that he troubled himself to lay up any great quantity more than served to go to Villa Rica, and buy what he wanted for himself and family; he had, it seems, a wife and some daughters, but no sons; these lived in a separate house, about a furlong from this where he lived, and were kept there as a family by themselves, and if he had had any sons they would have lived with him. We were now come to another night's lodging, which we were obliged to take up with on the green grass, as we did the first night; but by the help of our proveditor-general, my patron, we fared very well, our goat's flesh being reduced into so many sorts of venison, that none of us could distinguish it from the best venison we ever tasted. He did not offer to go with us any part of our Here we slept without any of the frightful way, as the other had done; but having enter- things we saw the night before, except that we tained us with great civility took his leave. I might see the light of the fire in the air, at a caused one of my midshipmen to make him a great distance, like a great city on fire, but that present, when we came away, of a piece of black gave us no disturbance at all. baize, enough to make him a cloak, as I did the other, and a piece of blue English serge, enough to make him a jerkin and breeches, which he accepted as a great bounty. 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 of our travel, and thus we were provided for dinner even before breakfast time. As for our breakfast, it was always a Spanish breakfast, that is to say, about a pint of chocolate. We set out again, though not very early in the morning, having, as I said, sat up late and drank freely over night, and we found that after we had gone to sleep it had rained very hard, We set out very merrily in the morning, and and though the rain was over before we went out, we that were Englishmen could not refrain yet the falling of the water from the hills made smiling at one another, to think how we passed such a confused noise, and was echoed so back-through a country where the gold lay in every ward and forward from all sides, that it was like a strange mixture of distant thunder, and though we knew the causes yet it could not be but surprising to us for awhile. ditch, as we might call it, and never troubled ourselves so much as to stoop to take it up; so certain is it that it is easy to be placed in a station of life where that very gold, the heapHowever, we set forward, the way under footing up of which is here made the main business being pretty good, and first we went up the steps again by which we had come down, (our last host waiting on us thither,) and there I gave him back his gun, for he would not take it before. of man's living in the world, would be of no value, and not worth taking off from the ground; nay, not of signification enough to make a present of; for that was the case here. Two or In this valley, which was the pleasantest by three yards of Colchester baize, a coarse rugday and the most dismal by night that ever I saw, like manufacture, worth in London about fifteenI observed abundance of goats, as well tame in perce halfpenny per yard, was here a present the inclosures as wild upon the rocks; and we for a man of quality; when, for a handful of found afterwards that the latter were perfectly gold dust, the same person would scarcely thank wild, and to be had, like those at Juan Fer- you, or, perhaps, would think himself not kindly nandez, by anybody that could catch them. My treated to have it offered him. patron sent off two of his men, just as a huntsman casts off hounds, to go and catch goats, and they brought us in three, which they shot in less than half an hour; and these we carried with us for our evening supply, for we made no dinner this day, having fed heartily in the morning about nine, and had chocolate two hours before that. We travelled now along the narrow winding passage, which I mentioned before, for about four hours, till I found, that though we had ascended but gently, yet that, as we had done so for almost twenty miles together, we were got up to a frightful height, and I began to expect some very difficult descent on the other side; but we were made easy about two o'clock, when the way not only declined again to the east, but grew wider, || though with frequent turnings and winding about, so that we could seldom see above half a mile before us. We went on thus pretty much upon a level, now rising, now falling, but still 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 showed neither east nor west, but ran all down the little turnings that we frequently met with on the north side of our way, which my patron told me went all into the great valley where we saw the fire, and so went away by a general channel north-west, till it found its way out into the open country of Chili, and so to the South Seas. We travelled this day pretty smartly, having rested at noon about two hours, as before, and, by my calculation, went about 22 English miles 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 we found it lay very level for a good way together. Our way lying almost E. S. E., after we had marched so about two miles, I found the way go evidently down hill, and in half a mile more, to our singular satisfaction, we found the water from the mountains ran plainly eastward, and, consequently, to the North Sea. We saw at a distance several huts, or houses of the mountaineer inhabitants, but we came near none of them, but kept on our way, going down two or three pretty steep places, not at all dangerous, though somewhat difficult. We encamped again the next night, as before, and still our good caterer had plenty of food for us; but I observed that the next morning, when we set forward, our tents were left standing, the baggage-mules tied together 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 good quarters quickly without them. I did not understand him for the present, but it unriddled itself soon after; for though we travelled four days more in that narrow way, yet he 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 way turned short east, and opened into a vast wide country, boundless to the eye every way, and delivered us entirely from the mountains of the Andes, in which we had wandered so long. Any one may guess what an agreeable surprise this was to us, to whom it was the main end of our travels. We made no question that this was the open country extending to the North or At lantic Ocean, but how far it was thither, or what inhabitants it was possessed by, what travelling, what provisions to be found in the way, what rivers to pass, and whether any navigable or not; this our patron himself could not tell us one word of, owning frankly to us that he had never been one step further than the place where we then stood, and that he had been there only once to satisfy his curiosity, as I did now. I told him that if I had lived where he did, and had had servants and provisions at command, as he had, it would have been impossible for me to have restrained my curiosity so far as not to have searched that whole country to the sea side long ago. I told him it seemed to be a pleasant and fruitful soil, and, no doubt, was capable of ltivation and improvement; and if it had been CL. have possessed such a country in his Caonly to sty's name, it must have been worth tholic Maje ake the discovery for the honour while to under... there could be no room to of Spain; and tha question, but his Catho. Majesty would have honoured him that should have undertaken such a thing with some particular mark of his favour, which might be of consequence to him and his family. Nay," adds he, "is it not very odd to observe, that when for our diversion we come out into the hills, and among these places where you see the gold is so easily found, we come, as we call it, ahunting, and divert ourselves more with shooting wild parrots, or a fawn or two, for which also we ride and run, and make our servants weary themselves more than they would in fishing up the gold among the gullies and holes that the water makes in the rocks, and more than would suffice to find fifty, nay, one hundred times the value in gold. "To what purpose, then, should we seek the possession of more countries, who are already possessed of more land than we can improve, and of more wealth than we know what to do with?" Perceiving me very attentive. he went on thus : "Were these mountains," said he, "valued in Europe, according to the riches to be found in them, the viceroy would obtain orders from the king to have strong 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 maintained in them, to prevent foreign nations landing, either on our side in Chili, or on this side in the North Seas, and taking the possession from us; he would then order thirty thousand slaves, negroes, or Chilians, to be constantly employed, not only in picking up what gold might be found in the channels of the water, which might easily be formed into proper receivers, so as that if any gold washed from the rocks, it should soon be found, and be so secured, as that none of it would escape; also others, with miners and engineers, might search into the very rocks themselves, and He told me that as to that, the Spaniards would, no doubt, find out such mines of gold, or seemed already to have more dominions in Ame-other secret stores of it in those mountains, as rica than they could keep, and much more than they were able to reap the benefit of, and still more infinitely than they could improve, and especially in those parts called South America. That it was next to miraculous that they could keep the possession where they were, and were not the natives so utterly destitute of support from any other part of the world, as not to be able to have either arms or ammunition put into their hands, it would be impossible, since I might easily see they were men that wanted not strength of body nor courage, and it was evident they did not want numbers, seeing they were already ten thousand natives to one Spaniard, taking the whole country from one end to the other. would be sufficient to enrich the world. "While we omit such things as these, seignior," says he, "what signifies Spain making new acquisitions, or the people of Spain seeking new countries? This vast tract of land you see here, and some hundreds of miles every way, which your eye cannot reach to, is a fruitful, pleasant, and agreeable piece of God's creation, but perfectly uncultivated, and most of it uninhabited; and any nation in Europe that thinks fit to settle in it are free to do so, for anything we are able to do to prevent them." "But, seignior," said I, "does not his Catholic Majesty claim a title to the possession of it? and have the Spaniards no governor over it; nor He went on-" Then you see, seignior," says any ports or towns, settlements or colonies in it, he, "how far we are from improvement in that as is the case here in Chili?"" Seignior," repart of the country which we possess, and many plies, he, "the king of Spain is lord of America, more, which, you may be sure are among these as well that which he possesses as that which he vast mountains, and which we never discovered, possesses not, that right being given him by the seeing all these valleys and passages among the Pope, in the right of his being a Christian prince, mountains, where gold is to be had in such quan-making new discoveries for propagating the tities, and with so much ease, that every poor Christian faith among infidels; how far that may Chilian gathers it up with his hands, and may pass for a title among the European powers 1 have as much as he pleases; all are left open, know not; I have heard that it has always passnaked and unregarded, in the possession of the ed for a maxim in Europe, that no country which wild mountaineers, who are heathens and sa- is not planted by any prince or people can be vages; and the Spaniards, you see," says he, said to belong to them; and, indeed, I cannot "are so few, and these few so indolent, so sloth- say but it seems to be rational that no prince ful, and so satisfied with the gold they get of the should pretend to any title to a country where Chilians for things of small value in trade, that he does not think fit to plant, and to keep pos all this vast treasure lies unregarded by them.session; for if he leaves the country unpos sessed, he leaves it free for any other nation to come and possess; and this is the reason why the former king of Spain did not dispute that right of the French to their colonies of Mississippi and Canada, or the right of the English to the Carribee Islands, or to their colonies of Virginia and New England. "In like manner from Buenos Ayres, in the Rio de la Plata, which lies that way," says he, pointing N. E., "to the Fretum Magellanicum, which lies that way (pointing S. E.), which comprehends a vast number of leagues, is called by us Coasta Deserta, being unpossessed by Spain, and disregarded of all our nation; neither is there one Spaniard in it. Nevertheless, you see how fruitful, how pleasant, and how agreeable a climate it is, how apt for planting and peopling it seems to be, and, above all, what a place of wealth here would be behind them, sufficient, and more than enough, both for them and us; for we should have no reason to offer them any disturbance; neither should we be in any condition to do it, the passages of the mountains being but few and difficult, as you have seen, and our numbers not sufficient to do anything more than block them up, to keep such people from breaking in upon our settlements on the coast of the South Seas." I asked him if these notions of his were common among those of his country who were settled in Chili and Peru, or whether they were his own private opinions only. I told him I believed the latter; because I found he acted in all his affairs upon generous principles, and was for propagating the good of mankind: but that I questioned whether the governor of Old Spain, or the sub-governor, and viceroy of New Spain, acted upon those notions or no; and since he had mentioned the Buenos Ayres and the Rio de la Plata, I should take that as an example, seeing the Spaniards would never suffer any nation to set foot in that great river, where so many countries might have been discovered, and colonies planted, though at the same time they had not possessed or fully discovered those places themselves. He answered me, smiling: "Seignior," says he, "you have given the reason for this yourself in that very part which you think is a reason against it. We have a colony at Buenos Ayres, and at the city of Ascension, higher up in the Rio de la Plata; and we are not willing to let any other nation settle there, because we would not let them see how weak we are, and what a vast extent of land we possess there with a few men, and this for two reasons :-First, we are possessed of the country, and daily increasing there, and may, in time, extend ourselves further. The great rivers Parana and Paraguay being yet|| left for us to plant in, and we are not willing to put ourselves out of a capacity of planting further, and therefore we keep the possession. Secondly, we have a communication from thence with Peru. That great river La Plata rises at the city La Plata, and out of the mountain Potosi, in Peru, and a great trade is carried on by that river, and it would be dangerous to let foreigners into the secret of that trade, which they might entirely cut off, especially when they should find that small number of Spaniards which are planted there to preserve it, seeing there are not || six hundred Spaniards in all that vast country, which, by the course of that river is more than one thousand six hundred miles in length." "I confess," said I, "these are just grounds for your keeping the possession of that river.". They are so," said he, " and the more, because of so powerful a colony as the Portuguese have in the Brazils, which bound immediately upon it, and who were always encroaching upon it from the land side, and would gladly have a passage up the Rio Parana to the back of their colony. "But here, seignior," says he, "the case is different, for we neither take nor keep possession here; neither have we one Spaniard, as I said, in the whole country now before you; and therefore we call this country Coasta Deserta; not that it is a desert, as that name is generally taken to signify, a barren, sandy, dry country; on the contrary, the infinite, prodigious increase of the European black cattle, which were brought by the Spaniards to the Buenos Ayres, and let run loose, is a sufficient testimony of the fruitfulness and richness of the soil, their number being such, that they kill above twenty thousand of them in a year, for nothing but the hides, which they carry away to Spain, leaving the flesh, though fat and wholesome, to perish on the ground, or to be devoured by birds of prey. "And the number is so great, notwithstanding all they destroy, that they are found to wander sometimes in droves of many thousands together, over all the vast country between the Rio de la Plata, and the city of the Ascension, and the frontier of Peru, and even down into this country which you see before us, and up to the very foot of these mountains." "Well," said I, "and is it not a great pity that all this part of the country, and in such a climate as this is, should lie uncultivated, or uninhabited rather? for I understand there are not any great numbers of people to be found among them." "It is true," added he, "there are some nations of people spread about in this country; but as the terror of our people, the Spaniards, drove them at first from the sea coast towards these mountains, so the greatest part of them continue on this side still; for, towards the coast it is very rare that they find any people." I would have inquired of him about rivers and navigable streams which might be in this country, but he told me frankly that he could give me no account of them, only thus, that if any of the rivers went away towards the north, they certainly run all into the great Rio de la Plata, but that if they went east, or southernly, they must go directly to the coast, which was ordinarily called, as he said, La Coasta Deserta, or as by some, the coast of Patagonia; that as to the magnitude of those rivers, he could say little, but that it could not be rational but there must be some very considerable rivers, and whose streams must needs be capable of navigation, seeing abundance of water must continually flow from the mountains where we then were, and its being at least four hundred miles from the sea side, those small streams must necessarily join together, and make large rivers in the plain country. I had enough in this discourse fully to satisfy all my curiosity, and sufficiently to heighten my desire of making the farther discoveries I had in my thoughts. We pitched our little camp here, and sat down to our repast; for I found that though we were to go back to lodge, yet my patron had taken care we should be furnished sufficiently for dinner, and have a good house to eat it in; that is to say, a tent, as before. The place where we stood, though we had come down-hill for a great way, yet seemed very high from the ordinary surface of the country, and gave us, therefore, an exceedingly fine prospect of it, the country declining gradually for near ten miles; and we thought, as well as the distance of the place would allow us, we saw a great river, but, as I learnt afterwards, it was rather a great lake than a river, which was supplied by the smaller rivers, or rivulets, from the mountains, which met there in a great receptacle of waters, and out of this lake they all issued again in one river, of which I shall have occasion to give a farther account hereafter. While we were at dinner I ordered my midshipman to take their observations of every distant object, and to look at everything with their glasses, which they did, and told me of this lake; but my patron could give no account of it, having never been, as he said before, one step farther that way than where we were. However, my men showed me plainly that it was a great lake, and that there went a large river from it towards the E. S. E., and this was enough for me, for that way lay all the schemes I had laid. I took this opportunity to ask my midshipmen, first, if they had taken such observations in their passage of the mountains, as that they were sure they could find their way through to this place again without guides? They assured me they could. Then I put it to them-whether they thought it might not be feasible to travel over that vast level country to the North Seas? And to make a sufficient discovery of the country, so as that hereafter Englishmen coming to the coast on that side of the North Seas might penetrate to these golden mountains, and reap the benefit of the treasure without going a prodigious length about Cape Horn, and the Terra del Fuego, which was always attended with innumerable dangers; and without breaking through the kingdom of Chili, and the Spaniards' settlements, which, perhaps, we might soon be at peace with, and so be shut out that way by our own consents? had a strong inclination to undertake it myself; but that I could not answer it to leave the ships, which depended so much upon my care of the voyage. After some talk of the reasonableness of such an undertaking, and the methods of performing it, my second midshipman began to come into it, and to think it was practicable enough, and added, that though he used some cautions in his first hearing proposals, yet, if he undertook that enterprise, I should find that he would do as much of his duty in it as another man; and so he did at last, as will appear in its place. We were, by this time, preparing to be satisfied with our journey, and my patron coming to me and asking if I was for returning, I told him I could not say how many days it would be before I should say I had enough of that prospect, but that I would return when he pleased, only I bad one question to ask him, which was-whether the mountain was as full of 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 a trial, that you may be sure we do not speak without book;" so he called his gentleman, and another servant that was with him, and desired me to call my two midshipmen, and speaking something to his own servants first, in the language of the country, as I suppose, he turned to me and said “Come, let us sit down and repose ourselves, and let them go altogether, and see what they can do." Accordingly they went away; and, as my men told me afterwards, they searched in the small streams of water which they found running, and in some large gullies, or channels, where they found little or no water running; but where, upon hasty rains, great shoots of water had been used to run, and where water stood still in the holes and falls, as I have described once before on the like occasion. They had not been gone above an hour when I plainly heard my two Englishmen halloo, which I could easily distinguish from the voices of any other nation, and immediately I ran out of the tent, Captain Merlotte followed, and I then saw one of my midshipmen running towards us, so we went to meet him, and what with hallooing, and running, he could hardly speak; but recovering his breath, said, "He came to desire me to come to them, if I would see a sight which I never saw in my life." I was eager enough to go, so I went with him, and left Captain Merlotte to go back to the tent to my patron the Spaniard, and the Spanish doctor, who had not so much share in the curiosity. He did so, and they fol When we came to the place we saw such & sight, indeed, as I never saw before; 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 water running hastily from a piece of the rock, about two feet higher than the rest, had made a pit under it with the fall like the tail of a mill, only much less. One of my men began to speak of the difficulties of such an attempt, the want of provisions,lowed fair and softly. and other dangers which we should be exposed to on the way; but the other, a bold, brisk fellow, told me he made no question but it might be easily done, and especially because all the rivers they should meet with would, of course, run along with us, so that we should be sure to have the tide with us, as he called it; and at last he added that he would be content to be one of those men who should undertake it, provided he should be assured that the ships 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 thing in my head, and I Here they took up the sand, or gravel, with their hands, and every handful brought up with it such a quantity of gold as was surprising; for there they sat picking it out just as the boys in London that go with a broom and a hat, pick old iron, nails, and pins out of the channels, and it lay as thick. I stood and looked at, them awhile, and, it must be confessed, it was a pleasant sight enough. But reflecting immediately that there was no end of this, and that we were only upon the inquiry, "Come away," says 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 lodging?" I can make no guess what quantity might have been found here in places, which 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 was soon satisfied here was enough even to make all the world say they had enough; and so I called off my people, and came away. ever, we reached to our tents in good time, and made our first encampment with pleasure enough, for we were very weary with the fatigue of 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 the entertainment; for now he had some time to provide for us, knowing we would come back again. us to his house. He met us with three mules, and two servants, about a mile before we came to the descent going down to his house, of which I took notice before, and this he did to guide us a way round to his house, without going down those uneasy steps; so we came on our mules to his door, that is to say, on his mules, for he would have my patron, the Spaniard, to whom I observed he It seems the quantity of gold which is thus showed an excellent respect, and Captain Merwashed down is not small, since my men, in-lotte and myself, mount his fresh mules to carry quiring afterwards among the Chilians, heard them talk of the great lake of water which I mentioned just now that we saw at a distance, which they call the Golden lake, and where was, as they said, prodigious quantities of it; not that our men supposed any gold was there in mines, or in the ordinary soil, but that the waters from the hills, running with very rapid currents at certain times in the rainy seasons, and after the melting of the snows, had carried the gold so far as that lake; and as it has been so, perhaps, from the days of the general deluge, no people ever applying themselves to gather the least grain of it up again, it might well be increased to such a quantity as might entitle that water to the name of the Golden lake, and all the little streams and sluices of water that run into it deserved the name of Golden rivers, as much as that of the Golden lake. But my business was to know if the gold was here, not to trouble myself to pick it up; my views lay another way, and my end was fully answered; so I came back to my patron, and brought all my men with me. "You live in a golden country, seignior," says I; "my men are stark mad to see so much gold, and nobody to pick it up; should the world know what treasure you have here, I would not answer for it that they should not flock hither in armies, and drive you all away."- They need not do that, seignior," says he, "for here is enough for them and for us too." We now packed up, and began our return, but it was not without regret that I turned my back upon this pleasant country, the most agreeable place of its kind that ever I was at in all my life, or ever shall be in again. A country rich, pleasant, fruitful, wholesome, and capable of everything for the life of man that the heart could entertain a wish for. When we came thither I observed he wanted the assistance of my patron's servants 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 assisted him, and one of my midshipmen pretending to cook too, made them roast a piece of venison, and a piece of a kid or young goat, admirably well, and putting no garlic or onions into the sauce but their own juices, with a little wine, it pleased the Spaniard so well, that my man passed for an extraordinary cook, and had the favour asked of him to dress some more after the same manner when we came back to the Spaniard's house. We had here several sorts of wild fowl which the Chilian had shot while we were gone; but I knew none of them by any of the kinds we have in England, except some teal. However, they were very good. The day was very agreeable and pleasant here; but the night dreadful, as before, being all fire and flame; and though we understood both what it was, and where, yet I could not make it familiar to me for my life. The Chilian persuaded us to stay all the next day, and did his endeavour to divert us as much as possible. My two midshipmen went out with him a-hunting, as he called it, that is, a-shooting; but though he was a man of fifty years of age he would have killed ten of them at his sport, running up the hills, and leaping from rock to rock like a boy of seventeen. At his gun he was so sure a marksman that he seldom missed anything he shot at, whether running, flying, or sitting. They brought home with them several fowls, two fawns, and full grown deer, and we had nothing but boiling, stewing, and broiling all that evening. In the afternoon we walked out to view the hills and to see the stupendous precipices which surrounded us. As for looking for gold, we saw the places where there was enough to be had, but that was become now so familiar to us that we troubled not ourselves about it, as a thing not much worth while; but our two midshipmen I think got about the quantity of five or six ounces a-piece while we were chatting, or reposing in the Chilian's house. But my present work was to return; so we mounted our mules, and had, in the meantime, the pleasure of contemplating what we had seen, and applying ourselves to such farther measures as we had concerted among us. In about four hours we returned to our camp, as I called it, and by the way we found, to our no little pain, that though we had come down hill easily, and insensibly to the opening for some miles, yet we had a hard pull up hill to go back again. How-with my patron the Spaniard,concerning my grand Here it was that I entered into a confidence |