Chapter X: Part 10

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 deg. than to a climate in 38 to 40 deg..

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 deg., 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.

Not but that, at the same time, he confessed that he believed and had heard that there was as much gold to be found farther to the south, as far as the mountains continued; but that, as I have said, the natives were more troublesome there, and more dangerous, and that the king of Spain did not allow troops sufficient to civilize and reduce them.

I asked him concerning the natives in the country where we were? He told me they were the most quiet and inoffensive people, since the Spaniards had reduced them by force, that could be desired; that they were not, indeed, numerous or warlike, the warlike and obstinate part of them having fled farther off to the south, as they were overpowered by the Spaniards; that, for those who were left, they lived secure under the protection of the Spanish governor; that they fed cattle and planted the country, and sold the product of their lands chiefly to the Spaniards; but that they did not covet to be rich, only to obtain clothes, arms, powder and shot, which, however, they were suffered to have but sparingly, and with good assurance of their fidelity. I asked him if they were not treacherous and perfidious, and if it was not dangerous trusting themselves among them in the mountains, and in the retired places where they dwelt? He told me that it was quite the contrary; that they were so honest, and so harmless, that he would at any time venture to send his two sons into the mountains a-hunting, with each of them a Chilian for his guide; and let them stay with the said natives two or three nights and days at a time, and be in no uneasiness about them; and that none of them were ever known to do any foul or treacherous thing by the Spaniards, since he had been in that country.

Having thus finally informed myself of things, I began now to think it was high time to have a sight of the particulars which I came to inquire after, viz., the passages of the mountains, and the wonders that were to be discovered on the other side; and, accordingly, I took my patron, the Spaniard, by himself, and told him that as I was a traveller, and was now in such a remote part of the world, he could not but think I should be glad to see everything extraordinary that was to be seen, that I might be able to give some account of the world when I came into Europe, better and differing from what others had done who had been there before me; and that I had a great mind, if he would give me his assistance, to enter into the passages and valleys which he had told me so much of in the mountains; and, if it was possible, which, indeed, I had always thought it was not, to take a prospect of the world on the other side.

He told me it was not a light piece of work, and perhaps the discoveries might not answer my trouble, there being little to be seen but steep precipices, inhospitable rocks, and impassable mountains, immuring us on every side, innumerable rills and brooks of water falling from the cliffs, making a barbarous and unpleasant sound, and that sound echoed and reverberated from innumerable cavities among the rocks, and these all pouring down into one middle stream, which we should always find on one side or other of us as we went; and that sometimes we should be obliged to pass those middle streams, as well as the rills and brooks on the sides, without a bridge, and at the trouble of pulling off our clothes.

He told us that we should meet, indeed, with provisions enough, and with an innocent, harmless people, who, according to their ability, would entertain us very willingly; but that I, who was a stranger, would be sorely put to it for lodging, especially for so many of us.

However, he said, as he had perhaps at first raised this curiosity in me, by giving me a favourable account of the place, he would be very far from discouraging me now; and that, if I resolved to go, he would not only endeavour to make everything as pleasant to me as he could, but that he and his major-domo would go along with me, and see us safe through and safe home again; but desired me not to be in too much haste, for that he must make some little preparation for the journey, which, as he told us, might perhaps take us up fourteen or sixteen days forward, and as much back again; not, he said, that it was necessary that we should be so long going and coming, as that he supposed I would take time to see everything which I might think worth seeing, and not be in so much haste as if I was sent express. I told him he was very much in the right; that I did not desire to make a thing which I had expected so much pleasure in, be a toil to me more than needs must; and, above all, that as I supposed I should not return into these parts very soon, I would not take a cursory view of a place which I expected would be so well worth seeing, and let it be known to all I should speak of it to, that I wanted to see it again before I could give a full account of it.

Well, seignior, says he, we will not be in haste, or view it by halves; for, if wild and uncouth places be a diversion to you, I promise myself your curiosity shall be fully gratified; but as to extraordinary things, rarities in nature, and surprising incidents, which foreigners expect, I cannot say much to those. However, what think you, seignior, says he, if we should take a tour a little way into the entrance of the hills which I showed you the other day, and look upon the gate of this gulf? Perhaps your curiosity may be satisfied with the first day's prospect, which I assure you will be none of the most pleasant, and you may find yourself sick of the enterprise.

I told him, no; I was so resolved upon the attempt, since he, who I was satisfied would not deceive me, had represented it as so feasible, and especially since he had offered to conduct me through it, that I would not, for all the gold that was in the mountains, lay it aside. He shook his head at that expression, and, smiling at the doctor, says he, This gentleman little thinks that there is more gold in these mountains, nay, even in this part where we are, than there is above ground in the whole world. Partly understanding what he said, I answered, my meaning was to let him see that nothing could divert me from the purpose of viewing the place, unless he himself forbade me, which I hoped he would not; and that, as for looking a little way into the passage, to try if the horror of the place would put a check to my curiosity, I would not give him that trouble, seeing, the more terrible and frightful, the more difficult and impracticable it was, provided it could be mastered at last, the more it would please me to attempt and overcome it.

Nay, nay, seignior, said he, pleasantly, there is nothing difficult or impracticable in it, nor is it anything but what the country people, and even some of our nation, perform every day; and that not only by themselves, either for sport in pursuit of game, but even with droves of cattle, which they go with from place to place, as to a market or a fair; and, therefore, if the horror of the cliffs and precipices, the noises of the volcanos, the fire, and such things as you may hear and see above you, will not put a stop to your curiosity, I assure you, you shall not meet with anything impassable or impracticable below, nor anything but, with the assistance of God and the Blessed Virgin (and then he crossed himself, and so we did all), we shall go cheerfully over.

Finding, therefore, that I was thus resolutely bent upon the enterprise, but not in the least guessing at my design, he gave order to have servants and mules provided, for mules are much fitter to travel among the hills than horses; and, in four days he promised to be ready for a march.

I had nothing to do in all these four days but to walk abroad, and, as we say, look about me; but I took this opportunity to give instructions to my two midshipmen, who were called my servants, in what they were to do.

First, I charged them to make landmarks, bearings, and beacons, as we might call them, upon the rocks above them, and at every turning in the way below them, also at the reaches and windings of the rivers and brooks, falls of water, and everything remarkable, and to keep each of them separate and distinct journals of those things, not only to find the way back again by the same steps, but that they might be able to find that way afterwards by themselves, and without guides, which was the foundation and true intent of all the rest of my undertaking; and, as I knew these were both capable to do it, and had courage and fidelity to undertake it, I had singled them out for the attempt, and had made them fully acquainted with my whole scheme, and, consequently, they knew the meaning and reason of my present discourse with them. They promised not to fail to show me a plan of the hills, with the bearings of every point, one with another, where every step was to be taken, and every turning to the right hand or to the left, and such a journal, I believe, was never seen before or since, but it is too long for this place. I shall, however, take out the heads of it as I proceed, which may serve as a general description of the place.

The evening of the fourth day, as he had appointed, my friend, the Spaniard, let me know, that he was ready to set out, and accordingly we began our cavalcade. My retinue consisted of six, as before, and we had mules provided for us; my two midshipmen, as servants, had two mules given them also for their baggage, the Spaniard had six also, viz., his gentleman, or, as I called him before, his major-domo, on horseback, that is to say, on muleback, with mules for his baggage, and four servants on foot. Just before we set out, his gentleman brought each of us a fuzee, and our two servants each a harquebuss, or short musket, with cartouches, powder, and ball, together with a pouch and small shot, such as we call swan-shot, for fowls or deer, as we saw occasion.

I was as well pleased with this circumstance as with any my landlord had done, because I had not so entire a confidence in the native Chilians as he had; but I saw plainly, some time after, that I was wrong, for nothing could be more honest, quiet, and free from design, than those people, except the poor honest people where we dressed up the king and queen, as already mentioned.

We were late in the morning before we got out, having all this equipage to furnish, and, travelling very gently, it was about two hours before sunset when we came to the entrance of the mountains, where, to my surprise, I found we were to go in upon a level, without any ascent, at least that was considerable. We had, indeed, gone up upon a sharp ascent, for near two miles, before we came to the place.

The entrance was agreeable enough, the passage being near half a mile broad. On the left hand was a small river, whose channel was deep, but the water shallow, there having been but little rain for some time; the water ran very rapid, and, as my Spaniard told me, was sometimes exceeding fierce. The entrance lay inclining a little south, and was so straight, that we could see near a mile before us; but the prodigious height of the hills on both sides, and before us, appearing one over another, gave such a prospect of horror, that I confess it was frightful at first to look on the stupendous altitude of the rocks; everything above us looking one higher than another was amazing; and to see how in some places they hung over the river, and over the passage, it created a dread of being overwhelmed with them.

The rocks and precipices of the Andes, on our right hand, had here and there vast cliffs and entrances, which looked as if they had been different thoroughfares; but, when we came to look full into them, we could see no passage at the farther end, and that they went off in slopes, and with gulleys made by the water, which, in hasty rains, came pouring down from the hills, and which, at a distance, made such noises as it is impossible to conceive, unless by having seen and heard the like before; for the water, falling from a height twenty times as high as our own Monument, and, perhaps, much higher, and meeting in the passage with many dashes and interruptions, it is impossible to describe how the sound, crossing and interfering, mingled itself, and the several noises sunk one into another, increasing the whole, as the many waters joining increased the main stream.

We entered this passage about two miles the first night; after the first length, which as I said, held about three quarters of a mile, we turned away to the south, short on the right hand; the river leaving us, seemed to come through a very narrow but deep hollow of the mountains, where there was little more breadth at the bottom than the channel took up, though the rocks inclined backward as they ascended, as placed in several stages, though all horrid and irregular; and we could see nothing but blackness and terror all the way. I was glad our passage did not turn on that side, but wondered that we should leave the river, and the more when I found, that in the way we went, having first mounted gently a green pleasant slope, it declined again, and we saw a new rivulet begin in the middle, and the water running south-east or thereabouts. This discovery made me ask if the water went away into the new world beyond the hills? My patron smiled, and said, No seignior, not yet; we shall meet with the other river again very quickly; and so we found it again the next morning.

When we came a little farther, we found the passage open, and we came to a very pleasant plain, which declined a little gradually, widening to the left, or east side; on the right side of this we saw another vast opening like the first, which went in about half a mile, and then closed up as the first had done, sloping up to the top of the hills, a most astonishing inconceivable height.

My patron stopping here, and getting down, or alighting from his mule, gave him to his man, and asking me to alight, told me this was the first night's entertainment I was to meet with in the Andes, and hoped I was prepared for it. I told him, that I might very well consent to accept of such entertainment, in a journey of my own contriving, as he was content to take up with, in compliment to me.

I looked round to see if there were any huts or cots of the mountaineers thereabouts, but I perceived none; only I observed something like a house, and it was really a house of some of the said mountaineers, upon the top of a precipice as high from where we stood, as the summit of the cupola of St. Paul's, and I saw some living creatures, whether men or women I could not tell, looking from thence down upon us. However, I understood afterwards that they had ways to come at their dwelling, which were very easy and agreeable, and had lanes and plains where they fed their cattle, and had everything growing that they desired.

My patron, making a kind of an invitation to me to walk, took me up that dark chasm, or opening, on the right hand, which I have just mentioned. Here, sir, said he, if you will venture to walk a few steps, it is likely we may show you some of the product of this country; but, recollecting that night was approaching, he added, I see it is too dark; perhaps it will be better to defer it till the morning. Accordingly, we walked back towards the place where we had left our mules and servants, and, when we came thither, there was a complete camp fixed, three very handsome tents raised, and a bar set up at a distance, where the mules were tied one to another to graze, and the servants and the baggage lay together, with an open tent over them.

My patron led me into the first tent, and told me he was obliged to let me know that I must make a shift with that lodging, the place not affording any better.

Here we had quilts laid very commodiously for me and my three comrades, and we lodged very comfortably; but, before we went to rest, we had the third tent to go to, in which there was a very handsome table, covered with a cold treat of roasted mutton and beef, very well dressed, some potted or baked venison, with pickles, conserves, and fine sweetmeats of various sorts.

Here we ate very freely, but he bade us depend upon it that we should not fare so well the next night, and so it would be worse every night, till we came to lie entirely at a mountaineer's; but he was better to us than he pretended.

In the morning, we had our chocolate as regularly as we used to have it in his own house, and we were soon ready to pursue our journey. We went winding now from the south-east to the left, till our course looked east by north, when we came again to have the river in view. But I should have observed here, that my two midshipmen, and two of my patron's servants, had, by his direction, been very early in the morning climbing up the rocks in the opening on the right hand, and had come back again about a quarter of an hour after we set out; when, missing my two men, I inquired for them, and my patron said they were coming; for, it seems he saw them at a distance, and so we halted for them.

When they were come almost up to us, he called to his men in Spanish, to ask if they had had Una bon vejo? They answered, Poco, poco; and when they came quite up, one of my midshipmen showed me three or four small bits of clean perfect gold, which they had picked up in the hill or gullet where the water trickled down from the rocks; and the Spaniard told them that, had they had time, they should have found much more, the water being quite down, and nobody having been there since the last hard rain. One of the Spaniards had three small bits in his hand also. I said nothing for the present, but charged my midshipmen to mark the place, and so we went on.

We followed up the stream of this water for three days more, encamping every night as before, in which time we passed by several such openings into the rocks on either side. On the fourth day we had the prospect of a very pleasant valley and river below us, on the north side, keeping its course almost in the middle; the valley reaching near four miles in length, and in some places near two miles broad.

This sight was perfectly surprising, because here we found the vale fruitful, level, and inhabited, there being several small villages or clusters of houses, such as the Chilians live in, which are low houses, covered with a kind of sedge, and sheltered with little rows of thick grown trees, but of what kind we knew not.

We saw no way through the valley, nor which way we were to go out, but perceived it everywhere bounded with prodigious mountains, look to which side of it we would. We kept still on the right, which was now the south-east side of the river, and as we followed it up the stream, it was still less than at first, and lessened every step we went, because of the number of rills we left behind us; and here we encamped the fifth time, and all this time the Spanish gentleman victualled us; then we turned again to the right, where we had a new and beautiful prospect of another valley, as broad as the other, but not above a mile in length.

After we had passed through this valley, my patron rode up to a poor cottage of a Chilian Indian without any ceremony, and calling us all about him, told us that there we would go to dinner. We saw a smoke indeed _in_ the house, rather than coming _out_ of it; and the little that did, smothered through a hole in the roof instead of a chimney. However, to this house, as an inn, my patron had sent away his major-domo and another servant; and there they were, as busy as two professed cooks, boiling and stewing goats' flesh and fowls, making up soups, broths, and other messes, which it seems they were used to provide, and which, however homely the cottage was, we found very savoury and good.

Immediately a loose tent was pitched, and we had our table set up, and dinner served in; and afterwards, having reposed ourselves (as the custom there is), we were ready to travel again.

I had leisure all this while to observe and wonder at the admirable structure of this part of the country, which may serve, in my opinion, for the eighth wonder of the world; that is to say, supposing there were but seven before. We had in the middle of the day, indeed, a very hot sun, and the reflection from the mountains made it still hotter; but the height of the rocks on every side began to cast long shadows before three o'clock, except where the openings looked towards the west; and as soon as those shadows reached us, the cool breezes of the air came naturally on, and made our way exceeding pleasant and refreshing.

The place we were in was green and flourishing, and the soil well cultivated by the poor industrious Chilians, who lived here in perfect solitude, and pleased with their liberty from the tyranny of the Spaniards, who very seldom visited them, and never molested them, being pretty much out of their way, except when they came for hunting and diversion, and then they used the Chilians always civilly, because they were obliged to them for their assistance in their diversions, the Chilians of those valleys being very active, strong, and nimble fellows.

By this means most of them were furnished with fire-arms, powder, and shot, and were very good marksmen; but, as to violence against any one, they entertained no thought of that kind, as I could perceive, but were content with their way of living, which was easy and free.

The tops of the mountains here, the valleys being so large, were much plainer to be seen than where the passages were narrow, for there the height was so great that we could see but little. Here, at several distances (the rocks towering one over another), we might see smoke come out of some, snow lying upon others, trees and bushes growing all around; and goats, wild asses, and other creatures, which we could hardly distinguish, running about in various parts of the country.

When we had passed through this second valley, I perceived we came to a narrower passage, and something like the first; the entrance into it indeed was smooth, and above a quarter of a mile broad, and it went winding away to the north, and then again turned round to the north-east, afterwards almost due-east, and then to the south-east, and so to south-south-east; and this frightful narrow strait, with the hanging rocks almost closing together on the top, whose height we could neither see nor guess at, continued about three days' journey more, most of the way ascending gently before us. As to the river, it was by this time quite lost; but we might see, that on any occasion of rain, or of the melting of the snow on the mountains, there was a hollow in the middle of the valley through which the water made its way, and on either hand, the sides of the hills were full of the like gulleys, made by the violence of the rain, where, not the earth only, but the rocks themselves, even the very stone, seemed to be worn and penetrated by the continual fall of the water.

Here my patron showed me, that in the hollow which I mentioned in the middle of this way, and at the bottom of those gulleys, or places worn as above in the rocks, there were often found pieces of gold, and sometimes, after a rain, very great quantities; and that there were few of the little Chilian cottages which I had seen where they had not sometimes a pound or two of gold dust and lumps of gold by them, and he was mistaken, if I was willing to stay and make the experiment, if we did not find some even then, in a very little search.

The Chilian mountaineer at whose house we stopped to dine had gone with us, and he hearing my patron say thus, ran presently to the hollow channel in the middle, where there was a kind of fail or break in it, which the water, by falling perhaps two or three feet, had made a hollow deeper than the rest, and which, though there was no water then running, yet had water in it, perhaps the quantity of a barrel or two. Here, with the help of two of the servants and a kind of scoop, he presently threw out the water, with the sand, and whatever was at bottom among it, into the ordinary watercourse; the water falling thus hard, every scoopful upon the sand or earth that came out of the scoop before it, washed a great deal of it away; and among that which remained, we might plainly see little lumps of gold shining as big as grains of sand, and sometimes one or two a little bigger.

This was demonstration enough to us. I took up some small grains of it, about the quantity of half a quarter of an ounce, and left my midshipmen to take up more, and they stayed indeed so long, that they could scarce see their way to overtake us, and brought away about two ounces in all, the Chilian and the servants freely giving them all they found.

When we had travelled about nine miles more in this winding frightful narrow way, it began to grow towards night, and my patron talked of taking up our quarters as we had before; but his gentleman put him in a mind of a Chilian, one of their old servants, who lived in a turning among the mountains, about half a mile out of our way, and where we might be accommodated with a house, or place at least, for our cookery. Very true, says our patron, we will go thither; and there, seignior, says he, turning to me, you shall see an emblem of complete felicity, even in the middle of this seat of horror; and you shall see a prince greater, and more truly so, than King Philip, who is the greatest man in the world.

Accordingly we went softly on, his gentleman having advanced before, and in about half a mile we found a turning or opening on our left, where we beheld a deep large valley, almost circular, and of about a mile diameter, and abundance of houses or cottages interspersed all over it, so that the whole valley looked like an inhabited village, and the ground like a planted garden.

We who, as I said, had been for some miles ascending, were so high above the valley, that it looked as the lowlands in England do below Box Hill in Surrey; and I was going to ask how we should get down? but, as we were come into a wider space than before, so we had more daylight; for though the hollow way had rendered it near dusk before, now it was almost clear day again.

Here we parted with the first Chilian that I mentioned, and I ordered one of my midshipmen to give him a hat, and a piece of black baize, enough to make him a cloak, which so obliged the man that he knew not what way to testify his joy; but I knew what I was doing in this, and I ordered my midshipman to do it that he might make his acquaintance with him against another time, and it was not a gift ill bestowed, as will appear in its place.

We were now obliged to quit our mules, who all took up their quarters at the top of the hill, while we, by footings made in the rocks, descended, as we might say, down a pair of stairs of half a mile long, but with many plain places between, like foot-paces, for the ease of going and coming.

Thus, winding and turning to avoid the declivity of the hill, we came very safe to the bottom, where my patron's gentleman brought our new landlord, that was to be, who came to pay his compliments to us.

He was dressed in a jerkin made of otter-skin, like a doublet, a pair of long Spanish breeches, of leather dressed after the Spanish fashion, green, and very soft, and which looked very well, but what the skin was, I could not guess; he had over it a mantle of a kind of cotton, dyed in two or three grave brown colours, and thrown about him like a Scotsman's plaid; he had shoes of a particular make, tied on like sandals, flat-heeled, no stockings, his breeches hanging down below the calf of his leg, and his shoes lacing up above his ancles. He had on a cap of the skin of some small beast like a racoon, with a bit of the tail hanging out from the crown of his head backward, a long pole in his hand, and a servant, as oddly dressed as himself, carried his gun; he had neither spado nor dagger.

When our patron came up, the Chilian stepped forward and made him three very low bows, and then they talked together, not in Spanish, but in a kind of mountain jargon, some Spanish, and some Chilian, of which I scarce understood one word. After a few words, I understood he said something of a stranger come to see, and then, I supposed, added, the passages of the mountains; then the Chilian came towards me, made me three bows, and bade me welcome in Spanish. As soon as he had said that, he turns to his barbarian, I mean his servant, for he was as ugly a looked fellow as ever I saw, and taking his gun from him presented it to me. My patron bade me take it, for he saw me at a loss what to do, telling me that it was the greatest compliment that a Chilian could pay to me; he would be very ill pleased and out of humour if it was not accepted, and would think we did not want to be friendly with him.

As we had not given this Chilian any notice of our coming, more than a quarter of an hour, we could not expect great matters of entertainment, and, as we carried our provision with us, we did not stand in much need of it; but we had no reason to complain.