The oars dipped and rose, the bright water broke from them; and these Englishmen in Old Virginia proceeded up the Potomac.

Could they have seen--could they but have seen before them, on the north bank, rising, like the unsubstantial fabric of a dream, there above the trees, a vast, white Capitol shining in the sunlight! Far up the river, they noticed that the sand on the shore gleamed with yellow spangles.

They looked and saw high rocks, and they thought that from these the rain had washed the glittering dust.

Gold?
Harbors they had found--but what of gold?
What, even, of Cathay?
Going down stream, they sought again those friendly Indians.

Did they know gold or silver?
The Indians looked wise, nodded heads, and took the visitors up a little tributary river to a rocky hill in which "with shells and hatchets" they had opened as it were a mine.