by Daniel Defoe
them any farther. They allowed us a quantity of mealand cocoa out of their booty for the subsistence of the prisoners, andI bought a larger quantity besides, there being more than they knew howto stow, and they did not resolve to keep the Spanish ship which theytook; by this means I was doubly stocked with flour and bread, but, asthe first was very good, and well packed in casks and very good jars, itreceived no injury.
We bought also some of their cocoa, and made chocolate, till our mengorged themselves with it, and would have no more.
Having furnished ourselves here with goats' flesh, as usual, and takingin water sufficient, we left Juan Fernandez, and saw the cruisers go outthe same tide, they steering north-north-east, and we south-south-east.They saluted us at parting, and we bade them good-bye in the samelanguage.
While we were now sailing for the coast of Chili, with fair wind andpleasant weather, my Spanish doctor came to me and told me he had apiece of news to acquaint me with, which, he said, he believed wouldplease me very well; and this was, that one of the Spanish prisoners wasa planter, as it is called in the West Indies, or a farmer, as we shouldcall it in England, of Villa Rica, a town built by the Spaniards, nearthe foot of the Andes, above the town of Baldivia; and that he hadentered into discourse with him upon the situation of those hills, thenature of the surface, the rivers, hollows, passages into them, &c.Whether there were any valleys within the hills, of what extent, howwatered, what cattle, what people, how disposed, and the like; and, inshort, if there was any way of passing over the Andes, or hills abovementioned; and he told me, in few words, that he found him to be a veryhonest, frank, open sort of a person, who seemed to speak withoutreserve, without the least jealousy or apprehension; and that hebelieved I might have an ample discovery from him of all that I desiredto know.
I was very glad of this news; and, at my request, it was not many hoursbefore he brought the Spaniard into the great cabin to me, where Itreated him very civilly, and gave him opportunity several times to seehimself very well used; and, indeed, all the Spaniards in the ship werevery thankful for my bringing them out of the hands of the privateers,and took all occasions to let us see it.
I said little the first time, but discoursed in general of America, ofthe greatness and opulency of the Spaniards there, the infinite wealthof the country, &c.; and I remember well, discoursing once of the greatriches of the Spaniards in America, the silver mines of Potosi, andother places, he turned short upon me, smiling, and said, We Spaniardsare the worst nation in the world that such a treasure as this couldhave belonged to; for if it had fallen into any other hands than ours,they would have searched farther into it before now. I asked him what hemeant by that? and added, I thought they had searched it thoroughlyenough; for that I believed no other nation in the world could ever havespread such vast dominions, and planted a country of such a prodigiousextent, they having not only kept possession of it, but maintained thegovernment also, and even inhabited it with only a few people.
Perhaps, seignior, says he, you think, notwithstanding that opinion ofyours, that we have many more people of our nation in New Spain than wehave. I do not know, said I, how many you may have; but, if I shouldbelieve you have as many here as in Old Spain, it would be but a few incomparison of the infinite extent of the King of Spain's dominions inAmerica. And then, replied he, I assure you, seignior, there is not oneSpaniard to a thousand acres of land, take one place with another,throughout New Spain.
Very well, said I, then I think the riches and wealth of America is verywell searched, in comparison to the number of people you have to searchafter it. No, says he, it is not, neither; for the greatest number ofour people live in that part where the wealth is not the greatest, andwhere even the governor and viceroy, enjoying a plentiful and luxuriouslife, they take no thought for the increase either of the king'srevenues, or the national wealth. This he spoke of the city of Mexico,whose greatness, and the number of its inhabitants, he said, was adisease to the rest of the body. And what, think you, seignior, said he,that in that one city, where there is neither silver nor gold but whatis brought from the mountains of St. Clara, the mines at St. Augustine'sand Our Lady, some of which are a hundred leagues from it, and yet thereare more Spaniards in Mexico than in both those two prodigious empiresof Chili and Peru?
I seemed not to believe him; and, indeed, I did not believe him atfirst, till he returned to me with a question. Pray, seignior capitain,says he, how many Spaniards do you think there may be in this vastcountry of Chili? I told him I could make no guess of the numbers; but,without doubt, there were many thousands, intimating that I mightsuppose, near a hundred thousand. At which he laughed heartily, andassured me, that there were not above two thousand five hundred in thewhole kingdom, besides women and children, and some few soldiers, whichthey looked upon as nothing to inhabitants, because they were notsettled anywhere.
I was indeed surprised, and began to name several large places, which, Ithought, had singly more Spaniards in them than what he talked of. Hepresently ran over some of them, and, naming Baldivia first, as the mostsouthward, he asked me how many I thought were there? And I told himabout three hundred families. He smiled, and assured me there were notabove three or four-and-fifty families in the whole place, and abouttwenty-five soldiers, although it was a fortification, and a frontier.At Villa Rica, or the Rich Town, where he lived, he said there might beabout sixty families, and a lieutenant, with twenty soldiers. In a word,we passed over the many places between and came to the capital, St.Jago, where after I had supposed there were five thousand Spaniards, heprotested to me there were not above eight hundred, including theviceroy's court, and including the families at Valparaiso, which is theseaport, and excluding only the soldiers, which as he said, being thecapital of the whole kingdom, might be about two hundred, and excludingthe religious, who he added, laughing, signified nothing to the plantinga country, for they neither cultivated the land nor increased thepeople.
Our doctor, who was our interpreter, smiled at this, but merrily said,that was very true, or ought to be so, intimating, that though thepriests do not cultivate the land, yet they might chance to increase thepeople a little; but that was by the way. As to the number ofinhabitants at St. Jago, the doctor agreed with him, and said, hebelieved he had said more than there were, rather than less.
As to the kingdom or empire of Peru, in which there are manyconsiderable cities and places of note, such as Lima, Quito, Cusco, laPlata, and others, there are besides a great number of towns on theseacoasts, such as Porto Arica, St. Miguel, Prayta, Guyaquil, Truxillo,and many others.
He answered, that it was true that the city of Lima, with the town ofCallao, was much increased within a few years, and particularly of late,by the settling of between three and four hundred French there, who cameby the King of Spain's license; but that, before the coming of thosegentlemen, at which he shook his head, the country was richer, thoughthe inhabitants were not so many; and that, take it as it was now, therecould not be reckoned above fifteen hundred families of Spaniards,excluding the soldiers and the clergy, which, as above, he reckonednothing as to the planting of the country.
We came then to discourse of the silver mines at Potosi, and here hesupposed, as I did also, a very great number of people. But seignior,says he, what people is it you are speaking of? There are many thousandsof servants, but few masters; there is a garrison of four hundredsoldiers always kept in arms and in good order, to secure the place, andkeep the negroes, and criminals who work in the mines, in subjection;but that there were not besides five hundred Spaniards, that is to say,men, in the whole place and its adjacents. So that, in short, he wouldnot allow above seven thousand Spaniards in the whole empire of Peru,and two thousand five hundred in Chili; at the same time, allowing twiceas many as both these in the city of Mexico only.
After this discourse was over, I asked him what he inferred from it, asto the wealth of the country not being discovered? He answered, It wasevident that it was for want of people that the wealth of the countrylay hid; that
there was infinitely more lay uninquired after than hadyet been known; that there were several mountains in Peru equally richin silver with that of Potosi; and, as for Chili, says he, and thecountry where we live, there is more gold at this time in the mountainsof the Andes, and more easy to come at, than in all the world besides.Nay, says he, with some passion, there is more gold every year washeddown out of the Andes of Chili into the sea, and lost there, than allthe riches that go from New Spain to Europe in twenty years amount to.
This discourse fired my imagination you may be sure, and I renewed itupon all occasions, taking more or less time every day to talk with thisSpaniard upon the subject of cultivation of the lands, improvement ofthe country, and the like; always making such inquiries into the stateof the mountains of the Andes as best suited my purpose, but yet so asnot to give him the least intimation of my design.
One day, conversing with him again about the great riches of thecountry, and of the
