Chapter XI: Part 11

This man's habitation was the same as the rest, low, and covered with a sedge, or a kind of reed which we found grew very plentifully in the valley where he lived; he had several pieces of ground round his dwelling, enclosed with walls made very artificially with small stones and no mortar; these enclosed grounds were planted with several kinds of garden-stuff for his household, such as plantains, Spanish cabbages, green cocoa, and other things of the growth of their own country, and two of them with European wheat.

He had five or six apartments in his house, every one of them had a door into the open air, and into one another, and two of them were very large and decent, had long tables on one side, made after their own way, and benches to sit to them, like our country people's long tables in England, and mattresses like couches all along the other side, with skins of several sorts of wild creatures laid on them to repose on in the heat of the day, as is the usage among the Spaniards.

Our people set up their tents and beds abroad as before; but my patron told me the Chilian would take it very ill if he and I did not take up our lodging in his house, and we had two rooms provided, very magnificent in their way.

The mattress we lay on had a large canopy over it, spread like the crown of a tent, and covered with a large piece of cotton, white as milk, and which came round every way like a curtain, so that if it had been in the open field it would have been a complete covering. The bed, such as it was, might be nearly as hard as a quilt, and the covering was of the same cotton as the curtain-work, which, it seems, is the manufacture of the Chilian women, and is made very dexterously; it looked wild, but agreeably enough, and proper to the place, so I slept very comfortably in it.

But, I must confess, I was surprised at the aspect of things in the night here. It was, as I told you above, near night when we came to this man's cottage (palace I should have called it), and, while we were taking our repast, which was very good, it grew quite night.

We had wax candles brought in to accommodate us with light, which, it seems, my patron's man had provided; and the place had so little communication with the air by windows, that we saw nothing of what was without doors.

After supper my patron turned to me and said, Come, seignior, prepare yourself to take a walk. What! in the dark, said I, in such a country as this? No, no, says he, it is never dark here, you are now come to the country of everlasting day; what think you? is not this Elysium? I do not understand you, answered I. But you will presently, says he, when I shall show you that it is now lighter abroad than when we came in. Soon after this some of the servants opened the door that went into the next room, and the door of that room, which opened in the air, stood open, from whence a light of fire shone into the outer room, and so farther into ours. What are they burning there? said I to my patron. You will see presently, says he, adding, I hope you will not be surprised, and then he led me to the outer door.

But who can express the thoughts of a man's heart, coming on a sudden into a place where the whole world seemed to be on fire! The valley was, on one side, so exceeding bright the eye could scarce bear to look at it; the sides of the mountains were shining like the fire itself; the flame from the top of the mountain on the other side casting its light directly upon them. From thence the reflection into other parts looked red, and more terrible; for the first was white and clear, like the light of the sun; but the other, being, as it were, a reflection of light mixed with some darker cavities, represented the fire of a furnace; and, in short, it might well be said here was no darkness; but certainly, at the first view, it gives a traveller no other idea than that of being at the very entrance into eternal horror.

All this while there was no fire, that is to say, no real flame to be seen, only, that where the flame was it shone clearly into the valley; but the vulcano, or vulcanoes, from whence the fire issued out (for it seems there was no less than three of them, though at the distance of some miles from one another), were on the south and east sides of the valley, which was so much on that side where we were, that we could see nothing but the light; neither on the other side could they see any more, it seems, than just the top of the flame, not knowing anything of the places from whence it issued out, which no mortal creature, no, not of the Chilians themselves, were ever hardy enough to go near. Nor would it be possible, if any should attempt it, the tops of the hills, for many leagues about them, being covered with new mountains of ashes and stones, which are daily cast out of the mouths of those volcanoes, by which they grew every day higher than they were before, and which would overwhelm, not only men, but whole armies of men, if they should venture to come near them.

When first we came into the long narrow way I mentioned last, I observed, as I thought, the wind blew very hard aloft among the hills, and that it made a noise like thunder, which I thought nothing of, but as a thing usual. But now, when I came to this terrible sight, and that I heard the same thunder, and yet found the air calm and quiet, I soon understood that it was a continued thunder, occasioned by the roaring of the fire in the bowels of the mountains.

It must be some time, as may be supposed, before a traveller, unacquainted with such things, could make them familiar to him; and though the horror and surprise might abate, after proper reflections on the nature and reason of them, yet I had a kind of astonishment upon me for a great while; every different place to which I turned my eye presented me with a new scene of horror. I was for some time frighted at the fire being, as it were, over my head, for I could see nothing of it; but that the air looked as if it were all on fire; and I could not persuade myself but it would cast down the rocks and mountains on my head; but I was laughed out of that notion by the company.

After a while, I asked them if these volcanoes did not cast out a kind of liquid fire, as I had seen an account of on the eruptions at Mount-AEtna, which cast out, as we are told, a prodigious stream of fire, and run several leagues into the sea?

Upon my putting this question to my patron, he asked the Chilian how long ago it was since such a stream, calling it by a name of their own, ran fire? He answered, it ran now, and if we were disposed to walk but three furlongs we should see it.

He said little to me, but asked me if I cared to walk a little way by this kind of light? I told him it was a surprising place we were in, but I supposed he would lead me into no danger.

He said he would assure me he would lead me into no danger; that these things were very familiar to them, but that I might depend there was no hazard, and that the flames which gave all this light were six or seven miles off, and some of them more.

We walked along the plain of the valley about half a mile, when another great valley opened to the right, and gave us a more dreadful prospect than any we had seen before; for at the farther end of this second valley, but at the distance of three miles from where we stood, we saw a livid stream of fire come running down the sides of the mountain for near three quarters of a mile in length, running like melted metal into a mould, until, I supposed, as it came nearer the bottom, it cooled and separated, and so went out of itself.

Beyond this, over the summit of a prodigious mountain, we could see the tops of the clear flame of a volcano, a dreadful one, no doubt, could we have seen it all; and from the mouth of which it was supposed this stream of fire came, though the Chilian assured us that the fire itself was eight leagues off, and that the liquid fire which we saw came out of the side of the mountain, and was two leagues from the great volcano itself, running like liquid metal out of a furnace.

They told me there was a great deal of melted gold ran down with the other inflamed earth in that stream, and that much of the metal was afterwards found there; but this I was to take upon trust.

The sight, as will easily be supposed, was best at a distance, and, indeed, I had enough of it. As for my two midshipmen, they were almost frightened out of all their resolutions of going any farther in this horrible place; and when we stopped they came mighty seriously to me, and begged, for God's sake, not to venture any farther upon the faith of these Spaniards, for that they would certainly carry us all into some mischief or other, and betray us.

I bade them be easy, for I saw nothing in it all that looked like treachery; that it was true, indeed, it was a terrible place to look on, but it seemed to be no more than what was natural and familiar there, and we should be soon out of it.

They told me very seriously that they believed it was the mouth of hell, and that, in short, they were not able to bear it, and entreated me to go back. I told them I could not think of that, but if they could not endure it, I would give consent that they should go back in the morning. However, we went for the present to the Chilian's house again, where we got a plentiful draught of Chilian wine, for my patron had taken care to have a good quantity of it with us; and in the morning my two midshipmen, who got very drunk over night, had courage enough to venture forward again; for the light of the sun put quite another face upon things, and nothing of the fire was then to be seen, only the smoke.

All our company lodged in the tents here, but myself and my patron, the Spaniard, who lodged within the Chilian's house, as I have said.

This Chilian was a great man among the natives, and all the valley I spoke of, which lay round his dwelling, was called his own. He lived in a perfect state of tranquility, neither enjoying or coveting anything but what was necessary, and wanting nothing that was so. He had gold merely for the trouble of picking it up, for it was found in all the little gulleys and rills of water which, as I have said, came down from the mountains on every side; yet I did not find that he troubled himself to lay up any great quantity, more than served to go to Villa Rica and buy what he wanted for himself and family.

He had, it seems, a wife and some daughters, but no sons; these lived in a separate house, about a furlong from that where he lived, and were kept there as a family by themselves, and if he had any sons they would have lived with him.

He did not offer to go with us any part of our way, as the other had done, but, having entertained us with great civility, took his leave. I caused one of my midshipmen to make him a present, when we came away, of a piece of black baize, enough to make him a cloak, as I did the other, and a piece of blue English serge, enough to make him a jerkin and breeches, which he accepted as a great bounty.

We set out again, though not very early in the morning, having, as I said, sat up late, and drank freely over night, and we found, that after we had been gone to sleep it had rained very hard, and though the rain was over before we went out, yet the falling of the water from the hills made such a confused noise, and was echoed so backward and forward from all sides, that it was like a strange mixture of distant thunder, and though we knew the causes, yet it could not but be surprising to us for awhile.

However, we set forward, the way under foot being pretty good; and first he went up the steps again by which we had come down, our last host waiting on us thither, and there I gave him back his gun, for he would not take it before.

In this valley, which was the pleasantest by day and the most dismal by night that ever I saw, I observed abundance of goats, as well tame in the enclosures, as wild upon the rocks; and we found afterwards, that the last were perfectly wild, and to be had, like those at Juan Fernandez, by any one who could catch them. My patron sent off two of his men, just as a huntsman casts off his hounds, to go and catch goats, and they brought us in three, which they shot in less than half an hour, and these we carried with us for our evening supply; for we made no dinner this day, having fed heartily in the morning about nine, and had chocolate two hours before that.

We travelled now along the narrow winding passage, which I mentioned before, for about four hours, until I found, that though we had ascended but gently, yet that, as we had done so for almost twenty miles together, we were got up to a frightful height, and I began to expect some very difficult descent on the other side; but we were made easy about two o'clock, when the way not only declined again to the east, but grew wider, though with frequent turnings and windings about, so that we could seldom see above half a mile before us.

We went on thus pretty much on a level, now rising, now falling; but still I found that we were a very great height from our first entrance, and, as to the running of the water, I found that it flowed neither east nor west, but ran all down the little turnings that we frequently met with on the north side of our way, which my patron told me fell all into the great valley where we saw the fire, and so passed off by a general channel north-west, until it found its way out into the open country of Chili, and so to the South Seas.

We were now come to another night's lodging, which we were obliged to take up with on the green grass, as we did the first night; but, by the help of our proveditor-general, my patron, we fared very well, our goat's flesh being reduced into so many sorts of venison, that none of us could distinguish it from the best venison we ever tasted.

Here we slept without any of the frightful things we saw the night before, except that we might see the light of the fire in the air at a great distance, like a great city in flames, but that gave us no disturbance at all.

In the morning our two hunters shot a deer, or rather a young fawn, before we were awake, and this was the first we met with in this part of our travel, and thus we were provided for dinner even before breakfast-time; as for our breakfast, it was always a Spanish one, that is to say, about a pint of chocolate.

We set out very merrily in the morning, and we that were Englishmen could not refrain smiling at one another, to think how we passed through a country where the gold lay in every ditch, as we might call it, and never troubled ourselves so much as to stoop to take it up; so certain is it, that it is easy to be placed in a station of life where that very gold, the heaping up of which is elsewhere made the main business of man's living in the world, would be of no value, and not worth taking off from the ground; nay, not of signification enough to make a present of, for that was the case here.

Two or three yards of Colchester baize, a coarse rug-like manufacture, worth in London about 151/2_d._ per yard, was here a present for a man of quality, when, for a handful of gold dust, the same person would scarce say, Thank you; or, perhaps, would think himself not kindly treated to have it offered him.

We travelled this day pretty smartly, having rested at noon about two hours, as before, and, by my calculation, went about twenty-two English miles in all. About five o'clock in the afternoon, we came into a broad, plain open place, where, though it was not properly a valley, yet we found it lay very level for a good way together, our way lying almost east-south-east. After we had marched so about two miles, I found the way go evidently down hill, and, in half a mile more, to our singular satisfaction we found the water from the mountains ran plainly eastward, and, consequently, to the North Sea.

We saw at a distance several huts or houses of the mountaineer inhabitants, but went near none of them, but kept on our way, going down two or three pretty steep places, not at all dangerous, though something difficult.

We encamped again the next night as before, and still our good caterer had plenty of food for us; but I observed that the next morning, when we set forward, our tents were left standing, the baggage mules tied together to graze, and our company lessened by all my patron's servants, which, when I inquired about, he told me he hoped we should have good quarters quickly without them.

I did not understand him for the present, but it unriddled itself soon after; for, though we travelled four days more in that narrow way, yet he always found us lodging at the cottages of the mountaineers.

The sixth day we went all day up hill; at last, on a sudden, the way turned short east, and opened into a vast wide country, boundless to the eye every way, and delivered us entirely from the mountains of the Andes, in which we had wandered so long.

Any one may guess what an agreeable surprise this was to us, to whom it was the main end of our travels. We made no question that this was the open country extending to the North, or Atlantic Ocean; but how far it was thither, or what inhabitants it was possessed by, what travelling, what provisions to be found by the way, what rivers to pass, and whether any navigable or not, this our patron himself could not tell us one word of, owning frankly to us, that he had never been one step farther than the place where we then stood, and that he had been there only once, to satisfy his curiosity, as I did now.

I told him, that if I had lived where he did, and had servants and provisions at command as he had, it would have been impossible for me to have restrained my curiosity so far as not to have searched through that whole country to the sea-side long ago. I also told him it seemed to be a pleasant and fruitful soil, and, no doubt, was capable of cultivations and improvements; and, if it had been only to have possessed such a country in his Catholic majesty's name, it must have been worth while to undertake the discovery for the honour of Spain; and that there could be no room to question but his Catholic majesty would have honoured the man who should have undertaken such a thing with some particular mark of his favour, which might be of consequence to him and his family.

He answered me, as to that, the Spaniards seemed already to have more dominions in America than they could keep, and much more than they were able to reap the benefit of, and still more infinitely than they could improve, and especially in those parts called South America.

And he, moreover, told me, that it was next to a miracle they could keep possession of the place we were in; and, were not the natives so utterly destitute of support from any other part of the world, as not to be able to have either arms or ammunition put into their hands, it would be impossible, since I might easily see they were men that wanted not strength of body or courage; and it was evident they did not want numbers, seeing they were already ten thousand natives to one Spaniard, taking the whole country from one end to the other.

Thus you see, seignior, added he, how far we are from improvement in that part of the country which we possess, and many more, which you may be sure are among these vast mountains, and which we never discovered, seeing all these valleys and passages among the mountains, where gold is to be had in such quantities, and with so much ease, that every poor Chilian gathers it up with his hands, and may have as much as he pleases, are all left open, naked, and unregarded, in the possession of the wild mountaineers, who are heathens and savages; and the Spaniards, you see, are so few, and those few so indolent, so slothful, and so satisfied with the gold they get of the Chilians for things of small value in trade, that all this vast treasure lies unregarded by them. Nay, continued he, is it not very strange to observe, that, when for our diversion we come into the hills, and among these places where you see the gold is so easily found, we come, as we call it, a-hunting, and divert ourselves more with shooting wild parrots, or a fawn or two, for which also we ride and run, and make our servants weary themselves more than they would in searching for the gold among the gulleys and holes that the water makes in the rocks, and more than would suffice to find fifty, nay, one hundred times the value in gold! To what purpose, then, should we seek the possession of more countries, who are already possessed of more land than we can improve, and of more wealth than we know what to do with? Perceiving me very attentive, he went on thus:

Were these mountains valued in Europe according to the riches to be found in them, the viceroy would obtain orders from the king to have strong forts erected at the entrance in, and at the coming out of them, as well on the side of Chili, as here, and strong garrisons maintained in them, to prevent foreign nations landing, either on our side in Chili, or on this side in the North Seas, and taking the possession from us. He would then order thirty thousand slaves, negroes or Chilians, to be constantly employed, not only in picking up what gold might be found in the channels of the water, which might easily be formed into proper receivers, so as that if any gold washed from the rocks it should soon be found, and be so secured, as that none of it would escape; also others, with miners and engineers, might search into the very rocks themselves, and would no doubt find out such mines of gold, or other secret stores of it in those mountains, as would be sufficient to enrich the world.

While we omit such things as these, seignior, says he, what signifies Spain making new acquisitions, or the people of Spain seeking new countries? This vast tract of land you see here, and some hundreds of miles every way which your eye cannot reach to, is a fruitful, pleasant, and agreeable part of the creation, but perfectly uncultivated, and most of it uninhabited; and any nation in Europe that thinks fit to settle in it are free to do so, for anything we are able to do to prevent them.

But, seignior, says I, does not his Catholic majesty claim a title to the possession of it? and have the Spaniards no governor over it? nor any ports or towns, settlements, or colonies in it, as is the case here in Chili? Seignior, replied he, the king of Spain is lord of all America, as well that which he possesses as that which he possesses not, that right being given him by the Pope, in the right of his being a Christian prince, making new discoveries for propagating the Christian faith among infidels; how far that may pass for a title among the European powers I know not. I have heard that it has always passed for a maxim in Europe, that no country which is not planted by any prince or people can be said to belong to them; and, indeed, I cannot say but it seems to be rational, that no prince should pretend to any title to a country where he does not think fit to plant and to keep possession. For, if he leaves the country unpossessed, he leaves it free for any other nation to come and possess; and this is the reason why the former kings of Spain did not dispute that right of the French to the colonies of the Mississipi and Canada, or the right of the English to the Caribee islands, or to their colonies of Virginia and New England.

In like manner, from the Buenos Ayres, in the Rio de la Plata, which lies that way (pointing north-east), to the Fretum Magellanicum, which lies that way (pointing south-east), which comprehends a vast number of leagues, is called by us Coasta Deserta, being unpossessed by Spain, and disregarded of all our nation; neither is there one Spaniard in it. Nevertheless, you see how fruitful, how pleasant, and how agreeable a climate it is; how apt for planting and peopling it seems to be, and, above all, what a place of wealth here would be behind them, sufficient, and more than enough, both for them and us; for we should have no reason to offer them any disturbance, neither should we be in any condition to do it, the passages of the mountains being but few and difficult, as you have seen, and our numbers not sufficient to do anything more than to block them up, to keep such people from breaking in upon our settlements on the coast of the South Seas.

I asked him if these notions of his were common among those of his country who were settled in Chili and Peru? or whether they were his own private opinions only? I told him I believed the latter, because I found he acted in all his affairs upon generous principles, and was for propagating the good of mankind; but, that I questioned whether their governor of Old Spain, or the sub-governor and viceroy of New Spain, acted upon those notions; and, since he had mentioned the Buenos Ayres and the Rio de la Plata, I should take that as an example, seeing the Spaniards would never suffer any nation to set foot in that great river, where so many countries might have been discovered, and colonies planted; though, at the same time, they had not possessed, or fully discovered those places themselves.

He answered me, smiling; Seignior, says he, you have given the reason for this yourself, in that very part which you think is a reason against it. We have a colony at Buenos Ayres, and at the city of Ascension, higher up in the Rio de la Plata, and we are not willing to let any other nation settle there, because we would not let them see how weak we are, and what a vast extent of land we possess there with a few men; and this for two reasons:

First, We are possessed of the country, and daily increasing there, and may in time extend ourselves farther. The great rivers Parana and Paraguay being yet left for us to plant in, and we are not willing to put ourselves out of a capacity of planting farther, and therefore we keep the possession.

Secondly, We have a communication from thence with Peru. The great river la Plata rises at the city of that name, and out of the mountain Potosi, in Peru, and a great trade is carried on by that river, and it would be dangerous to let foreigners into the secret of that trade, which they might entirely cut off, especially when they should find how small a number of Spaniards are planted there to preserve it, seeing there are not six hundred Spaniards in all that vast country, which, by the course of that river, is more than one thousand six hundred miles in length.

I confess, said I, these are just grounds for your keeping the possession of that river. They are so, said he, and the more because of so powerful a colony as the Portuguese have in the Brazils, which bound immediately upon it, and who are always encroaching upon it from the land side, and would gladly have a passage up the Rio Parana to the back of their colony.

But here, seignior, says he, the case differs; for we neither take nor keep possession here, neither have we one Spaniard, as I said, in the whole country now before you, and therefore we call this country Coasta Deserta. Not that it is a desert, as that name is generally taken to signify, a barren, sandy, dry country; on the contrary, the infinite prodigious increase of the European black cattle which were brought by the Spaniards to the Buenos Ayres, and suffered to run loose, is a sufficient testimony of the fruitfulness and richness of the soil, their numbers being such, that they kill above twenty thousand in a year for nothing but the hides, which they carry away to Spain, leaving the flesh, though fat and wholesome, to perish on the ground, or be devoured by birds of prey.

And the number is so great, notwithstanding all they destroy, that they are found to wander sometimes in droves of many thousands together over all the vast country between the Rio de la Plata, the city of Ascension, and the frontier of Peru, and even down into this country which you see before us, and up to the very foot of these mountains.

Well, said I, and is it not a great pity that all this part of the country, and in such a climate as this is, should lie uncultivated, or uninhabited rather? for I understand there are not any great numbers of people to be found among them.

It is true, added he, there are some notions prevailing of people being spread about in this country, but, as the terror of our people, the Spaniards, drove them at first from the seacoast towards these mountains, so the greatest part of them continue on this side still, for towards the coast it is very rare that they find any people.

I would have inquired of him about rivers and navigable streams which might be in this country, but he told me frankly that he could give me no account of those; only thus, that if any of the rivers went away towards the north, they certainly run all into the great Rio de la Plata; but that if they went east, or southerly, they must go directly to the coast, which was ordinarily called, as he said, La Costa Deserta, or, as by some, the coast of Patagonia. That, as to the magnitude of those rivers he could say little, but it was reasonable to suppose there must be some very considerable rivers, and whose streams must needs be capable of navigation, seeing abundance of water must continually flow from the mountains where we then were, and its being at least four hundred miles from the sea-side, those small streams must necessarily join together, and form large rivers in the plain country.

I had enough in this discourse fully to satisfy all my curiosity, and sufficiently to heighten my desire of making the farther discoveries which I had in my thoughts.

We pitched our little camp here, and sat down to our repast; for I found that though we were to go back to lodge, yet my patron had taken care we should be furnished sufficiently for dinner, and have a good house to eat it in, that is to say, a tent as before.

The place where we stood, though we had come down hill for a great way, yet seemed very high from the ordinary surface of the country, and gave us therefore an exceeding fine prospect of it, the country declining gradually for near ten miles; and we thought, as well as the distance of the place would allow us, we saw a great river, but, as I learned afterwards, it was rather a great lake than a river, which was supplied by the smaller rivers, or rivulets, from the mountains, which met there as in a great receptacle of waters, and out of this lake they all issued again in one river, of which I shall have occasion to give a farther account hereafter.

While we were at dinner, I ordered my midshipmen to take their observations of every distant object, and to look at everything with their glasses, which they did, and told me of this lake; but my patron could give no account of it, having never been, as he said before, one step farther that way than where we were.

However, my men showed me plainly that it was a great lake, and that there went a large river from it towards the east-south-east, and this was enough for me, for that way lay all the schemes I had laid.

I took this opportunity to ask my midshipmen, first, if they had taken such observations in their passage of the mountains as that they were sure they could find their way through to this place again without guides? And they assured me they could.

Then I put it to them whether they thought it might not be practicable to travel over that vast level country to the North Seas? and to make a sufficient discovery of the country, so as that hereafter Englishmen coming to the coast on the side of those seas, might penetrate to these golden mountains, and reap the benefit of the treasure without going a prodigious length above Cape Horn and the Terra del Fuego, which was always attended with innumerable dangers, and without breaking through the kingdom of Chili and the Spaniards' settlements, which, perhaps, we might soon be at peace with, and so be shut out that way by our own consents?

One of my men began to speak of the difficulties of such an attempt, the want of provisions, and other dangers which we should be exposed to on the way; but the other, a bold, brisk fellow, told me he made no question but it might be easily done, and especially because all the rivers they should meet with would, of course, run along with us, so that we should be sure to have the tide with us, as he called it; and, at last, he added, that he would be content to be one of those men who should undertake it, provided he should be assured that the ships in the mean time would not go away, and pretend that they could not be found.

I told him, we would talk farther about it; that I had such a thought in my head, and a strong inclination to undertake it myself, but that I could not answer it to leave the ships, which depended so much upon my care of the voyage.

After some talk of the reasonableness of such an undertaking, and the methods of performing it, my second midshipman began to come into it, and to think it was practicable enough, and added, that though he used some cautions in his first hearing proposals, yet, if he undertook that enterprise, I should find that he would do as much of his duty in it as another man; and so he did at last, as will appear in its proper place.

We were, by this time, preparing to be satisfied with our journey, and my patron coming to me and asking if I was for returning, I told him I could not say how many days it would be before I should say I had enough of that prospect, but that I would return when he pleased, only I had one question to ask him, which was, whether the mountains were as full of gold on this side as they were on the side of Chili?

As to that, seignior, says he, the best way to be certain is to make a trial, that you may be sure we do not speak without proof; so he called his gentleman, and another servant that was with him, and desired me to call my two midshipmen, and, speaking something to his own servants first, in the language of the country, as I supposed, he turned to me, and said, Come, let us sit down and rest ourselves, while they go together, and see what they can do.

Accordingly, they went away, and, as my men told me afterwards, they searched in the small streams of water which they found running, and in some larger gulleys or channels, where they found little or no water running, but where, upon hasty rains, great shoots of water had been used to run, and where water stood still in the holes and falls, as I have described once before on the like occasion.

They had not been gone above an hour, when I plainly heard my two Englishmen halloo, which I could easily distinguish from the voices of any other nation, and immediately I ran out of the tent, Captain Merlotte followed, and then I saw one of my midshipmen running towards us, so we went to meet him, and, what with hallooing and running, he could hardly speak; but, recovering his breath, said, he came to desire me to come to them, if I would behold a sight which I never saw in my life.

I was eager enough to go, so I went with him, and left Captain Merlotte to go back to the tent to my patron, the Spaniard, and the Spanish doctor, who had not so much share in the curiosity; he did so, and they followed soon after.

When we came to the place, we saw such a wonder as indeed I never saw before, for there they were sitting down round a little puddle, or hole, as I might call it, of water, where, in the time of rain, the water running hastily from a piece of the rock, about two foot higher than the rest, had made a pit under it with the fall, like the tail of a mill, only much less.

Here they took up the sand or gravel with their hands, and every handful brought up with it such a quantity of gold as was surprising; for there they sat picking it out, just as the boys in London, who go with a broom and a hat, pick out old iron, nails, and pins from the channels, and it lay as thick.

I stood and looked at them awhile, and it must be confessed, it was a pleasant sight enough; but, reflecting immediately that there was no end of this, and that we were only upon the enquiry, Come away, said I, laughing to my men, and do not stand picking up of trash there all day; do you know how far we have to go to our lodgings?

I can make no guess what quantity might have been found here in places which had, for hundreds of years, washed gold from the hills, and, perhaps, never had a man come to pick any of it up before; but I was soon satisfied that here was enough, even to make all the world say they had enough; and so I called off my people, and came away.

It seems, the quantity of gold which is thus washed down is not small, since my men, inquiring afterwards among the Chilians, heard them talk of the great lake of water which I mentioned just now that we saw at a distance, which they call the Golden Lake, and where was, as they said, prodigious quantities of it; not that our men supposed any gold was there in mines, or in the ordinary soil, but that the waters from the hills, running with very rapid currents at certain times in the rainy seasons, and after the melting of the snows, had carried the gold so far as that lake; and, as it has been so, perhaps, from the days of the general deluge, no people ever applying themselves to gather the least grain of it up again, it might well be increased to such a quantity as might entitle that water to the name of the Golden Lake, and all the little streams and sluices of water that run into it deserved the name of Golden Rivers, as much as that of the Golden Lake.

But my present business was to know only if the gold was here, but not to trouble myself to pick it up; my views lay another way, and my end was fully answered, so I came back to my patron, and brought all my men with me.

You live in a golden country, seignior, says I; my men are stark mad to see so much gold, and nobody to take it.

Should the world know what treasure you have here, I would not answer for it that they should not flock hither in armies, and drive you all away. They need not do that, seignior, says he, for here is enough for them, and for us too.

We now packed up, and began our return; but it was not without regret that I turned my back upon this pleasant country, the most agreeable place of its kind that ever I was at in all my life, or ever shall be in again, a country rich, pleasant, fruitful, wholesome, and capable of everything for the life of man that the heart could entertain a wish for.

But my present work was to return; so we mounted our mules, and had, in the meantime, the pleasure of contemplating what we had seen, and applying ourselves to such farther measures as we had concerted among us. In about four hours we returned to our camp, as I called it, and, by the way, we found, to our no little pain, that though we had come down hill easily and insensibly to the opening for some miles, yet we had a hard pull uphill to go back again.

However, we reached to our tents in good time, and made our first encampment with pleasure enough, for we were very weary with the fatigue of a hard day's journey.

The next day we reached our good Chilian's mansion-house, or palace, for such it might be called, considering the place, and considering the entertainment; for now he had some time to provide for us, knowing we would come back again.

He met us with three mules, and two servants, about a mile before we came to the descent going down to his house, of which I took notice before, and this he did to guide us a way round to his house without going down those uneasy steps; so we came on our mules to his door, that is to say, on his mules, for he would have my patron, the Spaniard, to whom I observed he showed an extraordinary respect, and Captain Merlotte and myself, mount his fresh mules to carry us to his house.

When we came thither, I observed he wanted the assistance of my patron's servants for his cookery; for, though he had provided abundance of food, he owned he knew not how to prepare it to our liking, so they assisted him, and one of my midshipmen pretending to cook too, made them roast a piece of venison, and a piece of kid, or young goat, admirable well, and putting no garlick or onions into the sauce, but their own juices, with a little wine, it pleased the Spaniard so well, that my man passed for an extraordinary cook, and had the favour asked of him to dress some more after the same manner, when we came back to the Spaniard's house.

We had here several sorts of wildfowl, which the Chilian had shot while we were gone, but I knew none of them by any of the kinds we have in England, except some teal. However, they were very good.

The day was agreeable and pleasant, but the night dreadful, as before, being all fire and flame again, and though we understood both what it was, and where, yet I could not make it familiar to me, for my life. The Chilian persuaded us to stay all the next day, and did his endeavour to divert us as much as possible; my two midshipmen went out with him a-hunting, as he called it, that is, a-shooting; but, though he was a man of fifty years of age, he would have killed ten of them at his sport, running up the hills, and leaping from rock to rock like a boy of seventeen. At his gun he was so sure a marksman, that he seldom missed anything he shot at, whether running, flying, or sitting.

They brought home with them several fowls, two fawns, and a full-grown deer, and we had nothing but boiling, stewing, and broiling, all that evening. In the afternoon we walked out to view the hills, and to see the stupendous precipices which surrounded us. As for looking for gold, we saw the places where there was enough to be had, but that was become now so familiar to us, that we troubled not ourselves about it, as a business not worth our while; but the two midshipmen, I think, got about the quantity of five or six ounces apiece, while we were chatting or reposing in the Chilian's house.

Here it was that I entered into a confidence with my patron, the Spaniard, concerning my grand design. I told him, in the first place, that my view of the open country beyond these hills, and the particular account he had given me of it also, had raised a curiosity in me that I could scarce withstand; and that I had thereupon formed a design, which, if he would farther me with his assistance, I had a very great mind to put in practice, and that, though I was to hazard perishing in the attempt.

He told me very readily, nothing should be wanting on his part to give me any assistance he could, either by himself or any of his servants; but, smiling, and with abundance of good humour, Seignior, says he, I believe I guess at the design you speak of; you are fired now with a desire to traverse this great country to the Coasta Deserta and the North Seas; that is a very great undertaking, and you will be well advised before you undertake it.

True, Seignior, said I, you have guessed my design, and, were it not that I have two ships under my care, and some cargo of value on board, I would bring my whole ship's company on shore, and make the adventure, and, perhaps, we might be strong enough to defend ourselves against whatever might happen by the way.

As to that, seignior, says he, you would be in no danger that would require so many men; for you will find but few inhabitants anywhere, and those not in numbers sufficient to give you any trouble; fifty men would be as many as you would either want or desire, and, perhaps, as you would find provisions for; and, for fifty men, we might be able to carry provisions with us to keep them from distress. But, if you will accept of my advice, as well as assistance, seignior, says he, choose a faithful strong fellow out of your ship on whom you can depend, and give him fifty men with him, or thereabouts, and such instructions as you may find needful, as to the place on the coast where you would have them fix their stay, and let them take the first hazards of the adventure; and, as you are going round by sea, you will, if success follows, meet them on the shore, and if the account they give of their journey encourage you, you may come afterwards yourself up to these very mountains, and take a farther view; in which case, he added, with a solemn protestation, cost me what it will, I will come and meet you one hundred miles beyond the hills, with supplies of provisions and mules for your assistance.

This was such wholesome and friendly advice, and he offered it so sincerely, that though it was very little differing from my own design, yet I would not be seen so to lessen his prudence in the measures of his friendship in advising it, as to say that I had resolved to do so; but making all possible acknowledgment to him for his kind offers, I told him I would take his advice, and act just according to the measures he had prescribed; and, at the same time I assured him, that if I found a convenient port to settle and fortify in, I would not fail to come again from France (for we passed always as acting from France, whatever nation we were of) to relieve and supply them; and that, if ever I returned safe, I would not fail to correspond with him, by the passages of the mountains, and make a better acknowledgment for his kindness than I had been able to do yet.

He was going to break off the discourse upon the occasion of the Chilian's returning, who was just come in from his hunting, telling me, he would talk farther of it by the way; but I told him I could not quite dismiss the subject, because I must bespeak him to make some mention of it to the Chilian, that he might, on his account, be an assistant to our men, as we saw he was capable of being, in their passing by those difficult ways, and for their supply of provisions, &c. Trouble not yourself with that, seignior, said he, for when your men come, the care shall be mine; I will come myself as far as this wealthy Chilian's, and procure them all the assistance this place can afford them, and do anything that offers to forward them in the undertaking.

This was so generous, and so extraordinary, that I had nothing to say more, but to please myself with the apparent success of my attempt, and acknowledge the happiness of having an opportunity to oblige so generous, spirited, and grateful a person.

I would, however, have made some farther acknowledgment to our Chilian benefactor, but I had nothing left, except a couple of hats, and three pair of English stockings, one pair silk and the other two worsted, and those I gave him, and made him a great many acknowledgments for the favours he had shown us, and the next morning came away.

We made little stay anywhere else in our return; but, making much such stages back as we did forward, we came the fourteenth day to our patron's house, having made the passage through in something less than sixteen days, and the like back in fifteen days, including our stay at the Chilian's, one day.