words: "Casa de moneda real. Ciudad de Mégico" (Royal mint, city of Mexico), to make it appear that the gold came from Mexico.
Working all alone, he cast the gold into bars, some of which he sold to the London goldsmiths for ready money, but the rest he carried over to Amsterdam and deposited in the new bank in that city, there being at that time no bank in London.
As soon as possible, Ralph went to the officers of the Virginia Company, and proposed to buy of them a grant of land, to be bounded by the are of a circle whose radius was five miles, and whose center was at the head of tidewater on the Potomac, that part of the circle only lying on the left bank of the river. For this he proposed to pay the Company fifteen hundred pounds.
"Why would you choose that particular spot?" asked the Treasurer. "Captain Smith says the cliffs there look in spots as if sprinkled with silver."
"Captain Smith sent you a load of that glittering earth; how much silver did you get out of it?" retorted Ralph.
"Not a grain, I confess," replied the Treas-
