Panning for gold from Oviedo' s La Historia general de las Indias, 1535. Gonzalo Fern獺ndez de Oviedo y Vald矇s (1478-1557) was a Spanish historian and writer. He is commonly known as Oviedo. He participated in the Spanish colonization of the Caribbean, and wrote a long chronicle of this project which is one of the few primary sources about it. It was through Oviedo's book that Europeans came to learn about the hammock, the pineapple, and tobacco, among other things used by the native Americans that he encountered. While overseeing the mines on Hispaniola, Oviedo produced the first known illustrations done from life by a European traveler in the New World. Gold panning is a simple process. Once a suitable placer deposit is located, some gravel from it is scooped into a pan, where it is then gently agitated in water and the gold sinks to the bottom of the pan.