Suddenly he struck up the scales with his
fist, and the shining treasure tumbled over the porch floor like spilt
corn.
"Why do you quarrel over this trash?" he asked. "If this gold is so
precious to you that you leave your homes, invade the land of peaceable
nations and endure desperate perils, I will tell you where there is
plenty of it."
The Spaniards' attention was instantly caught and held. The young Indian
went on, with the same careless contempt, "You see those mountains over
there? Beyond them is a great sea. The people who dwell on the border of
that sea have ships almost as big as yours, with sails and oars as yours
have. The streams in their country are full of gold. The King eats from
golden dishes, for gold is as common there as iron is among you,"--he
glanced at the cumbrous armor and weapons of his guests. Indeed the
panoply of the Spaniards, made necessary by the constant possibility of
attack, and the weight of their cross-bows and other weapons, was a
source of continual wonder to the light and nimble Indians, and of much
weariness and suffering to themselves. Many in time adopted the quilted
cotton body armor of the natives, and used pikes when they could in
place of the musketoun, which was like a hand-cannon.
This was not the first time that Balboa and many of the others had heard
of the Lord of the Golden House, but no one else had told the story with
such boldness.
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