capital city, of Peru, lying in the latitude of 12 deg. 30'. Had we made the
least pretence of trading here, we should, at least, have had soldiers
put on board our ships to have prevented it, and the people would have
been forbidden to trade with us upon pain of death. But Captain Merlotte
having brought letters to a principal merchant of Lima, he instructed
him how to manage himself at his first coming into that port; which was
to ride without the town of Callao, out of the command of the puntals or
castles there, and not to come any nearer, upon what occasion soever,
and then to leave the rest to him.
Upon this, the merchant applied himself to the governor for leave to go
on board the French ship at Callao; but the governor understood him, and
would not grant it by any means. The reason was, because there had been
such a general complaint by the merchants from Carthagena, Porto Bello,
and other places, of the great trade carried on here with French ships
from Europe, to the destruction of the merchants, and to the ruin of
the trade of the galleons, that the governor, or viceroy of Peru, had
forbid the French ships landing any goods.
Now, though this made our traffick impracticable at Lima itself, yet it
did by no means hinder the merchants trading with us under cover, &c.,
but especially when they came to understand that we were not loaden from
Europe with baize, long ells, druggets, broadcloth, serges, stuffs,
stockings, hats, and such like woollen manufactures of France, England,
&c.; but that our cargo was the same with that of the Manilla ships at
Acapulca, and that we were loaden with calicoes, muslins, fine-wrought
China silks, damasks, Japan wares, China wares, spices, &c., there was
then no withholding them: but they came on board us in the night with
canoes, and, staying all day, went on shore again in the night, carrying
their goods to different places, where they knew they could convey them
on shore without difficulty.
In this manner we traded publicly enough, not much unlike the manner of
our trade at the Manillas; and here we effectually cleared ourselves of
our whole cargo, as well English goods as Indian, to an immense sum.
Here our men, officers as well as seamen, sold their fine pearl,
particularly one large parcel, containing one hundred and seventy-three
very fine pearls, but of different sizes, which a priest bought, as we
are told, to dress up the image of the blessed Virgin Mary in one of
their churches.
In a word, we came to a balance here, for we sold everything that we had
the least intention to part with; the chief things we kept in reserve,
were some bales of English goods, also all the remainder of our beads
and bugles, toys, ironwork, knives, scissors, hatchets, needles, pins,
glass-ware, and such things as we knew the Spaniards did not regard, and
which might be useful in our farther designs, of which my head was yet
very full. Those, I say, we kept still.
Here, likewise, we sold our brigantine, which, though an excellent
sea-boat, as may well be supposed, considering the long voyage we had
made in her, was yet so worm-eaten in her bottom, that, unless we would
have new sheathed her, and perhaps shifted most of her planks too, which
would have taken up a great deal of time, she was by no means fit to
have gone any farther, at least not so long a run as we had now to make,
viz., round the whole southern part of America, and where we should
find no port to put in at, (I mean, where we should have been able to
have got anything done for the repair of a ship), until we had come home
to England.
It was proposed here to have gone to the governor or viceroy of Peru,
and have obtained his license or pass to have traversed the Isthmus of
America, from port St. Maria to the river of Darien. This we could
easily have obtained under the character that we then bore, viz., of
having the King of France's commission; and had we been really all
French, I believe I should have done it, but as we were so many
Englishmen, and as such were then at open war with Spain, I did not
think it a safe adventure, I mean not a rational adventure, especially
considering what a considerable treasure we had with us.
On the other hand, as we were now a strong body of able seamen, and had
two stout ships under us, we had no reason to apprehend either the toil
or the danger of a voyage round Cape Horn, after which we should be in a
very good condition to make the rest of our voyage to England. Whereas,
if we travelled over the Isthmus of America, we should be all like a
company of freebooters and buccaneers, loose and unshipped, and should
perhaps run some one way and some another, among the logwood cutters at
the bay of Campeachy, and other places, to get passage, some to Jamaica
and some to New England; and, which was worse than all, should be
exposed to a thousand dangers on account of the treasure we had with us,
perhaps even to that of murdering and robbing one another. And, as
Captain Merlotte said, who was really a Frenchman, it were much more
eligible for us, as French, or, if we had been such, to have gone up to
Acapulca, and there to sell our ships and get license to travel to
Mexico, and then to have got the viceroy's assiento to have come to
Europe in the galleons; but, as we were so many Englishmen, it was
impracticable; our seamen also being Protestants, such as seamen
generally are, and bold mad fellows, they would never have carried on a
disguise, both of their nation and of their religion, for so long a time
as it would have been necessary to do for such a journey and voyage.
But, besides all these difficulties, I had other projects in my head,
which made me against all the proposals of passing by land to the North
Sea; otherwise, had I resolved it, I should not have much concerned
myself about obtaining a license from the Spaniards, for, as we were a
sufficient number of men to have forced our way, we should not much have
stood upon their giving us leave, or not giving us leave, to go.
But, as I have said, my views lay another way, and my head had been long
working upon the discourse my men had had with the Spaniards at
Baldavia. I frequently talked with the two Chilian Indians whom I had on
board, and who spoke Spanish pretty well, and whom we had taught to
speak a little English.
I had taken care that they should have all the good usage imaginable on
board. I had given them each a very good suit of clothes made by our
tailor, but after their own manner, with each of them a baize cloak; and
had given them hats, shoes, stockings, and everything they desired, and
they were mighty well pleased, and I talked very freely with them about
the passage of the mountains, for that was now my grand design.
While I was coming up the Chilian shore, as you have heard, that is to
say, at St. Jago, at the Conception, at Arica, and even at Lima itself,
we inquired on all occasions into the situation of the country, the
manner of travelling, and what kind of country it was beyond the
mountains, and we found them all agreeing in the same story; and that
passing the mountains of Les Cordelieras, for so they call them in Peru,
though it was the same ridge of hills as we call the Andes, was no
strange thing. That there were not one or two, but a great many places
found out, where they passed as well with horses and mules as on foot,
and even some with carriages; and, in particular, they told us at Lima,
that from Potosi, and the towns thereabouts, there was a long valley,
which ran for one hundred and sixty leagues in length southward, and
south-east, and that it continued until the hills parting, it opened
into the main level country on the other side; and that there were
several rivers which began in that great valley, and which all of them
ran away to the south and south-east, and afterwards went away east, and
east-north-east, and so fell into the great Rio de la Plata, and emptied
themselves into the North Seas; and that merchants travelled to those
rivers, and then went down in boats as far as the town or the city of
the Ascension, and the Buenos Ayres.
This was very satisfying you may be sure, especially to hear them agree
in it, that the Andes were to be passed; though passing them hereabouts,
(where I knew the mainland from the west shore, where we now were, must
be at least one thousand five hundred miles broad), was no part of my
project; but I laid up all these things in my mind, and resolved to go
away to the south again, and act as I should see cause.
We were now got into a very hot climate, and, whatever was the cause, my
men began to grow very sickly, and that to such a degree that I was once
afraid we had got the plague among us; but our surgeons, who we all call
doctors at sea, assured me there was nothing of that among them, and yet
we buried seventeen men here, and had between twenty and thirty more
sick, and, as I thought, dangerously too.
In this extremity, for I was really very much concerned about it, one of
my doctors came to me, and told me he had been at the city (that is, at
Lima) to buy some drugs and medicines, to recruit his chest, and he had
fallen into company with an Irish Jesuit, who, he found, was an
extraordinary good physician, and that he had had some discourse with
him about our sick men, and he believed for a good word or two, he could
persuade him to come and visit them.
I was very loath to consent to it, and said to the surgeon, If he is an
Irishman, he speaks English, and he will presently perceive that we are
all Englishmen, and so we shall be betrayed; all our designs will be
blown up at once, and our farther measures be all broken; and therefore
I would not consent. This I did not speak from the fear of any hurt they
could have done me by force, for I had no reason to value that, being
able to have fought my way clear out of their seas, if I had been put to
it; but, as I had traded all the way by stratagem, and had many
considerable views still behind, I was unwilling to be disappointed by
the discovery of my schemes, or that the Spaniards should know upon what
a double foundation I acted, and how I was a French ally and merchant,
or an English enemy and privateer, just as I pleased, and as opportunity
should offer; in which case they would have been sure to have trepanned
me if possible, under pretence of the former, and have used me, if they
ever should get an advantage over me, as one of the latter.
This made me very cautious, and I had good reason for it too; and yet
the sickness and danger of my men pressed me very hard to have the
advice of a good physician, if it was possible, and especially to be
satisfied whether it was really the plague or no, for I was very uneasy
about that.
But my surgeon told me, that, as to my apprehension of discovery, he
would undertake to prevent it by this method. First, he said, he found
that the Irishman did not understand French at all, and so I had nothing
to do but to order, that, when he came on board, as little English
should be spoke in his hearing as possible; and this was not difficult,
for almost all our men had a little French at their tongue's end, by
having so many Frenchmen on board of them; others had the Levant jargon,
which they call Lingua Frank; so that, if they had but due caution, it
could not be suddenly perceived what countrymen they were.
Besides this, the surgeon ordered, that as soon as the Padre came on
board, he should be surrounded with French seamen only, some of whom
should be ordered to follow him from place to place, and chop in with
their nimble tongues, upon some occasion or other, so that he should
hear French spoken wherever he turned himself.
Upon this, which indeed appeared very easy to be done, I agreed to let
the doctor come on board, and accordingly the surgeon brought him the
next day, where Captain Merlotte received him in the cabin, and treated
him very handsomely, but nothing was spoken but French or Spanish; and
the surgeon, who had pretended himself to be an Irishman, acted as
interpreter between the doctor and us.
Here we told him the case of our men that were sick; some of them,
indeed, were French, and others that could speak French, were instructed
to speak to him as if they could speak no other tongue, and those the
surgeon interpreted; others, who were English, were called Irishmen, and
two or three were allowed to be English seamen picked up in the East
Indies, as we had seamen, we told him, of all nations.
The matter, in short, was so carried that the good man, for such I
really think he was, had no manner of suspicion; and, to do him justice,
he was an admirable physician, and did our men a great deal of good; for
all of them, excepting three, recovered under his hands, and those three
had recovered if they had not, like madmen, drank large quantities of
punch when they were almost well; and, by their intemperance, inflamed
their blood, and thereby thrown themselves back again into their fever,
and put themselves, as the Padre said of them, out of the reach of
medicine.
We treated this man of art with a great deal of respect, made him some
very handsome presents, and particularly such as he could not come at in
the country where he was; besides which, I ordered he should have the
value of one hundred dollars in gold given him; but he, on the other
hand, thanking Captain Merlotte for his bounty, would have no money, but
he accepted a present of some linen, a few handkerchiefs, some nutmegs,
and a piece of black baize: most of which, however, he afterwards said,
he made presents of again in the city, among some of his acquaintance.
But he had a farther design in his head, which, on a future day, he
communicated in confidence to the surgeon I have mentioned, who
conversed with him, and by him to me, and which was to him, indeed, of
the highest importance. The case was this.
He took our surgeon on shore with him one day from the Madagascar ship,
where he had been with him to visit some of our sick men, and, drinking
a glass of wine with him, he told him he had a favour to ask of him, and
a thing to reveal to him in confidence, which was of the utmost
consequence to himself though of no great value to him, (the surgeon),
and, if he would promise the utmost secrecy to him, on his faith and
honour, he would put his life into his hands. For, seignior, said he, it
will be no other, nor would anything less than my life pay for it, if
you should discover it to any of the people here, or anywhere else on
this coast.
The surgeon was a very honest man, and carried indeed the index of it in
his face; and the Padre said afterwards, he inclined to put this
confidence in him because he thought he saw something of an honest man
in his very countenance. After so frank a beginning, the surgeon made no
scruple to tell him, that, seeing he inclined to treat him with such
confidence, and to put a trust of so great importance in him, he would
give him all the assurance in his power that he would be as faithful to
him as it was possible to be to himself, and that the secret should
never go out of his mouth to any one in the world, but to such and at
such time as he should consent to and direct. In short, he used so many
solemn protestations, that the Padre made no scruple to trust him with
the secret, which, indeed, was no less than putting his life into his
hands. The case was this.
He told him he had heard them talk of going to Ireland in their return,
and, as he had been thirty years out of his own country, in such a
remote part of the world, where it was never likely that he should ever
see it again, the notion he had entertained that this ship was going
thither, and might set him on shore there, that he might once more see
his native country, and his family and friends, had filled his mind with
such a surprising joy, that he could no longer contain himself; and
that, therefore, if he would procure leave of the captain that he might
come privately on board and take his passage home, he would willingly
pay whatever the captain should desire of him, but that it must be done
with the greatest secrecy imaginable, or else he was ruined; for that,
if he should be discovered and stopped, he should be confined in the
Jesuit's house there as long as he lived, without hope of redemption.
The surgeon told him the thing was easy to be done if he would give him
leave to acquaint one man in the ship with it, which was not Captain
Merlotte, but a certain Englishman, who was a considerable person in the
ship, without whom the captain did nothing, and who would be more secure
to trust, by far, than Captain Merlotte. The Padre told him, that,
without asking him for any reasons, since he had put his life and
liberty in his hands, he would trust him with the management of the
whole, in whatever way he chose to conduct it.
The surgeon accordingly brought him on board to me, and making a
confidence of the whole matter to me, I turned to the Padre, and told
him in English, giving him my hand, that I would be under all the
engagements and promises of secrecy that our surgeon had been in, for
his security and satisfaction; that he had merited too well of us to
wish him any ill, and, in short, that the whole ship should be engaged
for his security. That, as to his coming on board and bringing anything
off that belonged to him, he must take his own measures, and answer to
himself for the success; but that, after he was on board, we would sink
the ship under him, or blow her aloft in the air, before we would
deliver him up on any account whatever.
He was so pleased with my frank way of talking to him, that he told me
he would put his life into my hands with the same freedom as he had done
before with my surgeon; so we began to concert measures for his coming
on board with secrecy.
He told us there was no need of any proposals, for he would acquaint the
head of the house that he intended to go on board the French ship in the
road, and to go to St. Jago, where he had several times been in the same
manner; and that, as they had not the least suspicion of him, he was
very well satisfied that they would make no scruple of it.
But his mistake in this might have been his ruin; for though, had it
been a Spanish ship, they would not have mistrusted him, yet, when he
named the French ship in the road of Callao, they began to question him
very smartly about it. Upon which, he was obliged to tell them, that,
since they were doubtful of him, he would not go at all, telling them
withal, that it was hard to suspect him, who had been so faithful to his
vows, as to reside for near thirty years among them, when he might
frequently have made an escape from them, if he had been so disposed.
So, for three or four days, he made no appearance of going at all; but
having had private notice from me the evening before we sailed, he found
means to get out of their hands, came down to Callao on a mule in the
night, and our surgeon, lying ready with our boat about half a league
from the town, as by appointment, took him on board, with a negro, his
servant, and brought him safe to the ship; nor had we received him on
board half an hour, but, being unmoored and ready to sail, we put out to
sea, and carried him clear off.
He made his excuses to me that he was come away naked, according to his
profession; that he had purposed to have furnished himself with some
provisions for the voyage, but that the unexpected suspicions of the
head of their college, or house, had obliged him to come away in a
manner that would not admit of it; for that he might rather be said to
have made his escape than to have come fairly off.
I told him he was very welcome (and indeed so he was, for he had been
already more worth to us than ten times his passage came to), and that
he should be entered into immediate pay, as physician to both the ships,
which I was sure none of our surgeons would repine at, but rather be
glad of; and accordingly I immediately ordered him a cabin, with a very
good apartment adjoining to it, and appointed him to eat in my own mess
whenever he pleased, or by himself, on his particular days, when he
thought proper.
And now it was impossible to conceal from him that we were indeed an
English ship, and that I was the captain in chief, except, as has been
said, upon occasion of coming to any particular town of Spain. I let him
know I had a commission to make prize of the Spaniards, and appear their
open enemy, but that I had chosen to treat them as friends, in a way of
commerce, as he had seen. He admired much the moderation I had used, and
how I had avoided enriching myself with the spoil, as I might have done;
and he made me many compliments upon that head, which I excused hearing,
and begged him to forbear. I told him we were Christians, and as we had
made a very prosperous voyage, I was resolved not to do any honest man
the least injustice, if I could avoid it.
But I must observe here, that I did not enter immediately into all this
confidence with him neither, nor all at once; neither did I let him into
any part of it, but under the same solemn engagements of secrecy that he
had laid upon us, nor till I was come above eighty leagues south from
Lima.
The first thing I took the freedom to speak to him upon was this.
Finding his habit a little offensive to our rude seamen, I took him into
the cabin the very next day after we came to sea, and told him that I
was obliged to mention to him what I knew he would soon perceive;
namely, that we were all Protestants, except three or four of the
Frenchmen, and I did not know how agreeable that might be to him. He
answered, he was not at all offended with that part; that it was none of
his business to inquire into any one's opinion any farther than they
gave him leave; that if it was his business to cure the souls of men on
shore, his business on board was to cure their bodies; and as for the
rest, he would exercise no other function than that of a physician on
board the ship without my leave.
I told him that was very obliging; but that for his own sake I had a
proposal to make him, which was, whether it would be disagreeable to
him to lay aside the habit of a religious, and put on that of a
gentleman, so to accommodate himself the more easily to the men on
board, who perhaps might be rude to him in his habit, seamen being not
always men of the most refined manners.
He thanked me very sincerely; told me that he had been in England as
well as in Ireland, and that he went dressed there as a gentleman, and
was ready to do so now, if I thought fit, to avoid giving any offence;
and added that he chose to do so. But then, smiling, said he was at a
great loss, for he had no clothes. I bade him take no care about that,
for I would furnish him; and immediately we dressed him up like an
Englishman, in a suit of very good clothes, which belonged to one of our
midshipmen who died. I gave him also a good wig and a sword, and he
presently appeared upon the quarter-deck like a grave physician, and was
called doctor.
From that minute, by whose contrivance we knew not, it went current
among the seamen that the Spanish doctor was an Englishman and a
protestant, and only had put on the other habit to disguise himself and
make his escape to us; and this was so universally believed that it held
to the last day of the whole voyage, for as soon as I knew it, I took
care that nobody should ever contradict it: and as for the doctor
himself, when he first heard of it, he said nothing could be more to his
satisfaction, and that he would take care to confirm the opinion of it
among all the men, as far as lay in his power.
However, the doctor earnestly desired we would be mindful, that as he
should never offer to go on shore, whatever port we came to afterwards,
none of the Spaniards might, by inquiry, hear upon any occasion of his
being on board our ship; but above all, that none of our men, the
officers especially, would ever come so much in reach of the Spaniards
on shore as to put it in their power to seize upon them by reprisal, and
so oblige us to deliver him up by way of exchange.
I went so far with him, and so did Captain Merlotte also, as to assure
him, that if the Spaniards should by any stratagem, or by force, get any
of our men, nay, though it were ourselves, into their hands, yet he
should, upon no conditions whatever be delivered up. And indeed for this
very reason we were very shy of going on shore at all; and as we had
really no business any where but just for water and fresh provisions,
which we had also taken in a very good store of at Lima, so we put in
nowhere at all on the coast of Peru, because there we might have been
more particularly liable to the impertinencies of the Spaniard's
inquiry; as to force, we were furnished not to be in the least
apprehensive of that.