by Daniel Defoe
up to a frightful height, and I began to expectsome very difficult descent on the other side; but we were made easyabout two o'clock, when the way not only declined again to the east, butgrew wider, though with frequent turnings and windings about, so that wecould seldom see above half a mile before us.
We went on thus pretty much on a level, now rising, now falling; butstill 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 eastnor west, but ran all down the little turnings that we frequently metwith on the north side of our way, which my patron told me fell all intothe great valley where we saw the fire, and so passed off by a generalchannel north-west, until it found its way out into the open country ofChili, and so to the South Seas.
We were now come to another night's lodging, which we were obliged totake up with on the green grass, as we did the first night; but, by thehelp of our proveditor-general, my patron, we fared very well, ourgoat's flesh being reduced into so many sorts of venison, that none ofus could distinguish it from the best venison we ever tasted.
Here we slept without any of the frightful things we saw the nightbefore, except that we might see the light of the fire in the air at agreat distance, like a great city in flames, but that gave us nodisturbance 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 ofour travel, and thus we were provided for dinner even beforebreakfast-time; as for our breakfast, it was always a Spanish one, thatis to say, about a pint of chocolate.
We set out very merrily in the morning, and we that were Englishmencould not refrain smiling at one another, to think how we passed througha country where the gold lay in every ditch, as we might call it, andnever troubled ourselves so much as to stoop to take it up; so certainis it, that it is easy to be placed in a station of life where that verygold, the heaping up of which is elsewhere made the main business ofman's living in the world, would be of no value, and not worth takingoff from the ground; nay, not of signification enough to make a presentof, 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 ofquality, when, for a handful of gold dust, the same person would scarcesay, Thank you; or, perhaps, would think himself not kindly treated tohave it offered him.
We travelled this day pretty smartly, having rested at noon about twohours, as before, and, by my calculation, went about twenty-two Englishmiles 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 wefound it lay very level for a good way together, our way lying almosteast-south-east. After we had marched so about two miles, I found theway go evidently down hill, and, in half a mile more, to our singularsatisfaction we found the water from the mountains ran plainlyeastward, and, consequently, to the North Sea.
We saw at a distance several huts or houses of the mountaineerinhabitants, but went near none of them, but kept on our way, going downtwo or three pretty steep places, not at all dangerous, though somethingdifficult.
We encamped again the next night as before, and still our good catererhad plenty of food for us; but I observed that the next morning, when weset forward, our tents were left standing, the baggage mules tiedtogether 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 goodquarters quickly without them.
I did not understand him for the present, but it unriddled itself soonafter; for, though we travelled four days more in that narrow way, yethe 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 wayturned short east, and opened into a vast wide country, boundless to theeye every way, and delivered us entirely from the mountains of theAndes, in which we had wandered so long.
Any one may guess what an agreeable surprise this was to us, to whom itwas the main end of our travels. We made no question that this was theopen country extending to the North, or Atlantic Ocean; but how far itwas thither, or what inhabitants it was possessed by, what travelling,what provisions to be found by the way, what rivers to pass, and whetherany navigable or not, this our patron himself could not tell us one wordof, owning frankly to us, that he had never been one step farther thanthe place where we then stood, and that he had been there only once, tosatisfy his curiosity, as I did now.
I told him, that if I had lived where he did, and had servants andprovisions at command as he had, it would have been impossible for me tohave restrained my curiosity so far as not to have searched through thatwhole country to the sea-side long ago. I also told him it seemed to bea pleasant and fruitful soil, and, no doubt, was capable of cultivationsand improvements; and, if it had been only to have possessed such acountry in his Catholic majesty's name, it must have been worth while toundertake the discovery for the honour of Spain; and that there couldbe no room to question but his Catholic majesty would have honoured theman who should have undertaken such a thing with some particular mark ofhis favour, which might be of consequence to him and his family.
He answered me, as to that, the Spaniards seemed already to have moredominions in America than they could keep, and much more than they wereable to reap the benefit of, and still more infinitely than they couldimprove, and especially in those parts called South America.
And he, moreover, told me, that it was next to a miracle they could keeppossession of the place we were in; and, were not the natives so utterlydestitute of support from any other part of the world, as not to be ableto have either arms or ammunition put into their hands, it would beimpossible, since I might easily see they were men that wanted notstrength of body or courage; and it was evident they did not wantnumbers, 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 inthat part of the country which we possess, and many more, which you maybe sure are among these vast mountains, and which we never discovered,seeing all these valleys and passages among the mountains, where gold isto be had in such quantities, and with so much ease, that every poorChilian gathers it up with his hands, and may have as much as hepleases, are all left open, naked, and unregarded, in the possession ofthe wild mountaineers, who are heathens and savages; and the Spaniards,you see, are so few, and those few so indolent, so slothful, and sosatisfied with the gold they get of the Chilians for things of smallvalue in trade, that all this vast treasure lies unregarded by them.Nay, continued he, is it not very strange to observe, that, when for ourdiversion we come into the hills, and among these places where you seethe gold is so easily found, we come, as we call it, a-hunting, anddivert ourselves more with shooting wild parrots, or a fawn or two, forwhich also we ride and run, and make our servants weary themselves morethan they would in searching for the gold among the gulleys and holesthat the water makes in the rocks, and more than would suffice to findfifty, nay, one hundred times the value in gold! To what purpose, then,should we seek the possession of more countries, who are alreadypossessed of more land than we can improve, and of more wealth than weknow what to do with? Perceiving me very attentive, he went on thus:
Were these mountains valued in Europe according to the riches to befound in them, the viceroy would obtain orders from the king to havestrong 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 maintainedin them, to prevent foreign nations landing, either on our side inChili, or on this side in the North Seas, and taking the possession fromus. He would then order thirty thousand slaves, negroes or Chilians, tobe constantly employed, not only in picking up what gold might be foundin the channels of the water, which might easily be formed into properreceivers, so as that if any gold washed from the rocks it should soonbe found, and be so secured, as that none of
it would escape; alsoothers, with miners and engineers, might search into the very rocksthemselves, and would no doubt find out such mines of gold, or othersecret stores of it in those mountains, as would be sufficient to enrichthe world.
While we omit such things as these, seignior, says he, what signifiesSpain making new acquisitions, or the people of Spain seeking newcountries? This vast tract of land you see here, and some hundreds ofmiles every way which your eye cannot reach to, is a fruitful, pleasant,and agreeable part of the creation, but perfectly uncultivated, and mostof it uninhabited; and any nation in Europe that thinks fit to settle init 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 tothe possession of it? and have the Spaniards no governor over it? norany ports or towns, settlements, or colonies in it, as is the case herein Chili? Seignior, replied he, the king of Spain is lord of allAmerica, as well that which he
