The ladies made all possible acknowledgment, and wehad the honour that day to dine with them in public. My landlord, the Spaniard, told me I had given them such a present as the viceroy of Mexico's lady would have gone fifty leagues to have received.
But I had not done with my host; for after dinner, I took him into the same room, and told him I hoped he did not think I had made all my presents to the ladies, and had nothing left to show my respect to him; and therefore, first, I presented him with three negro men, which I had bought at Callao for my own use, but knew I could supply myself again, at or in my way home, at a moderate price; in the next place, I gave him three pieces of black Colchester baize, which, though they are coarse ordinary things in England, that a footman would scarce wear, are a habit for a prince in that country. I then gave him a piece of very fine English serge, which was really very valuable in England, but much more there, and another piece of crimson broadcloth, and six pieces of fine silk druggets for his two sons; and thus I finished my presents. The Spaniard stood still and looked on all the while I was laying out my presents to him, as one in a transport, and said not one word till all was over; but then he told me very gravely, that it was now time for him to turn me out of his house: For seignior, says he, no man ought to suffer himself to be obliged beyond his power of return, and I have no possible way of making any return to you equal to such things as these.
It is true the present I had made him, if it was to be rated by the value of things in the country where it then was, would have been valued at six or seven hundred pounds sterling; but, to reckon them as they cost me, did not altogether amount to above one hundred pounds, except the three negroes, which, indeed, cost me at Lima one thousand two hundred pieces of eight.
He was as sensible of the price of those negroes as I was of the occasion he had of them, and of the work he had to do for them; and he came to me about an hour after, and told me he had looked over all the particulars of the noble presents which I had made them; and though the value was too great for him to accept, or for any man to offer him, yet since I had been at so much trouble to send for the things, and that I thought him worthy such a bounty, he was come back to tell me that he accepted thankfully all my presents,both to himself and to his wife and daughter, except only the three negroes; and as they were bought in the country, and were the particular traffick of the place, he could not take them as a present, but would be equally obliged, and take it for as much a favour if I would allow him to pay for them.
I smiled, and told him he and I would agree upon that; for he did not yet know what favours I had to ask of him, and what expense I should put him to; that I had a great design in my view, which I was to crave his assistance in, and which I had not yet communicated to him, in which he might perhaps find that he would pay dear enough for all the little presents I had made him; and, in the meantime, to make himself easy as to the three negro men, I gave him my word that he should pay for them, only not yet.
He could have nothing to object against an offer of this kind, because he could not guess what I meant, but gave me all the assurance of service and assistance that lay in his power in anything that I might have to do in that country.
But here, by the way, it ought to be understood, that all this was carried on with a supposition that we acted under a commission from the King of France; and though he knew many of us were English, and that I was an Englishman in particular, yet as we had such a commission, and produced it, we were Frenchmen in that sense to him, nor did he entertain us under any other idea.
The sequel of this story will also make it sufficiently appear that I did not make such presents as these in mere ostentation, or only upon the compliment of a visit to a Spanish gentleman, any more than I would leave my ship and a cargo of such value, in the manner I had done, to make a tour into the country, if I had not had views sufficient to justify such measures; and the consequence of those measures will be the best apology for my conduct, with all who will impartially consider them.
We had now spent a fortnight, and something more, in ceremony and civilities, and in now and then taking a little tour about the fields and towards the mountains. However, even in this way of living I was not so idle as I seemed to be, for I not only made due observations of all the country which I saw, but informed myself sufficiently of the parts which I did not see. I found the country not only fruitful inthe soil, but wonderfully temperate and agreeable in its climate. The air, though hot, according to its proper latitude, yet that heat so moderated by the cool breezes from the mountains, that it was rather equal to the plain countries in other parts of the world in the latitude of 50° than to a climate in 38 to 40°.
This gave the inhabitants the advantages, not only of pleasant and agreeable living, but also of a particular fertility which hot climates are not blessed with, especially as to corn, the most necessary of all productions, such as wheat, I mean European wheat, or English wheat, which grew here as well and as kindly as in England, which in Peru and in the Isthmus of America will by no means thrive for want of moisture and cold.
Here were also an excellent middling breed of black cattle, which the natives fed under the shade of the mountains and on the banks of the rivers till they came to be very fat. In a word, here were, or might be produced, all the plants, fruits, and grain, of a temperate climate. At the same time, the orange, lemon, citron, pomegranate, and figs, with a moderate care would come to a very tolerable perfection in their gardens, and even sugar canes in some places, though these last but rarely, and not without great art in the cultivation, and chiefly in gardens.
I was assured, that farther southward, beyond Baldivia, and to the latitude of 47 to 49°, the lands were esteemed richer than where we now were, the grass more strengthening and nourishing for the cattle, and that, consequently, the black cattle, horses, and hogs, were all of a larger breed. But that, as the Spaniards had no settlement beyond Baldivia to the south, so they did not find the natives so tractable as where we then were; where, though the Spaniards were but few, and the strength they had was but small, yet, as upon any occasion they had always been assisted with forces sufficient from St. Jago, and, if need were, even from Peru, so the natives had always been subdued, and had found themselves obliged to submit; and that now they were entirely reduced, and were, and had been for several years, very easy and quiet. Besides, the plentiful harvest which they made of gold from the mountains (which appeared to be the great allurement of the Spaniards), had drawn them rather to settle here than farther southward, being naturally addicted,as my new landlord confessed to me, to reap the harvest which had the least labour and hazard attending it, and the most profit.
Not but that, at the same time, he confessed that he believed and had heard that there was as much gold to be found farther to the south, as far as the mountains continued; but that, as I have said, the natives were more troublesome there, and more dangerous, and that the king of Spain did not allow troops sufficient to civilize and reduce them.
I asked him concerning the natives in the country where we were? He told me they were the most quiet and inoffensive people, since the Spaniards had reduced them by force, that could be desired; that they were not, indeed, numerous or warlike, the warlike and obstinate part of them having fled farther off to the south, as they were overpowered by the Spaniards; that, for those who were left, they lived secure under the protection of the Spanish governor; that they fed cattle and planted the country, and sold the product of their lands chiefly to the Spaniards; but that they did not covet to be rich, only to obtain clothes, arms, powder and shot, which, however, they were suffered to have but sparingly, and with good assurance of their fidelity. I asked him if they were not treacherous and perfidious, and if it was not dangerous trusting themselves among them in the mountains, and in the retired places where they dwelt? He told me that it was quite the contrary; that they were so honest, and so harmless, that he would at any time venture to send his two sons into the mountains a-hunting, with each of them a Chilian for his guide; and let them stay with the said natives two or three nights and days at a time, and be in no uneasiness about them; and that none of them were ever known to do any foul or treacherous thing by the Spaniards, since he had been in that country.
Having thus finally informed myself of things, I began now to think it was high time to have a sight of the particulars which I came to inquire after, viz., the passages of the mountains, and the wonders that were to be discovered on the other side; and, accordingly, I took my patron, the Spaniard, by himself, and told him that as I was a traveller, and was now in such a remote part of the world, he could not but think I should be glad to see everything extraordinary that was to be seen, that I might be able to give someaccount of the world when I came into Europe, better and differing from what others had done who had been there before me; and that I had a great mind, if he would give me his assistance, to enter into the passages and valleys which he had told me so much of in the mountains; and, if it was possible, which, indeed, I had always thought it was not, to take a prospect of the world on the other side.
He told me it was not a light piece of work, and perhaps the discoveries might not answer my trouble, there being little to be seen but steep precipices, inhospitable rocks, and impassable mountains, immuring us on every side, innumerable rills and brooks of water falling from the cliffs, making a barbarous and unpleasant sound, and that sound echoed and reverberated from innumerable cavities among the rocks, and these all pouring down into one middle stream, which we should always find on one side or other of us as we went; and that sometimes we should be obliged to pass those middle streams, as well as the rills and brooks on the sides, without a bridge, and at the trouble of pulling off our clothes.
He told us that we should meet, indeed, with provisions enough, and with an innocent, harmless people, who, according to their ability, would entertain us very willingly; but that I, who was a stranger, would be sorely put to it for lodging, especially for so many of us.
However, he said, as he had perhaps at first raised this curiosity in me, by giving me a favourable account of the place, he would be very far from discouraging me now; and that, if I resolved to go, he would not only endeavour to make everything as pleasant to me as he could, but that he and his major-domo would go along with me, and see us safe through and safe home again; but desired me not to be in too much haste, for that he must make some little preparation for the journey, which, as he told us, might perhaps take us up fourteen or sixteen days forward, and as much back again; not, he said, that it was necessary that we should be so long going and coming, as that he supposed I would take time to see everything which I might think worth seeing, and not be in so much haste as if I was sent express. I told him he was very much in the right; that I did not desire to make a thing which I had expected so much pleasure in, be a toil to me more than needs must; and, above all, that as I supposed I should not return into these parts very soon, Iwould not take a cursory view of a place which I expected would be so well worth seeing, and let it be known to all I should speak of it to, that I wanted to see it again before I could give a full account of it.
Well, seignior, says he, we will not be in haste, or view it by halves; for, if wild and uncouth places be a diversion to you, I promise myself your curiosity shall be fully gratified; but as to extraordinary things, rarities in nature, and surprising incidents, which foreigners expect, I cannot say much to those. However, what think you, seignior, says he, if we should take a tour a little way into the entrance of the hills which I showed you the other day, and look upon the gate of this gulf? Perhaps your curiosity may be satisfied with the first day's prospect, which I assure you will be none of the most pleasant, and you may find yourself sick of the enterprise.
I told him, no; I was so resolved upon the attempt, since he, who I was satisfied would not deceive me, had represented it as so feasible, and especially since he had offered to conduct me through it, that I would not, for all the gold that was in the mountains, lay it aside. He shook his head at that expression, and, smiling at the doctor, says he, This gentleman little thinks that there is more gold in these mountains, nay, even in this part where we are, than there is above ground in the whole world. Partly understanding what he said, I answered, my meaning was to let him see that nothing could divert me from the purpose of viewing the place, unless he himself forbade me, which I hoped he would not; and that, as for looking a little way into the passage, to try if the horror of the place would put a check to my curiosity, I would not give him that trouble, seeing, the more terrible and frightful, the more difficult and impracticable it was, provided it could be mastered at last, the more it would please me to attempt and overcome it.
Nay, nay, seignior, said he, pleasantly, there is nothing difficult or impracticable in it, nor is it anything but what the country people, and even some of our nation, perform every day; and that not only by themselves, either for sport in pursuit of game, but even with droves of cattle, which they go with from place to place, as to a market or a fair; and, therefore, if the horror of the cliffs and precipices, the noises of the volcanos, the fire, and such things as you may hearand see above you, will not put a stop to your curiosity, I assure you, you shall not meet with anything impassable or impracticable below, nor anything but, with the assistance of God and the Blessed Virgin (and then he crossed himself, and so we did all), we shall go cheerfully over.
Finding, therefore, that I was thus resolutely bent upon the enterprise, but not in the least guessing at my design, he gave order to have servants and mules provided, for mules are much fitter to travel among the hills than horses; and, in four days he promised to be ready for a march.
I had nothing to do in all these four days but to walk abroad, and, as we say, look about me; but I took this opportunity to give instructions to my two midshipmen, who were called my servants, in what they were to do.
First, I charged them to make landmarks, bearings, and beacons, as we might call them, upon the rocks above them, and at every turning in the way below them, also at the reaches and windings of the rivers and brooks, falls of water, and everything remarkable, and to keep each of them separate and distinct journals of those things, not only to find the way back again by the same steps, but that they might be able to find that way afterwards by themselves, and without guides, which was the foundation and true intent of all the rest of my undertaking; and, as I knew these were both capable to do it, and had courage and fidelity to undertake it, I had singled them out for the attempt, and had made them fully acquainted with my whole scheme, and, consequently, they knew the meaning and reason of my present discourse with them. They promised not to fail to show me a plan of the hills, with the bearings of every point, one with another, where every step was to be taken, and every turning to the right hand or to the left, and such a journal, I believe, was never seen before or since, but it is too long for this place. I shall, however, take out the heads of it as I proceed, which may serve as a general description of the place.
The evening of the fourth day, as he had appointed, my friend, the Spaniard, let me know, that he was ready to set out, and accordingly we began our cavalcade. My retinue consisted of six, as before, and we had mules provided for us; my two midshipmen, as servants, had two mules given them also for their baggage, the Spaniard had six also, viz., his gentleman, or, as I called him before, his major-domo,on horseback, that is to say, on muleback, with mules for his baggage, and four servants on foot. Just before we set out, his gentleman brought each of us a fuzee, and our two servants each a harquebuss, or short musket, with cartouches, powder, and ball, together with a pouch and small shot, such as we call swan-shot, for fowls or deer, as we saw occasion.
I was as well pleased with this circumstance as with any my landlord had done, because I had not so entire a confidence in the native Chilians as he had; but I saw plainly, some time after, that I was wrong, for nothing could be more honest, quiet, and free from design, than those people, except the poor honest people where we dressed up the king and queen, as already mentioned.
We were late in the morning before we got out, having all this equipage to furnish, and, travelling very gently, it was about two hours before sunset when we came to the entrance of the mountains, where, to my surprise, I found we were to go in upon a level, without any ascent, at least that was considerable. We had, indeed, gone up upon a sharp ascent, for near two miles, before we came to the place.
The entrance was agreeable enough, the passage being near half a mile broad. On the left hand was a small river, whose channel was deep, but the water shallow, there having been but little rain for some time; the water ran very rapid, and, as my Spaniard told me, was sometimes exceeding fierce. The entrance lay inclining a little south, and was so straight, that we could see near a mile before us; but the prodigious height of the hills on both sides, and before us, appearing one over another, gave such a prospect of horror, that I confess it was frightful at first to look on the stupendous altitude of the rocks; everything above us looking one higher than another was amazing; and to see how in some places they hung over the river, and over the passage, it created a dread of being overwhelmed with them.
The rocks and precipices of the Andes, on our right hand, had here and there vast cliffs and entrances, which looked as if they had been different thoroughfares; but, when we came to look full into them, we could see no passage at the farther end, and that they went off in slopes, and with gulleys made by the water, which, in hasty rains, came pouring downfrom the hills, and which, at a distance, made such noises as it is impossible to conceive, unless by having seen and heard the like before; for the water, falling from a height twenty times as high as our own Monument, and, perhaps, much higher, and meeting in the passage with many dashes and interruptions, it is impossible to describe how the sound, crossing and interfering, mingled itself, and the several noises sunk one into another, increasing the whole, as the many waters joining increased the main stream.
We entered this passage about two miles the first night; after the first length, which as I said, held about three quarters of a mile, we turned away to the south, short on the right hand; the river leaving us, seemed to come through a very narrow but deep hollow of the mountains, where there was little more breadth at the bottom than the channel took up, though the rocks inclined backward as they ascended, as placed in several stages, though all horrid and irregular; and we could see nothing but blackness and terror all the way. I was glad our passage did not turn on that side, but wondered that we should leave the river, and the more when I found, that in the way we went, having first mounted gently a green pleasant slope, it declined again, and we saw a new rivulet begin in the middle, and the water running south-east or thereabouts. This discovery made me ask if the water went away into the new world beyond the hills? My patron smiled, and said, No seignior, not yet; we shall meet with the other river again very quickly; and so we found it again the next morning.
When we came a little farther, we found the passage open, and we came to a very pleasant plain, which declined a little gradually, widening to the left, or east side; on the right side of this we saw another vast opening like the first, which went in about half a mile, and then closed up as the first had done, sloping up to the top of the hills, a most astonishing inconceivable height.
My patron stopping here, and getting down, or alighting from his mule, gave him to his man, and asking me to alight, told me this was the first night's entertainment I was to meet with in the Andes, and hoped I was prepared for it. I told him, that I might very well consent to accept of such entertainment, in a journey of my own contriving, as he was content to take up with, in compliment to me.
I looked round to see if there were any huts or cots of the mountaineers thereabouts, but I perceived none; only I observed something like a house, and it was really a house of some of the said mountaineers, upon the top of a precipice as high from where we stood, as the summit of the cupola of St. Paul's, and I saw some living creatures, whether men or women I could not tell, looking from thence down upon us. However, I understood afterwards that they had ways to come at their dwelling, which were very easy and agreeable, and had lanes and plains where they fed their cattle, and had everything growing that they desired.
My patron, making a kind of an invitation to me to walk, took me up that dark chasm, or opening, on the right hand, which I have just mentioned. Here, sir, said he, if you will venture to walk a few steps, it is likely we may show you some of the product of this country; but, recollecting that night was approaching, he added, I see it is too dark; perhaps it will be better to defer it till the morning. Accordingly, we walked back towards the place where we had left our mules and servants, and, when we came thither, there was a complete camp fixed, three very handsome tents raised, and a bar set up at a distance, where the mules were tied one to another to graze, and the servants and the baggage lay together, with an open tent over them.
My patron led me into the first tent, and told me he was obliged to let me know that I must make a shift with that lodging, the place not affording any better.
Here we had quilts laid very commodiously for me and my three comrades, and we lodged very comfortably; but, before we went to rest, we had the third tent to go to, in which there was a very handsome table, covered with a cold treat of roasted mutton and beef, very well dressed, some potted or baked venison, with pickles, conserves, and fine sweetmeats of various sorts.
Here we ate very freely, but he bade us depend upon it that we should not fare so well the next night, and so it would be worse every night, till we came to lie entirely at a mountaineer's; but he was better to us than he pretended.
In the morning, we had our chocolate as regularly as we used to have it in his own house, and we were soon ready to pursue our journey. We went winding now from the south-east to the left, till our course looked east by north, when wecame again to have the river in view. But I should have observed here, that my two midshipmen, and two of my patron's servants, had, by his direction, been very early in the morning climbing up the rocks in the opening on the right hand, and had come back again about a quarter of an hour after we set out; when, missing my two men, I inquired for them, and my patron said they were coming; for, it seems he saw them at a distance, and so we halted for them.
When they were come almost up to us, he called to his men in Spanish, to ask if they had had Una bon vejo? They answered, Poco, poco; and when they came quite up, one of my midshipmen showed me three or four small bits of clean perfect gold, which they had picked up in the hill or gullet where the water trickled down from the rocks; and the Spaniard told them that, had they had time, they should have found much more, the water being quite down, and nobody having been there since the last hard rain. One of the Spaniards had three small bits in his hand also. I said nothing for the present, but charged my midshipmen to mark the place, and so we went on.
We followed up the stream of this water for three days more, encamping every night as before, in which time we passed by several such openings into the rocks on either side. On the fourth day we had the prospect of a very pleasant valley and river below us, on the north side, keeping its course almost in the middle; the valley reaching near four miles in length, and in some places near two miles broad.
This sight was perfectly surprising, because here we found the vale fruitful, level, and inhabited, there being several small villages or clusters of houses, such as the Chilians live in, which are low houses, covered with a kind of sedge, and sheltered with little rows of thick grown trees, but of what kind we knew not.
We saw no way through the valley, nor which way we were to go out, but perceived it everywhere bounded with prodigious mountains, look to which side of it we would. We kept still on the right, which was now the south-east side of the river, and as we followed it up the stream, it was still less than at first, and lessened every step we went, because of the number of rills we left behind us; and here we encamped the fifth time, and all this time the Spanish gentleman victualled us; then we turned again to the right, wherewe had a new and beautiful prospect of another valley, as broad as the other, but not above a mile in length.
After we had passed through this valley, my patron rode up to a poor cottage of a Chilian Indian without any ceremony, and calling us all about him, told us that there we would go to dinner. We saw a smoke indeedinthe house, rather than comingoutof it; and the little that did, smothered through a hole in the roof instead of a chimney. However, to this house, as an inn, my patron had sent away his major-domo and another servant; and there they were, as busy as two professed cooks, boiling and stewing goats' flesh and fowls, making up soups, broths, and other messes, which it seems they were used to provide, and which, however homely the cottage was, we found very savoury and good.
Immediately a loose tent was pitched, and we had our table set up, and dinner served in; and afterwards, having reposed ourselves (as the custom there is), we were ready to travel again.
I had leisure all this while to observe and wonder at the admirable structure of this part of the country, which may serve, in my opinion, for the eighth wonder of the world; that is to say, supposing there were but seven before. We had in the middle of the day, indeed, a very hot sun, and the reflection from the mountains made it still hotter; but the height of the rocks on every side began to cast long shadows before three o'clock, except where the openings looked towards the west; and as soon as those shadows reached us, the cool breezes of the air came naturally on, and made our way exceeding pleasant and refreshing.
The place we were in was green and flourishing, and the soil well cultivated by the poor industrious Chilians, who lived here in perfect solitude, and pleased with their liberty from the tyranny of the Spaniards, who very seldom visited them, and never molested them, being pretty much out of their way, except when they came for hunting and diversion, and then they used the Chilians always civilly, because they were obliged to them for their assistance in their diversions, the Chilians of those valleys being very active, strong, and nimble fellows.
By this means most of them were furnished with fire-arms, powder, and shot, and were very good marksmen; but, as to violence against any one, they entertained no thought of thatkind, as I could perceive, but were content with their way of living, which was easy and free.
The tops of the mountains here, the valleys being so large, were much plainer to be seen than where the passages were narrow, for there the height was so great that we could see but little. Here, at several distances (the rocks towering one over another), we might see smoke come out of some, snow lying upon others, trees and bushes growing all around; and goats, wild asses, and other creatures, which we could hardly distinguish, running about in various parts of the country.
When we had passed through this second valley, I perceived we came to a narrower passage, and something like the first; the entrance into it indeed was smooth, and above a quarter of a mile broad, and it went winding away to the north, and then again turned round to the north-east, afterwards almost due-east, and then to the south-east, and so to south-south-east; and this frightful narrow strait, with the hanging rocks almost closing together on the top, whose height we could neither see nor guess at, continued about three days' journey more, most of the way ascending gently before us. As to the river, it was by this time quite lost; but we might see, that on any occasion of rain, or of the melting of the snow on the mountains, there was a hollow in the middle of the valley through which the water made its way, and on either hand, the sides of the hills were full of the like gulleys, made by the violence of the rain, where, not the earth only, but the rocks themselves, even the very stone, seemed to be worn and penetrated by the continual fall of the water.
Here my patron showed me, that in the hollow which I mentioned in the middle of this way, and at the bottom of those gulleys, or places worn as above in the rocks, there were often found pieces of gold, and sometimes, after a rain, very great quantities; and that there were few of the little Chilian cottages which I had seen where they had not sometimes a pound or two of gold dust and lumps of gold by them, and he was mistaken, if I was willing to stay and make the experiment, if we did not find some even then, in a very little search.
The Chilian mountaineer at whose house we stopped to dine had gone with us, and he hearing my patron say thus,ran presently to the hollow channel in the middle, where there was a kind of fail or break in it, which the water, by falling perhaps two or three feet, had made a hollow deeper than the rest, and which, though there was no water then running, yet had water in it, perhaps the quantity of a barrel or two. Here, with the help of two of the servants and a kind of scoop, he presently threw out the water, with the sand, and whatever was at bottom among it, into the ordinary watercourse; the water falling thus hard, every scoopful upon the sand or earth that came out of the scoop before it, washed a great deal of it away; and among that which remained, we might plainly see little lumps of gold shining as big as grains of sand, and sometimes one or two a little bigger.
This was demonstration enough to us. I took up some small grains of it, about the quantity of half a quarter of an ounce, and left my midshipmen to take up more, and they stayed indeed so long, that they could scarce see their way to overtake us, and brought away about two ounces in all, the Chilian and the servants freely giving them all they found.
When we had travelled about nine miles more in this winding frightful narrow way, it began to grow towards night, and my patron talked of taking up our quarters as we had before; but his gentleman put him in a mind of a Chilian, one of their old servants, who lived in a turning among the mountains, about half a mile out of our way, and where we might be accommodated with a house, or place at least, for our cookery. Very true, says our patron, we will go thither; and there, seignior, says he, turning to me, you shall see an emblem of complete felicity, even in the middle of this seat of horror; and you shall see a prince greater, and more truly so, than King Philip, who is the greatest man in the world.
Accordingly we went softly on, his gentleman having advanced before, and in about half a mile we found a turning or opening on our left, where we beheld a deep large valley, almost circular, and of about a mile diameter, and abundance of houses or cottages interspersed all over it, so that the whole valley looked like an inhabited village, and the ground like a planted garden.
We who, as I said, had been for some miles ascending, were so high above the valley, that it looked as the lowlands in England do below Box Hill in Surrey; and I was going to ask how we should get down? but, as we were come intoa wider space than before, so we had more daylight; for though the hollow way had rendered it near dusk before, now it was almost clear day again.
Here we parted with the first Chilian that I mentioned, and I ordered one of my midshipmen to give him a hat, and a piece of black baize, enough to make him a cloak, which so obliged the man that he knew not what way to testify his joy; but I knew what I was doing in this, and I ordered my midshipman to do it that he might make his acquaintance with him against another time, and it was not a gift ill bestowed, as will appear in its place.
We were now obliged to quit our mules, who all took up their quarters at the top of the hill, while we, by footings made in the rocks, descended, as we might say, down a pair of stairs of half a mile long, but with many plain places between, like foot-paces, for the ease of going and coming.
Thus, winding and turning to avoid the declivity of the hill, we came very safe to the bottom, where my patron's gentleman brought our new landlord, that was to be, who came to pay his compliments to us.
He was dressed in a jerkin made of otter-skin, like a doublet, a pair of long Spanish breeches, of leather dressed after the Spanish fashion, green, and very soft, and which looked very well, but what the skin was, I could not guess; he had over it a mantle of a kind of cotton, dyed in two or three grave brown colours, and thrown about him like a Scotsman's plaid; he had shoes of a particular make, tied on like sandals, flat-heeled, no stockings, his breeches hanging down below the calf of his leg, and his shoes lacing up above his ancles. He had on a cap of the skin of some small beast like a racoon, with a bit of the tail hanging out from the crown of his head backward, a long pole in his hand, and a servant, as oddly dressed as himself, carried his gun; he had neither spado nor dagger.
When our patron came up, the Chilian stepped forward and made him three very low bows, and then they talked together, not in Spanish, but in a kind of mountain jargon, some Spanish, and some Chilian, of which I scarce understood one word. After a few words, I understood he said something of a stranger come to see, and then, I supposed, added, the passages of the mountains; then the Chilian came towards me, made me three bows, and bade me welcome inSpanish. As soon as he had said that, he turns to his barbarian, I mean his servant, for he was as ugly a looked fellow as ever I saw, and taking his gun from him presented it to me. My patron bade me take it, for he saw me at a loss what to do, telling me that it was the greatest compliment that a Chilian could pay to me; he would be very ill pleased and out of humour if it was not accepted, and would think we did not want to be friendly with him.
As we had not given this Chilian any notice of our coming, more than a quarter of an hour, we could not expect great matters of entertainment, and, as we carried our provision with us, we did not stand in much need of it; but we had no reason to complain.
This man's habitation was the same as the rest, low, and covered with a sedge, or a kind of reed which we found grew very plentifully in the valley where he lived; he had several pieces of ground round his dwelling, enclosed with walls made very artificially with small stones and no mortar; these enclosed grounds were planted with several kinds of garden-stuff for his household, such as plantains, Spanish cabbages, green cocoa, and other things of the growth of their own country, and two of them with European wheat.
He had five or six apartments in his house, every one of them had a door into the open air, and into one another, and two of them were very large and decent, had long tables on one side, made after their own way, and benches to sit to them, like our country people's long tables in England, and mattresses like couches all along the other side, with skins of several sorts of wild creatures laid on them to repose on in the heat of the day, as is the usage among the Spaniards.
Our people set up their tents and beds abroad as before; but my patron told me the Chilian would take it very ill if he and I did not take up our lodging in his house, and we had two rooms provided, very magnificent in their way.
The mattress we lay on had a large canopy over it, spread like the crown of a tent, and covered with a large piece of cotton, white as milk, and which came round every way like a curtain, so that if it had been in the open field it would have been a complete covering. The bed, such as it was, might be nearly as hard as a quilt, and the covering was of the same cotton as the curtain-work, which, it seems, is themanufacture of the Chilian women, and is made very dexterously; it looked wild, but agreeably enough, and proper to the place, so I slept very comfortably in it.
But, I must confess, I was surprised at the aspect of things in the night here. It was, as I told you above, near night when we came to this man's cottage (palace I should have called it), and, while we were taking our repast, which was very good, it grew quite night.
We had wax candles brought in to accommodate us with light, which, it seems, my patron's man had provided; and the place had so little communication with the air by windows, that we saw nothing of what was without doors.
After supper my patron turned to me and said, Come, seignior, prepare yourself to take a walk. What! in the dark, said I, in such a country as this? No, no, says he, it is never dark here, you are now come to the country of everlasting day; what think you? is not this Elysium? I do not understand you, answered I. But you will presently, says he, when I shall show you that it is now lighter abroad than when we came in. Soon after this some of the servants opened the door that went into the next room, and the door of that room, which opened in the air, stood open, from whence a light of fire shone into the outer room, and so farther into ours. What are they burning there? said I to my patron. You will see presently, says he, adding, I hope you will not be surprised, and then he led me to the outer door.
But who can express the thoughts of a man's heart, coming on a sudden into a place where the whole world seemed to be on fire! The valley was, on one side, so exceeding bright the eye could scarce bear to look at it; the sides of the mountains were shining like the fire itself; the flame from the top of the mountain on the other side casting its light directly upon them. From thence the reflection into other parts looked red, and more terrible; for the first was white and clear, like the light of the sun; but the other, being, as it were, a reflection of light mixed with some darker cavities, represented the fire of a furnace; and, in short, it might well be said here was no darkness; but certainly, at the first view, it gives a traveller no other idea than that of being at the very entrance into eternal horror.
All this while there was no fire, that is to say, no real flame to be seen, only, that where the flame was it shoneclearly into the valley; but the vulcano, or vulcanoes, from whence the fire issued out (for it seems there was no less than three of them, though at the distance of some miles from one another), were on the south and east sides of the valley, which was so much on that side where we were, that we could see nothing but the light; neither on the other side could they see any more, it seems, than just the top of the flame, not knowing anything of the places from whence it issued out, which no mortal creature, no, not of the Chilians themselves, were ever hardy enough to go near. Nor would it be possible, if any should attempt it, the tops of the hills, for many leagues about them, being covered with new mountains of ashes and stones, which are daily cast out of the mouths of those volcanoes, by which they grew every day higher than they were before, and which would overwhelm, not only men, but whole armies of men, if they should venture to come near them.
When first we came into the long narrow way I mentioned last, I observed, as I thought, the wind blew very hard aloft among the hills, and that it made a noise like thunder, which I thought nothing of, but as a thing usual. But now, when I came to this terrible sight, and that I heard the same thunder, and yet found the air calm and quiet, I soon understood that it was a continued thunder, occasioned by the roaring of the fire in the bowels of the mountains.
It must be some time, as may be supposed, before a traveller, unacquainted with such things, could make them familiar to him; and though the horror and surprise might abate, after proper reflections on the nature and reason of them, yet I had a kind of astonishment upon me for a great while; every different place to which I turned my eye presented me with a new scene of horror. I was for some time frighted at the fire being, as it were, over my head, for I could see nothing of it; but that the air looked as if it were all on fire; and I could not persuade myself but it would cast down the rocks and mountains on my head; but I was laughed out of that notion by the company.
After a while, I asked them if these volcanoes did not cast out a kind of liquid fire, as I had seen an account of on the eruptions at Mount-Ætna, which cast out, as we are told, a prodigious stream of fire, and run several leagues into the sea?
Upon my putting this question to my patron, he asked theChilian how long ago it was since such a stream, calling it by a name of their own, ran fire? He answered, it ran now, and if we were disposed to walk but three furlongs we should see it.
He said little to me, but asked me if I cared to walk a little way by this kind of light? I told him it was a surprising place we were in, but I supposed he would lead me into no danger.
He said he would assure me he would lead me into no danger; that these things were very familiar to them, but that I might depend there was no hazard, and that the flames which gave all this light were six or seven miles off, and some of them more.
We walked along the plain of the valley about half a mile, when another great valley opened to the right, and gave us a more dreadful prospect than any we had seen before; for at the farther end of this second valley, but at the distance of three miles from where we stood, we saw a livid stream of fire come running down the sides of the mountain for near three quarters of a mile in length, running like melted metal into a mould, until, I supposed, as it came nearer the bottom, it cooled and separated, and so went out of itself.
Beyond this, over the summit of a prodigious mountain, we could see the tops of the clear flame of a volcano, a dreadful one, no doubt, could we have seen it all; and from the mouth of which it was supposed this stream of fire came, though the Chilian assured us that the fire itself was eight leagues off, and that the liquid fire which we saw came out of the side of the mountain, and was two leagues from the great volcano itself, running like liquid metal out of a furnace.
They told me there was a great deal of melted gold ran down with the other inflamed earth in that stream, and that much of the metal was afterwards found there; but this I was to take upon trust.
The sight, as will easily be supposed, was best at a distance, and, indeed, I had enough of it. As for my two midshipmen, they were almost frightened out of all their resolutions of going any farther in this horrible place; and when we stopped they came mighty seriously to me, and begged, for God's sake, not to venture any farther upon the faith of these Spaniards, for that they would certainly carry us all into some mischief or other, and betray us.
I bade them be easy, for I saw nothing in it all that lookedlike treachery; that it was true, indeed, it was a terrible place to look on, but it seemed to be no more than what was natural and familiar there, and we should be soon out of it.
They told me very seriously that they believed it was the mouth of hell, and that, in short, they were not able to bear it, and entreated me to go back. I told them I could not think of that, but if they could not endure it, I would give consent that they should go back in the morning. However, we went for the present to the Chilian's house again, where we got a plentiful draught of Chilian wine, for my patron had taken care to have a good quantity of it with us; and in the morning my two midshipmen, who got very drunk over night, had courage enough to venture forward again; for the light of the sun put quite another face upon things, and nothing of the fire was then to be seen, only the smoke.
All our company lodged in the tents here, but myself and my patron, the Spaniard, who lodged within the Chilian's house, as I have said.
This Chilian was a great man among the natives, and all the valley I spoke of, which lay round his dwelling, was called his own. He lived in a perfect state of tranquility, neither enjoying or coveting anything but what was necessary, and wanting nothing that was so. He had gold merely for the trouble of picking it up, for it was found in all the little gulleys and rills of water which, as I have said, came down from the mountains on every side; yet I did not find that he troubled himself to lay up any great quantity, more than served to go to Villa Rica and buy what he wanted for himself and family.
He had, it seems, a wife and some daughters, but no sons; these lived in a separate house, about a furlong from that where he lived, and were kept there as a family by themselves, and if he had any sons they would have lived with him.
He did not offer to go with us any part of our way, as the other had done, but, having entertained us with great civility, took his leave. I caused one of my midshipmen to make him a present, when we came away, of a piece of black baize, enough to make him a cloak, as I did the other, and a piece of blue English serge, enough to make him a jerkin and breeches, which he accepted as a great bounty.
We set out again, though not very early in the morning, having, as I said, sat up late, and drank freely over night,and we found, that after we had been gone to sleep it had rained very hard, and though the rain was over before we went out, yet the falling of the water from the hills made such a confused noise, and was echoed so backward and forward from all sides, that it was like a strange mixture of distant thunder, and though we knew the causes, yet it could not but be surprising to us for awhile.
However, we set forward, the way under foot being pretty good; and first he went up the steps again by which we had come down, our last host waiting on us thither, and there I gave him back his gun, for he would not take it before.
In this valley, which was the pleasantest by day and the most dismal by night that ever I saw, I observed abundance of goats, as well tame in the enclosures, as wild upon the rocks; and we found afterwards, that the last were perfectly wild, and to be had, like those at Juan Fernandez, by any one who could catch them. My patron sent off two of his men, just as a huntsman casts off his hounds, to go and catch goats, and they brought us in three, which they shot in less than half an hour, and these we carried with us for our evening supply; for we made no dinner this day, having fed heartily in the morning about nine, and had chocolate two hours before that.
We travelled now along the narrow winding passage, which I mentioned before, for about four hours, until I found, that though we had ascended but gently, yet that, as we had done so for almost twenty miles together, we were got up to a frightful height, and I began to expect some very difficult descent on the other side; but we were made easy about two o'clock, when the way not only declined again to the east, but grew wider, though with frequent turnings and windings about, so that we could seldom see above half a mile before us.
We went on thus pretty much on a level, now rising, now falling; but still I found that we were a very great height from our first entrance, and, as to the running of the water, I found that it flowed neither east nor west, but ran all down the little turnings that we frequently met with on the north side of our way, which my patron told me fell all into the great valley where we saw the fire, and so passed off by a general channel north-west, until it found its way out into the open country of Chili, and so to the South Seas.
We were now come to another night's lodging, which we were obliged to take up with on the green grass, as we did the first night; but, by the help of our proveditor-general, my patron, we fared very well, our goat's flesh being reduced into so many sorts of venison, that none of us could distinguish it from the best venison we ever tasted.
Here we slept without any of the frightful things we saw the night before, except that we might see the light of the fire in the air at a great distance, like a great city in flames, but that gave us no disturbance at all.
In the morning our two hunters shot a deer, or rather a young fawn, before we were awake, and this was the first we met with in this part of our travel, and thus we were provided for dinner even before breakfast-time; as for our breakfast, it was always a Spanish one, that is to say, about a pint of chocolate.
We set out very merrily in the morning, and we that were Englishmen could not refrain smiling at one another, to think how we passed through a country where the gold lay in every ditch, as we might call it, and never troubled ourselves so much as to stoop to take it up; so certain is it, that it is easy to be placed in a station of life where that very gold, the heaping up of which is elsewhere made the main business of man's living in the world, would be of no value, and not worth taking off from the ground; nay, not of signification enough to make a present of, for that was the case here.
Two or three yards of Colchester baize, a coarse rug-like manufacture, worth in London about 15½d.per yard, was here a present for a man of quality, when, for a handful of gold dust, the same person would scarce say, Thank you; or, perhaps, would think himself not kindly treated to have it offered him.
We travelled this day pretty smartly, having rested at noon about two hours, as before, and, by my calculation, went about twenty-two English miles in all. About five o'clock in the afternoon, we came into a broad, plain open place, where, though it was not properly a valley, yet we found it lay very level for a good way together, our way lying almost east-south-east. After we had marched so about two miles, I found the way go evidently down hill, and, in half a mile more, to our singular satisfaction we found thewater from the mountains ran plainly eastward, and, consequently, to the North Sea.
We saw at a distance several huts or houses of the mountaineer inhabitants, but went near none of them, but kept on our way, going down two or three pretty steep places, not at all dangerous, though something difficult.
We encamped again the next night as before, and still our good caterer had plenty of food for us; but I observed that the next morning, when we set forward, our tents were left standing, the baggage mules tied together to graze, and our company lessened by all my patron's servants, which, when I inquired about, he told me he hoped we should have good quarters quickly without them.
I did not understand him for the present, but it unriddled itself soon after; for, though we travelled four days more in that narrow way, yet he always found us lodging at the cottages of the mountaineers.
The sixth day we went all day up hill; at last, on a sudden, the way turned short east, and opened into a vast wide country, boundless to the eye every way, and delivered us entirely from the mountains of the Andes, in which we had wandered so long.
Any one may guess what an agreeable surprise this was to us, to whom it was the main end of our travels. We made no question that this was the open country extending to the North, or Atlantic Ocean; but how far it was thither, or what inhabitants it was possessed by, what travelling, what provisions to be found by the way, what rivers to pass, and whether any navigable or not, this our patron himself could not tell us one word of, owning frankly to us, that he had never been one step farther than the place where we then stood, and that he had been there only once, to satisfy his curiosity, as I did now.
I told him, that if I had lived where he did, and had servants and provisions at command as he had, it would have been impossible for me to have restrained my curiosity so far as not to have searched through that whole country to the sea-side long ago. I also told him it seemed to be a pleasant and fruitful soil, and, no doubt, was capable of cultivations and improvements; and, if it had been only to have possessed such a country in his Catholic majesty's name, it must have been worth while to undertake the discovery for the honourof Spain; and that there could be no room to question but his Catholic majesty would have honoured the man who should have undertaken such a thing with some particular mark of his favour, which might be of consequence to him and his family.
He answered me, as to that, the Spaniards seemed already to have more dominions in America than they could keep, and much more than they were able to reap the benefit of, and still more infinitely than they could improve, and especially in those parts called South America.
And he, moreover, told me, that it was next to a miracle they could keep possession of the place we were in; and, were not the natives so utterly destitute of support from any other part of the world, as not to be able to have either arms or ammunition put into their hands, it would be impossible, since I might easily see they were men that wanted not strength of body or courage; and it was evident they did not want numbers, seeing they were already ten thousand natives to one Spaniard, taking the whole country from one end to the other.
Thus you see, seignior, added he, how far we are from improvement in that part of the country which we possess, and many more, which you may be sure are among these vast mountains, and which we never discovered, seeing all these valleys and passages among the mountains, where gold is to be had in such quantities, and with so much ease, that every poor Chilian gathers it up with his hands, and may have as much as he pleases, are all left open, naked, and unregarded, in the possession of the wild mountaineers, who are heathens and savages; and the Spaniards, you see, are so few, and those few so indolent, so slothful, and so satisfied with the gold they get of the Chilians for things of small value in trade, that all this vast treasure lies unregarded by them. Nay, continued he, is it not very strange to observe, that, when for our diversion we come into the hills, and among these places where you see the gold is so easily found, we come, as we call it, a-hunting, and divert ourselves more with shooting wild parrots, or a fawn or two, for which also we ride and run, and make our servants weary themselves more than they would in searching for the gold among the gulleys and holes that the water makes in the rocks, and more than would suffice to find fifty, nay, one hundred timesthe value in gold! To what purpose, then, should we seek the possession of more countries, who are already possessed of more land than we can improve, and of more wealth than we know what to do with? Perceiving me very attentive, he went on thus:
Were these mountains valued in Europe according to the riches to be found in them, the viceroy would obtain orders from the king to have strong forts erected at the entrance in, and at the coming out of them, as well on the side of Chili, as here, and strong garrisons maintained in them, to prevent foreign nations landing, either on our side in Chili, or on this side in the North Seas, and taking the possession from us. He would then order thirty thousand slaves, negroes or Chilians, to be constantly employed, not only in picking up what gold might be found in the channels of the water, which might easily be formed into proper receivers, so as that if any gold washed from the rocks it should soon be found, and be so secured, as that none of it would escape; also others, with miners and engineers, might search into the very rocks themselves, and would no doubt find out such mines of gold, or other secret stores of it in those mountains, as would be sufficient to enrich the world.
While we omit such things as these, seignior, says he, what signifies Spain making new acquisitions, or the people of Spain seeking new countries? This vast tract of land you see here, and some hundreds of miles every way which your eye cannot reach to, is a fruitful, pleasant, and agreeable part of the creation, but perfectly uncultivated, and most of it uninhabited; and any nation in Europe that thinks fit to settle in it are free to do so, for anything we are able to do to prevent them.
But, seignior, says I, does not his Catholic majesty claim a title to the possession of it? and have the Spaniards no governor over it? nor any ports or towns, settlements, or colonies in it, as is the case here in Chili? Seignior, replied he, the king of Spain is lord of all America, as well that which he possesses as that which he possesses not, that right being given him by the Pope, in the right of his being a Christian prince, making new discoveries for propagating the Christian faith among infidels; how far that may pass for a title among the European powers I know not. I have heard that it has always passed for a maxim in Europe, thatno country which is not planted by any prince or people can be said to belong to them; and, indeed, I cannot say but it seems to be rational, that no prince should pretend to any title to a country where he does not think fit to plant and to keep possession. For, if he leaves the country unpossessed, he leaves it free for any other nation to come and possess; and this is the reason why the former kings of Spain did not dispute that right of the French to the colonies of the Mississipi and Canada, or the right of the English to the Caribee islands, or to their colonies of Virginia and New England.
In like manner, from the Buenos Ayres, in the Rio de la Plata, which lies that way (pointing north-east), to the Fretum Magellanicum, which lies that way (pointing south-east), which comprehends a vast number of leagues, is called by us Coasta Deserta, being unpossessed by Spain, and disregarded of all our nation; neither is there one Spaniard in it. Nevertheless, you see how fruitful, how pleasant, and how agreeable a climate it is; how apt for planting and peopling it seems to be, and, above all, what a place of wealth here would be behind them, sufficient, and more than enough, both for them and us; for we should have no reason to offer them any disturbance, neither should we be in any condition to do it, the passages of the mountains being but few and difficult, as you have seen, and our numbers not sufficient to do anything more than to block them up, to keep such people from breaking in upon our settlements on the coast of the South Seas.
I asked him if these notions of his were common among those of his country who were settled in Chili and Peru? or whether they were his own private opinions only? I told him I believed the latter, because I found he acted in all his affairs upon generous principles, and was for propagating the good of mankind; but, that I questioned whether their governor of Old Spain, or the sub-governor and viceroy of New Spain, acted upon those notions; and, since he had mentioned the Buenos Ayres and the Rio de la Plata, I should take that as an example, seeing the Spaniards would never suffer any nation to set foot in that great river, where so many countries might have been discovered, and colonies planted; though, at the same time, they had not possessed, or fully discovered those places themselves.
He answered me, smiling; Seignior, says he, you have given the reason for this yourself, in that very part which you think is a reason against it. We have a colony at Buenos Ayres, and at the city of Ascension, higher up in the Rio de la Plata, and we are not willing to let any other nation settle there, because we would not let them see how weak we are, and what a vast extent of land we possess there with a few men; and this for two reasons:
First, We are possessed of the country, and daily increasing there, and may in time extend ourselves farther. The great rivers Parana and Paraguay being yet left for us to plant in, and we are not willing to put ourselves out of a capacity of planting farther, and therefore we keep the possession.
Secondly, We have a communication from thence with Peru. The great river la Plata rises at the city of that name, and out of the mountain Potosi, in Peru, and a great trade is carried on by that river, and it would be dangerous to let foreigners into the secret of that trade, which they might entirely cut off, especially when they should find how small a number of Spaniards are planted there to preserve it, seeing there are not six hundred Spaniards in all that vast country, which, by the course of that river, is more than one thousand six hundred miles in length.
I confess, said I, these are just grounds for your keeping the possession of that river. They are so, said he, and the more because of so powerful a colony as the Portuguese have in the Brazils, which bound immediately upon it, and who are always encroaching upon it from the land side, and would gladly have a passage up the Rio Parana to the back of their colony.
But here, seignior, says he, the case differs; for we neither take nor keep possession here, neither have we one Spaniard, as I said, in the whole country now before you, and therefore we call this country Coasta Deserta. Not that it is a desert, as that name is generally taken to signify, a barren, sandy, dry country; on the contrary, the infinite prodigious increase of the European black cattle which were brought by the Spaniards to the Buenos Ayres, and suffered to run loose, is a sufficient testimony of the fruitfulness and richness of the soil, their numbers being such, that they kill above twenty thousand in a year for nothing but the hides,which they carry away to Spain, leaving the flesh, though fat and wholesome, to perish on the ground, or be devoured by birds of prey.
And the number is so great, notwithstanding all they destroy, that they are found to wander sometimes in droves of many thousands together over all the vast country between the Rio de la Plata, the city of Ascension, and the frontier of Peru, and even down into this country which you see before us, and up to the very foot of these mountains.
Well, said I, and is it not a great pity that all this part of the country, and in such a climate as this is, should lie uncultivated, or uninhabited rather? for I understand there are not any great numbers of people to be found among them.
It is true, added he, there are some notions prevailing of people being spread about in this country, but, as the terror of our people, the Spaniards, drove them at first from the seacoast towards these mountains, so the greatest part of them continue on this side still, for towards the coast it is very rare that they find any people.
I would have inquired of him about rivers and navigable streams which might be in this country, but he told me frankly that he could give me no account of those; only thus, that if any of the rivers went away towards the north, they certainly run all into the great Rio de la Plata; but that if they went east, or southerly, they must go directly to the coast, which was ordinarily called, as he said, La Costa Deserta, or, as by some, the coast of Patagonia. That, as to the magnitude of those rivers he could say little, but it was reasonable to suppose there must be some very considerable rivers, and whose streams must needs be capable of navigation, seeing abundance of water must continually flow from the mountains where we then were, and its being at least four hundred miles from the sea-side, those small streams must necessarily join together, and form large rivers in the plain country.
I had enough in this discourse fully to satisfy all my curiosity, and sufficiently to heighten my desire of making the farther discoveries which I had in my thoughts.
We pitched our little camp here, and sat down to our repast; for I found that though we were to go back to lodge, yet my patron had taken care we should be furnishedsufficiently for dinner, and have a good house to eat it in, that is to say, a tent as before.
The place where we stood, though we had come down hill for a great way, yet seemed very high from the ordinary surface of the country, and gave us therefore an exceeding fine prospect of it, the country declining gradually for near ten miles; and we thought, as well as the distance of the place would allow us, we saw a great river, but, as I learned afterwards, it was rather a great lake than a river, which was supplied by the smaller rivers, or rivulets, from the mountains, which met there as in a great receptacle of waters, and out of this lake they all issued again in one river, of which I shall have occasion to give a farther account hereafter.
While we were at dinner, I ordered my midshipmen to take their observations of every distant object, and to look at everything with their glasses, which they did, and told me of this lake; but my patron could give no account of it, having never been, as he said before, one step farther that way than where we were.
However, my men showed me plainly that it was a great lake, and that there went a large river from it towards the east-south-east, and this was enough for me, for that way lay all the schemes I had laid.
I took this opportunity to ask my midshipmen, first, if they had taken such observations in their passage of the mountains as that they were sure they could find their way through to this place again without guides? And they assured me they could.
Then I put it to them whether they thought it might not be practicable to travel over that vast level country to the North Seas? and to make a sufficient discovery of the country, so as that hereafter Englishmen coming to the coast on the side of those seas, might penetrate to these golden mountains, and reap the benefit of the treasure without going a prodigious length above Cape Horn and the Terra del Fuego, which was always attended with innumerable dangers, and without breaking through the kingdom of Chili and the Spaniards' settlements, which, perhaps, we might soon be at peace with, and so be shut out that way by our own consents?
One of my men began to speak of the difficulties of such an attempt, the want of provisions, and other dangers whichwe should be exposed to on the way; but the other, a bold, brisk fellow, told me he made no question but it might be easily done, and especially because all the rivers they should meet with would, of course, run along with us, so that we should be sure to have the tide with us, as he called it; and, at last, he added, that he would be content to be one of those men who should undertake it, provided he should be assured that the ships in the mean time would not go away, and pretend that they could not be found.
I told him, we would talk farther about it; that I had such a thought in my head, and a strong inclination to undertake it myself, but that I could not answer it to leave the ships, which depended so much upon my care of the voyage.
After some talk of the reasonableness of such an undertaking, and the methods of performing it, my second midshipman began to come into it, and to think it was practicable enough, and added, that though he used some cautions in his first hearing proposals, yet, if he undertook that enterprise, I should find that he would do as much of his duty in it as another man; and so he did at last, as will appear in its proper place.
We were, by this time, preparing to be satisfied with our journey, and my patron coming to me and asking if I was for returning, I told him I could not say how many days it would be before I should say I had enough of that prospect, but that I would return when he pleased, only I had one question to ask him, which was, whether the mountains were as full of gold on this side as they were on the side of Chili?
As to that, seignior, says he, the best way to be certain is to make a trial, that you may be sure we do not speak without proof; so he called his gentleman, and another servant that was with him, and desired me to call my two midshipmen, and, speaking something to his own servants first, in the language of the country, as I supposed, he turned to me, and said, Come, let us sit down and rest ourselves, while they go together, and see what they can do.
Accordingly, they went away, and, as my men told me afterwards, they searched in the small streams of water which they found running, and in some larger gulleys or channels, where they found little or no water running, but where, upon hasty rains, great shoots of water had been used torun, and where water stood still in the holes and falls, as I have described once before on the like occasion.
They had not been gone above an hour, when I plainly heard my two Englishmen halloo, which I could easily distinguish from the voices of any other nation, and immediately I ran out of the tent, Captain Merlotte followed, and then I saw one of my midshipmen running towards us, so we went to meet him, and, what with hallooing and running, he could hardly speak; but, recovering his breath, said, he came to desire me to come to them, if I would behold a sight which I never saw in my life.
I was eager enough to go, so I went with him, and left Captain Merlotte to go back to the tent to my patron, the Spaniard, and the Spanish doctor, who had not so much share in the curiosity; he did so, and they followed soon after.
When we came to the place, we saw such a wonder as indeed I never saw before, for there they were sitting down round a little puddle, or hole, as I might call it, of water, where, in the time of rain, the water running hastily from a piece of the rock, about two foot higher than the rest, had made a pit under it with the fall, like the tail of a mill, only much less.
Here they took up the sand or gravel with their hands, and every handful brought up with it such a quantity of gold as was surprising; for there they sat picking it out, just as the boys in London, who go with a broom and a hat, pick out old iron, nails, and pins from the channels, and it lay as thick.