YBARRA ] LETTER OF DR. DIEGO ALVAREZ CHANCA 457 
He brought with him specimens from the different parts, that is 
to say, from the sand of the rivers and its banks.! 
“Tt is generally believed that by digging as we know how, the 
gold will be found in greater compact masses, for the Indians neither 
know how to dig nor have they the means of digging the ground 
more than to a hand’s depth. 
‘The other captain, who went’to the other place called Niti,? 
returned also with news of a great quantity of gold in three or 
four localities, of which he likewise brought specimens with him.” 
“Thus, surely, their Highnesses the King and Queen may hence- 
forth regard themselves as the most prosperous and wealthy sov- 
ereigns on earth, because never yet, since the creation of this 
world, has such a thing been seen or read of. On the return of 
the ships on the next voyage, they certainly will be able to carry 
back such a quantity of gold as will fill with amazement all who 
hear of it.4 
“ Here I think I shall do well to break off my narrative. And I 
believe that those who do not know me, and hear of these things 
that I relate to you, may consider me prolix and somewhat an 
exaggerator, but God is my witness that I have not exceeded by 
one iota the bounds of truth.” 
*One of those specimens was a nugget that weighed nine ounces. 
This second detachment was under the command of another young and 
fearless hidalgo called Ginés de Gorbalan, who was sent back to Spain by 
Columbus right after his return from this expedition to Niti, as a witness 
of the marvelous richness of the island of Hispaniola. He took with him, 
to Spain, the large nugget of gold which Alonso de Ojeda had found in his 
exploration of the mountains of Cibao. 
3These specimens were fewer and of less value than the others, thus prov- 
ing that the region called Niti was not so rich in gold as Cibao. 
‘Dr. Chanca in my opinion was admirably sagacious, for what he predicted 
here in this important historical document, written at the beginning of the 
year 1494, was realized but a few years after, when the Spanish galleons, 
loaded with the gold and silver of the New World, incited the avarice of 
men of other nations, who did not hesitate to become piratical adventurers— 
euphemistically called buccaneers—in order to rob the Spanish properties in 
America, both on land and upon the sea. 
