44

EARLY COLLECTION OF GOLD chap. XVII.

have led them to extend their incursions andexaminations in every available direction.

Mr. Irving, with his usual diligence and taste,has compiled from the best authorities authenticaccounts of those immediate followers of Columbus who pursued his views by exploring the severall-egions which lay in the vicinity of the greatislands which he had discovered.

The subject is interesting, but might in this in-quiry be seductive enough to draw attention to theadventurous and persevering individual leaders, andto withhold it from the small portion of the preciousmetals which was found in America at the period ofits first discovery. In the “ Voyages of the Com-panions of Columbus,” we find Alonzo de Ojeda,as early as 1509, on the coast of Carthagena, aftersuccessful hostilities against the natives, who werein a more civilized state than the inhabitants ofHispaniola , found in the plunder of their chiefplace, “ the spoil in gold and other articles ofvalue to the amount of seven thousand castillianos,”or thirty-seven thousand two hundred and eightydollars, equivalent to about eight thousand poundssterling 1 . Diego de Nicuesa, who followed thesteps of Ojeda, and made conquests on the shoresof Darien, collected great quantities of food andcotton, with bracelets, anklets, plates, and other

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