Our men having thus finished their traffick, and being about to come away, they made signs to the king, that they would come again and bring him more fine things; at which the king smiled, and pointing to the gold, as if telling them he would have more of that for them when they came again.
Our men had now their expectations fully answered; and, as I said, had ended their traffick; and, taking leave of the king and all his retinue, retired to their shallop, the king and queen going away to their city as above. The wind blowing northerly, they were seven days before they got down to us in the ship; during which time they had almost famished the deer they had left, five of which they had kept to bring us alive, and yet they went two or three times on shore to get food for them by the way.
We were all glad to see them again, and I had a great deal of reason to be very well satisfied with the account of their traffick, though not much with their discovery, for they were not able to give us the least account whether the land was a continent or an island.
But let that be how it will, it is certainly a country yet unfrequented by any of the Christian part of mankind, and perhaps, may ever be so, and yet may be as rich as any other part of the world yet discovered. The mountains in most of the islands, as well as of the mainland in those parts, abounding in gold or silver, and, no question, as well worth searching after as the coast of Guinea; where, though the quantity they find is considerable, yet it is at this time sought after by so many, and the negroes taught so well how to value it, that but a little is brought away at a time, and so much given for it, that, computing the charge of the voyage, is oftentimes more than it is worth.
But though it is true that what gold is found here is a great way off, yet, I am persuaded such quantities are to be had, and the price given for it so very trifling, that it would be well worth searching for.
I reckon, that, including the gold our shallop brought, and what we got on shore where we lay, we brought away about twenty-four pounds weight of gold; the expense of which we could not value at above ten or eleven pounds in England, put it all together; and reckoning for all the provisions we got there, which supplied us for twenty days after we came away.
For while our shallop was making her visit thus to the royal family, &c., as is related, our men were not idle on shore, but, partly by trade with the natives, and by washing the sands in the small rivers, we got such a quantity of gold as well satisfied us for the stay we made.
We had been about eighteen days here when our shallop returned, and we stayed a week more trafficking with the people; and I am persuaded, if we had been in the mind to have settled there and stayed till now, we should have been very welcome to the people. We saw neither horse or cow, mule, ass, dog, or cat, or any of our European animals, excepting that our men shot some wild ducks and widgeons, exactly the same which we see in England, and very fat and good, but much easier to shoot than in England, having never been acquainted with the flash and noise of guns as ours have been; we also found a sort of partridges in the country not much unlike our own, and a great many of the whistling plover, the same with ours.
Though this month's stay was unexpected, yet we had no reason to think our time ill spent. However, we did not think we ought to lie here too long whatever we got; so we weighed and stood off to sea, steering still south-east, keeping the shore of this golden country in sight, till our men told us they found the land fall off to the south. Then we steered away more southerly for six or eight days, not losing sight of, land all the time, till by an observation we found we were in the latitude of 34° 30' south of the line, our meridian distance from the Ladrones 22° 30' east, when a fresh gale of wind springing up at south and by east, obliged us to haul close for that evening. At night it blew such a storm that we were obliged to yield to the force of it, and go away afore it to the north, or north-by-west, till we came to the point of that land we passed before. Here, the land tending to the west, we ran in under the lee of a steep shore, and came to an anchor in twenty-five fathoms water, being the same country we were in before. Here we rode very safe for five days, the wind continuing to blow very hard all the time from the south-east.
My men would fain have had me gone ashore again and trafficked with the people for more gold; but I, who was still in quest of further discoveries, thought I knew enough of this place to tempt my friend the merchant, whose favourite design was that of making new discoveries, to another voyage there, and that was enough for me. So I declined going on shore again, except that we sent our boats for a recruit of fresh water; and our men, while they were filling it, shot a brace of deer, as they were feeding by the side of a swamp or moist ground, and also some wild ducks. Here we set up a great wooden cross, and wrote on it the names of our ships and commanders, and the time that we came to an anchor there.