by Daniel Defoe
stream.
We entered this passage about two miles the first night; after the firstlength, which as I said, held about three quarters of a mile, we turnedaway to the south, short on the right hand; the river leaving us, seemedto come through a very narrow but deep hollow of the mountains, wherethere was little more breadth at the bottom than the channel took up,though the rocks inclined backward as they ascended, as placed inseveral stages, though all horrid and irregular; and we could seenothing but blackness and terror all the way. I was glad our passage didnot turn on that side, but wondered that we should leave the river, andthe more when I found, that in the way we went, having first mountedgently a green pleasant slope, it declined again, and we saw a newrivulet begin in the middle, and the water running south-east orthereabouts. This discovery made me ask if the water went away into thenew world beyond the hills? My patron smiled, and said, No seignior, notyet; we shall meet with the other river again very quickly; and so wefound it again the next morning.
When we came a little farther, we found the passage open, and we came toa very pleasant plain, which declined a little gradually, widening tothe left, or east side; on the right side of this we saw another vastopening like the first, which went in about half a mile, and then closedup as the first had done, sloping up to the top of the hills, a mostastonishing inconceivable height.
My patron stopping here, and getting down, or alighting from his mule,gave him to his man, and asking me to alight, told me this was the firstnight's entertainment I was to meet with in the Andes, and hoped I wasprepared for it. I told him, that I might very well consent to accept ofsuch entertainment, in a journey of my own contriving, as he was contentto take up with, in compliment to me.
I looked round to see if there were any huts or cots of themountaineers thereabouts, but I perceived none; only I observedsomething like a house, and it was really a house of some of the saidmountaineers, upon the top of a precipice as high from where we stood,as the summit of the cupola of St. Paul's, and I saw some livingcreatures, whether men or women I could not tell, looking from thencedown upon us. However, I understood afterwards that they had ways tocome at their dwelling, which were very easy and agreeable, and hadlanes and plains where they fed their cattle, and had everything growingthat they desired.
My patron, making a kind of an invitation to me to walk, took me up thatdark chasm, or opening, on the right hand, which I have just mentioned.Here, sir, said he, if you will venture to walk a few steps, it islikely we may show you some of the product of this country; but,recollecting that night was approaching, he added, I see it is too dark;perhaps it will be better to defer it till the morning. Accordingly, wewalked back towards the place where we had left our mules and servants,and, when we came thither, there was a complete camp fixed, three veryhandsome tents raised, and a bar set up at a distance, where the muleswere tied one to another to graze, and the servants and the baggage laytogether, with an open tent over them.
My patron led me into the first tent, and told me he was obliged to letme know that I must make a shift with that lodging, the place notaffording any better.
Here we had quilts laid very commodiously for me and my three comrades,and we lodged very comfortably; but, before we went to rest, we had thethird tent to go to, in which there was a very handsome table, coveredwith a cold treat of roasted mutton and beef, very well dressed, somepotted or baked venison, with pickles, conserves, and fine sweetmeats ofvarious sorts.
Here we ate very freely, but he bade us depend upon it that we shouldnot fare so well the next night, and so it would be worse every night,till we came to lie entirely at a mountaineer's; but he was better to usthan he pretended.
In the morning, we had our chocolate as regularly as we used to have itin his own house, and we were soon ready to pursue our journey. We wentwinding now from the south-east to the left, till our course looked eastby north, when we came again to have the river in view. But I shouldhave observed here, that my two midshipmen, and two of my patron'sservants, had, by his direction, been very early in the morning climbingup the rocks in the opening on the right hand, and had come back againabout a quarter of an hour after we set out; when, missing my two men, Iinquired for them, and my patron said they were coming; for, it seems hesaw them at a distance, and so we halted for them.
When they were come almost up to us, he called to his men in Spanish, toask if they had had Una bon vejo? They answered, Poco, poco; and whenthey came quite up, one of my midshipmen showed me three or four smallbits of clean perfect gold, which they had picked up in the hill orgullet where the water trickled down from the rocks; and the Spaniardtold them that, had they had time, they should have found much more, thewater being quite down, and nobody having been there since the last hardrain. One of the Spaniards had three small bits in his hand also. I saidnothing for the present, but charged my midshipmen to mark the place,and so we went on.
We followed up the stream of this water for three days more, encampingevery night as before, in which time we passed by several such openingsinto the rocks on either side. On the fourth day we had the prospect ofa very pleasant valley and river below us, on the north side, keepingits course almost in the middle; the valley reaching near four miles inlength, and in some places near two miles broad.
This sight was perfectly surprising, because here we found the valefruitful, level, and inhabited, there being several small villages orclusters of houses, such as the Chilians live in, which are low houses,covered with a kind of sedge, and sheltered with little rows of thickgrown trees, but of what kind we knew not.
We saw no way through the valley, nor which way we were to go out, butperceived it everywhere bounded with prodigious mountains, look to whichside of it we would. We kept still on the right, which was now thesouth-east side of the river, and as we followed it up the stream, itwas still less than at first, and lessened every step we went, becauseof the number of rills we left behind us; and here we encamped the fifthtime, and all this time the Spanish gentleman victualled us; then weturned again to the right, where we had a new and beautiful prospect ofanother valley, as broad as the other, but not above a mile in length.
After we had passed through this valley, my patron rode up to a poorcottage of a Chilian Indian without any ceremony, and calling us allabout him, told us that there we would go to dinner. We saw a smokeindeed _in_ the house, rather than coming _out_ of it; and the littlethat did, smothered through a hole in the roof instead of a chimney.However, to this house, as an inn, my patron had sent away hismajor-domo and another servant; and there they were, as busy as twoprofessed cooks, boiling and stewing goats' flesh and fowls, making upsoups, broths, and other messes, which it seems they were used toprovide, and which, however homely the cottage was, we found verysavoury and good.
Immediately a loose tent was pitched, and we had our table set up, anddinner served in; and afterwards, having reposed ourselves (as thecustom there is), we were ready to travel again.
I had leisure all this while to observe and wonder at the admirablestructure of this part of the country, which may serve, in my opinion,for the eighth wonder of the world; that is to say, supposing there werebut seven before. We had in the middle of the day, indeed, a very hotsun, and the reflection from the mountains made it still hotter; but theheight of the rocks on every side began to cast long shadows beforethree o'clock, except where the openings looked towards the west; and assoon as those shadows reached us, the cool breezes of the air camenaturally on, and made our way exceeding pleasant and refreshing.
The place we were in was green and flourishing, and the soil wellcultivated by the poor industrious Chilians, who lived here in perfectsolitude, and pleased with their liberty from the tyranny of theSpaniards, who very seldom visited them, and never molested them, beingpretty much out of their way, except when they came for hunting anddiversion, and then they used the Chilians always civilly, because theywere obliged to them for their assistance in their diversions, theChilians of those valleys being very active, strong, and
nimble fellows.
By this means most of them were furnished with fire-arms, powder, andshot, and were very good marksmen; but, as to violence against any one,they entertained no thought of that kind, as I could perceive, but werecontent with their way of living, which was easy and free.
The tops of the mountains here, the valleys being so large, were muchplainer to be seen than where the passages were narrow, for there theheight was so great that we could see but little. Here, at severaldistances (the rocks towering one over another), we might see smoke comeout of some, snow lying upon others, trees and bushes growing allaround; and goats, wild asses, and other creatures, which we couldhardly distinguish, running about in various parts of the country.
When we had passed through this second valley, I perceived we came to anarrower passage, and something like the first; the entrance into itindeed was smooth, and above a quarter of a mile broad, and it wentwinding away to the north, and then again turned round to