A New Voyage Round the World by a Course Never Sailed Before
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on that side, and so we did; for here we sold a bottle of arrackfor four pieces of eight, a pound of cloves for five pieces of eight,and a pound of nutmegs for six pieces of eight; and the like of otherthings.
They would gladly have purchased some European goods, and especiallyEnglish 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 haveany suspicion of our being Englishmen, and English ships, which wouldsoon have put an end to all our commerce.
While we lay here trafficking with the Spaniards, I set some of my mento work to converse among the native Chilians, or Indians, as we callthem, of the country, and several things they learned of them, accordingto the instructions which I gave them; for example, first, I understoodby 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 bytradition from father to son, ever since the wars which had formerlybeen among them, and that though they did not now carry on those wars,yet the animosity remained; and the pride and cruel haughty temper ofthe Spaniards were such still to those of the country people who cameunder their government, as make that aversion continually increase. Theylet us know, that if any nation in the world would but come in andassist them against the Spaniards, and support them in their risingagainst them, they would soon rid their hands of the whole nation. Thiswas to the purpose exactly, as to what I wanted to know.
I then ordered particular inquiry to be made, whether the mountains ofAndes, which are indeed prodigious to look at, and so frightful fortheir height, that it is not to be thought of without some horror, werein any places passable? what country there was beyond them? and whetherany of their people had gone, over and knew the passages?
The Indians concurred with the Spaniards in this (for our men inquiredof both), that though the Andes were to be supposed, indeed, to be thehighest mountains in the world, and that, generally speaking, they wereimpassable, yet that there had been passages found by the vales amongthe mountains; where, with fetching several compasses and windingspartly on the hills, and partly in the valleys, men went with a greatdeal of ease and safety quite through or over, call it as we will, tothe other, named the east side, and as often returned again.
Some of the more knowing Indians or Chilians went farther than this, andwhen our men inquired after the manners, situation, and produce of thecountry on the other side, they told them, that when they passed themountains from that part of the country, they went chiefly to fetchcattle and kill deer, of which there were great numbers in that part ofthe land; but that when they went from St. Jago they turned away northsome 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 greatriver at that city, from whence they found means to go down to the Riode la Plata, and so to the Buenos Ayres, and that they frequentlycarried thither great sums of money in Chilian gold, and brought backEuropean goods from thence.
I had all I wanted now, and bade my men say no more to them on thatsubject, and only to tell them, that they would come back and travel alittle that way to see the country. The people appeared very wellpleased with this intelligence, and answered, that if they would do so,they should find some, as well Spaniards as Chilians, who would beguides to them through the hills; also assuring them, that they wouldfind the hills very practicable, and the people as they went along veryready to assist and furnish them with whatever they found they wanted,especially if they come to know that they were not Spaniards, or thatthey would protect them from the Spaniards, which would be the mostagreeable thing to them in the world; for it seems many of the nationsof the Chilians had been driven to live among the hills, and some evenbeyond 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 topass those hills with horses or mules, or any kind of carriages? andthey assured them, they might travel with mules, and even with horsesalso, but rather with mules; but as to carriages, such as carts orwaggons, they allowed that was not practicable. They assured us, thatsome of those ways through the hills were much frequented, and thatthere were towns, or villages rather, of people to be found in thevalleys between the said hills; some of which villages were very large,and the soil very rich and fruitful, bearing sufficient provisions forthe inhabitants, who were very numerous. They added, that the peoplewere not much inclined to live in towns as the Spaniards do, but thatthey lived scattered up and down the country, as they were guided by thegoodness of the land; that they lived very secure and unguarded, neveroffering any injury to one another, nor fearing injury from any but theSpaniards.
I caused these inquiries to be made with the utmost prudence andcaution, so that the Spaniards had not the least suspicion of ourdesign; and thus, having finished our traffick, and taken in water andprovisions, we sailed from Baldivia, having settled a littlecorrespondence there with two Spaniards, who were very faithful to us,and with two Chilian Indians, whom we had in a particular mannerengaged, and whom, to make sure of, we took along with us; and havingspent about thirteen days here, and taken the value of about sixthousand pieces of eight in silver and gold, but most of it in gold, weset sail.
Our next port was the Bay of the Conception; here, having two or threemen on board who were well acquainted with the coast, we ran boldly intothe bay, and came to an anchor in that which they call the Bite, orlittle bay, under the island Quinquina; and from thence we sent ourboat, with French mariners to row, and a French cockswain, with a letterto the Spanish governor, from Captain Merlotte. Our pretence was alwaysthe same as before, that we had his most Christian majesty's commission,&c., and that we desired liberty to wood and water, and to buyprovisions, having been a very long voyage, and the like.
Under these pretences, we lay here about ten days, and drove a veryconsiderable trade for such goods as we were sure they wanted; andhaving taken about the value of eight thousand pieces of eight, we setsail for the port or river that goes up to St. Jago, where we expected avery good market, being distant from the Conception about sixty-fiveleagues.
St. Jago is the capital city of Chili, and stands twelve leagues withinthe land; there are two ports, which are made use of to carry on thetraffic of this place, viz., R. de Ropocalmo, and port de Valparaiso. Wewere bound to the last, as being the only port for ships of burden, andwhere there is security from bad weather.
We found means here, without going up to the city of St. Jago, to havemerchants 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, ouratlases, China damasks, satins, &c., were very much valued, and verymuch wanted, and no price was too high for us to ask for them. For, in aword, the Spanish ladies, who, for pride, do not come behind any in theworld, whatever they do for beauty, were so eager for those fine things,that almost any reasonable quantity might have been sold there; but thetruth is, we had an unreasonable quantity, and therefore, as we hadother markets to go to, we did not let them know what a great stock ofgoods we had, but took care they had something of everything theywanted. We likewise found our spices were an excellent commodity inthose parts, and sold for a great profit too, as indeed everything elsedid, as is said above.
We found it very easy to sell here to the value of one hundred andthirty thousand pieces of eight, in all sorts of China and East-Indiagoods; for still, though we had some of the English cargo loose, we letnone of it be seen. We took most of the money in gold uncoined, which isgot out of the mountains in great quantities, and of which we shall haveoccasion to speak more hereafter.
Our next trading port was Coquimbo, a small town but a good port. Herewe went in without ceremony, and upon the same foot, of being French, wewere well received, traded underhand with the Spanish merchants, and gotletters to some other merchants at Guasco, a port in a little bay aboutfifteen leagues north from Coquimbo.
From hence to the port of Copiapo, i
s twenty-five leagues. Here we founda very good port, though no trading town or city; but the country beingwell inhabited, we found means to acquaint some of the principalSpaniards in the country of what we were, and (with which they werepleased 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 whocame from Lima, and other places. This brought them to us with so mucheagerness, that though they bought for their own use, not for sale, yetthey came furnished with orders, perhaps for two or three familiestogether, and being generally rich, would frequently lay out six hundredor eight hundred pieces of eight a man; so that we had a most excellentmarket here, and took above thirty thousand pieces of eight; that is tosay, the value of it, for they still paid all in gold.
Here we had opportunity to get a quantity of good flour, or wheat meal,of very good European wheat, that is to say, of that sort of wheat; andwithal, had good biscuit baked on shore, so that now we got a largerecruit of