Chapter 17
In March of year 18, Zellene the merchant brought wheat. We trade firewood, furs, and stone tools for 610 sacks. We did not trade away any of our iron tools. There was no more surface iron ore to be found anywhere and we did not want to stop mining for gold when we were so close to our goal. We just added 2 more workers to the gold mines, they now had 8 miners each. We still had 8 laborers and 2 builders.
In July, Zellene returned but had no grain this time. We were now completely out of iron ore and had only a few iron bloom left. We had 136 iron tools, enough to last awhile. In September we closed the bloomery and the iron blacksmith, both workers were now miners. In October, Ollison brought wheat to the old port. We traded all the firewood, furs, and venison that was stored there but not the 60 dalers. After 18 years we still had no seeds or livestock. We closed that trading post and gained one more gold miner.
Several children were born before the end of the year. The population was 161 meaning we needed 361 gold nuggets. We had 348. Our food supply and population held steady well into year 19. In June of year 19 we had 86 adults, 26 students, and 49 young children, a total of 161 citizens. We had 361 gold nuggets.
Yes, weary traveler, we reached our goal. Shedric and I and our 3 children are headed back to North Mining Town with our 200 gold nuggets for the jeweler. We had a big celebration outside the town hall to distribute the remaining nuggets to the families who helped us, each man, woman, and child received 1 gold nugget. And we turned over the deed to the claim to the good people of Prospect. You are welcome to join them.
Live Long and Prosper in Prospect
The End