A New Voyage Round the World · Daniel Defoe
We no sooner made the road, but we saw the frigate, as I called her, with another ship at an anchor in the same road where she had seen us; and it was easy to see that they were both of them in a great surprise and hurry at our appearing, and that they were under sail in so very little time as that we easily saw they had slipped their cables, or cut away their anchors. They fired guns twice, which we found was a signal for their boats, which were on shore, to come on board; and soon after we saw three boats go off to them, though, as we understood afterwards, they were obliged to leave sixteen or seventeen of their men behind them, who, being among the rocks catching of goats, either did not hear the signals, or could not come to their boats time enough.
When we saw them in this hurry, we thought it must be something extraordinary, and bore down upon them, having the weather-gage.
They were ships of pretty good force, and full of men, and when they saw we were resolved to speak with them, and that there was no getting away from us, they made ready to engage; and putting themselves upon a-wind, first stretching ahead to get the weather-gage of us, when they thought they were pretty well, boldly tacked, and lay by for us, hoisting the English ancient and union jack.
We had our French colours out till now; but being just, as we thought, going to engage, I told Captain Merlotte I scorned to hide what nation I was of when I came to fight for the honour of our country; and, besides, as these people had spread English colours, I ought to let them know what I was; that, if they were really English and friends, we might not fight by mistake, and shed the innocent blood of our own countrymen; and that, if they were rogues, and counterfeited their being English, we should soon perceive it.
However, when they saw us put out English colours, they knew not what to think of it, but lay by awhile to see what we would do. I was as much puzzled as they, for, as I came nearer, I thought they seemed to be English ships, as well by their bulk as by their way of working; and as I came still nearer, I thought I could perceive so plainly by my glasses that they were English seamen, that I made a signal to our other ship, who had the van, and was just bearing down upon them, to bring to; and I sent my boat to him to know his opinion. He sent me word, he did believe them to be English; and the more, said he, because they could be no other nation but English or French, and the latter he was sure they were not; but, since we were the largest ships, and that they might as plainly see us to be English as we could see them, he said he was for fighting them, because they ought to have let us known who they were first. However, as I had fired a gun to bring him too, he lay by a little time till we spoke thus together.
While this was doing we could see one of their boats come off with six oars and two men, a lieutenant and trumpeter it seems they were, sitting in the stern, and one of them holding up a flag of truce; we let them come forward, and when they came nearer, so that we could hail them with a speaking trumpet, we asked them what countrymen they were? and they answered Englishmen. Then we asked them whence their ship? Their answer was, from London. At which we bade them come on board, which they did; and we soon found that we were all countrymen and friends, and their boat went immediately back to let them know it. We found afterwards that they were mere privateers, fitted out from London also, but coming last from Jamaica; and we let them know no other of ourselves, but declined keeping company, telling them we were bound now upon traffick, and not for purchase; that we had been at the East Indies, had made some prizes, and were going back thither again. They told us they were come into the South Seas for purchase, but that they had made little of it, having heard there were three large French men-of-war in those seas, in the Spanish service, which made them wish they had not come about; and that they were still very doubtful what to do.
We assured them we had been the height of Lima, and that we had not heard of any men-of-war, but that we had passed for such ourselves, and perhaps were the ships they had heard of; for that we were three sail at first, and had sometimes carried French colours.
This made them very glad, for it was certainly so that we had passed for three French men-of-war, and they were so assured of it, that they went afterwards boldly up the coast, and made several very good prizes. We then found also that it was one of these ships that looked into the road, as above, when we were here before, and seeing us then with French colours, took us for the men-of-war they had heard of; and, they added, that, when we came in upon them again, they gave themselves up for lost men, but were resolved to have fought it out to the last, or rather to have sunk by our side, or blown themselves up, than be taken.
I was not at all sorry that we had made this discovery before we engaged; for the captains were two brave resolute fellows, and had two very good ships under them, one of thirty-six guns, but able to have carried forty-four; the other, which we called the frigate-built ship, carried twenty-eight guns, and they were both full of men. Now, though we should not have feared their force, yet my case differed from what it did at first, for we had that on board that makes all men cowards, I mean money, of which we had such a cargo as few British ships ever brought out of those seas, and I was one of those that had now no occasion to run needless hazards. So that, in short, I was as well pleased without fighting as they could be; besides, I had other projects now in my head, and those of no less consequence than of planting a new world, and settling new kingdoms, to the honour and advantage of my country; and many a time I wished heartily that all my rich cargo was safe at London; that my merchants were sharing the silver and gold, and the pearl among themselves; and, that I was but safe on shore, with a thousand good families, upon the south of Chili, and about fifteen hundred good soldiers, and arms for ten thousand more, of which by and by, and, with the two ships I had now with me, I would not fear all the power of the Spaniards; I mean, that they could bring against me in the South Seas.
I had all these things, I say, in my head already, though nothing like to what I had afterwards, when I saw farther into the matter myself; however, these things made me very glad that I had no occasion to engage those ships.
When we came thus to understand one another, we went all into the road together, and I invited the captains of the two privateers on board me, where I treated them with the best I had, though I had no great dainties now, having been so long out of England. They invited me and Captain Merlotte, and the captain of the Madagascar ship in return, and, indeed, treated us very nobly.
After this, we exchanged some presents of refreshments, and, particularly, they sent me a hogshead of rum, which, was very acceptable; and I sent them in return a runlet of arrack, excusing myself that I had no great store. I sent them also the quantity of one hundred weight of nutmegs and cloves; but the most agreeable present I sent them was twenty pieces of Madagascar dried beef, cured in the sun, the like of which they had never seen or tasted before; and without question, it is such an excellent way of curing beef, that if I were to be at Madagascar again, I would take in a sufficient quantity of beef so preserved to victual the whole ship for the voyage; and I leave it as a direction to all English seamen that have occasion to use East-India voyages.
I bought afterwards six hogsheads of rum of these privateers, for I found they were very well stored with liquors, whatever else they wanted.
We stayed here twelve or fourteen days, but took care, by agreement, that our men should never go on shore the same days that their men went on shore, or theirs when ours went, as well to avoid their caballing together, as to avoid quarrelling, though the latter was the pretence. We agreed, also, not to receive on board any of our ships respectively, any of the crews belonging to the other; and this was their advantage, for, if we would have given way to that, half their men would, for aught I know, have come over to us.
While we lay here, one of them went a-cruising, finding the wind fair to run in for the shore; and, in about five days, she came back with a Spanish prize, laden with meal, cocoa, and a large quantity of biscuit, ready baked; she was bound to Lima, from Baldivia, or some port nearer, I do not remember exactly which. They had some gold on board, but not much, and had bought their lading at St. Jago. As soon as we saw them coming in with a prize in tow, we put out our French colours, and gave notice to the privateers that it was for their advantage that we did so; and so indeed it was, for it would presently have alarmed all the country, if such a fleet of privateers had appeared on the coast. We prevailed with them to give us their Spanish prisoners, and to allow us to set them on shore, I having assured them I would not land them till I came to Baldivia, nor suffer them to have the least correspondence with anybody till they came thither; the said Spaniards also giving their parole of honour not to give any account of their being taken till fourteen days after they were on shore.
This being the farthest port south which the Spaniards are masters of in Chili, or, indeed, on the whole continent of America, they could not desire me to carry them any farther. They allowed us a quantity of meal and cocoa out of their booty for the subsistence of the prisoners, and I bought a larger quantity besides, there being more than they knew how to stow, and they did not resolve to keep the Spanish ship which they took; by this means I was doubly stocked with flour and bread, but, as the first was very good, and well packed in casks and very good jars, it received no injury.
We bought also some of their cocoa, and made chocolate, till our men gorged themselves with it, and would have no more.
Having furnished ourselves here with goats' flesh, as usual, and taking in water sufficient, we left Juan Fernandez, and saw the cruisers go out the same tide, they steering north-north-east, and we south-south-east. They saluted us at parting, and we bade them good-bye in the same language.
While we were now sailing for the coast of Chili, with fair wind and pleasant weather, my Spanish doctor came to me and told me he had a piece of news to acquaint me with, which, he said, he believed would please me very well; and this was, that one of the Spanish prisoners was a planter, as it is called in the West Indies, or a farmer, as we should call it in England, of Villa Rica, a town built by the Spaniards, near the foot of the Andes, above the town of Baldivia; and that he had entered into discourse with him upon the situation of those hills, the nature of the surface, the rivers, hollows, passages into them, &c. Whether there were any valleys within the hills, of what extent, how watered, what cattle, what people, how disposed, and the like; and, in short, if there was any way of passing over the Andes, or hills above mentioned; and he told me, in few words, that he found him to be a very honest, frank, open sort of a person, who seemed to speak without reserve, without the least jealousy or apprehension; and that he believed I might have an ample discovery from him of all that I desired to know.
I was very glad of this news; and, at my request, it was not many hours before he brought the Spaniard into the great cabin to me, where I treated him very civilly, and gave him opportunity several times to see himself very well used; and, indeed, all the Spaniards in the ship were very thankful for my bringing them out of the hands of the privateers, and took all occasions to let us see it.
I said little the first time, but discoursed in general of America, of the greatness and opulency of the Spaniards there, the infinite wealth of the country, &c.; and I remember well, discoursing once of the great riches of the Spaniards in America, the silver mines of Potosi, and other places, he turned short upon me, smiling, and said, We Spaniards are the worst nation in the world that such a treasure as this could have belonged to; for if it had fallen into any other hands than ours, they would have searched farther into it before now. I asked him what he meant by that? and added, I thought they had searched it thoroughly enough; for that I believed no other nation in the world could ever have spread such vast dominions, and planted a country of such a prodigious extent, they having not only kept possession of it, but maintained the government also, and even inhabited it with only a few people.
Perhaps, seignior, says he, you think, notwithstanding that opinion of yours, that we have many more people of our nation in New Spain than we have. I do not know, said I, how many you may have; but, if I should believe you have as many here as in Old Spain, it would be but a few in comparison of the infinite extent of the King of Spain's dominions in America. And then, replied he, I assure you, seignior, there is not one Spaniard to a thousand acres of land, take one place with another, throughout New Spain.
Very well, said I, then I think the riches and wealth of America is very well searched, in comparison to the number of people you have to search after it. No, says he, it is not, neither; for the greatest number of our people live in that part where the wealth is not the greatest, and where even the governor and viceroy, enjoying a plentiful and luxurious life, they take no thought for the increase either of the king's revenues, or the national wealth. This he spoke of the city of Mexico, whose greatness, and the number of its inhabitants, he said, was a disease to the rest of the body. And what, think you, seignior, said he, that in that one city, where there is neither silver nor gold but what is brought from the mountains of St. Clara, the mines at St. Augustine's and Our Lady, some of which are a hundred leagues from it, and yet there are more Spaniards in Mexico than in both those two prodigious empires of Chili and Peru?
I seemed not to believe him; and, indeed, I did not believe him at first, till he returned to me with a question. Pray, seignior capitain, says he, how many Spaniards do you think there may be in this vast country of Chili? I told him I could make no guess of the numbers; but, without doubt, there were many thousands, intimating that I might suppose, near a hundred thousand. At which he laughed heartily, and assured me, that there were not above two thousand five hundred in the whole kingdom, besides women and children, and some few soldiers, which they looked upon as nothing to inhabitants, because they were not settled anywhere.
I was indeed surprised, and began to name several large places, which, I thought, had singly more Spaniards in them than what he talked of. He presently ran over some of them, and, naming Baldivia first, as the most southward, he asked me how many I thought were there? And I told him about three hundred families. He smiled, and assured me there were not above three or four-and-fifty families in the whole place, and about twenty-five soldiers, although it was a fortification, and a frontier. At Villa Rica, or the Rich Town, where he lived, he said there might be about sixty families, and a lieutenant, with twenty soldiers. In a word, we passed over the many places between and came to the capital, St. Jago, where after I had supposed there were five thousand Spaniards, he protested to me there were not above eight hundred, including the viceroy's court, and including the families at Valparaiso, which is the seaport, and excluding only the soldiers, which as he said, being the capital of the whole kingdom, might be about two hundred, and excluding the religious, who he added, laughing, signified nothing to the planting a country, for they neither cultivated the land nor increased the people.
Our doctor, who was our interpreter, smiled at this, but merrily said, that was very true, or ought to be so, intimating, that though the priests do not cultivate the land, yet they might chance to increase the people a little; but that was by the way. As to the number of inhabitants at St. Jago, the doctor agreed with him, and said, he believed he had said more than there were, rather than less.
As to the kingdom or empire of Peru, in which there are many considerable cities and places of note, such as Lima, Quito, Cusco, la Plata, and others, there are besides a great number of towns on the seacoasts, such as Porto Arica, St. Miguel, Prayta, Guyaquil, Truxillo, and many others.
He answered, that it was true that the city of Lima, with the town of Callao, was much increased within a few years, and particularly of late, by the settling of between three and four hundred French there, who came by the King of Spain's license; but that, before the coming of those gentlemen, at which he shook his head, the country was richer, though the inhabitants were not so many; and that, take it as it was now, there could not be reckoned above fifteen hundred families of Spaniards, excluding the soldiers and the clergy, which, as above, he reckoned nothing as to the planting of the country.
We came then to discourse of the silver mines at Potosi, and here he supposed, as I did also, a very great number of people. But seignior, says he, what people is it you are speaking of? There are many thousands of servants, but few masters; there is a garrison of four hundred soldiers always kept in arms and in good order, to secure the place, and keep the negroes, and criminals who work in the mines, in subjection; but that there were not besides five hundred Spaniards, that is to say, men, in the whole place and its adjacents. So that, in short, he would not allow above seven thousand Spaniards in the whole empire of Peru, and two thousand five hundred in Chili; at the same time, allowing twice as many as both these in the city of Mexico only.
After this discourse was over, I asked him what he inferred from it, as to the wealth of the country not being discovered? He answered, It was evident that it was for want of people that the wealth of the country lay hid; that there was infinitely more lay uninquired after than had yet been known; that there were several mountains in Peru equally rich in silver with that of Potosi; and, as for Chili, says he, and the country where we live, there is more gold at this time in the mountains of the Andes, and more easy to come at, than in all the world besides. Nay, says he, with some passion, there is more gold every year washed down out of the Andes of Chili into the sea, and lost there, than all the riches that go from New Spain to Europe in twenty years amount to.
This discourse fired my imagination you may be sure, and I renewed it upon all occasions, taking more or less time every day to talk with this Spaniard upon the subject of cultivation of the lands, improvement of the country, and the like; always making such inquiries into the state of the mountains of the Andes as best suited my purpose, but yet so as not to give him the least intimation of my design.
One day, conversing with him again about the great riches of the country, and of the mountains and rivers, as above, I asked him, that, seeing the place was so rich, why were they not all princes, or as rich as princes, who dwelt there? He shook his head, and said, it was a great reproach upon them many ways; and, when I pressed him to explain himself, he answered, it was occasioned by two things, namely, pride and sloth. Seignior, says he, we have so much pride that we have no avarice, and we do not covet enough to make us work for it. We walk about sometimes, says he, on the banks of the streams that come down from the mountains, and, if we see a bit of gold lie on the shore, it may be we will vouchsafe to lay off our cloak, and step forward to take it up; but, if we were sure to carry home as much as we could stand under, we would not strip and go to work in the water to wash it out of the sand, or take the pains to get it together; nor perhaps dishonour ourselves so much as to be seen carrying a load, no, not for all the value of the gold itself.
I laughed then, indeed, and told him he was disposed to jest with his 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.
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End of part 10 of 15
Continue readingA New Voyage Round the World (Part 11)
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