"Do they come here?"
"Yes, yes, they come here, come else place, too."
"Have you been here with them twice?"
"Yes, come there."
He meant the northwest side of the isle, so to this spot I took him the next day. He knew the place, and told me he was there once, and with him twelve men. To let me know this, he placed twelve stones all in a row, and made me count them.
"Are not the boats lost on your shore now and then?"
He said that there was no fear, and that no boats were lost. He told me that up a great way by the moon—that is, where the moon then came up—there dwelt a tribe of white men like me, with beards. I felt sure that they must have come from Spain, to work the gold mines. I put this to him: "Could I go from this isle and join those men?"
"Yes, yes, you may go in two boats."
It was hard to see how one man could go in two boats, but what he meant was a boat twice as large as my own.
To please my poor slave, I gave him a sketch of my whole life; I told him where I was born and where I spent my days when a child. He was glad to hear tales of the land of my birth, and of the trade which we kept up, in ships, with all parts of the known world. I gave him a knife and a belt, which made him dance with joy.