When we came to the place, we saw such a wonder as indeed I never saw before, for there they were sitting down round a little puddle, or hole, as I might call it, of water, where, in the time of rain, the water running hastily from a piece of the rock, about two foot higher than the rest, had made a pit under it with the fall, like the tail of a mill, only much less. Here they took up the sand or gravel with their hands, and every handful brought up with it such a quantity of gold as was surprising; for there they sat picking it out, just as the boys in London, who go with a broom and a hat, pick out old iron, nails, and pins from the channels, and it lay as thick. I stood and looked at them awhile, and it must be confessed, it was a pleasant sight enough; but, reflecting immediately that there was no end of this, and that we were only upon the enquiry, Come away, said I, laughing to my men, and do not stand picking up of trash there all day; do you know how far we have to go to our lodgings? I can make no guess what quantity might have been found here in places which had, for hundreds of years, washed gold from the hills, and, perhaps, never had a man come to pick any of it up before; but I was soon satisfied that here was enough, even to make all the world say they had enough; and so I called off my people, and came away. It seems, the quantity of gold which is thus washed down is not small, since my men, inquiring afterwards among the Chilians, heard them talk of the great lake of water which I mentioned just now that we saw at a distance, which they call the Golden Lake, and where was, as they said, prodigious quantities of it; not that our men supposed any gold was there in mines, or in the ordinary soil, but that the waters from the hills, running with very rapid currents at certain times in the rainy seasons, and after the melting of the snows, had carried the gold so far as that lake; and, as it has been so, perhaps, from the days of the general deluge, no people ever applying themselves to gather the least grain of it up again, it might well be increased to such a quantity as might entitle that water to the name of the Golden Lake, and all the little streams and sluices of water that run into it deserved the name of Golden Rivers, as much as that of the Golden Lake. But my present business was to know only if the gold was here, but not to trouble myself to pick it up; my views lay another way, and my end was fully answered, so I came back to my patron, and brought all my men with me. You live in a golden country, seignior, says I; my men are stark mad to see so much gold, and nobody to take it. Should the world know what treasure you have here, I would not answer for it that they should not flock hither in armies, and drive you all away. They need not do that, seignior, says he, for here is enough for them, and for us too.