Then he pulled out another drawer, which was almost full of the same kind of metal, but as small as sand, the biggest not so big as pins heads, and which might very properly be called gold dust. After this sight, we were not to be surprised at anything he could show us of the kind. I asked him how long such a treasure might be amassing together in that country? He told me that was according to the pains they might take in the search; that he had been twelve years here, and had done little or nothing; but, had he had twenty negroes to have set on work, as he might have had, he might have procured more than this in one year. I asked him how much gold in weight he thought there might be in all he had shown me? He told me, he could not tell; that they never troubled themselves to weigh, but when the silversmith at St. Jago came to bring home any vessel, or when the merchants from Lima came to Baldivia with European goods, then they bought what they wanted of them. That they were sensible they gave excessive prices for everything, even ten or twenty for one; but as gold, he said, was the growth of that country, and the other things, such as cloth, linen, fine silks, &c, were the gold of Europe, they did not think much to give what was asked for those things. In short, I found that the people in this country, though they kept large plantations in their hands, had great numbers of cattle, ingenios, as they call them, for making sugar, and land, under management, for the maintenance of themselves and families, yet did not wholly neglect the getting gold out of the mountains, where it was in such plenty; and, therefore, it seems the town adjacent is called Villa Rica, or the Rich Town, being seated, as it were, at the foot of the mountains, and in the richest part of them. After I had sufficiently admired the vast quantity of gold he had, he made signs to the doctor that I should take any piece or any quantity that I pleased; but thought I might take it as an affront to have him offer me any particular small parcel. The doctor hinted to me, and I bade him return him thanks; but to let him know that I would by no means have any of that, but that I would be glad to take up a piece or two, such as chance should present to me, in the mountains, that I might show in my own country, and tell them that I took it up with my own hands. He answered, he would go with me himself; and doubted not but to carry me where I should fully satisfy my curiosity, if I would be content to climb a little among the rocks.