They would gladly have purchased some European goods, and especially English cloth and baize; but as we had indeed very few such things left, so we were not willing they should see them, that they might not have any suspicion of our being Englishmen, and English ships, which would soon have put an end to all our commerce.

While we lay here trafficking with the Spaniards, I set some of my men to work to converse among the native Chilians, or Indians, as we call them, of the country, and several things they learned of them, according to the instructions which I gave them; for example, first, I understood by them that the country people, who do not live among the Spaniards, have a mortal aversion to them; that it is rivetted in their minds by tradition from father to son, ever since the wars which had formerly been among them, and that though they did not now carry on those wars, yet the animosity remained; and the pride and cruel haughty temper of the Spaniards were such still to those of the country people who came under their government, as make that aversion continually increase. They let us know, that if any nation in the world would but come in and a.s.sist them against the Spaniards, and support them in their rising against them, they would soon rid their hands of the whole nation. This was to the purpose exactly, as to what I wanted to know.

I then ordered particular inquiry to be made, whether the mountains of Andes, which are indeed prodigious to look at, and so frightful for their height, that it is not to be thought of without some horror, were in any places pa.s.sable? what country there was beyond them? and whether any of their people had gone, over and knew the pa.s.sages?

The Indians concurred with the Spaniards in this (for our men inquired of both), that though the Andes were to be supposed, indeed, to be the highest mountains in the world, and that, generally speaking, they were impa.s.sable, yet that there had been pa.s.sages found by the vales among the mountains; where, with fetching several compa.s.ses and windings partly on the hills, and partly in the valleys, men went with a great deal of ease and safety quite through or over, call it as we will, to the other, named the east side, and as often returned again.

Some of the more knowing Indians or Chilians went farther than this, and when our men inquired after the manners, situation, and produce of the country on the other side, they told them, that when they pa.s.sed the mountains from that part of the country, they went chiefly to fetch cattle and kill deer, of which there were great numbers in that part of the land; but that when they went from St. Jago they turned away north some leagues, when they came to a town called St. Anthonio de los Vejos, or, the town of St. Anthony and the Old Men; that there was a great river at that city, from whence they found means to go down to the Rio de la Plata, and so to the Buenos Ayres, and that they frequently carried thither great sums of money in Chilian gold, and brought back European goods from thence.

I had all I wanted now, and bade my men say no more to them on that subject, and only to tell them, that they would come back and travel a little that way to see the country. The people appeared very well pleased with this intelligence, and answered, that if they would do so, they should find some, as well Spaniards as Chilians, who would be guides to them through the hills; also a.s.suring them, that they would find the hills very practicable, and the people as they went along very ready to a.s.sist and furnish them with whatever they found they wanted, especially if they come to know that they were not Spaniards, or that they would protect them from the Spaniards, which would be the most agreeable thing to them in the world; for it seems many of the nations of the Chilians had been driven to live among the hills, and some even beyond them, to avoid the cruelty and tyranny of the Spaniards, especially in the beginning of their planting in that country.

The next inquiry I ordered them to make was, whether it was possible to pa.s.s those hills with horses or mules, or any kind of carriages? and they a.s.sured them, they might travel with mules, and even with horses also, but rather with mules; but as to carriages, such as carts or waggons, they allowed that was not practicable. They a.s.sured us, that some of those ways through the hills were much frequented, and that there were towns, or villages rather, of people to be found in the valleys between the said hills; some of which villages were very large, and the soil very rich and fruitful, bearing sufficient provisions for the inhabitants, who were very numerous. They added, that the people were not much inclined to live in towns as the Spaniards do, but that they lived scattered up and down the country, as they were guided by the goodness of the land; that they lived very secure and unguarded, never offering any injury to one another, nor fearing injury from any but the Spaniards.

I caused these inquiries to be made with the utmost prudence and caution, so that the Spaniards had not the least suspicion of our design; and thus, having finished our traffick, and taken in water and provisions, we sailed from Baldivia, having settled a little correspondence there with two Spaniards, who were very faithful to us, and with two Chilian Indians, whom we had in a particular manner engaged, and whom, to make sure of, we took along with us; and having spent about thirteen days here, and taken the value of about six thousand pieces of eight in silver and gold, but most of it in gold, we set sail.

Our next port was the Bay of the Conception; here, having two or three men on board who were well acquainted with the coast, we ran boldly into the bay, and came to an anchor in that which they call the Bite, or little bay, under the island Quinquina; and from thence we sent our boat, with French mariners to row, and a French c.o.c.kswain, with a letter to the Spanish governor, from Captain Merlotte. Our pretence was always the same as before, that we had his most Christian majesty's commission, &c., and that we desired liberty to wood and water, and to buy provisions, having been a very long voyage, and the like.

Under these pretences, we lay here about ten days, and drove a very considerable trade for such goods as we were sure they wanted; and having taken about the value of eight thousand pieces of eight, we set sail for the port or river that goes up to St. Jago, where we expected a very good market, being distant from the Conception about sixty-five leagues.

St. Jago is the capital city of Chili, and stands twelve leagues within the land; there are two ports, which are made use of to carry on the traffic of this place, viz., R. de Ropocalmo, and port de Valparaiso. We were bound to the last, as being the only port for ships of burden, and where there is security from bad weather.

We found means here, without going up to the city of St. Jago, to have merchants enough to come down to us; for this being a very rich city, and full of money, we found all our valuable silks of China, our atlases, China damasks, satins, &c., were very much valued, and very much wanted, and no price was too high for us to ask for them. For, in a word, the Spanish ladies, who, for pride, do not come behind any in the world, whatever they do for beauty, were so eager for those fine things, that almost any reasonable quant.i.ty might have been sold there; but the truth is, we had an unreasonable quant.i.ty, and therefore, as we had other markets to go to, we did not let them know what a great stock of goods we had, but took care they had something of everything they wanted. We likewise found our spices were an excellent commodity in those parts, and sold for a great profit too, as indeed everything else did, as is said above.

We found it very easy to sell here to the value of one hundred and thirty thousand pieces of eight, in all sorts of China and East-India goods; for still, though we had some of the English cargo loose, we let none of it be seen. We took most of the money in gold uncoined, which is got out of the mountains in great quant.i.ties, and of which we shall have occasion to speak more hereafter.

Our next trading port was Coquimbo, a small town but a good port. Here we went in without ceremony, and upon the same foot, of being French, we were well received, traded underhand with the Spanish merchants, and got letters to some other merchants at Guasco, a port in a little bay about fifteen leagues north from Coquimbo.

From hence to the port of Copiapo, is twenty-five leagues. Here we found a very good port, though no trading town or city; but the country being well inhabited, we found means to acquaint some of the princ.i.p.al Spaniards in the country of what we were, and (with which they were pleased well enough) that they might trade with us for such things, which it was easy to see they gave double price for to the merchants who came from Lima, and other places. This brought them to us with so much eagerness, that though they bought for their own use, not for sale, yet they came furnished with orders, perhaps for two or three families together, and being generally rich, would frequently lay out six hundred or eight hundred pieces of eight a man; so that we had a most excellent market here, and took above thirty thousand pieces of eight; that is to say, the value of it, for they still paid all in gold.

Here we had opportunity to get a quant.i.ty of good flour, or wheat meal, of very good European wheat, that is to say, of that sort of wheat; and withal, had good biscuit baked on sh.o.r.e, so that now we got a large recruit of bread, and our men began to make puddings, and lived very comfortably. We likewise got good sugar at the ingenioes, or sugar-mills, of which there were several here, and the farther north we went their number increased, for we were now in the lat.i.tude of 28 2'

south.

We had but one port now of any consequence that we intended to touch at, until we came to the main place we aimed at, which was Lima, and this was about two-thirds of the way thither; I mean Porto Rica, or Arica, which is in the lat.i.tude of 18 of thereabouts. The people were very shy of us here, as having been much upon their guard for some years past, for fear of buccaneers and English privateers: but when they understood we were French, and our French captain sent two recommendations to them from a merchant at St. Jago, they were then very well satisfied, and we had full freedom of commerce here also.

From hence we came the height of Lima, the capital port, if not the capital city, of Peru, lying in the lat.i.tude of 12 30'. Had we made the least pretence of trading here, we should, at least, have had soldiers put on board our ships to have prevented it, and the people would have been forbidden to trade with us upon pain of death. But Captain Merlotte having brought letters to a princ.i.p.al merchant of Lima, he instructed him how to manage himself at his first coming into that port; which was to ride without the town of Callao, out of the command of the puntals or castles there, and not to come any nearer, upon what occasion soever, and then to leave the rest to him.

Upon this, the merchant applied himself to the governor for leave to go on board the French ship at Callao; but the governor understood him, and would not grant it by any means. The reason was, because there had been such a general complaint by the merchants from Carthagena, Porto Bello, and other places, of the great trade carried on here with French ships from Europe, to the destruction of the merchants, and to the ruin of the trade of the galleons, that the governor, or viceroy of Peru, had forbid the French ships landing any goods.

Now, though this made our traffick impracticable at Lima itself, yet it did by no means hinder the merchants trading with us under cover, &c., but especially when they came to understand that we were not loaden from Europe with baize, long ells, druggets, broadcloth, serges, stuffs, stockings, hats, and such like woollen manufactures of France, England, &c.; but that our cargo was the same with that of the Manilla ships at Acapulca, and that we were loaden with calicoes, muslins, fine-wrought China silks, damasks, j.a.pan wares, China wares, spices, &c., there was then no withholding them: but they came on board us in the night with canoes, and, staying all day, went on sh.o.r.e again in the night, carrying their goods to different places, where they knew they could convey them on sh.o.r.e without difficulty.

In this manner we traded publicly enough, not much unlike the manner of our trade at the Manillas; and here we effectually cleared ourselves of our whole cargo, as well English goods as Indian, to an immense sum.

Here our men, officers as well as seamen, sold their fine pearl, particularly one large parcel, containing one hundred and seventy-three very fine pearls, but of different sizes, which a priest bought, as we are told, to dress up the image of the blessed Virgin Mary in one of their churches.

In a word, we came to a balance here, for we sold everything that we had the least intention to part with; the chief things we kept in reserve, were some bales of English goods, also all the remainder of our beads and bugles, toys, ironwork, knives, scissors, hatchets, needles, pins, gla.s.s-ware, and such things as we knew the Spaniards did not regard, and which might be useful in our farther designs, of which my head was yet very full. Those, I say, we kept still.

Here, likewise, we sold our brigantine, which, though an excellent sea-boat, as may well be supposed, considering the long voyage we had made in her, was yet so worm-eaten in her bottom, that, unless we would have new sheathed her, and perhaps shifted most of her planks too, which would have taken up a great deal of time, she was by no means fit to have gone any farther, at least not so long a run as we had now to make, viz., round the whole southern part of America, and where we should find no port to put in at, (I mean, where we should have been able to have got anything done for the repair of a ship), until we had come home to England.

It was proposed here to have gone to the governor or viceroy of Peru, and have obtained his license or pa.s.s to have traversed the Isthmus of America, from port St. Maria to the river of Darien. This we could easily have obtained under the character that we then bore, viz., of having the King of France's commission; and had we been really all French, I believe I should have done it, but as we were so many Englishmen, and as such were then at open war with Spain, I did not think it a safe adventure, I mean not a rational adventure, especially considering what a considerable treasure we had with us.

On the other hand, as we were now a strong body of able seamen, and had two stout ships under us, we had no reason to apprehend either the toil or the danger of a voyage round Cape Horn, after which we should be in a very good condition to make the rest of our voyage to England. Whereas, if we travelled over the Isthmus of America, we should be all like a company of freebooters and buccaneers, loose and unshipped, and should perhaps run some one way and some another, among the logwood cutters at the bay of Campeachy, and other places, to get pa.s.sage, some to Jamaica and some to New England; and, which was worse than all, should be exposed to a thousand dangers on account of the treasure we had with us, perhaps even to that of murdering and robbing one another. And, as Captain Merlotte said, who was really a Frenchman, it were much more eligible for us, as French, or, if we had been such, to have gone up to Acapulca, and there to sell our ships and get license to travel to Mexico, and then to have got the viceroy's a.s.siento to have come to Europe in the galleons; but, as we were so many Englishmen, it was impracticable; our seamen also being Protestants, such as seamen generally are, and bold mad fellows, they would never have carried on a disguise, both of their nation and of their religion, for so long a time as it would have been necessary to do for such a journey and voyage.

But, besides all these difficulties, I had other projects in my head, which made me against all the proposals of pa.s.sing by land to the North Sea; otherwise, had I resolved it, I should not have much concerned myself about obtaining a license from the Spaniards, for, as we were a sufficient number of men to have forced our way, we should not much have stood upon their giving us leave, or not giving us leave, to go.

But, as I have said, my views lay another way, and my head had been long working upon the discourse my men had had with the Spaniards at Baldavia. I frequently talked with the two Chilian Indians whom I had on board, and who spoke Spanish pretty well, and whom we had taught to speak a little English.

I had taken care that they should have all the good usage imaginable on board. I had given them each a very good suit of clothes made by our tailor, but after their own manner, with each of them a baize cloak; and had given them hats, shoes, stockings, and everything they desired, and they were mighty well pleased, and I talked very freely with them about the pa.s.sage of the mountains, for that was now my grand design.

While I was coming up the Chilian sh.o.r.e, as you have heard, that is to say, at St. Jago, at the Conception, at Arica, and even at Lima itself, we inquired on all occasions into the situation of the country, the manner of travelling, and what kind of country it was beyond the mountains, and we found them all agreeing in the same story; and that pa.s.sing the mountains of Les Cordelieras, for so they call them in Peru, though it was the same ridge of hills as we call the Andes, was no strange thing. That there were not one or two, but a great many places found out, where they pa.s.sed as well with horses and mules as on foot, and even some with carriages; and, in particular, they told us at Lima, that from Potosi, and the towns thereabouts, there was a long valley, which ran for one hundred and sixty leagues in length southward, and south-east, and that it continued until the hills parting, it opened into the main level country on the other side; and that there were several rivers which began in that great valley, and which all of them ran away to the south and south-east, and afterwards went away east, and east-north-east, and so fell into the great Rio de la Plata, and emptied themselves into the North Seas; and that merchants travelled to those rivers, and then went down in boats as far as the town or the city of the Ascension, and the Buenos Ayres.

This was very satisfying you may be sure, especially to hear them agree in it, that the Andes were to be pa.s.sed; though pa.s.sing them hereabouts, (where I knew the mainland from the west sh.o.r.e, where we now were, must be at least one thousand five hundred miles broad), was no part of my project; but I laid up all these things in my mind, and resolved to go away to the south again, and act as I should see cause.

We were now got into a very hot climate, and, whatever was the cause, my men began to grow very sickly, and that to such a degree that I was once afraid we had got the plague among us; but our surgeons, who we all call doctors at sea, a.s.sured me there was nothing of that among them, and yet we buried seventeen men here, and had between twenty and thirty more sick, and, as I thought, dangerously too.

In this extremity, for I was really very much concerned about it, one of my doctors came to me, and told me he had been at the city (that is, at Lima) to buy some drugs and medicines, to recruit his chest, and he had fallen into company with an Irish Jesuit, who, he found, was an extraordinary good physician, and that he had had some discourse with him about our sick men, and he believed for a good word or two, he could persuade him to come and visit them.

I was very loath to consent to it, and said to the surgeon, If he is an Irishman, he speaks English, and he will presently perceive that we are all Englishmen, and so we shall be betrayed; all our designs will be blown up at once, and our farther measures be all broken; and therefore I would not consent. This I did not speak from the fear of any hurt they could have done me by force, for I had no reason to value that, being able to have fought my way clear out of their seas, if I had been put to it; but, as I had traded all the way by stratagem, and had many considerable views still behind, I was unwilling to be disappointed by the discovery of my schemes, or that the Spaniards should know upon what a double foundation I acted, and how I was a French ally and merchant, or an English enemy and privateer, just as I pleased, and as opportunity should offer; in which case they would have been sure to have trepanned me if possible, under pretence of the former, and have used me, if they ever should get an advantage over me, as one of the latter.

This made me very cautious, and I had good reason for it too; and yet the sickness and danger of my men pressed me very hard to have the advice of a good physician, if it was possible, and especially to be satisfied whether it was really the plague or no, for I was very uneasy about that.

But my surgeon told me, that, as to my apprehension of discovery, he would undertake to prevent it by this method. First, he said, he found that the Irishman did not understand French at all, and so I had nothing to do but to order, that, when he came on board, as little English should be spoke in his hearing as possible; and this was not difficult, for almost all our men had a little French at their tongue's end, by having so many Frenchmen on board of them; others had the Levant jargon, which they call Lingua Frank; so that, if they had but due caution, it could not be suddenly perceived what countrymen they were.

Besides this, the surgeon ordered, that as soon as the Padre came on board, he should be surrounded with French seamen only, some of whom should be ordered to follow him from place to place, and chop in with their nimble tongues, upon some occasion or other, so that he should hear French spoken wherever he turned himself.

Upon this, which indeed appeared very easy to be done, I agreed to let the doctor come on board, and accordingly the surgeon brought him the next day, where Captain Merlotte received him in the cabin, and treated him very handsomely, but nothing was spoken but French or Spanish; and the surgeon, who had pretended himself to be an Irishman, acted as interpreter between the doctor and us.

Here we told him the case of our men that were sick; some of them, indeed, were French, and others that could speak French, were instructed to speak to him as if they could speak no other tongue, and those the surgeon interpreted; others, who were English, were called Irishmen, and two or three were allowed to be English seamen picked up in the East Indies, as we had seamen, we told him, of all nations.

The matter, in short, was so carried that the good man, for such I really think he was, had no manner of suspicion; and, to do him justice, he was an admirable physician, and did our men a great deal of good; for all of them, excepting three, recovered under his hands, and those three had recovered if they had not, like madmen, drank large quant.i.ties of punch when they were almost well; and, by their intemperance, inflamed their blood, and thereby thrown themselves back again into their fever, and put themselves, as the Padre said of them, out of the reach of medicine.

We treated this man of art with a great deal of respect, made him some very handsome presents, and particularly such as he could not come at in the country where he was; besides which, I ordered he should have the value of one hundred dollars in gold given him; but he, on the other hand, thanking Captain Merlotte for his bounty, would have no money, but he accepted a present of some linen, a few handkerchiefs, some nutmegs, and a piece of black baize: most of which, however, he afterwards said, he made presents of again in the city, among some of his acquaintance.

But he had a farther design in his head, which, on a future day, he communicated in confidence to the surgeon I have mentioned, who conversed with him, and by him to me, and which was to him, indeed, of the highest importance. The case was this.

He took our surgeon on sh.o.r.e with him one day from the Madagascar ship, where he had been with him to visit some of our sick men, and, drinking a gla.s.s of wine with him, he told him he had a favour to ask of him, and a thing to reveal to him in confidence, which was of the utmost consequence to himself though of no great value to him, (the surgeon), and, if he would promise the utmost secrecy to him, on his faith and honour, he would put his life into his hands. For, seignior, said he, it will be no other, nor would anything less than my life pay for it, if you should discover it to any of the people here, or anywhere else on this coast.

The surgeon was a very honest man, and carried indeed the index of it in his face; and the Padre said afterwards, he inclined to put this confidence in him because he thought he saw something of an honest man in his very countenance. After so frank a beginning, the surgeon made no scruple to tell him, that, seeing he inclined to treat him with such confidence, and to put a trust of so great importance in him, he would give him all the a.s.surance in his power that he would be as faithful to him as it was possible to be to himself, and that the secret should never go out of his mouth to any one in the world, but to such and at such time as he should consent to and direct. In short, he used so many solemn protestations, that the Padre made no scruple to trust him with the secret, which, indeed, was no less than putting his life into his hands. The case was this.

He told him he had heard them talk of going to Ireland in their return, and, as he had been thirty years out of his own country, in such a remote part of the world, where it was never likely that he should ever see it again, the notion he had entertained that this ship was going thither, and might set him on sh.o.r.e there, that he might once more see his native country, and his family and friends, had filled his mind with such a surprising joy, that he could no longer contain himself; and that, therefore, if he would procure leave of the captain that he might come privately on board and take his pa.s.sage home, he would willingly pay whatever the captain should desire of him, but that it must be done with the greatest secrecy imaginable, or else he was ruined; for that, if he should be discovered and stopped, he should be confined in the Jesuit's house there as long as he lived, without hope of redemption.

The surgeon told him the thing was easy to be done if he would give him leave to acquaint one man in the ship with it, which was not Captain Merlotte, but a certain Englishman, who was a considerable person in the ship, without whom the captain did nothing, and who would be more secure to trust, by far, than Captain Merlotte. The Padre told him, that, without asking him for any reasons, since he had put his life and liberty in his hands, he would trust him with the management of the whole, in whatever way he chose to conduct it.

The surgeon accordingly brought him on board to me, and making a confidence of the whole matter to me, I turned to the Padre, and told him in English, giving him my hand, that I would be under all the engagements and promises of secrecy that our surgeon had been in, for his security and satisfaction; that he had merited too well of us to wish him any ill, and, in short, that the whole ship should be engaged for his security. That, as to his coming on board and bringing anything off that belonged to him, he must take his own measures, and answer to himself for the success; but that, after he was on board, we would sink the ship under him, or blow her aloft in the air, before we would deliver him up on any account whatever.

He was so pleased with my frank way of talking to him, that he told me he would put his life into my hands with the same freedom as he had done before with my surgeon; so we began to concert measures for his coming on board with secrecy.

He told us there was no need of any proposals, for he would acquaint the head of the house that he intended to go on board the French ship in the road, and to go to St. Jago, where he had several times been in the same manner; and that, as they had not the least suspicion of him, he was very well satisfied that they would make no scruple of it.

But his mistake in this might have been his ruin; for though, had it been a Spanish ship, they would not have mistrusted him, yet, when he named the French ship in the road of Callao, they began to question him very smartly about it. Upon which, he was obliged to tell them, that, since they were doubtful of him, he would not go at all, telling them withal, that it was hard to suspect him, who had been so faithful to his vows, as to reside for near thirty years among them, when he might frequently have made an escape from them, if he had been so disposed.

So, for three or four days, he made no appearance of going at all; but having had private notice from me the evening before we sailed, he found means to get out of their hands, came down to Callao on a mule in the night, and our surgeon, lying ready with our boat about half a league from the town, as by appointment, took him on board, with a negro, his servant, and brought him safe to the ship; nor had we received him on board half an hour, but, being unmoored and ready to sail, we put out to sea, and carried him clear off.