by Daniel Defoe
and his two companions did not returnin less than ten days, for they came back pretty well laden, and wereobliged 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 notthe most proper to go there in public, and the doctor knew that as wellas the Spaniard, and, therefore, though we went several times_incognito_, yet it was of no consequence to me, neither did I desireit.
One night I had a very strange fright here, and behaved myself very muchlike a simpleton about it. The case was this. I waked in the middle ofthe 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 onfire, I, as if I had been at Wapping or Rotherhithe, where people arealways terrified with such things, jumped out of bed, and called myfriend, Captain Merlotte, and cried out, Fire! fire! The first thing Ishould have thought of on this occasion should have been, that theSpaniards 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 alllay near one another, and, with the noise, they waked the whole house;and my landlord, as he afterwards confessed, began to suspect somemischief, his steward having come to his chamber door, and told him thatthe strangers were up in arms; in which mistake we might have all hadour 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, beingpretty near the Spanish side of the country, as there are many of themin the Andes, had flamed out that night, and gave such a terrible lightin 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 Spanishservants, and told them what the meaning of it all was, and bade them goand 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 windowat the eruption of fire upon the hills, for the like wonderfulappearance I had never seen before.
I sincerely begged my landlord's pardon for disturbing his house, andasked him if those eruptions were frequent? He said no, they were notfrequent, for they were constant, either in one part of the hills oranother; and that in my passing the mountains I should see several ofthem. I asked him if they were not alarmed with them? and if they werenot attended with earthquakes? He said, he believed that among the hillsthemselves they might have some shakings of the earth, because sometimeswere 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 foundwhich had gold interspersed in them, as if they had been melted and runtogether, of which he had shown me some; but that, as for earthquakes inthe country, he had never heard of any since he came thither, which hadbeen upwards of fifteen years, including three years that he dwelt atSt. Jago.
One day, being out on horseback with my landlord, we rode up close tothe mountains, and he showed me at a distance, an entrance as he calledit, into them, frightful enough, indeed, as shall be described in itsplace. He then told me, that was the way he intended to carry me when heshould go to show me the highest hills in the world; but he turnedshort, and, smiling, said it should not be yet; for, though he hadpromised me a safe return, and left hostages for it, yet he had notcapitulated for time.
I told him he need not capitulate with me for time; for if I had not twoships to stay my coming, and between three and four hundred men eatingme up all the while, I did not know whether I should ever go away againor not, if he would give me house room. He told me as to that, he hadsent my men some provisions, so that they would not starve if I did notgo back for some days. This surprised me not a little, and I discoveredit in my countenance. Nay, seignior, says he, I have only sent them somevictuals 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 orrunts, I know not what else to call them, but they were black cattle,thirty hogs, thirteen large Peruvian sheep, as big as great calves, andthree casks of Chilian wine, with an assurance that they should havemore provisions when that was spent.
I was amazed at all this munificence of the Spaniard, and very glad Iwas that I had sent my midshipman for the things I intended to presenthim with, for I was as well able to requite him for a large present ashe was to make it, and had resolved it before I knew he had sentanything to the ships; so that this exchanging of presents was but akind of generous barter or commerce; for as to gold, we had either of usso much, that it was not at all equal in value to what we had to give onboth sides, as we were at present situated.
In short, my midshipman returned with the horses and servants, and whenhe had brought what I had sent for into a place which I desired theSpaniard to allow me to open my things in, I sent my doctor to desirethe Spaniard to let me speak with him.
I told him first, that he must give me his parole of honour not to takeamiss 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 andconsent of their husbands or parents, without any evil design, orwithout giving any offence, but that I knew it was not so among theSpaniards. That I had not had the honour yet either to see his lady orhis daughter, but that I had heard he had both; however, that if hepleased 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 shouldsee beforehand what it was, and I would content myself with hisaccepting it in their behalf.
He told me, smiling, he did not bring me thither to take any presents ofme. 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, Ihad already made her the best present I was able, having given her backher husband. That it is true, it was not the custom of the Spaniards tolet their wives appear in any public entertainment of friends, but thathe had resolved to break through that custom; and that he had told hiswife what a friend I had been to her family, and that she should thankme 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 honourto take it with her own hands, and he would be very far from mistakingthem, or taking it ill from his wife.
As this was the highest compliment he was able to make me, the more hewas obliging in the manner, for he returned in about two hours, leadinghis 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 asight in America. The lady's dress, indeed, I cannot easily describe;but she was really a charming woman, of about forty years of age, andcovered over with emeralds and diamonds; I mean as to her head. She wasveiled till she came into the room, but gave her veil to her woman whenher husband took her by the hand. Her daughter I took to be abouttwelve years old, which the Spaniards count marriageable; she waspretty, 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, byredeeming him from the hands of villains; and she, turning to me,thanked me in the most obliging manner, and with a modest graceful wayof speech, such as I cannot describe, and which indeed I did not thinkthe Spaniards, who are said to be so haughty, had been acquainted with.
I then desired the doctor to tell the Spaniard, her husband, that Irequested his lady to accept a small present which my midshipman hadbrought for her from the ship, and which I took in my hand, and theSpaniard led his wife forward to take it; and I must needs say it wasnot a mean present, besides its being of ten times the value in thatplace as it would have been at London; and I was now very glad that, asI mentioned above, I always reserved a small quantity of all goodsunsol
d, 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 inLondon about seven shillings an ell, and thirty-six ells in length, andworth 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 suchanother.
Then I gave her two pieces of China damask, and two pieces of Chinasilks, called atlasses, flowered with gold; two pieces of fine muslin,one flowered the other plain, and a piece of very fine chintz, orprinted calico; also a large parcel of spices, made up in elegantpapers, being about six pounds of nutmegs, and about twice as manycloves.
And lastly, to the young lady I gave one piece of damask, two pieces ofChina taffity, and a piece of fine striped muslin.
After all this was delivered, and the ladies had received them, andgiven them their women to hold, I pulled out a little box in which I hadtwo couple of large pearls, of that pearl which I mentioned we found atthe
