A New Voyage Round the World by a Course Never Sailed Before

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.

But still, I asked him if they found no pieces of pure gold; upon this he turned to a great old cabinet, full of pretty large drawers, and, pulling out one drawer, he showed us a surprising number of pieces of pure clean gold, some round, some long, some flat, some thick, all of irregular shapes, and worked roundish at the ends with rolling along on the sands; some of these weighed a quarter of an ounce, some more, and some less; and, as I lifted the drawer, I thought there could be no less than between twenty and thirty pounds weight of it.

Then he pulled out another drawer, which was almost full of the same kind of metal, but as small as sand, the biggest not so big as pins heads, and which might very properly be called gold dust.

After this sight, we were not to be surprised at anything he could show us of the kind. I asked him how long such a treasure might be amassing together in that country? He told me that was according to the pains they might take in the search; that he had been twelve years here, and had done little or nothing; but, had he had twenty negroes to have set on work, as he might have had, he might have procured more than this in one year. I asked him how much gold in weight he thought there might be in all he had shown me? He told me, he could not tell; that they never troubled themselves to weigh, but when the silversmith at St. Jago came to bring home any vessel, or when the merchants from Lima came to Baldivia with European goods, then they bought what they wanted of them. That they were sensible they gave excessive prices for everything, even ten or twenty for one; but as gold, he said, was the growth of that country, and the other things, such as cloth, linen, fine silks, &c., were the gold of Europe, they did not think much to give what was asked for those things. In short, I found that the people in this country, though they kept large plantations in their hands, had great numbers of cattle, ingenios, as they call them, for making sugar, and land, under management, for the maintenance of themselves and families, yet did not wholly neglect the getting gold out of the mountains, where it was in such plenty; and, therefore, it seems the town adjacent is called Villa Rica, or the Rich Town, being seated, as it were, at the foot of the mountains, and in the richest part of them.

After I had sufficiently admired the vast quantity of gold he had, he made signs to the doctor that I should take any piece or any quantity that I pleased; but thought I might take it as an affront to have him offer me any particular small parcel. The doctor hinted to me, and I bade him return him thanks; but to let him know that I would by no means have any of that, but that I would be glad to take up a piece or two, such as chance should present to me, in the mountains, that I might show in my own country, and tell them that I took it up with my own hands. He answered, he would go with me himself; and doubted not but to carry me where I should fully satisfy my curiosity, if I would be content to climb a little among the rocks.

I now began to see plainly that I had no manner of need to have taken his sons for hostages for my safety, and would fain have sent for them back again, but he would by no means give me leave; so I was obliged to give that over. A day or two after, I desired he would give me leave to send for one person more from the ships, who I had a great mind should see the country with me, and to send for some few things that I should want, and, withal, to satisfy my men that I was safe and well.

This he consented to; so I sent away one of the two midshipmen, whom I called my servants, and with him two servants of the Spaniard, my landlord, as I styled him, with four mules and two horses. I gave my midshipman my orders and directions, under my hand, to my supercargo, what to do, for I was resolved to be even with my Spaniard for all his good usage of me. The midshipman and his two companions did not return in less than ten days, for they came back pretty well laden, and were obliged to come all the way on foot.

The whole of this time my landlord and I spent in surveying the country, and viewing his plantation. As for the city of Villa Rica, it was not the most proper to go there in public, and the doctor knew that as well as the Spaniard, and, therefore, though we went several times incognito, yet it was of no consequence to me, neither did I desire it.

One night I had a very strange fright here, and behaved myself very much like a simpleton about it. The case was this. I waked in the middle of the night, and, chancing to open my eyes, I saw a great light of fire, which, to me, seemed as if the house, or some part of it, had been on fire, I, as if I had been at Wapping or Rotherhithe, where people are always terrified with such things, jumped out of bed, and called my friend, Captain Merlotte, and cried out, Fire! fire! The first thing I should have thought of on this occasion should have been, that the Spaniards did not understand what the words fire! fire! meant; and that, if I expected they should understand me, I should have cried Fuego, Fuego!

However, Captain Merlotte got up, and my Madagascar captain, for we all lay near one another, and, with the noise, they waked the whole house; and my landlord, as he afterwards confessed, began to suspect some mischief, his steward having come to his chamber door, and told him that the strangers were up in arms; in which mistake we might have all had our throats cut, and the poor Spaniard not to blame neither.

But our doctor coming hastily in to me, unriddled the whole matter, which was this: that a volcano, or burning vent among the hills, being pretty near the Spanish side of the country, as there are many of them in the Andes, had flamed out that night, and gave such a terrible light in the air as made us think the fire had at least been in the outhouses, or in part of the house, and, accordingly, had put me in such a fright.

Upon this, having told me what it was, he ran away to the Spanish servants, and told them what the meaning of it all was, and bade them go and satisfy their master, which they did, and all was well again; but, as for myself, I sat up almost all the night staring out from the window at the eruption of fire upon the hills, for the like wonderful appearance I had never seen before.

I sincerely begged my landlord's pardon for disturbing his house, and asked him if those eruptions were frequent? He said no, they were not frequent, for they were constant, either in one part of the hills or another; and that in my passing the mountains I should see several of them. I asked him if they were not alarmed with them? and if they were not attended with earthquakes? He said, he believed that among the hills themselves they might have some shakings of the earth, because sometimes were found pieces of the rocks that had been broken off and fallen down; and that it was among those that sometimes parts of stone were found which had gold interspersed in them, as if they had been melted and run together, of which he had shown me some; but that, as for earthquakes in the country, he had never heard of any since he came thither, which had been upwards of fifteen years, including three years that he dwelt at St. Jago.

One day, being out on horseback with my landlord, we rode up close to the mountains, and he showed me at a distance, an entrance as he called it, into them, frightful enough, indeed, as shall be described in its place. He then told me, that was the way he intended to carry me when he should go to show me the highest hills in the world; but he turned short, and, smiling, said it should not be yet; for, though he had promised me a safe return, and left hostages for it, yet he had not capitulated for time.

I told him he need not capitulate with me for time; for if I had not two ships to stay my coming, and between three and four hundred men eating me up all the while, I did not know whether I should ever go away again or not, if he would give me house room. He told me as to that, he had sent my men some provisions, so that they would not starve if I did not go back for some days. This surprised me not a little, and I discovered it in my countenance. Nay, seignior, says he, I have only sent them some victuals to maintain my two hostages, for you know they must not want. It was not good manners in me to ask what he had sent; but I understood, as soon as my midshipman returned, that he had sent down sixteen cows or runts, I know not what else to call them, but they were black cattle, thirty hogs, thirteen large Peruvian sheep, as big as great calves, and three casks of Chilian wine, with an assurance that they should have more provisions when that was spent.

I was amazed at all this munificence of the Spaniard, and very glad I was that I had sent my midshipman for the things I intended to present him with, for I was as well able to requite him for a large present as he was to make it, and had resolved it before I knew he had sent anything to the ships; so that this exchanging of presents was but a kind of generous barter or commerce; for as to gold, we had either of us so much, that it was not at all equal in value to what we had to give on both sides, as we were at present situated.

In short, my midshipman returned with the horses and servants, and when he had brought what I had sent for into a place which I desired the Spaniard to allow me to open my things in, I sent my doctor to desire the Spaniard to let me speak with him.

I told him first, that he must give me his parole of honour not to take amiss what I had to say to him; that it was the custom in our country, at any time, to make presents to the ladies, with the knowledge and consent of their husbands or parents, without any evil design, or without giving any offence, but that I knew it was not so among the Spaniards. That I had not had the honour yet either to see his lady or his daughter, but that I had heard he had both; however, that if he pleased to be the messenger of a trifle I had caused my man to bring, and would present it for me, and not take it as an offence, he should see beforehand what it was, and I would content myself with his accepting it in their behalf.

He told me, smiling, he did not bring me thither to take any presents of me. I had already done enough, in that I had given him his liberty, which was the most valuable gift in the world: and, as to his wife, I had already made her the best present I was able, having given her back her husband. That it is true, it was not the custom of the Spaniards to let their wives appear in any public entertainment of friends, but that he had resolved to break through that custom; and that he had told his wife what a friend I had been to her family, and that she should thank me for it in person; and that then, what present I had designed for her, since I would be a maker of presents, she should do herself the honour to take it with her own hands, and he would be very far from mistaking them, or taking it ill from his wife.

As this was the highest compliment he was able to make me, the more he was obliging in the manner, for he returned in about two hours, leading his wife into the room by the hand, and his daughter following.

I must confess I was surprised, for I did not expect to have seen such a sight in America. The lady's dress, indeed, I cannot easily describe; but she was really a charming woman, of about forty years of age, and covered over with emeralds and diamonds; I mean as to her head. She was veiled till she came into the room, but gave her veil to her woman when her husband took her by the hand. Her daughter I took to be about twelve years old, which the Spaniards count marriageable; she was pretty, but not so handsome as her mother.

After the compliments on both sides, my landlord, as I now call him, told her very handsomely what a benefactor I had been to her family, by redeeming him from the hands of villains; and she, turning to me, thanked me in the most obliging manner, and with a modest graceful way of speech, such as I cannot describe, and which indeed I did not think the Spaniards, who are said to be so haughty, had been acquainted with.

I then desired the doctor to tell the Spaniard, her husband, that I requested his lady to accept a small present which my midshipman had brought for her from the ship, and which I took in my hand, and the Spaniard led his wife forward to take it; and I must needs say it was not a mean present, besides its being of ten times the value in that place as it would have been at London; and I was now very glad that, as I mentioned above, I always reserved a small quantity of all goods unsold, that I might have them to dispose of as occasion should offer.

First, I presented her with a very fine piece of Dutch Holland, worth in London about seven shillings an ell, and thirty-six ells in length, and worth in Chili, to be sure, fifteen pieces of eight per ell, at least; or it was rather likely that all the kingdom of Chili had not such another.

Then I gave her two pieces of China damask, and two pieces of China silks, called atlasses, flowered with gold; two pieces of fine muslin, one flowered the other plain, and a piece of very fine chintz, or printed calico; also a large parcel of spices, made up in elegant papers, being about six pounds of nutmegs, and about twice as many cloves.

And lastly, to the young lady I gave one piece of damask, two pieces of China taffity, and a piece of fine striped muslin.

After all this was delivered, and the ladies had received them, and given them their women to hold, I pulled out a little box in which I had two couple of large pearls, of that pearl which I mentioned we found at the Pearl Islands, very well matched for ear-rings, and gave the lady one pair, and the daughter the other; and now, I think, I had made a present fit for an ambassador to carry to a prince.

The ladies made all possible acknowledgment, and we had the honour that day to dine with them in public. My landlord, the Spaniard, told me I had given them such a present as the viceroy of Mexico's lady would have gone fifty leagues to have received.

But I had not done with my host; for after dinner, I took him into the same room, and told him I hoped he did not think I had made all my presents to the ladies, and had nothing left to show my respect to him; and therefore, first, I presented him with three negro men, which I had bought at Callao for my own use, but knew I could supply myself again, at or in my way home, at a moderate price; in the next place, I gave him three pieces of black Colchester baize, which, though they are coarse ordinary things in England, that a footman would scarce wear, are a habit for a prince in that country. I then gave him a piece of very fine English serge, which was really very valuable in England, but much more there, and another piece of crimson broadcloth, and six pieces of fine silk druggets for his two sons; and thus I finished my presents. The Spaniard stood still and looked on all the while I was laying out my presents to him, as one in a transport, and said not one word till all was over; but then he told me very gravely, that it was now time for him to turn me out of his house: For seignior, says he, no man ought to suffer himself to be obliged beyond his power of return, and I have no possible way of making any return to you equal to such things as these.

It is true the present I had made him, if it was to be rated by the value of things in the country where it then was, would have been valued at six or seven hundred pounds sterling; but, to reckon them as they cost me, did not altogether amount to above one hundred pounds, except the three negroes, which, indeed, cost me at Lima one thousand two hundred pieces of eight.

He was as sensible of the price of those negroes as I was of the occasion he had of them, and of the work he had to do for them; and he came to me about an hour after, and told me he had looked over all the particulars of the noble presents which I had made them; and though the value was too great for him to accept, or for any man to offer him, yet since I had been at so much trouble to send for the things, and that I thought him worthy such a bounty, he was come back to tell me that he accepted thankfully all my presents, both to himself and to his wife and daughter, except only the three negroes; and as they were bought in the country, and were the particular traffick of the place, he could not take them as a present, but would be equally obliged, and take it for as much a favour if I would allow him to pay for them.

I smiled, and told him he and I would agree upon that; for he did not yet know what favours I had to ask of him, and what expense I should put him to; that I had a great design in my view, which I was to crave his assistance in, and which I had not yet communicated to him, in which he might perhaps find that he would pay dear enough for all the little presents I had made him; and, in the meantime, to make himself easy as to the three negro men, I gave him my word that he should pay for them, only not yet.

He could have nothing to object against an offer of this kind, because he could not guess what I meant, but gave me all the assurance of service and assistance that lay in his power in anything that I might have to do in that country.

But here, by the way, it ought to be understood, that all this was carried on with a supposition that we acted under a commission from the King of France; and though he knew many of us were English, and that I was an Englishman in particular, yet as we had such a commission, and produced it, we were Frenchmen in that sense to him, nor did he entertain us under any other idea.

The sequel of this story will also make it sufficiently appear that I did not make such presents as these in mere ostentation, or only upon the compliment of a visit to a Spanish gentleman, any more than I would leave my ship and a cargo of such value, in the manner I had done, to make a tour into the country, if I had not had views sufficient to justify such measures; and the consequence of those measures will be the best apology for my conduct, with all who will impartially consider them.

We had now spent a fortnight, and something more, in ceremony and civilities, and in now and then taking a little tour about the fields and towards the mountains. However, even in this way of living I was not so idle as I seemed to be, for I not only made due observations of all the country which I saw, but informed myself sufficiently of the parts which I did not see. I found the country not only fruitful in the soil, but wonderfully temperate and agreeable in its climate. The air, though hot, according to its proper latitude, yet that heat so moderated by the cool breezes from the mountains, that it was rather equal to the plain countries in other parts of the world in the latitude of 50° than to a climate in 38 to 40°.

This gave the inhabitants the advantages, not only of pleasant and agreeable living, but also of a particular fertility which hot climates are not blessed with, especially as to corn, the most necessary of all productions, such as wheat, I mean European wheat, or English wheat, which grew here as well and as kindly as in England, which in Peru and in the Isthmus of America will by no means thrive for want of moisture and cold.

Here were also an excellent middling breed of black cattle, which the natives fed under the shade of the mountains and on the banks of the rivers till they came to be very fat. In a word, here were, or might be produced, all the plants, fruits, and grain, of a temperate climate. At the same time, the orange, lemon, citron, pomegranate, and figs, with a moderate care would come to a very tolerable perfection in their gardens, and even sugar canes in some places, though these last but rarely, and not without great art in the cultivation, and chiefly in gardens.

I was assured, that farther southward, beyond Baldivia, and to the latitude of 47 to 49°, the lands were esteemed richer than where we now were, the grass more strengthening and nourishing for the cattle, and that, consequently, the black cattle, horses, and hogs, were all of a larger breed. But that, as the Spaniards had no settlement beyond Baldivia to the south, so they did not find the natives so tractable as where we then were; where, though the Spaniards were but few, and the strength they had was but small, yet, as upon any occasion they had always been assisted with forces sufficient from St. Jago, and, if need were, even from Peru, so the natives had always been subdued, and had found themselves obliged to submit; and that now they were entirely reduced, and were, and had been for several years, very easy and quiet. Besides, the plentiful harvest which they made of gold from the mountains (which appeared to be the great allurement of the Spaniards), had drawn them rather to settle here than farther southward, being naturally addicted, as my new landlord confessed to me, to reap the harvest which had the least labour and hazard attending it, and the most profit.