Smaller houses, for persons of rank lower than the chiefs, surrounded it.

The natives told the explorers that Guacanagari himself had retired to the hills.
On receiving the report of these explorers Columbus sent out Ojeda with a hundred men, and Corvalan with a similar party in different directions.

These officers, in their report, described the operation of gold-washing, much as it is known to explorers in mining regions to-day.
The natives made a deep ditch into which the gold bearing sand should settle.

For more important work they had flat baskets in which they shook the sand and parted it from the gold.

With the left hand they dipped up sand, handled this skilfully or "dextrously" with the right hand, so that in a few minutes they could give grains of gold to the gratified explorers.