"Methinks something of the flavor represented by the good captain's name
hath got into your Englishman's brain. Good ale never gives such
fantasies. Doth he perchance speak of elephants?"

"He doth," said Sir Humphrey, hesitatingly. "Perchance he saw them not,
but heard of them only."

"What says he of them?" asked Raleigh.

"He says that he saw in that country both elephants and ounces; and he
says that their trumpets are made of elephants' teeth."

"But the houses," said Raleigh; "tell me of the houses."

"In every house," said Gilbert, reading from the manuscript, "they have
scoops, buckets, and divers vessels, all of massive silver with which they
throw out water and otherwise employ them. The women wear great plates of
gold covering their bodies, and chains of great pearls in the manner of
curvettes; and the men wear manilions or bracelets on each arm and each
leg, some of gold and some of silver."

"Whence come they, these gauds?"

"There are great rivers where one may find pieces of gold as big as the
fist; and there are great rocks of crystal, sufficient to load many ships."

This was all which was said on that day, but never was explorer more
eager than Gilbert. He wrote a "Discourse of a Discoverie for a New
Passage to Cathaia and the East Indies"--published without his knowledge
by George Gascoigne. In 1578 he had from Queen Elizabeth a patent of