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, I
would 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 hear and
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 down from 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 we came 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, where we 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
indeed _in_ the house, rather than coming _out_ of 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 that kind, 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 into a 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.