by Daniel Defoe
Pearl Islands, very well matched for ear-rings, and gave the ladyone pair, and the daughter the other; and now, I think, I had made apresent fit for an ambassador to carry to a prince.
The ladies made all possible acknowledgment, and we had the honour thatday to dine with them in public. My landlord, the Spaniard, told me Ihad given them such a present as the viceroy of Mexico's lady would havegone fifty leagues to have received.
But I had not done with my host; for after dinner, I took him into thesame room, and told him I hoped he did not think I had made all mypresents to the ladies, and had nothing left to show my respect to him;and therefore, first, I presented him with three negro men, which I hadbought at Callao for my own use, but knew I could supply myself again,at or in my way home, at a moderate price; in the next place, I gave himthree pieces of black Colchester baize, which, though they are coarseordinary things in England, that a footman would scarce wear, are ahabit for a prince in that country. I then gave him a piece of very fineEnglish serge, which was really very valuable in England, but much morethere, and another piece of crimson broadcloth, and six pieces of finesilk druggets for his two sons; and thus I finished my presents. TheSpaniard stood still and looked on all the while I was laying out mypresents to him, as one in a transport, and said not one word till allwas over; but then he told me very gravely, that it was now time for himto turn me out of his house: For seignior, says he, no man ought tosuffer himself to be obliged beyond his power of return, and I have nopossible way of making any return to you equal to such things as these.
It is true the present I had made him, if it was to be rated by thevalue of things in the country where it then was, would have been valuedat six or seven hundred pounds sterling; but, to reckon them as theycost me, did not altogether amount to above one hundred pounds, exceptthe three negroes, which, indeed, cost me at Lima one thousand twohundred pieces of eight.
He was as sensible of the price of those negroes as I was of theoccasion he had of them, and of the work he had to do for them; and hecame to me about an hour after, and told me he had looked over all theparticulars of the noble presents which I had made them; and though thevalue was too great for him to accept, or for any man to offer him, yetsince I had been at so much trouble to send for the things, and that Ithought him worthy such a bounty, he was come back to tell me that heaccepted thankfully all my presents, both to himself and to his wifeand daughter, except only the three negroes; and as they were bought inthe country, and were the particular traffick of the place, he could nottake them as a present, but would be equally obliged, and take it for asmuch a favour if I would allow him to pay for them.
I smiled, and told him he and I would agree upon that; for he did notyet know what favours I had to ask of him, and what expense I should puthim to; that I had a great design in my view, which I was to crave hisassistance in, and which I had not yet communicated to him, in which hemight perhaps find that he would pay dear enough for all the littlepresents I had made him; and, in the meantime, to make himself easy asto the three negro men, I gave him my word that he should pay for them,only not yet.
He could have nothing to object against an offer of this kind, becausehe could not guess what I meant, but gave me all the assurance ofservice and assistance that lay in his power in anything that I mighthave to do in that country.
But here, by the way, it ought to be understood, that all this wascarried on with a supposition that we acted under a commission from theKing of France; and though he knew many of us were English, and that Iwas an Englishman in particular, yet as we had such a commission, andproduced it, we were Frenchmen in that sense to him, nor did heentertain us under any other idea.
The sequel of this story will also make it sufficiently appear that Idid not make such presents as these in mere ostentation, or only uponthe compliment of a visit to a Spanish gentleman, any more than I wouldleave my ship and a cargo of such value, in the manner I had done, tomake a tour into the country, if I had not had views sufficient tojustify such measures; and the consequence of those measures will be thebest apology for my conduct, with all who will impartially considerthem.
We had now spent a fortnight, and something more, in ceremony andcivilities, and in now and then taking a little tour about the fieldsand towards the mountains. However, even in this way of living I was notso idle as I seemed to be, for I not only made due observations of allthe country which I saw, but informed myself sufficiently of the partswhich I did not see. I found the country not only fruitful in the soil,but wonderfully temperate and agreeable in its climate. The air, thoughhot, according to its proper latitude, yet that heat so moderated by thecool breezes from the mountains, that it was rather equal to the plaincountries in other parts of the world in the latitude of 50 deg. than to aclimate in 38 to 40 deg..
This gave the inhabitants the advantages, not only of pleasant andagreeable living, but also of a particular fertility which hot climatesare not blessed with, especially as to corn, the most necessary of allproductions, such as wheat, I mean European wheat, or English wheat,which grew here as well and as kindly as in England, which in Peru andin the Isthmus of America will by no means thrive for want of moistureand cold.
Here were also an excellent middling breed of black cattle, which thenatives fed under the shade of the mountains and on the banks of therivers till they came to be very fat. In a word, here were, or might beproduced, all the plants, fruits, and grain, of a temperate climate. Atthe same time, the orange, lemon, citron, pomegranate, and figs, with amoderate care would come to a very tolerable perfection in theirgardens, and even sugar canes in some places, though these last butrarely, and not without great art in the cultivation, and chiefly ingardens.
I was assured, that farther southward, beyond Baldivia, and to thelatitude of 47 to 49 deg., the lands were esteemed richer than where we nowwere, the grass more strengthening and nourishing for the cattle, andthat, consequently, the black cattle, horses, and hogs, were all of alarger breed. But that, as the Spaniards had no settlement beyondBaldivia to the south, so they did not find the natives so tractable aswhere we then were; where, though the Spaniards were but few, and thestrength they had was but small, yet, as upon any occasion they hadalways been assisted with forces sufficient from St. Jago, and, if needwere, even from Peru, so the natives had always been subdued, and hadfound themselves obliged to submit; and that now they were entirelyreduced, and were, and had been for several years, very easy and quiet.Besides, the plentiful harvest which they made of gold from themountains (which appeared to be the great allurement of the Spaniards),had drawn them rather to settle here than farther southward, beingnaturally addicted, as my new landlord confessed to me, to reap theharvest which had the least labour and hazard attending it, and the mostprofit.
Not but that, at the same time, he confessed that he believed and hadheard that there was as much gold to be found farther to the south, asfar as the mountains continued; but that, as I have said, the nativeswere more troublesome there, and more dangerous, and that the king ofSpain did not allow troops sufficient to civilize and reduce them.
I asked him concerning the natives in the country where we were? He toldme they were the most quiet and inoffensive people, since the Spaniardshad reduced them by force, that could be desired; that they were not,indeed, numerous or warlike, the warlike and obstinate part of themhaving fled farther off to the south, as they were overpowered by theSpaniards; that, for those who were left, they lived secure under theprotection of the Spanish governor; that they fed cattle and planted thecountry, and sold the product of their lands chiefly to the Spaniards;but that they did not covet to be rich, only to obtain clothes, arms,powder and shot, which, however, they were suffered to have butsparingly, and with good assurance of their fidelity. I asked him ifthey were not treacherous and perfidious, and if it was not dangeroustrusting themselves among them in the mountains, and in the retiredplaces where they dwelt? He told me that it was quite the contrary; thatthey were so honest, and so harmless, that he would at an
y time ventureto send his two sons into the mountains a-hunting, with each of them aChilian for his guide; and let them stay with the said natives two orthree nights and days at a time, and be in no uneasiness about them; andthat none of them were ever known to do any foul or treacherous thing bythe Spaniards, since he had been in that country.
Having thus finally informed myself of things, I began now to think itwas high time to have a sight of the particulars which I came to inquireafter, viz., the passages of the mountains, and the wonders that were tobe discovered on the other side; and, accordingly, I took my patron, theSpaniard, by himself, and told him that as I was a traveller, and wasnow in such a remote part of the world, he could not but think I shouldbe glad to see everything extraordinary that was to be seen, that Imight be able to give some account of the world when I came intoEurope, better and differing from what others had done who had beenthere before me; and that I had a great mind, if he would give me hisassistance, to enter into