by Daniel Defoe
the tide with us, as he called it; and,at last, he added, that he would be content to be one of those men whoshould undertake it, provided he should be assured that the ships in themean 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 inmy head, and a strong inclination to undertake it myself, but that Icould not answer it to leave the ships, which depended so much upon mycare of the voyage.
After some talk of the reasonableness of such an undertaking, and themethods of performing it, my second midshipman began to come into it,and to think it was practicable enough, and added, that though he usedsome cautions in his first hearing proposals, yet, if he undertook thatenterprise, I should find that he would do as much of his duty in it asanother 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, andmy patron coming to me and asking if I was for returning, I told him Icould not say how many days it would be before I should say I had enoughof that prospect, but that I would return when he pleased, only I hadone question to ask him, which was, whether the mountains were as fullof 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 atrial, that you may be sure we do not speak without proof; so he calledhis gentleman, and another servant that was with him, and desired me tocall my two midshipmen, and, speaking something to his own servantsfirst, 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 gotogether, and see what they can do.
Accordingly, they went away, and, as my men told me afterwards, theysearched in the small streams of water which they found running, and insome larger gulleys or channels, where they found little or no waterrunning, but where, upon hasty rains, great shoots of water had beenused to run, and where water stood still in the holes and falls, as Ihave described once before on the like occasion.
They had not been gone above an hour, when I plainly heard my twoEnglishmen halloo, which I could easily distinguish from the voices ofany other nation, and immediately I ran out of the tent, CaptainMerlotte followed, and then I saw one of my midshipmen running towardsus, so we went to meet him, and, what with hallooing and running, hecould hardly speak; but, recovering his breath, said, he came to desireme to come to them, if I would behold a sight which I never saw in mylife.
I was eager enough to go, so I went with him, and left Captain Merlotteto go back to the tent to my patron, the Spaniard, and the Spanishdoctor, who had not so much share in the curiosity; he did so, and theyfollowed soon after.
When we came to the place, we saw such a wonder as indeed I never sawbefore, 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 waterrunning hastily from a piece of the rock, about two foot higher than therest, 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 handfulbrought up with it such a quantity of gold as was surprising; for therethey sat picking it out, just as the boys in London, who go with a broomand a hat, pick out old iron, nails, and pins from the channels, and itlay as thick.
I stood and looked at them awhile, and it must be confessed, it was apleasant sight enough; but, reflecting immediately that there was no endof 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 placeswhich 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 wassoon satisfied that here was enough, even to make all the world say theyhad 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 talkof the great lake of water which I mentioned just now that we saw at adistance, which they call the Golden Lake, and where was, as they said,prodigious quantities of it; not that our men supposed any gold wasthere in mines, or in the ordinary soil, but that the waters from thehills, running with very rapid currents at certain times in the rainyseasons, and after the melting of the snows, had carried the gold so faras that lake; and, as it has been so, perhaps, from the days of thegeneral deluge, no people ever applying themselves to gather the leastgrain of it up again, it might well be increased to such a quantity asmight entitle that water to the name of the Golden Lake, and all thelittle streams and sluices of water that run into it deserved the nameof Golden Rivers, as much as that of the Golden Lake.
But my present business was to know only if the gold was here, but notto trouble myself to pick it up; my views lay another way, and my endwas fully answered, so I came back to my patron, and brought all my menwith me.
You live in a golden country, seignior, says I; my men are stark mad tosee so much gold, and nobody to take it.
Should the world know what treasure you have here, I would not answerfor it that they should not flock hither in armies, and drive you allaway. They need not do that, seignior, says he, for here is enough forthem, and for us too.
We now packed up, and began our return; but it was not without regretthat I turned my back upon this pleasant country, the most agreeableplace of its kind that ever I was at in all my life, or ever shall be inagain, a country rich, pleasant, fruitful, wholesome, and capable ofeverything for the life of man that the heart could entertain a wishfor.
But my present work was to return; so we mounted our mules, and had, inthe meantime, the pleasure of contemplating what we had seen, andapplying ourselves to such farther measures as we had concerted amongus. In about four hours we returned to our camp, as I called it, and, bythe way, we found, to our no little pain, that though we had come downhill easily and insensibly to the opening for some miles, yet we had ahard pull uphill to go back again.
However, we reached to our tents in good time, and made our firstencampment with pleasure enough, for we were very weary with the fatigueof 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 theentertainment; for now he had some time to provide for us, knowing wewould come back again.
He met us with three mules, and two servants, about a mile before wecame to the descent going down to his house, of which I took noticebefore, and this he did to guide us a way round to his house withoutgoing down those uneasy steps; so we came on our mules to his door, thatis to say, on his mules, for he would have my patron, the Spaniard, towhom I observed he showed an extraordinary respect, and Captain Merlotteand myself, mount his fresh mules to carry us to his house.
When we came thither, I observed he wanted the assistance of my patron'sservants 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 assistedhim, and one of my midshipmen pretending to cook too, made them roast apiece of venison, and a piece of kid, or young goat, admirable well, andputting no garlick or onions into the sauce, but their own juices, witha little wine, it pleased the Spaniard so well, that my man passed foran extraordinary cook, and had the favour asked of him to dress somemore 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 whilewe were gone, but I knew none of them by any of the kinds we have inEngland, 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 itwas, and where, yet I could not make it familiar to me, for my life. TheChilian persuaded us to stay all the next day, and did his endeavour todivert us as much as possible; my two midshipmen went out with
hima-hunting, as he called it, that is, a-shooting; but, though he was aman of fifty years of age, he would have killed ten of them at hissport, running up the hills, and leaping from rock to rock like a boy ofseventeen. At his gun he was so sure a marksman, that he seldom missedanything he shot at, whether running, flying, or sitting.
They brought home with them several fowls, two fawns, and a full-growndeer, and we had nothing but boiling, stewing, and broiling, all thatevening. In the afternoon we walked out to view the hills, and to seethe stupendous precipices which surrounded us. As for looking for gold,we saw the places where there was enough to be had, but that was becomenow so familiar to us, that we troubled not ourselves about it, as abusiness not worth our while; but the two midshipmen, I think, got aboutthe quantity of five or six ounces apiece, while we were chatting orreposing in the Chilian's house.
Here it was that I entered into a confidence with my patron, theSpaniard, concerning my grand design. I told him, in the first place,that my view of the open
