IN NORTH AMERICA. 195 



account of jniinitive painiin.ii\ nii opeiation faiiiiliar to nil uold ]>i'0- 

 spectors and known in many i)aits of the world. Jhit the snspicion 

 arises that tlie Indians bad watclicd the Spaniards oi)eiatin<;' in tliis 

 way in the streams in their search for gold and were describing; their 

 method. The description, moreover, could not apply to coi)])er, 

 although it is true of gohl, which is found in the sands of the streams, 

 and is "panned out" in the manner described. The etfortto find coi)- 

 per from this mineral region was unavailing. On JJibaidt's arrival to 

 succor Laudonniere's ]iarty, tlie Indians offered to conduct him, in a 

 few days' journey, to the mountains of Apalatcy. "Jn those mouu- 

 taines, as they sayd, is found redder co})per, which they call in their 

 language Sieroa Pira, which is as much to say asredde mettal],wheieof 

 1 had a piece, wliich at the very instant I showed to Captaine Eibault, 

 which <'aused his gold finer to make an assay thereof, which reported 

 unto him that it was ]).erfect golde." This assay confirms, or perhaps 

 was the cause of, Lau<lonniere's surmise that the copper of Apalatcy 

 was gold. Jt is not easy to understand at this distance Avhy there 

 should have been any difliculty in recognizing the metal at once. 

 There was evidently some misunderstanding or misinterpretation of 

 the questions and the answers between the French and Indians in ref- 

 erence to the red metal, so that while the French meant <-opper the 

 Indians understood gold. At any rate, the French saw no copper from 

 the Ai)palachians. 



Sir AValter Ealeigli planted a cohmy at Eoanoke Island in l.">8r), of 

 which Kalph Lane was su])erintendent. Jle, also, soon heard of min- 

 eral wealth in the mountains to the west, and was eager to find copper 

 there. It must be remembered that it was a great disappointment in 

 Europe to find that the land which Columbus and his successors had 

 discovered was a continent, and incessant attempts were made to find a 

 way through or around it to the south seas and (-athay, which were 

 continued into the ]>reseidj century. Therefore lva]i»h liane wrote that 

 '* the discoverie of a good mine by the goodnesse of Ciod, or a passage 

 to the south sea. or some way to it, and nothing els can bring this 

 countrey in request to be inhabited ])y our nation." And particularly 

 with reference to the rumoied mine to the west, he says: "And that 

 which made me most desirous to have sonuMloings with the Mangoaks,* 

 either in friendship or otherwise to have had one or two of them pris- 

 oners, Avas, for that it is a thing most notorious to all the countrey, 

 that thei'e is a Province to the which the said Mangoaks have recourse 

 and trafi(|U(Mip that river of Monatoc (lloanoke) which hath a jnar- 

 \-eilons and most strange Minerall. Thif* mine fs so notorious amongst 

 them as not only to the savages dwelling up the said river aiul also to 

 the sa^•ages of the Chawanook, and. all them to the Westward, but also 

 to all them of the maine; the countrey's name is of fame and is called 

 ('haunis Temoatan. 



Indians wlio lived in Vir<i:inia. near the Noitli Carolina line. 



