Spaniard, and afterwards by the wealthy Chilian; how the men, greedy for
gold, were hardly brought away from the mountains; and how, once, they
had much ado to persuade them not to rob the honest Chilian who had
used them so well, till my lieutenant, then their captain, by a
stratagem, seized on their weapons, and threatened to speak to the
Spaniard to raise the Chilians in the mountains, and have all their
throats cut; and yet even this did not suffice, till the two midshipmen,
then their lieutenants, assured them that at the first opening of the
hills, and in the rivers beyond, they would have plenty of gold; and one
of the midshipmen told them, that if he did not see them have so much
gold that they would not stoop to take up any more, they should have all
his share to be divided among them, and should leave him behind in the
first desolate place they could find.
How this appeased them till they came to the outer edge of the
mountains, where I had been, and where my patron, the Spaniard, left
them, having supplied them with sixteen mules to carry their baggage,
and some guinacoes, or sheep of Peru, which would carry burdens, and
afterwards be good to eat also.
Also, how here they mutinied again, and would not be drawn away, being
insatiable in their thirst after gold, till about twenty, more
reasonable than the rest, were content to move forward; and, after some
time, the rest followed, though not till they were assured that the
picking up of gold continued all along the river, which began at the
bottom of the mountains, and that it was likely to continue a great way
farther.
How they worked their way down these streams, with still an insatiable
avarice and thirst after the gold, to the lake called the Golden Lake,
and how here they were astonished at the quantity they found; how, after
this, they had great difficulty to furnish themselves with provisions,
and greater still in carrying it along with them until they found more.
I say, all these accounts might suffice to make another volume as large
as this. How, at the farther end of the lake, they found that it
evacuated itself into a large river, which, running away with a strong
current to the south-south-east, and afterwards to the south-by-east,
encouraged them to build canoes, in which they embarked, and which river
brought them down to the very bay where we found them; but that they met
with many difficulties, sank and staved their canoes several times, by
which they lost some of their baggage, and, in one disaster, lost a
great parcel of their gold, to their great surprise and mortification.
How at one place, they split two of their canoes, where they could find
no timber to build new ones, and the many hardships they were put to
before they got other canoes. But I shall give a brief account of it
all, and bring it into as narrow a compass as I can.
They set out, as I have said, with mules and horses to carry their
baggage, and the Spaniard gave them a servant with them for a guide,
who, carrying them by-ways, and unfrequented, so that they might give no
alarm at the town of Villa Rica, or anywhere else, they came to the
mouth of the entrance into the mountains, and there they pitched their
tent.
N.B.--The lieutenant who kept their journal, giving an account of this,
merrily, in his sea language, expresses it thus: "Being all come safe
into the opening, that is, in the entrance of the mountains, and being
there free from the observation of the country, we called it our first
port, so we brought to, and came to an anchor."
Here the generous Spaniard, who at his own request was gone before, sent
his gentleman and one of his sons to them, and sent them plenty of
provisions, as also caused their mules to be changed for others that
were fresh, and had not been fatigued with any of the other part of the
journey.
These things being done, the Spaniard's gentleman caused them to decamp,
and march two days farther into the mountains, and then they encamped
again, where the Spaniard himself came _incognito_ to them, and, with
the utmost kindness and generosity, was their guide himself, and their
purveyor also, though two or three times the fellows were so rude, so
ungovernable and unbounded in their hunting after gold, that the
Spaniard was almost frighted at them, and told the captain of it. Nor,
indeed, was it altogether without cause, for the dogs were so
ungrateful, that they robbed two of the houses of the Chilians, and took
what gold they had, which was not much, indeed, but it hazarded so much
the alarming the country, and raising all the mountaineers upon them,
that the Spaniard was upon the point of flying from them, in spite of
all their fire-arms and courage.
But the captain begged him to stay one night more, and promised to have
the fellows punished, and satisfaction to be made; and so he brought all
his men together and talked to them, and inquired who it was? but never
was such a piece of work in the world. When the new captain came to
talk of who did it, and of punishment, they cried, they all did it, and
they did not value all the Spaniards or Indians in the country; they
would have all the gold in the whole mountains, ay, that they would, and
swore to it; and, if the Spaniard offered to speak a word to them, they
would chop his head off, and put a stop to his farther jawing.
However, a little reasoning with them brought some of the men to their
senses; and the captain, who was a man of sense and of a smooth tongue,
managed so well, that he brought about twenty-two of the men, and the
two lieutenants and surgeons, to declare for his opinion, and that they
would act better for the future; and, with these, he stepped in between
the other fellows, and separated about eighteen of them from their arms,
for they had run scattering among the rocks to hunt for gold, and, when
they were called to this parley, had not their weapons with them. By
this stratagem, he seized eleven of the thieves, and made them
prisoners; and then he told the rest, in so many words, that if they
would not comply to keep order, and obey the rules they were at first
sworn to, and had promised, he would force them to it, for he would
deliver them, bound hand and foot, to the Spaniards, and they should do
the poor Chilians justice upon them; for that, in short, he would not
have the rest murdered for them; upon this, he ordered his men to draw
up, to show them he would be as good as his word, when, after some
consideration, they submitted.
But the Spaniard had taken a wiser course than this, or, perhaps, they
had been all murdered; for he ran to the two Chilian houses which the
rogues had plundered, and where, in short, there was a kind of tumult
about it, and, with good words, promising to give them as much gold as
they lost, and the price of some other things that were taken away, he
appeased the people; and so our men were not ruined, as they would
certainly have been if the mountaineers had taken the alarm.
After this, they grew a little more governable; but, in short, the sight
of the gold, and the easy getting it (for they picked it up in abundance
of places), I say, the sight of the gold made them stark mad. For now
they were not, as they were before, trafficking for the owners and for
the voyage; but as I had promised the gold they got should be their
own, and that they were now working for themselves, there was no
getting them to go on, but, in short, they would dwell here; and this
was as fatal a humour as the other.
But to bring this part of the voyage to an end, after eight days they
came to the hospitable wealthy Chilian's house, whom I mentioned before;
and here, as the Spaniard had contrived it, they found all kind of
needful stores for provisions laid up, as it were, on purpose; and, in a
word, here they were not fed only, but feasted.
Here, again, the captain discovered a cursed conspiracy, which, had it
taken effect, would, besides the baseness of the fact, have ended in
their total destruction; in short, they had resolved to rob this
Chilian, who was so kind to them; but, as I said, one of the lieutenants
discovered and detected this villanous contrivance, and quashed it, so
as never to let the Spaniard know of it.
But, I say, to end this part, they were one-and-twenty days in this
traverse, for they could not go on so easy and so fast, now they were a
little army, as we did, who were but six or seven; at length they came
to the view of the open country, and, being all encamped at the edge of
a descent, the generous Spaniard (and his three servants) took his
leave, wishing them a good journey, and so went back, having, the day
before, brought them some deer, five or six cows, and some sheep, for
their subsisting at their entrance into, and travel through, the plain
country.
And now they began to descend towards the plain, but they met with more
difficulty here than they expected; for, as I observed that the way for
some miles went with an ascent towards the farthest part of the hill;
that continued ascent had, by degrees, brought them to a very great, and
in some places, impassable descent; so that, however my guide found his
way down, when I was through, it was not easy for them to do it, who
were so many in number, and encumbered with mules and horses, and with
their baggage, so that they knew not what to do; and, if they had not
known that our ships were gone away, there had been some odds but, like
the Israelites of old, they would have murmured against their leader,
and have all gone back to Egypt. In a word, they were at their wits'
end, and knew not what course to take for two or three days, trying and
essaying to get down here and there, and then frightened with
precipices and rocks, and climbing up to get back again. The whole of
the matter was, that they had missed a narrow way, where they should
have turned off to the south-east, the marks which our men had made
before having not been so regular and exact just there, as in other
parts of the way, or some other turning being so very like the same,
that they took one for the other; and thus, going straight forward too
far before they turned, they came to an opening indeed, and saw the
plain country under them, as they had done before, but the descent was
not so practicable.
After they had puzzled themselves here, as I said, two or three days,
one of the lieutenants, and a man with him, seeing a hut or house of a
Chilian at some distance, rode away towards it; but passing into a
valley that lay between, he met with a river which he could by no means
get over with the mules, so he came back again in despair. The captain
then resolved to send back to the honest rich Chilian, who had
entertained them so well, for a guide, or to desire him to give them
such directions as they might not mistake.
But as the person sent back was one of those who had taken the journal
which I mentioned, and was therefore greatly vexed at missing his way in
such a manner, so he had his eyes in every corner, and pulled out his
pocket-book at every turning, to see how the marks of the places agreed;
and at last, the very next morning after he set out, he spied the
turning where they should all have gone in, to have come to the place
which they were at before; this being so remarkable a discovery, he came
back again directly, without going on to the Chilian's house, which was
two days' journey farther.
Our men were revived with this discovery, and all agreed to march back;
so, having lost about six days in this false step, they got into the
right way, and, in four more, came to the descent were I had been
before.
Here the hill was still very high, and the passage down was steep and
difficult enough; but still it was practicable, and our men could see
the marks of cattle having passed there, as if they had gone in drifts
or droves; also it was apparent, that, by some help and labour of hands,
the way might be led winding and turning on the slope of the hill, so as
to make it much easier to get down than it was now.
It cost them no small labour, however, to get down, chiefly because of
the mules, which very often fell down with their loads; and our men
said, they believed they could with much more ease have mounted up from
the east side to the top than they came from the west side to the
bottom.
They encamped one night on the declivity of the hill, but got up early,
and were at the bottom and on the plain ground by noon. As soon as they
came there they encamped and refreshed themselves, that is to say, went
to dinner; but it being very hot there, the cool breezes of the
mountains having now left them, they were more inclined to sleep than to
eat; so the captain ordered the tent to be set up, and they made the
whole day of it, calling a council in the morning to consider what
course they should steer, and how they should go on.
Here they came to this resolution, that they should send two men a
considerable way up the hill again, to take the strictest observation
they could of the plain with the largest glasses they had, and to mark
which way the nearest river or water was to be seen; and they should
direct their course first to the water, and that, if the course of it
lay south, or any way to the east of the south, they would follow on the
bank of it, and, as soon as it was large enough to carry them, they
would make them some canoes or shallops, or what they could do with the
most ease, to carry them on by water; also, they directed them to
observe if they could see any cattle feeding at a distance, or the like.
The messengers returned, and brought word that all the way to the east,
and so on to south-east, they could discover nothing of water, but that
they had seen a great lake, or lough of water, at a great distance,
which looked like a sea, and lay from them to the northward of the east,
about two points; adding, that they did not know but it might afterwards
empty itself to the eastward, and it was their opinion to make the best
of their way thither.
Accordingly, the next morning, the whole body decamped, and marched
east-north-east, very cheerfully, but found the way much longer than
they expected; for though from the mountains the country seemed to lie
flat and plain, yet, when they came to measure it by their feet, they
found a great many little hills; little, I say, compared to the great
mountains, but great to them who were to travel over them in the heat,
and with but very indifferent support as to provisions; so that, in a
word, the captain very prudently ordered that they should travel only
three hours in the morning and three in the evening, and encamp in the
heat of the day, to refresh themselves as well as they could.
The best thing they met with in that part of the country was, that they
had plenty of water, for though they were not yet come to any large,
considerable river, yet every low piece of ground had a small rill of
water in it; and the springs coming out from the rising grounds on the
sides of the mountains being innumerable, made many such small brooks.
It cost them six days' travel, with two days' resting between, to
advance to that river of water, which, from the height of the mountains,
seemed to be but a little way off. They could not march, by their
computation, above ten or twelve miles a day, and rest every third day
too, for their luggage was heavy, and their mules but few; also some of
their mules became tired and jaded by their long march, or fell lame,
and were good for nothing.
Besides all this, the days which I call days of rest were really not so
to them, for those intervals were employed to range about and hunt for
food; and it was for want of that, more than for want of rest, that they
halted every third day.
In this exercise they did, however, meet with such success, that they
made shift to kill one sort of creature or another every day, sufficient
to keep them from famishing; sometimes they met with some deer, other
times with the guinacoes, or Peruvian sheep, and sometimes with fowls of
several kinds, so that they did pretty well for food. At length, viz.,
the seventh day, they came to a river, which was at first small, but
having received another small river or two from the northern part of the
country, it began to seem large enough for their purpose; and, as it ran
east-south-east, they concluded it would run into the lake, and that
they might fleet down this river, if they could make anything to carry
them.
But their first discouragement was, the country was all open, with very
little wood, and no trees, or very few to be found large enough to make
canoes, or boats of any sort; but the skill of their carpenters, of
which they had four, soon conquered this difficulty; for, coming to a
low swampy ground on the side of the river, they found a tree something
like a beech, very firm good sort of wood, and yet soft enough to yield
to their tools; and they went to work with this, and at first made them
some rafts, which they thought might carry them along till the river was
bigger.
While this was doing, which took up two or three days, the men straggled
up and down; some with their guns to shoot fowls, some with contrivances
to catch fish, some one thing, some another; when, on a sudden, one of
their fishermen, not in the river, but in a little brook, which
afterwards ran into the river, found a little bit of shining stuff among
the sand or earth, in the bank, and cried, he had found a piece of gold.
Now, it seems, all was not gold that glistened, for the lump had no gold
in it, whatever it was; but the word being given out at first, it
immediately set all our men a-rummaging the shores of every little rill
of water they came at, to see if there was any gold; and they had not
looked long till they found several little grains, very small and fine,
not only in this brook, but in several others; so they spent their time
more cheerfully, because they made some advantage.
All this while they saw no people, nor any signals of any; except once,
on the other side of the river, at a great distance, they saw about
thirty together, but whether men or women, or how many of each, they
could not tell, nor would they come any nearer, only stood and gazed at
our people at a distance.
They were now ready to quit their camp and embark, intending to lay all
their baggage on the rafts, with three or four sick men, and so the rest
to march by the river side, and as many as could, to ride upon the
mules; when on a sudden, all their navigation was put to a stop, and
their new vessels, such as they were, suffered a wreck.
The case was thus:--They had observed a great many black clouds to hang
over the tops of the mountains, and some of them even below the tops,
and they did believe it rained among the hills, but, in the plain where
they lay, and all about them, it was fair, and the weather fine.
But, in the night, the carpenters and their assistants, who had set up a
little tent near the river side, were alarmed with a great roaring
noise, as they thought, in the river, though at a distance upwards;
presently after, they found the water begin to come into their tent,
when, running out, they found the river was swelling over its banks,
and all the low grounds on both sides of them.
To their great satisfaction, it was just break of day, so that they
could see enough to make their way from the water, and the land very
happily rising a little to the south of the river, they immediately fled
thither. Two of them had so much presence of mind with them, as to pick
up their working-tools, at least some of them, and carry off, and the
water rising gradually, the other two carpenters ventured back to save
the rest, but they were put to some difficulty to get back again with
them; in a word, the water rose to such a height that it carried away
their tent, and everything that was in it, and which was worse, their
rafts (for they had almost finished four large ones) were lifted off
from the place where they were framed, which was a kind of a dry dock,
and dashed all to pieces, and the timber, such as it was, all carried
away. The smaller brooks also swelled in proportion to the large river;
so that, in a word, our men lay as it were, surrounded with water, and
began to be in a terrible consternation; for, though they lay in a hard
dry piece of ground, too high for the land-flood to reach them, yet, had
the rains continued in the mountains, they might have lain there till
they had been obliged to eat one another, and so there had been an end
of our new discovery.
But the weather cleared up among the hills the next day, which heartened
them up again; and as the flood rose so soon, so the current being
furiously rapid, the waters ran off again as easily as they came on, and
in two days the water was all gone again. But our little float was
shipwrecked, as I have said, and the carpenters finding how dangerous
such great unwieldy rafts would be, resolved to set to it, and build one
large float with sides to it, like a punt or ferry-boat. They worked so
hard at this, ten of the men always working with them to help, that in
five days they had her finished; the only thing they wanted was pitch
and tar, to make her upper work keep out the water, and so they made a
shift to fetch a juice out of some of the wood they had cut, by help of
fire, that answered the end tolerably well.
But that which made this disappointment less afflicting was, that our
men hunting about the small streams where this water had come down so
furiously, found that there was more gold, and the more for the late
flood. This made them run straggling up the streams, and, as the
captain said, he thought once they would run quite back to the mountains
again.
But this was his ignorance too; for after awhile, and the nearer they
came to the rising of the hills the quantity abated; for where the
streams were so furious, the water washed it all away, and carried it
down with it, so that by the end of five days, the men found but little,
and began to come back again.
But then they discovered that, though there was less in the higher part
of the rivers, there was more farther down, and they found it so well
worth while, that they went looking along for gold all the way towards
the lake, and left their fellows and the boat to come after.
At last, when nothing else would do, hunger called them off, and so once
more all the company were got together again; and now they began to load
the float, indeed it might be called a luggage-boat; however, it
answered very well, and was a great relief to our men; but when they
came to load it, they found it would not carry near so much as they had
to put in it. Besides that, they would be all obliged to march on foot
by shore, which had this particular inconvenience in it, that whenever
they came to any small river or brook which ran into the other, as was
very often the case, they would be forced to march up a great way to get
over it, or unload the great float to make a ferry-boat of it to waft
them over.
Upon this they were resolved, that the first place they came at where
timber was to be had for building, they would go to work again and make
two or three more floats, not so big as the other, that so they might
embark themselves, their baggage, and their provisions too, all
together, and take the full benefit of the river, where it would afford
them help; and not some sail on the water, and some go on foot upon the
land, which would be very fatiguing.
Therefore, as soon as they found timber, as I have said, and a
convenient place, they went all hands to work to build more floats or
boats, and, while this was doing, all the spare men spent their time and
pains in searching about for gold in the brooks and small streams, as
well those they had been at before as others, and that after they had,
as it were, plundered them at the first discovery; for, as they had
found some gold after the hasty rain, they were loath to give it over,
though they had been assured there was more to be found in the lake,
where they were yet to come, than in the brooks.
All this while their making the floats went slowly on; for the men
thought it a great hardship to keep chopping of blocks, as they called
it, while their fellows were picking up gold, though they knew they were
to have their share of what they found, as much as if they had been all
the while with them; but it seems there is a kind of satisfaction in the
work of picking up gold, besides the mere gain.