Some days later Columbus, with the object of lessening journeys and also to provide more numerous retreats for his men in case of sudden attack by the natives, had another blockhouse built, which he called Concepcion.  It is situated between Isabella and San Tomas in the territory of Cibao, upon the frontiers of the country of Guarionex.  It stands upon an elevation, well watered by a number of fresh streams.  Seeing this new construction daily nearing completion, and our fleet half ruined lying in the port, the natives began to despair of liberty and to ask one another dejectedly whether the Christians would ever evacuate the archipelago.

It was during these explorations in the interior of the mountainous district of Cibao that the men of Concepcion obtained an ingot of massive gold, shaped in the form of a sponge-like stone; it was as large as a man’s fist, and weighed twenty ounces.  It had been found by a cacique, not on a river bank but in a dry mound.  I saw it with my own eyes in a shop at Medina del Campo in Old Castile, where the Court was passing the winter; and to my great admiration I handled it and tested its weight.  I also saw a piece of native tin, which might have served for bells or apothecaries’ mortars or other such things as are made of Corinthian brass.  It was so heavy that not only could I not lift it from the ground with my two hands, but could not even move it to the right or left.  It was said that this lump weighed more than three hundred pounds at eight ounces to the pound.  It had been found in the courtyard of a cacique’s house, where it had lain for a long time, and the old people of the country, although no tin has been found in the island within the memory of any living man, nevertheless knew where there was a mine of this metal.  But nobody could ever learn this secret from them, so much were they vexed by the Spaniards’ presence.[6] Finally they decided to reveal its whereabouts, but it was entirely destroyed, and filled in with earth and rubbish.  It is nevertheless easier to extract the metal than to get out iron from the mines, and it is thought that if workmen and skilled miners were sent out, it would be possible to again work that tin mine.

[Note 6:  Adeo jam stomacho pleni in nostros vivebant.]

Not far from the blockhouse of Concepcion and in these same mountains, the Spaniards discovered a large quantity of amber, and in some caverns was distilled a greenish colour very much prized by painters.  In marching through the forest there were places where all the trees were of a scarlet colour which are called by Italian merchants verzino, and by the Spaniards brazil wood.

At this point, Most Illustrious Prince, you may raise an objection and say to yourself:  “If the Spaniards have brought several shiploads of scarlet wood and some gold, and a little cotton and some bits of amber back to Europe, why did they not load themselves with gold and all the precious products which seem to abound so plenteously in the country you describe?”