But let us consider how the town was founded.  After having surrounded the site with ditches and entrenchments for defence against possible attacks by the natives on the garrison he left there, during his absence, the Admiral started on the eve of the ides of March accompanied by all the gentlemen and about four hundred foot-soldiers for the southern region where the gold was found.  Crossing a river, he traversed the plain and climbed the mountain beyond it.  He reached another valley watered by a river even larger than the former one, and by others of less importance.  Accompanied by his force he crossed this valley, which was in no place more elevated than the first one, and thus he reached the third mountain which had never been ascended.  He made the ascent and came down on the other side into a valley where the province of Cibao begins.  This valley is watered by rivers and streams which flow down from the hills, and gold is also found in their sands.  After penetrating into the interior of the gold region a distance of some seventy-two miles from the town, Columbus resolved to establish a fortified post on an eminence commanding the river banks, from which he might study more closely the mysteries of this region.  He named this place San Tomas.

While he was occupied in building this fortification he was delayed by the natives, who came to visit him in the hope of getting some bells or other trifles.  Columbus gave them to understand that he was very willing to give them what they asked, if they would bring him gold.  Upon hearing this promise the natives turned their backs and ran to the neighbouring river, returning soon afterwards with hands full of gold.  One old man only asked a little bell in return for two grains of gold weighing an ounce.  Seeing that the Spaniards admired the size of these grains, and quite amazed at their astonishment, he explained to them by signs that they were of no value; after which, taking in his hands four stones, of which the smallest was the size of a nut and the largest as big as an orange, he told them that in his country, which was half a day’s journey distant, one found here and there ingots of gold quite as large.  He added that his neighbours did not even take the trouble to pick them up.  It is now known that the islanders set no value on gold as such; they only prize it when it has been worked by a craftsman into some form which pleases them.  Who amongst us pays attention to rough marble or to unworked ebony?  Certainly nobody; but if this marble is transformed by the hand of a Phidias or a Praxiteles, and if it then presents to our eyes the form of a Nereid with flowing hair, or a hamadryad with graceful body, buyers will not be wanting.  Besides this old man, a number of natives brought ingots, weighing ten or twelve drachmas,[7] and they had the effrontery to say that in the region where they had found them, they sometimes discovered ingots as big as the head of a child whom they indicated.