by Daniel Defoe
thenorth-east, afterwards almost due-east, and then to the south-east, andso to south-south-east; and this frightful narrow strait, with thehanging rocks almost closing together on the top, whose height we couldneither see nor guess at, continued about three days' journey more, mostof the way ascending gently before us. As to the river, it was by thistime quite lost; but we might see, that on any occasion of rain, or ofthe melting of the snow on the mountains, there was a hollow in themiddle of the valley through which the water made its way, and on eitherhand, the sides of the hills were full of the like gulleys, made by theviolence of the rain, where, not the earth only, but the rocksthemselves, even the very stone, seemed to be worn and penetrated by thecontinual fall of the water.
Here my patron showed me, that in the hollow which I mentioned in themiddle of this way, and at the bottom of those gulleys, or places wornas above in the rocks, there were often found pieces of gold, andsometimes, after a rain, very great quantities; and that there were fewof the little Chilian cottages which I had seen where they had notsometimes a pound or two of gold dust and lumps of gold by them, and hewas mistaken, if I was willing to stay and make the experiment, if wedid not find some even then, in a very little search.
The Chilian mountaineer at whose house we stopped to dine had gone withus, and he hearing my patron say thus, ran presently to the hollowchannel 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 hollowdeeper 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, withthe help of two of the servants and a kind of scoop, he presently threwout the water, with the sand, and whatever was at bottom among it, intothe ordinary watercourse; the water falling thus hard, every scoopfulupon the sand or earth that came out of the scoop before it, washed agreat deal of it away; and among that which remained, we might plainlysee little lumps of gold shining as big as grains of sand, and sometimesone 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 midshipmento take up more, and they stayed indeed so long, that they could scarcesee 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 frightfulnarrow way, it began to grow towards night, and my patron talked oftaking up our quarters as we had before; but his gentleman put him in amind of a Chilian, one of their old servants, who lived in a turningamong the mountains, about half a mile out of our way, and where wemight 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 princegreater, and more truly so, than King Philip, who is the greatest man inthe world.
Accordingly we went softly on, his gentleman having advanced before, andin about half a mile we found a turning or opening on our left, where webeheld a deep large valley, almost circular, and of about a milediameter, and abundance of houses or cottages interspersed all over it,so that the whole valley looked like an inhabited village, and theground like a planted garden.
We who, as I said, had been for some miles ascending, were so high abovethe valley, that it looked as the lowlands in England do below Box Hillin Surrey; and I was going to ask how we should get down? but, as wewere come into a wider space than before, so we had more daylight; forthough the hollow way had rendered it near dusk before, now it wasalmost clear day again.
Here we parted with the first Chilian that I mentioned, and I orderedone 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 notwhat way to testify his joy; but I knew what I was doing in this, and Iordered my midshipman to do it that he might make his acquaintance withhim against another time, and it was not a gift ill bestowed, as willappear in its place.
We were now obliged to quit our mules, who all took up their quarters atthe 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 withmany plain places between, like foot-paces, for the ease of going andcoming.
Thus, winding and turning to avoid the declivity of the hill, we camevery safe to the bottom, where my patron's gentleman brought our newlandlord, 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 oflong 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 intwo or three grave brown colours, and thrown about him like a Scotsman'splaid; he had shoes of a particular make, tied on like sandals,flat-heeled, no stockings, his breeches hanging down below the calf ofhis leg, and his shoes lacing up above his ancles. He had on a cap ofthe skin of some small beast like a racoon, with a bit of the tailhanging out from the crown of his head backward, a long pole in hishand, and a servant, as oddly dressed as himself, carried his gun; hehad neither spado nor dagger.
When our patron came up, the Chilian stepped forward and made him threevery low bows, and then they talked together, not in Spanish, but in akind of mountain jargon, some Spanish, and some Chilian, of which Iscarce understood one word. After a few words, I understood he saidsomething of a stranger come to see, and then, I supposed, added, thepassages of the mountains; then the Chilian came towards me, made methree bows, and bade me welcome in Spanish. As soon as he had saidthat, he turns to his barbarian, I mean his servant, for he was as uglya looked fellow as ever I saw, and taking his gun from him presented itto 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 payto me; he would be very ill pleased and out of humour if it was notaccepted, 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 aquarter 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 needof it; but we had no reason to complain.
This man's habitation was the same as the rest, low, and covered with asedge, or a kind of reed which we found grew very plentifully in thevalley where he lived; he had several pieces of ground round hisdwelling, enclosed with walls made very artificially with small stonesand no mortar; these enclosed grounds were planted with several kinds ofgarden-stuff for his household, such as plantains, Spanish cabbages,green cocoa, and other things of the growth of their own country, andtwo of them with European wheat.
He had five or six apartments in his house, every one of them had a doorinto the open air, and into one another, and two of them were very largeand decent, had long tables on one side, made after their own way, andbenches to sit to them, like our country people's long tables inEngland, and mattresses like couches all along the other side, withskins of several sorts of wild creatures laid on them to repose on inthe heat of the day, as is the usage among the Spaniards.
Our people set up their tents and beds abroad as before; but my patrontold me the Chilian would take it very ill if he and I did not take upour lodging in his house, and we had two rooms provided, verymagnificent in their way.
The mattress we lay on had a large canopy over it, spread like the crownof a tent, and covered with a large piece of cotton, white as milk, andwhich came round every way like a curtain, so that if it had been in theopen field it would have been a complete covering. The bed, such as itwas, might be nearly as hard as a quilt, and the covering was of thesame cotton as the curtain-work, which, it seems, is the manufacture ofthe Chilian women, and is made very dexterously; it looked wild, butagreeably enough, and proper to the place, so I slept very comfortablyin it.
But, I must confess, I was sur
prised at the aspect of things in thenight here. It was, as I told you above, near night when we came to thisman's cottage (palace I should have called it), and, while we weretaking our repast, which was very good, it grew quite night.
We had wax candles brought in to accommodate us with light, which, itseems, my patron's man had provided; and the place had so littlecommunication with the air by windows, that we saw nothing of what waswithout doors.
After supper my patron turned to me and said, Come, seignior, prepareyourself to take a walk. What! in the dark, said I, in such a country asthis? No, no, says he, it is never dark here, you are now come to thecountry of everlasting day; what think you? is not this Elysium? I donot understand you, answered I. But you will presently, says he, when Ishall show you that it is now lighter abroad than when we came in. Soonafter this some of the servants opened the door that went into the nextroom, and the door of that room, which opened in the air, stood open,from whence a light of
