by Daniel Defoe
the favour, I say, which I had done him, and was still doinghim, in the civil treatment which I gave him, made this gentleman, forsuch he was in himself and in his disposition, whatever he was byfamily, for that I knew nothing of, I say, it made him exceedinglyimportunate with me, and with my doctor, who spoke Spanish perfectlywell, to go with him to Villa Rica.
I made him no promise, but talked at a distance. I told him, if he hadlived by the sea, and I could have sailed to his door in my ship, Iwould have made him a visit. He returned, that he wished he could makethe river of Baldivia navigable for me, that I might bring my ship up tohis door; and, he would venture to say, that neither I, nor any of myship's company, should starve while we were with him. In the interval ofthese discourses, I asked my doctor his opinion, whether he thought Imight trust this Spaniard, if I had a mind to go up and see the countryfor a few days?
Seignior, says he, the Spaniards are, in some respects, the worst nationunder the sun; they are cruel, inexorable, uncharitable, voracious, and,in several cases, treacherous; but, in two things, they are to bedepended upon beyond all the nations in the world; that is to say, whenthey give their honour, to perform anything, and when they have a returnto make for any favour received. And here he entertained me with a longstory of a merchant of Carthagena, who, in a sloop, was shipwrecked atsea, and was taken up by an English merchant on board a ship bound toLondon from Barbadoes, or some other of our islands; that the Englishmerchant, meeting another English ship bound to Jamaica, put theSpanish merchant on board him, paid him for his passage, and desired himto set him on shore on the Spanish coast, as near to Carthagena as hecould. This Spanish merchant could never rest till he found means toship himself from Carthagena to the Havannah, in the galleons; fromthence to Cadiz in Old Spain; and from thence to London, to find out theEnglish merchant, and make him a present to the value of a thousandpistoles for saving his life, and for his civility in returning him toJamaica, &c. Whether the story was true or not, his inference from itwas just, namely, that a Spaniard never forgot a kindness. But take itwithal, says the doctor, that I believe it is as much the effect oftheir pride as of their virtue; for at the same time, said he, theynever forget an ill turn any more than they do a good one; and theyfrequently entail their enmities on their families, and prosecute therevenge from one generation to another, so that the heir has, with theestate of his ancestors, all the family broils upon his hands as hecomes to his estate.
From all this he inferred that, as this Spaniard found himself so verymuch obliged to me, I might depend upon it that he had so much pride inhim, that if he could pull down the Andes for me to go through, and Iwanted it, he would do it for me; and that nothing would be a greatersatisfaction to him, than to find some way or other how to requite me.
All these discourses shortened our voyage, and we arrived fair andsoftly (for it was very good weather, and little wind) at Tucapel, orthe river Imperial, within ten leagues of Baldivia, that is to say, ofCape Bonifacio, which is the north point of the entrance into the riverof Baldivia. And here I took one of the most unaccountable, and I mustneeds acknowledge, unjustifiably resolutions, that ever any commander,intrusted with a ship of such force, and a cargo of such consequence,adventured upon before, and which I by no means recommend to anycommander of any ship to imitate; and this was, to venture up into thecountry above a hundred and fifty miles from my ship, leaving thesuccess of the whole voyage, the estates of my employers, and therichest ship and cargo that ever came out of those seas, to the care andfidelity of two or three men. Such was the unsatisfied thirst of newdiscoveries which I brought out of England with me, and which Inourished, at all hazards, to the end of the voyage.
However, though I condemn myself in the main for the rashness of theundertaking, yet let me do myself so much justice as to leave it onrecord too, that I did not run this risk without all needful precautionsfor the safety of the ship and cargo.
And first, I found out a safe place for the ships to ride, and thisneither in the river of Tucapel, nor in the river of Baldivia, but in anopening or inlet of water, without a name, about a league to the southof Tucapel, embayed and secured from almost all the winds that couldblow. Here the ships lay easy, with water enough, having about elevenfathoms good holding ground, and about half a league from shore.
I left the supercargo and my mate, also a kinsman of my own, a truesailor, who had been a midshipman, but was now a lieutenant; I say, tothose I left the command of both my ships, but with express orders notto stir nor unmoor, upon any account whatever, unavoidable accidentsexcepted, until my return, or until, if I should die, they should hearof that event; no, though they were to stay there six months, for theyhad provisions enough, and an excellent place for watering lay just bythem. And I made all the men swear to me that they would make no mutinyor disorder, but obey my said kinsman in one ship, and the supercargo inthe other, in all things, except removing from that place; and that, ifthey should command them to stir from thence, they would not so much astouch a sail or a rope for the purpose.
When I made all these conditions, and told my men that the design I wentupon was for the good of their voyage, for the service of the owners,and should, if it succeeded, be for all their advantages, I asked themif they were all willing I should go? To which they all answered, thatthey were very willing, and would take the same care of the ships, andof all things belonging to them, as if I were on board. This encouragedme greatly, and I now resolved nothing should hinder me.
Having thus concluded everything, then, and not till then, I told mySpaniard that I had almost resolved to go along with him, at which heappeared exceedingly pleased, and, indeed, in a surprise of joy. Ishould have said, that, before I told him this, I had set all the restof the prisoners on shore, at their own request, just between the portof Tucapel and the bay of the Conception, excepting two men, who, as hetold me, lived in the open country beyond Baldivia, and, as he observed,were very glad to be set on shore with him, so to travel home, havinglost what little they had in the ship, and to whom he communicatednothing of the discourse we had so frequently held, concerning theaffair of the mountains.
I also dismissed now the two Chilian Indians, but not without a verygood reward, not proportioned to their trouble and time only, butproportioned to what I seemed to expect of them, and filled them stillwith expectations that I would come again, and take a journey with theminto the mountains.
And now it became necessary that I should, use the utmost freedom withmy new friend, the Spaniard, being, as I told him, to put my life in hishands, and the prosperity of my whole adventure, both ship and ship'scompany.
He told me he was sensible that I did put my life into his hands, andthat it was a very great token of my confidence in him, even such a onethat he, being a stranger to me, had no reason to expect; but he desiredme to consider that he was a Christian, not a savage; that he was one Ihad laid the highest obligation upon, in voluntarily taking him out ofthe hands of the freebooters, where he might have lost his life. And, inthe next place, he said, it was some recommendation that he was agentleman, and that I should find him to be a man of honour; and,lastly, that it did not appear that he could make any advantage of me,or that he could get anything by using me ill; and, if even that was noargument, yet I should find, when I came to his house, that he was notin a condition to want anything that might be gained, so much as toprocure it by such a piece of villany and treachery as to betray anddestroy the man who had saved his life, and brought him out of the handsof the devil safe to his country and family, when he might have beencarried away God knows whither. But to conclude all, he desired me toaccept the offer he had made me at sea, viz., that he would send for histwo sons, and leave them on board the ship as hostages for my safety,and desired they might be used on board no otherwise than I was usedwith him in the country.
I was ashamed to accept such an offer as this, but he pressed itearnestly, and importuned the doctor to move me to accept it, tellinghim that he should not be easy if I did not; so that, in short
, thedoctor advised me to agree to it, and, accordingly, he hired a messengerand a mule, and sent away for his two sons to come to him; and suchexpedition the messenger made, that in six days he returned with the twosons and three servants, all on horseback. His two sons were verypretty, well-behaved youths, who appeared to be gentlemen in their verycountenances; the eldest was about thirteen years old, and the otherabout eleven. I treated them on board, as I had done their father, withall possible respect; and, having entertained them two days, left ordersthat they should be treated in the same manner when I was gone; and tothis I added aloud, that their father might hear it, that whenever theyhad a mind to go away, they should let them go. But their father laid agreat many solemn charges upon them that they should not stir out of theship till I came back safe, and that I gave them leave, and he made thempromise they would not; and the young gentlemen kept their word sopunctually, that, when our supercargo, whom I left in command, offeredto let them