by Daniel Defoe
country beyond these hills, and the particularaccount he had given me of it also, had raised a curiosity in me that Icould scarce withstand; and that I had thereupon formed a design, which,if he would farther me with his assistance, I had a very great mind toput in practice, and that, though I was to hazard perishing in theattempt.
He told me very readily, nothing should be wanting on his part to giveme any assistance he could, either by himself or any of his servants;but, smiling, and with abundance of good humour, Seignior, says he, Ibelieve I guess at the design you speak of; you are fired now with adesire to traverse this great country to the Coasta Deserta and theNorth Seas; that is a very great undertaking, and you will be welladvised before you undertake it.
True, Seignior, said I, you have guessed my design, and, were it notthat I have two ships under my care, and some cargo of value on board, Iwould bring my whole ship's company on shore, and make the adventure,and, perhaps, we might be strong enough to defend ourselves againstwhatever might happen by the way.
As to that, seignior, says he, you would be in no danger that wouldrequire so many men; for you will find but few inhabitants anywhere, andthose not in numbers sufficient to give you any trouble; fifty men wouldbe as many as you would either want or desire, and, perhaps, as youwould find provisions for; and, for fifty men, we might be able to carryprovisions with us to keep them from distress. But, if you will acceptof my advice, as well as assistance, seignior, says he, choose afaithful strong fellow out of your ship on whom you can depend, and givehim fifty men with him, or thereabouts, and such instructions as youmay find needful, as to the place on the coast where you would have themfix their stay, and let them take the first hazards of the adventure;and, as you are going round by sea, you will, if success follows, meetthem on the shore, and if the account they give of their journeyencourage you, you may come afterwards yourself up to these verymountains, and take a farther view; in which case, he added, with asolemn protestation, cost me what it will, I will come and meet you onehundred miles beyond the hills, with supplies of provisions and mulesfor your assistance.
This was such wholesome and friendly advice, and he offered it sosincerely, that though it was very little differing from my own design,yet I would not be seen so to lessen his prudence in the measures of hisfriendship in advising it, as to say that I had resolved to do so; butmaking all possible acknowledgment to him for his kind offers, I toldhim I would take his advice, and act just according to the measures hehad prescribed; and, at the same time I assured him, that if I found aconvenient port to settle and fortify in, I would not fail to come againfrom France (for we passed always as acting from France, whatever nationwe were of) to relieve and supply them; and that, if ever I returnedsafe, I would not fail to correspond with him, by the passages of themountains, and make a better acknowledgment for his kindness than I hadbeen able to do yet.
He was going to break off the discourse upon the occasion of theChilian's returning, who was just come in from his hunting, telling me,he would talk farther of it by the way; but I told him I could not quitedismiss the subject, because I must bespeak him to make some mention ofit to the Chilian, that he might, on his account, be an assistant to ourmen, as we saw he was capable of being, in their passing by thosedifficult ways, and for their supply of provisions, &c. Trouble notyourself with that, seignior, said he, for when your men come, the careshall be mine; I will come myself as far as this wealthy Chilian's, andprocure them all the assistance this place can afford them, and doanything that offers to forward them in the undertaking.
This was so generous, and so extraordinary, that I had nothing to saymore, but to please myself with the apparent success of my attempt, andacknowledge the happiness of having an opportunity to oblige sogenerous, spirited, and grateful a person.
I would, however, have made some farther acknowledgment to our Chilianbenefactor, but I had nothing left, except a couple of hats, and threepair of English stockings, one pair silk and the other two worsted, andthose I gave him, and made him a great many acknowledgments for thefavours he had shown us, and the next morning came away.
We made little stay anywhere else in our return; but, making much suchstages back as we did forward, we came the fourteenth day to ourpatron's house, having made the passage through in something less thansixteen days, and the like back in fifteen days, including our stay atthe Chilian's, one day.
The length of the way, according to the best of my calculations, Ireckoned to be about one hundred and seventy-five English miles, takingit with all its windings and turnings, which were not a few, but whichhad this conveniency with them, that they gave a more easy and agreeablepassage, and made the English proverb abundantly good, namely, that thefarthest way about is the nearest way home.
The civilities I received after this from my generous Spaniard wereagreeable to the rest of his usage of me; but we, that had so great acharge upon us at the sea-side, could not spare long time in thoseceremonies, any more than I do now for relating them.
It is enough to mention, that he would not be excused, at parting, fromgoing back with us quite to the ships, and when I would have excused it,he said, Nay, seignior, give me leave to go and fetch my hostages. Inshort, there was no resisting him, so we went all together, afterstaying two days more at his house, and came all safe to our ships,having been gone forty-six days from them.
We found the ship in very good condition, all safe on board, and well,except that the men seemed to have contracted something of the scurvy,which our Spanish doctor, however, soon recovered them from.
Here we found the two Spanish youths, our patron's hostages, very wellalso, and very well pleased with their entertainment; one of ourlieutenants had been teaching them navigation, and something of themathematics, and they made very good improvement in those studies,considering the time they had been there; and the Spaniard, theirfather, was so pleased with it, that not having gold enough to offer thelieutenant, as an acknowledgment for his teaching them, he gave him avery good ring from his finger, having a fine large emerald in it ofsome value, and made him a long Spanish compliment for having nothing ofgreater consequence to offer him.
We now made preparations for sailing, and our men, in my absence, hadlaid in a very considerable supply of provisions, particularly excellentpork, and tolerable good beef, with a great number of goats and hogsalive, as many as we could stow.
But I had now my principal undertaking to manage, I mean that of sendingout my little army for discovery, and, having communicated my design tothe supercargo, and the person whom I intrusted with him in the commandof the ships, they unanimously approved of the scheme. My next businesswas to resolve upon whom to confer the command of the expedition; andthis, by general consent, fell upon the lieutenant of the Madagascarship, who had taught the young Spaniards navigation, and this therather, because he was naturally a bold enterprising man, and also anexcellent geographer; indeed, he was a general artist, and a manfaithful and vigilant in whatever he undertook, nor was it a littleconsideration with me, that he was so agreeable to the Spaniard and hissons, of whose aid we knew he would stand in so much need.
When I had communicated to him the design, and he had both approved ofthe undertaking itself, and accepted the command, we constituted himcaptain, and the two midshipmen we made lieutenants for the expedition,promising each of them 500_l._ if they performed it. As for the captain,we came to a good agreement with him for his reward; for I engaged togive him a thousand pounds in gold as soon as we met, if the journey wasperformed effectually.
We then laid open the design to the men, and left it to every one'schoice to go, or not to go, as they pleased; but, instead of wanting mento go volunteers, we were fain to decide it by lot among some of them,they were all so eager to undertake it.
Then I gave them articles and conditions, which they who ventured shouldengage themselves to comply with, and particularly, that they shouldnot mutiny, upon pain of being shot to death when we met, or upon thespot, if the captain thought it necessary; that
they should not stragglefrom their company, nor be tempted by the view of picking up gold tostay behind, when the company beat to march; that all the gold theyfound in the way should be common, should be put together in a bulkevery night, and be divided faithfully and equally at the end of thejourney, allowing only five shares to each ship, to be divided as Ishould direct. Besides which, upon condition that every man behavedhimself faithfully and quietly, and did his duty, I promised, thatbesides the gold he might get by the way, I would give to all onehundred pounds each at our meeting; and, if any man was sick, or maimedby the way, the rest were to engage not to forsake and leave him on anyaccount whatsoever, death only excepted. And if any man died, except byany violence from the rest, his share of the gold which was gottenshould be faithfully kept for his family, if he had any; but his rewardof one hundred pounds, which was not due, because he did not live todemand it, should be divided among the rest; so that by this agreement,the undertaking was not
