I had nothing to do in all these four days, but to walk abroad, and, as we say, look about me; but I took this opportunity to give instructions to my two midshipmen, who were called my servants, in what they were to do.

First, I charged them to make land-marks, bearings, and beacons, as we might call them, upon the points of the rocks above them, and at every turning in the way below them, also at the reaches and windings of the rivers or brooks, falls of water, and every thing remarkable; and to keep each of them separate and distinct journals of these things; not only to find the way back again by the same steps; but that they might be able to find that way afterwards by themselves, and without guides, which was the bottom and true intent of all the rest of my undertakings; and as I knew these were both capable to do it, and had courage and fidelity to undertake it, I had singled them out for the attempt and had made them fully acquainted with my whole scheme, and, consequently, they knew the meaning, and reason of my present discourse with them they promised not to fail to shew me a plan of the hills, with the bearings of every point, one with another, where every step was to be taken, and every turning to the right hand, or to the left, and such a journal, I believe, was never seen before, or since; but it is too long for this place. I shall, however, take out the heads of it as I go along, which may serve as a general description of the place.

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The evening of the fourth day, as he had appointed, my friend the Spaniard let me know that he was ready to set out, and accordingly wo began our cavalcade: my retinue consisted of six, as before, and we had mules provided for us; my two midshipmen, as servants, had two mules given them also for their baggage; the Spaniard had six also, viz. his gentleman, or, as I called him before, his major domo, on horseback, that is to say, on mule-back, with mules for his baggage, and four servants on foot. Just before we set out, his gentleman brought every one of us a fuzee, and our two servants, each a harquebush, or short musket, with cartouches, powder and ball, and adjoined a pouch with small shot, such as we call swan shot, for fowls, or deer, as we saw occasion.

I was as well pleased with this, as with any thing, because I had not so entire a confidence in the native Chilians as he had; but I saw plainly, some time after, that I was wrong in that, for nothing could be more honest, quiet, and free from design, than those people, except the poor honest people where we dressed up the king and queen, as above.

We were late in the morning before we got out, having all this equipage to furnish, and travelling very gently, it was about two hours before sun-set when we came to the entrance of the mountains, where, to my surprise, I found we were to go in upon a level, without any ascent, at least, that was considerable: we had, indeed, gone up upon a pretty sharp ascent for near two miles before we came to the place.

The entrance was agreeable enough, the passage being near half a mile broad. On the left hand was a small river, whose channel was deep but the water shallow, there having been but

little rain for some time; the water ran very rapid, and, as the Spaniard told me, was sometimes exceeding fierce; the entrance lay inclining a little south, and was so straight that we could see near a mile before us, but the prodigious height of the hills on both sides and before us, appearing one over another, gave such a pros pect of horror, that I confess it was frightful at first to look on the stupendous height of the rocks. Everything before us looking one higher than another was amazing, and to see how, in some places, they hung over the river and over the passage, it threatened a man with being some time or other swallowed up.

The rocks and precipices on our right hand had here and there vast clefts and entrances, which looked as if they had been different thoroughfares, but when we came to look full into them we could see them close up at the further end, and go off in slopes, and with gullies made by the water which, in hasty rains, came pouring down from the hills, and which at a distance made such noises as it is impossible to conceive, unless by having seen and heard the like, for the water falling sometimes from a height twenty times as high as the Monument, and perhaps much more, and meeting in the passage with many dashes and interruptions, it is impos sible to describe how, the sound crossing and interfering, mingled with itself, and the several noises sunk one into another, increasing the whole, as the many waters joining increased the main stream.

We entered this passage about two miles the first night after the first length which, as I said, held about three-quarters of a mile, we turned away to the south, short on the right hand; the river leaving us, seemed to come through a very narrow but deep hollow of the mountains, where there was little more breadth at the bottom than the channel took up, though the rocks gave back as they ascended, as placed in several stages, though all horrid and irregular, and we could see nothing but blackness and terror all the way. I was glad our way did not turn on that side, but wondered that we should leave the river, and the more when I found that, in the way we went, having first mounted gently a green pleasant slope; when it declined again we found, as it were, a new rivulet began in the middle, and the water ran S. E., or thereabouts. This made me begin to ask if the water went away into the New World beyond the hills? My patron smiled, and said, "No, seignior, not yet; we shall meet with the other river again very quickly;" and so we found it the next morning.

When we came a little further we found the !! passage open, and we came to a very pleasant plain, which declined a little gradually, widening to the left or east side. On the right side of this we saw another vast opening like the first, which went in about half a mile, and then closed up as the first had done, sloping up to the top of the hills a most monstrous inconceivable height.

My patron stopping here, and getting down or alighting from his mule gave him to his man, and asking me to alight, told me, this was the first night's entertainment I was to meet with in the Andes, and hoped I was prepared for it. I told him, that I might very well consent to accept

of such entertainment in a journey of my own contriving, as he was content to take up with in compliment to me.

My patron making a kind of invitation to me to walk, took me up that dark chasm or opening on the right hand, which I have just mentioned, Here, sir," said he, "if you will venture to walk a few steps 'tis likely we may show you some of the product of this country;" but as it grew towards night, he added, "But I see it is too dark, perhaps we may do it in the morning." And with this we walked back towards the place where we left our mules and servants, and when we came thither there was a complete camp fixed. Three very handsome tents raised and a bar set up at a distance where the mules were tied one to another to graze, and the servants and the baggage lay together with an open tent over them.

My patron led me into the first tent, and told me he was obliged to let me know that I must make shift with that lodging, the place not affording any better.

Here we had quilts laid very artificially and clever for me and my three comrades, and we lodged very comfortably; but before we came to that we had the third tent to go to, in which there was a very handsome table covered with all conveniences, and, in a word, with a cold treat, that is to say, cold roasted mutton and beef, very well dressed, and after that, some potted or baked venison, with pickles, conserves, and very fine sweetmeats.

Here we ate very freely, but he bid us depend upon it that we should not fare so well the next night, and so it would be worse every night, till we came to lie entirely at a mountaineer's; but he was better to us than he pretended.

In the morning we had our chocolate as regularly as we used to have it in his own house, and we were up and ready to travel in a moment. We went winding now from the S. E. to the left, till our course looked E. by N., when we came again to have the river in view. But I should have observed here that my two midshipmen and two of my patron's servants had, by his direction, been very early in the morning clambering up the rocks in the opening on the right hand, and had come back again about a quarter of an hour after we set out, when missing my two men, I inquired for them, and my patron said they were coming, for, it seems, he saw them at a distance, and so we halted for them.

When they were come almost up to us, he called to his men in Spanish to ask if they had had una bon vejo? They answered, Poco, Poco:

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We followed up the stream of this water for three days more, encamping every night as before; in which time we passed by several such openings into the rocks on either side. On the fourth day we had the prospect of a very pleasant valley and river below us on the north side, keeping its course almost in the middle, the valley reaching near four miles in length, and in some places near two miles broad.

This sight was perfectly surprising, because here we found the vale fruitful, level, and inhabited, there being several small villages or clusters of houses such as the Chilians live in, which are low houses covered with a kind of sedge, and sheltered with little rows of thick grown trees, of what kind we knew not.

We saw no way through, nor which way we were to go out; but saw it everywhere bounded with prodigious mountains, look to which side of the valley we would. We kept still on the right, which was now the south-east side of the river, and as we followed it up the stream it was still less than at first, and lessened every step we went, because of the number of rills we left behind us. And here we encamped the fifth time, and all this while the Spanish gentleman victualled us. Then we turned again to the right, where we had a new and beautiful prospect of another valley as broad as the other, but not above a mile in length.

After we were through this valley my patron rides up to a poor little cottage of a Chilian Indian without any ceremony, and calling us all about him, told us that there we would go to dinner. We saw a smoke indeed in the house, rather than come out of it, and it smothered through a hole in the roof instead of a chimney. However, to this house, as to an inn, my patron had sent away his major domo and another servant, and there they were as busy as two cooks, boiling and stewing goat's flesh and fowls, making us soup, broth, and such hodge-podge, as it seems they were used to provide, and which, however homely the cottage was, we found very savoury and good.

Immediately a loose tent was pitched, and we had our table set up and dinner served in, and within about two hours we had eaten it, reposed ourselves after it (as the custom there is) and were ready to travel again.

I had room all this while to observe and wonder at the admirable structure of this place, which may serve, in my opinion, for the eighth wonder of the world, that is to say, supposing there were but seven before. We had in the middle of the day, indeed, a very hot sun, and the reflection from the mountains made it still hotter, but the height of the rocks on every side

began to cast long shadows before three o'clock, except where the openings looked towards the west, and as soon as those shadows reached us the cool breezes of the air came naturally on, drawing every way exceeding pleasant and refreshing.

The place we were in was green and flourishing, and the soil well cultivated by the poor industrious Chilians, who lived here in perfect solitude, and pleased with their liberty from the tyranny of the Spaniards, who very seldom visited them, and never molested them, being pretty much out of their way, except when they came for hunting and diversion; and then they used the Chilians always civilly, because they were obliged to them for their assistance in their diversions, the Chilians of those valleys being very active, strong, and nimble fellows.

By this means most of them were furnished with fire-arms, powder, and shot, and were very good marksmen, but as to violence against anybody, they entertained no thoughts of that kind, as I could perceive, but were content with their way of living, which was easy and free.

The tops of the mountains here, the vallies being so large, were much plainer to be seen than where the passages were narrow, for there the height was so great that we could see nothing Here, at several distances, (the rocks towering one over another) we might see smoke come out of some, snow lying upon others, trees and bushes growing upon others, and goats, wild asses, and other creatures which we could hardly distinguish, running about on others. When we had passed through this second valley, I perceived we came to a narrower passage, and something like the first; the entrance into it indeed was smooth, and above a quarter of a mile broad, and it went winding away to the N., and then again turned round to the N. E., afterwards almost due E., and then to the S. E. and so to S. S. E., and this frightful narrow strait, with the hanging rocks almost closing on the top, whose height we could neither see nor guess at, continued about three days' journey more, most of the way ascending gently upwards; and as to the river, it was by this time quite lost, but we might see, that on any occasion of rain, or of the melting of the snow on the mountains, there was a hollow in the middle of the valley, through which the water made its way, and on either hand the sides of the hills were full of the like gullies, made by the violence of the rain, where, not the earth only, but the rocks themselves, even the very stone, seemed to be worn and penetrated by the continual fall of the water.

Here my patron showed me, that in the hollow which I mentioned, in the middle of this way, and at the bottom of those gullies, or places worn, as above, in the rocks, there were often found pieces of gold, and sometimes, after a rain, very great quantities: and that there were few of the little Chilian cottages which I had seen, where they had not sometimes a pound or two of gold dust and lumps of gold by them; and he was mistaken, if I was willing to tarry and make the experiment, if we did not find some, even then, in a very little search.

The Chilian mountaineer at whose house we had stopped to dine, had gone with us, and he

hearing my patron say thus, runs presently to the hollow channel in the middle; there was a kind of a fall, or break in it, where the water by falling perhaps two or three feet, had made a little place deeper 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, with the help of two of the servants and a kind of scoop, he presently threw out the water, with the sand and whatever was at bottom among it, into the ordinary water-course; the water falling thus hard, every scoopful upon the sand or earth that came out of the scoop before it, washed a great deal of it away; and among that which remained, we might plainly see little lumps of gold shining, as big as grains of sand, and sometimes one 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 midshipmen to take up more, and they stayed indeed so long, that they could scarce see their way to overtake us, and brought away about two ounces in all, the Chilian and the servants very freely giving them all they found.

When we had travelled about nine miles more in this winding frightful narrow way, it began to grow towards night, and my patron talked of taking up our quarters as we had before; but his gentleman put him in mind of a Chilian, one of their old servants, who lived in a turning among the mountains, about half a mile out of our way, and where we might be accommodated again with the helps of a house, and 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 place of horror; and you shall see a prince greater, and more truly so, than King Philip, who is the greatest man in the world."

Accordingly we went softly on, his gentleman having advanced before, and, in about half a mile we found a turning or opening on our left, where we beheld a deep, large valley, almost circular, and of about a mile diameter, and abundance of houses or cottages interspersed all over it, so that | the whole valley looked like an inhabited village, and the ground like a planted garden.

We who, as I said, had been for some miles ascending upwards, were so high above them, that the low valley looked as the low lands in England look below Box hill, in Surrey; and I began to ask how we should get down? But as we were come into a wider space than before, so we had more daylight; for though the hollow way had rendered it near dusk before, now it was almost clear day again.

Here we parted with the first Chilian that ! mentioned, and I ordered one of my midshipmes 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 not what way to testry his joy; but I knew what I was doing in this and I ordered my midshipman to do it, that he might make his acquaintance with him against another time, and it was not a gift ill bestowed, as will appear in its place.

We were now obliged to quit our mules, who all took up their quarters at the 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 with many plain places between, like foot paces, for the ease of going and coming.

Thus winding and turning to avoid the declivity of the hill, we came very safe to the bottom, where my patron's gentleman and our new landlord that was to be, came to pay his compliment

to us.

He was dressed in a jerkin made of an otter skin, like a doublet, a pair of long 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 in two or three grave brown colours, and thrown about him like a Scotchman's plaid; he had shoes of a particular make, tied on like sandals, flat-heeled, no stockings, his breeches hanging down below the calf of his leg, and his shoes lacing up above his ancles; he had on a cap of the skin of some small beast like a racoon, with a bit of the tail hanging out from the crown of his head backward, a long pole in his hand, and a servant, as oddly dressed as himself, carried his gun: he had neither spado nor dagger.

When our patron came up the Chilian stepped forward and made him three very low bows, and then they talked together, not in Spanish, but in a kind of mountain jargon, some Spanish, and some Chilian, of which I scarce understood one word. After a few words, I understood he said something about a stranger come to see, and then, I suppose, added the passages of the mountains; then the Chilian came towards me, made me three bows, and bade me welcome in Spanish. As soon as he had said that, he turns to his barbarian, I mean his servant, for he was as ugly a looking fellow as ever I saw, and taking his gun from him, presented it to me; my patron bade me take it, for he saw me a little at a loss what to do, telling me, that as it was the greatest compliment that a Chilian could pay to me, he would be very ill pleased and out of humour if it was not accepted, and would think we did not care to be friendly with him.

As we had given this Chilian no notice of our coming, no, not a quarter 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 need of it; but we had no reason to complain.

This man's habitation was all the same as the rest, low, and covered with a sedge, or a kind of reed, which we found grew very plentifully in the valley where he lived. He had several pieces of ground round his dwelling, inclosed with stone walls, made very artificially with small stones, and no mortar; these enclosed grounds were planted with several kinds of garden-stuff for his household, such as plantains, Spanish cabbages, green cocoa, and other things, of the growth of their own country, and two of them with European wheat.

He had five or six apartments in his house, every one of them had a door into the air, and into one another, and two of them were very large and decent, had long tables on one side, made

after their own way, and benches to sit to them like our country people's long tables in England, and mattrasses, like couches, all along the other side, with skins of several sorts of wild creatures, laid on them to repose on in the heat of the day, as is the usage among the Spaniards.

Our people set up their tents and beds abroad, as before; but my patron told me the Chilian would take it very ill if he and I did not take up our lodging in his house, and we had two rooms provided, very magnificent in their way. The mattrass we lay on had a large canopy over it, spread like the crown of a tent, and covered with a large piece of cotton, white as milk, and which came round every way like a curtain, so that if it had been in the open field, it would have been a complete covering; the bed, such as it was, might be as hard as a quilt, and not more, and the covering was of the same cotton as the curtain work, which, it seems, is the manufacture of the Chilian women, and is nade very dextrously; it looked wild, but was pleasant enough, and proper to the place, so I slept very comfortably in it.

But, I must confess, I was surprised at the It was, as 1 aspect of things in the night here. told you above, very near night when we came to this man's cottage (palace I should have called it), and while we were taking our repast, which was very pretty, it grew quite night; we had wax candles brought in for light, which, it seems, my patron's man had provided, and the place had so little communication with the air by windows, that we saw nothing of what was with

out doors.

After supper, my patron turns to me; "Come, seignior," said he, “pray prepare yourself to take a walk." "What! in the dark!" said I, "in such a country as this?"" No, no," says he, "it is never dark here; you are now come to the country of everlasting day. What think you,— is not this Elysium?""I do not understand you," says I."-"But you will presently," says he, "when I shall show you that it is now lighter abroad than when we came in." Soon after this some of the servants opened the door that went into the next room, and the door of that room, which opened into the air, stood open, from whence a light of fire shone into the outer room, and so further into ours. "What are they burning there?" says I to my patron. "You will see presently," says he, adding, "I hope you will not be surprised." So he led me out to that door.

But who can express the thoughts of a man's heart, coming on a sudden into a place where the whole world seemed to be of a fire-light? The valley was on one side so exceeding bright, the eye could scarce bear to look at it; the sides of the mountains were shining like the fire itself; the flame from the top of the mountain on the other side casting its light directly upon them, from thence the reflection into other parts looked red, and more terrible; for the first was white and clear, like the light of the sun, but the other being, as it were, a reflection of light, mixed with some darker cavities, represented the fire of a furnace, and, in short, it might well be said, here was no darkness; but, certainly, at the first view,