man said nothing, but went down to the brink of the river, and, putting his hand into a hole, he brought out three little lumps of gold, and a great many smaller, some of them about as big as a large pin's head; all which he had laid up there, in the hollow of a stone. Our man thought it was too much, to take all that for the hatchet; and therefore pulled out some beads, and pieces of glass, and such toys; and, in short, bought all this cargo of gold, which in the whole weighed near five ounces, for about the value of two shillings.
Though these bargains were very agreeable to us, yet the discovery of such a place, and of such a fund of treasure, in a part of the world, which it is very probable, was never before seen by any European eyes, nor so much as inquired after, was the greatest satisfaction imaginable to me; knowing the adventurous temper of the gentleman who was our principal employer. Upon this account, while my men busied themselves in their daily search after gold, and in finding out the rivers from whence it came, or rather where it was found, I employed myself to be fully informed where this place was; whether it was an island or a continent; and having found a tolerable good road for our ships to ride in, I caused my two shallops, well manned, to run along the coast, both east and west, to find which way it lay, and whether they could find any end of it; as also to see what rivers, what people, and what provisions they could meet with.
By my observation, I found that we were in the latitude of 27° 13' south meridian; distance from the Ladrones about 16° east. While my shallops were gone, I went on shore, and some of my men set up tents, as well for the convenience of their traffick, as for their resting on shore all night; keeping, however, a good guard, and having two of our ship's dogs with them, who never failed giving them notice, whenever any of the natives came near them; for what ailed the dogs I know not, but neither of them could bear the sight of the Indians, and we had much to do to keep them from flying at them.
While we rode here, we had the most violent storm of wind with rain, and with great claps of thunder, that we had yet sustained since we came out of England. It was our comfort that the wind came off shore, for it blew at south, and shifting between the south, south-east, and south-west, with such excessive gusts, and so furious, and withal, not only by squalls and sudden flaws, but a settled terrible tempest, that had it been from off sea, as it was off shore, we must have perished, there had been no remedy, and even as it was, we rode in great danger. My boatswain called out twice to me to cut my masts by the board, protesting we should either bring our anchors home, or founder as we rode; and indeed the sea broke over us many times in a terrible manner. As I said before, we had an indifferent good road, and so we had, but not a very good one, for the land was low; and on the east we lay a little open. However, our ground-tackle was good, and our ship very tight, and I told the boatswain I would rather slip the cable and go off to sea than cut the masts. However, in about four hours' time more we found the wind abate, though it blew very hard for three days after.
I was in great pain for my two shallops in this tempest, but they had both the good luck to lie close under the shore; and one indeed had hauled quite upon the land, where the men lay on shore under their sail, so that they got no damage; and about three days after, one of them returned, and brought me word they had been to the west, where they had made very little discovery, as to the situation of the country, or whether it was an island or a continent, but they had conversed with the natives very often, and found several who had pieces of gold hanging, some in their hair, some about their necks; and they made a shift to bring as many with them as weighed, all put together, seventeen or eighteen ounces, for which they had bartered toys and trifles, as we did; but they found no rivers, where they could discover any gold in the sands, as We had done, so that they believed it all came from the side where we were.