countrymen, or to speak ironically; meaning, that they did not take so
much pains as was required, to make them effectually rich, but that I
supposed he would not have me understand him as he spoke. He said I
might understand as favourably as I pleased, but I should find the fact
to be true if I would go up with him to Villa Rica, when I came to
Baldivia; and, with that, he made his compliment to me, and invited me
to his house.
I asked him with a _con licentia_, seignior, that is, with pardon for so
much freedom, that, if he lived in so rich a country, and where there
was so inexhaustible a treasure of gold, how came he to fall into this
state of captivity? and what made him venture himself upon the sea, to
fall into the hands of pirates?
He answered, that it was on the very foot of what he had been
complaining of; and that, having seen so much of the wealth of the
country he lived in, and having reproached himself with that very
indolence which he now blamed all his countrymen for, he had resolved in
conjunction with two of his neighbours, the Spaniards, and men of good
substance, to set to work in a place in the mountains where they had
found some gold, and had seen much washed down by the water, and to find
what might be done in a thorough search after the fund or mine of it,
which they were sure was not far off; and that he was going to Lima, and
from thence, if he could not be supplied, to Panama, to buy negroes for
the work, that they might carry it on with the better success.
This was a feeling discourse to me, and made such an impression on me,
that I secretly resolved that when I came to Baldivia, I would go up
with this sincere Spaniard, for so I thought him to be, and so I found
him, and would be an eyewitness to the discovery which I thought was
made to my hand, and which I found now I could make more effectual than
by all the attempts I was like to make by secondhand.
From this time I treated the Spaniard with more than ordinary courtesy,
and told him, if I was not captain of a great ship, and had a cargo upon
me of other gentleman's estates, he had said so much of those things,
that I should be tempted to give him a visit as he desired, and see
those wonderful mountains of the Andes.
He told me that if I would do him so much honour, I should not be
obliged to any long stay; that he would procure mules for me at
Baldivia, and that I should go not to his house only, but to the
mountain itself, and see all that I desired, and be back again in
fourteen days at the farthest. I shook my head, as if it could not be,
but he never left importuning me; and once or twice, as if I had been
afraid to venture myself with him, he told me he would send for his two
sons, and leave them in the ship, as hostages for my safety.
I was fully satisfied as to that point, but did not let him know my mind
yet; but every day we dwelt upon the same subject, and I travelled
through the mountains and valleys so duly in every day's discourse with
him, that when I afterwards came to the places we had talked of, it was
as if I had looked over them in a map before.
I asked him if the Andes were a mere wall of mountains, contiguous and
without intervals and spaces, like a fortification, or boundary to a
country? or whether they lay promiscuous, and distant from one another?
and whether there lay any way over them into the country beyond?
He smiled when I talked of going over them. He told me they were so
infinitely high, that no human creature could live upon the top; and
withal so steep and so frightful, that if there was even a pair of
stairs up on one side, and down on the other, no man would dare to mount
up, or venture down.
But that as for the notion of the hills being contiguous, like a wall
that had no gates, that was all fabulous; that there were several fair
entrances in among the mountains, and large pleasant and fruitful
valleys among the hills, with pleasant rivers, and numbers of
inhabitants, and cattle and provisions of all sorts; and that some of
the most delightful places to live in that were in the whole world were
among the valleys, in the very centre of the highest and most dreadful
mountains.
Well, said I, seignior, but how do they go out of one valley into
another? and whither do they go at last? He answered me, those valleys
are always full of pleasant rivers and brooks, which fall from the
hills, and are formed generally into one principal stream to every vale:
and that as these must have their outlets on one side of the hills or on
the other, so, following the course of those streams, one is always sure
to find the way out of one valley into another, and at last out of the
whole into the open country; so that it was very frequent to pass from
one side to the other of the whole body of the mountains, and not go
much higher up hill or down hill, compared to the hills in other places.
It was true, he said, there was no abrupt visible parting in the
mountains, that should seem like a way cut through from the bottom to
the top, which would be indeed frightful; but that as they pass from
some of the valleys to others, there are ascents and descents, windings
and turnings, sloping up and sloping down, where we may stand on those
little ridges, and see the waters on one side run to the west, and on
the other side to the east.
I asked him what kind of a country was on the other side? and how long
time it would take up to go through from one side to the other? He told
me there were ways indeed that were more mountainous and uneasy, in
which men kept upon the sides or declivity of the hills; in which the
natives would go, and guide others to go, and so might pass the whole
ridge of the Andes in eight or nine days, but that those ways were
esteemed very dismal, lonely, and dangerous, because of wild beasts; but
that through the valleys, the way was easy and pleasant, and perfectly
safe, only farther about; and that those ways a man might be sixteen or
seventeen days going through.
I laid up all this in my heart, to make use of as I should have
occasion, but I acknowledged that it was surprising to me, as it was so
perfectly agreeing with the notion that I always entertained of those
mountains, of the riches of them, the facility of access to and from
them, and the easy passage from one side to another.
The next discourse I had with him upon this subject I began thus: Well,
seignior, said I, we are now come quite through the valleys and passages
of the Andes, and, methinks I see a vast open country before me on the
other side; pray tell me, have you ever been so far as to look into that
part of the world, and what kind of a country it is?
He answered gravely, that he had been far enough several times to look
at a distance into the vast country I spoke of; And such, indeed, it is,
said he; and, as we come upon the rising part of the hills we see a
great way, and a country without end; but, as to any descriptions of it,
I can say but little, added he, only this, that it is a very fruitful
country on that side next the hills; what it is farther, I know not.
I asked him if there were any considerable rivers in it, and which way
they generally run? He said it could not be but that from such a ridge
of mountains as the Andes there must be a great many rivers on that
side, as there were apparently on this; and that, as the country was
infinitely larger, and their course, in proportion, longer, it would
necessarily follow that those small rivers would run one into another,
and so form great navigable rivers, as was the case in the Rio de la
Plata, which originally sprung from the same hills, about the city La
Plata, in Peru, and swallowing up all the streams of less note, became,
by the mere length of its course, one of the greatest rivers in the
world. That, as he observed, most of those rivers ran rather
south-eastward than northward, he believed they ran away to the sea, a
great way farther to the south than the Rio de la Plata; but, as to what
part of the coast they might come to the sea in, that he knew nothing of
it.
This account was so rational that nothing could be more, and was,
indeed, extremely satisfactory. It was also very remarkable that this
agreed exactly with the accounts before given me by the two Chilian
Indians, or natives, which I had on board, and with whom I still
continued to discourse, as occasion presented; but whom, at this time, I
removed into the Madagascar ship, to make-room for these Spanish
prisoners.
I observed the Spaniard was made very sensible, by my doctor, of the
obligation both he and his fellow-prisoners were under to me, in my
persuading the privateers to set them at liberty, and in undertaking to
carry them home to that part of Spain from whence they came; for, as
they had lost their cargo, their voyage seemed to be at an end. The
sense of the favour, I say, which I had done him, and was still doing
him, in the civil treatment which I gave him, made this gentleman, for
such he was in himself and in his disposition, whatever he was by
family, for that I knew nothing of, I say, it made him exceedingly
importunate with me, and with my doctor, who spoke Spanish perfectly
well, to go with him to Villa Rica.
I made him no promise, but talked at a distance. I told him, if he had
lived by the sea, and I could have sailed to his door in my ship, I
would have made him a visit. He returned, that he wished he could make
the river of Baldivia navigable for me, that I might bring my ship up to
his door; and, he would venture to say, that neither I, nor any of my
ship's company, should starve while we were with him. In the interval of
these discourses, I asked my doctor his opinion, whether he thought I
might trust this Spaniard, if I had a mind to go up and see the country
for a few days?
Seignior, says he, the Spaniards are, in some respects, the worst nation
under the sun; they are cruel, inexorable, uncharitable, voracious, and,
in several cases, treacherous; but, in two things, they are to be
depended upon beyond all the nations in the world; that is to say, when
they give their honour, to perform anything, and when they have a return
to make for any favour received. And here he entertained me with a long
story of a merchant of Carthagena, who, in a sloop, was shipwrecked at
sea, and was taken up by an English merchant on board a ship bound to
London from Barbadoes, or some other of our islands; that the English
merchant, meeting another English ship bound to Jamaica, put the
Spanish merchant on board him, paid him for his passage, and desired him
to set him on shore on the Spanish coast, as near to Carthagena as he
could. This Spanish merchant could never rest till he found means to
ship himself from Carthagena to the Havannah, in the galleons; from
thence to Cadiz in Old Spain; and from thence to London, to find out the
English merchant, and make him a present to the value of a thousand
pistoles for saving his life, and for his civility in returning him to
Jamaica, &c. Whether the story was true or not, his inference from it
was just, namely, that a Spaniard never forgot a kindness. But take it
withal, says the doctor, that I believe it is as much the effect of
their pride as of their virtue; for at the same time, said he, they
never forget an ill turn any more than they do a good one; and they
frequently entail their enmities on their families, and prosecute the
revenge from one generation to another, so that the heir has, with the
estate of his ancestors, all the family broils upon his hands as he
comes to his estate.
From all this he inferred that, as this Spaniard found himself so very
much obliged to me, I might depend upon it that he had so much pride in
him, that if he could pull down the Andes for me to go through, and I
wanted it, he would do it for me; and that nothing would be a greater
satisfaction to him, than to find some way or other how to requite me.
All these discourses shortened our voyage, and we arrived fair and
softly (for it was very good weather, and little wind) at Tucapel, or
the river Imperial, within ten leagues of Baldivia, that is to say, of
Cape Bonifacio, which is the north point of the entrance into the river
of Baldivia. And here I took one of the most unaccountable, and I must
needs acknowledge, unjustifiably resolutions, that ever any commander,
intrusted with a ship of such force, and a cargo of such consequence,
adventured upon before, and which I by no means recommend to any
commander of any ship to imitate; and this was, to venture up into the
country above a hundred and fifty miles from my ship, leaving the
success of the whole voyage, the estates of my employers, and the
richest ship and cargo that ever came out of those seas, to the care and
fidelity of two or three men. Such was the unsatisfied thirst of new
discoveries which I brought out of England with me, and which I
nourished, at all hazards, to the end of the voyage.
However, though I condemn myself in the main for the rashness of the
undertaking, yet let me do myself so much justice as to leave it on
record too, that I did not run this risk without all needful precautions
for the safety of the ship and cargo.
And first, I found out a safe place for the ships to ride, and this
neither in the river of Tucapel, nor in the river of Baldivia, but in an
opening or inlet of water, without a name, about a league to the south
of Tucapel, embayed and secured from almost all the winds that could
blow. Here the ships lay easy, with water enough, having about eleven
fathoms good holding ground, and about half a league from shore.
I left the supercargo and my mate, also a kinsman of my own, a true
sailor, who had been a midshipman, but was now a lieutenant; I say, to
those I left the command of both my ships, but with express orders not
to stir nor unmoor, upon any account whatever, unavoidable accidents
excepted, until my return, or until, if I should die, they should hear
of that event; no, though they were to stay there six months, for they
had provisions enough, and an excellent place for watering lay just by
them. And I made all the men swear to me that they would make no mutiny
or disorder, but obey my said kinsman in one ship, and the supercargo in
the other, in all things, except removing from that place; and that, if
they should command them to stir from thence, they would not so much as
touch a sail or a rope for the purpose.
When I made all these conditions, and told my men that the design I went
upon was for the good of their voyage, for the service of the owners,
and should, if it succeeded, be for all their advantages, I asked them
if they were all willing I should go? To which they all answered, that
they were very willing, and would take the same care of the ships, and
of all things belonging to them, as if I were on board. This encouraged
me greatly, and I now resolved nothing should hinder me.
Having thus concluded everything, then, and not till then, I told my
Spaniard that I had almost resolved to go along with him, at which he
appeared exceedingly pleased, and, indeed, in a surprise of joy. I
should have said, that, before I told him this, I had set all the rest
of the prisoners on shore, at their own request, just between the port
of Tucapel and the bay of the Conception, excepting two men, who, as he
told me, lived in the open country beyond Baldivia, and, as he observed,
were very glad to be set on shore with him, so to travel home, having
lost what little they had in the ship, and to whom he communicated
nothing of the discourse we had so frequently held, concerning the
affair of the mountains.
I also dismissed now the two Chilian Indians, but not without a very
good reward, not proportioned to their trouble and time only, but
proportioned to what I seemed to expect of them, and filled them still
with expectations that I would come again, and take a journey with them
into the mountains.
And now it became necessary that I should, use the utmost freedom with
my new friend, the Spaniard, being, as I told him, to put my life in his
hands, and the prosperity of my whole adventure, both ship and ship's
company.
He told me he was sensible that I did put my life into his hands, and
that it was a very great token of my confidence in him, even such a one
that he, being a stranger to me, had no reason to expect; but he desired
me to consider that he was a Christian, not a savage; that he was one I
had laid the highest obligation upon, in voluntarily taking him out of
the hands of the freebooters, where he might have lost his life. And, in
the next place, he said, it was some recommendation that he was a
gentleman, and that I should find him to be a man of honour; and,
lastly, that it did not appear that he could make any advantage of me,
or that he could get anything by using me ill; and, if even that was no
argument, yet I should find, when I came to his house, that he was not
in a condition to want anything that might be gained, so much as to
procure it by such a piece of villany and treachery as to betray and
destroy the man who had saved his life, and brought him out of the hands
of the devil safe to his country and family, when he might have been
carried away God knows whither. But to conclude all, he desired me to
accept the offer he had made me at sea, viz., that he would send for his
two sons, and leave them on board the ship as hostages for my safety,
and desired they might be used on board no otherwise than I was used
with him in the country.
I was ashamed to accept such an offer as this, but he pressed it
earnestly, and importuned the doctor to move me to accept it, telling
him that he should not be easy if I did not; so that, in short, the
doctor advised me to agree to it, and, accordingly, he hired a messenger
and a mule, and sent away for his two sons to come to him; and such
expedition the messenger made, that in six days he returned with the two
sons and three servants, all on horseback. His two sons were very
pretty, well-behaved youths, who appeared to be gentlemen in their very
countenances; the eldest was about thirteen years old, and the other
about eleven. I treated them on board, as I had done their father, with
all possible respect; and, having entertained them two days, left orders
that they should be treated in the same manner when I was gone; and to
this I added aloud, that their father might hear it, that whenever they
had a mind to go away, they should let them go. But their father laid a
great many solemn charges upon them that they should not stir out of the
ship till I came back safe, and that I gave them leave, and he made them
promise they would not; and the young gentlemen kept their word so
punctually, that, when our supercargo, whom I left in command, offered
to let them go on shore several times, to divert them with shooting and
hunting, they would not stir out of the ship, and did not till I came
back again.
Having gone this length, and made everything ready for my adventure, we
set out, viz., Captain Merlotte, the Spanish doctor, the old mutineer
who had been my second mate, but who was now captain of the Madagascar
ship, and myself, with two midshipmen, whom he took as servants, but
whom I resolved to make the directors of the main enterprise. As to the
number, I found my Spaniard made no scruple of that, if it had been half
my ship's company.
We set out, some on horses and some on mules, as we could get them, but
the Spaniard and myself rode on two very good horses, being the same
that his two sons came on. We arrived at a noble country-seat, about a
league short of the town, where, at first, I thought we had been only to
put in for refreshment, but I soon found that it was really his
dwelling-house, and where his family and servants resided.
Here we were received like princes, and with as much ceremony as if he
had been a prince that entertained us. The major-domo, or steward of his
house, received us, took in our baggage, and ordered our servants to be
taken care of.
It is sufficient to say, that the Spaniard did all that pride and
ostentation was capable of inspiring him with, to entertain us; and the
truth is, he could not have lived in a country in the world more capable
of gratifying his pride; for here, without anything uncommon, he was
able to show more gold plate than many good families in our country have
of silver; and as for silver, it quite eclipsed the appearance, or
rather took away the very use of pewter, of which we did not see one
vessel, no not in the meanest part of his house. It is true, I believe,
the Spaniard had not a piece of plate, or of any household furniture,
which we did not see, except what belonged to the apartment of his wife;
and, it is to be observed, that the women never appeared, except at a
distance, and in the gardens, and then, being under veils, we could not
know the lady from her women, or the maids from the mistress.
We were lodged every one in separate apartments, very well furnished,
but two of them very nobly indeed, though all the materials for
furniture there must be at an excessive price. The way of lodging upon
quilts, and in beds made pavilion-wise, after the Spanish custom, I need
not describe; but it surprised me to see the rooms hung with very rich
tapestries, in a part of the world where they must cost so dear.
We had Chilian wine served us up in round gold cups, and water in large
silver decanters, that held, at least, five quarts apiece; these stood
in our chamber. Our chocolate was brought up in the same manner, in deep
cups, all of gold, and it was made in vessels all of silver.
It would be tiresome to the reader to particularise my account with the
relation of all the fine things our host had in his house, and I could
not be persuaded but that he had borrowed all the plate in the town to
furnish out his sideboard and table. But my doctor told me it was
nothing but what was very usual among them that were men of any
substance, as it was apparent he was; and that the silversmiths at St.
Jago supplied them generally with their plate ready wrought, in exchange
(with allowance for the quality) for the gold which they found in the
mountains, or in the brooks and streams which came from the mountains,
into which the hasty showers of winter rain frequently washed down
pretty large lumps, and others, which were smaller, they washed out of
the sands by the ordinary methods of washing of ore.
I was better satisfied in this particular when, the next day, talking to
our new landlord about the mountains, and the wealth of them, I asked
him if he could show me any of the gold which was usually washed out of
the hills by the rain, in the natural figure in which it was found? He
smiled, and told me he could show me a little, and immediately conducted
us into a kind of a closet, where he had a great variety of odd things
gathered up about the mountains and rivers, such as fine shells, stones
in the form of stars, heavy pieces of ore, and the like, and, after
this, he pulled out a great leather bag, which had, I believe, near
fifty pounds weight in it. Here, seignior, says he, here is some of the
dirt of the earth; and turning it out upon the table, it was easy to see
that it was all mixed with gold, though the pieces were of different
forms, and some scarce looking like gold at all, being so mixed with the
spar or with earth, that it did not appear so plain; but, in every bit
there was something of the clear gold to be seen, and, the smaller the
lumps, the purer the gold appeared.
I was surprised at the quantity, more than at the quality of the metal,
having, as I have said, seen the gold which the Indians found in the
countries I have described, which seemed to have little or no mixture.
But then I was to have considered, that what those Indians gathered was
farther from the hills which it came from, and that those rough,
irregular pieces would not drive so far in the water, but would lodge
themselves in the earth and sand of the rivers nearer home; and also,
that the Indians, not knowing how to separate the gold by fire from the
dross and mixture above, did not think those rough pieces worth their
taking up, whereas, the Spaniards here understood much better what they
were about.
But, to return to the closet. When he had shown us this leather pouch of
gold, he swept the ore to one side of the table, which had ledges round
it to keep it from running off, and took up another bag full of large
pieces of stone, great lumps of earth, and pieces of various shapes, all
of which had some gold in them, but not to be gotten out but by fire.
These, he told us, their servants bring home as they find them in the
mountains, lying loose here and there, when they go after their cattle.