by Daniel Defoe
possesses as that which he possesses not,that right being given him by the Pope, in the right of his being aChristian prince, making new discoveries for propagating the Christianfaith among infidels; how far that may pass for a title among theEuropean powers I know not. I have heard that it has always passed for amaxim in Europe, that no country which is not planted by any prince orpeople can be said to belong to them; and, indeed, I cannot say but itseems to be rational, that no prince should pretend to any title to acountry where he does not think fit to plant and to keep possession.For, if he leaves the country unpossessed, he leaves it free for anyother nation to come and possess; and this is the reason why the formerkings of Spain did not dispute that right of the French to the coloniesof the Mississipi and Canada, or the right of the English to the Caribeeislands, or to their colonies of Virginia and New England.
In like manner, from the Buenos Ayres, in the Rio de la Plata, whichlies that way (pointing north-east), to the Fretum Magellanicum, whichlies that way (pointing south-east), which comprehends a vast number ofleagues, is called by us Coasta Deserta, being unpossessed by Spain, anddisregarded of all our nation; neither is there one Spaniard in it.Nevertheless, you see how fruitful, how pleasant, and how agreeable aclimate it is; how apt for planting and peopling it seems to be, and,above all, what a place of wealth here would be behind them, sufficient,and more than enough, both for them and us; for we should have no reasonto offer them any disturbance, neither should we be in any condition todo it, the passages of the mountains being but few and difficult, as youhave seen, and our numbers not sufficient to do anything more than toblock them up, to keep such people from breaking in upon our settlementson the coast of the South Seas.
I asked him if these notions of his were common among those of hiscountry who were settled in Chili and Peru? or whether they were his ownprivate opinions only? I told him I believed the latter, because I foundhe acted in all his affairs upon generous principles, and was forpropagating the good of mankind; but, that I questioned whether theirgovernor of Old Spain, or the sub-governor and viceroy of New Spain,acted upon those notions; and, since he had mentioned the Buenos Ayresand the Rio de la Plata, I should take that as an example, seeing theSpaniards would never suffer any nation to set foot in that great river,where so many countries might have been discovered, and coloniesplanted; though, at the same time, they had not possessed, or fullydiscovered those places themselves.
He answered me, smiling; Seignior, says he, you have given the reasonfor this yourself, in that very part which you think is a reason againstit. We have a colony at Buenos Ayres, and at the city of Ascension,higher up in the Rio de la Plata, and we are not willing to let anyother nation settle there, because we would not let them see how weak weare, and what a vast extent of land we possess there with a few men; andthis for two reasons:
First, We are possessed of the country, and daily increasing there, andmay in time extend ourselves farther. The great rivers Parana andParaguay being yet left for us to plant in, and we are not willing toput ourselves out of a capacity of planting farther, and therefore wekeep the possession.
Secondly, We have a communication from thence with Peru. The great riverla Plata rises at the city of that name, and out of the mountain Potosi,in Peru, and a great trade is carried on by that river, and it would bedangerous to let foreigners into the secret of that trade, which theymight entirely cut off, especially when they should find how small anumber of Spaniards are planted there to preserve it, seeing there arenot six hundred Spaniards in all that vast country, which, by the courseof that river, is more than one thousand six hundred miles in length.
I confess, said I, these are just grounds for your keeping thepossession of that river. They are so, said he, and the more because ofso powerful a colony as the Portuguese have in the Brazils, which boundimmediately upon it, and who are always encroaching upon it from theland side, and would gladly have a passage up the Rio Parana to the backof their colony.
But here, seignior, says he, the case differs; for we neither take norkeep possession here, neither have we one Spaniard, as I said, in thewhole country now before you, and therefore we call this country CoastaDeserta. Not that it is a desert, as that name is generally taken tosignify, a barren, sandy, dry country; on the contrary, the infiniteprodigious increase of the European black cattle which were brought bythe Spaniards to the Buenos Ayres, and suffered to run loose, is asufficient testimony of the fruitfulness and richness of the soil, theirnumbers being such, that they kill above twenty thousand in a year fornothing but the hides, which they carry away to Spain, leaving theflesh, though fat and wholesome, to perish on the ground, or be devouredby birds of prey.
And the number is so great, notwithstanding all they destroy, that theyare found to wander sometimes in droves of many thousands together overall the vast country between the Rio de la Plata, the city of Ascension,and the frontier of Peru, and even down into this country which you seebefore us, and up to the very foot of these mountains.
Well, said I, and is it not a great pity that all this part of thecountry, and in such a climate as this is, should lie uncultivated, oruninhabited rather? for I understand there are not any great numbers ofpeople to be found among them.
It is true, added he, there are some notions prevailing of people beingspread about in this country, but, as the terror of our people, theSpaniards, drove them at first from the seacoast towards thesemountains, so the greatest part of them continue on this side still, fortowards the coast it is very rare that they find any people.
I would have inquired of him about rivers and navigable streams whichmight be in this country, but he told me frankly that he could give meno account of those; only thus, that if any of the rivers went awaytowards the north, they certainly run all into the great Rio de laPlata; but that if they went east, or southerly, they must go directlyto the coast, which was ordinarily called, as he said, La Costa Deserta,or, as by some, the coast of Patagonia. That, as to the magnitude ofthose rivers he could say little, but it was reasonable to suppose theremust be some very considerable rivers, and whose streams must needs becapable of navigation, seeing abundance of water must continually flowfrom the mountains where we then were, and its being at least fourhundred miles from the sea-side, those small streams must necessarilyjoin together, and form large rivers in the plain country.
I had enough in this discourse fully to satisfy all my curiosity, andsufficiently to heighten my desire of making the farther discoverieswhich I had in my thoughts.
We pitched our little camp here, and sat down to our repast; for I foundthat though we were to go back to lodge, yet my patron had taken care weshould be furnished sufficiently for dinner, and have a good house toeat it in, that is to say, a tent as before.
The place where we stood, though we had come down hill for a great way,yet seemed very high from the ordinary surface of the country, and gaveus therefore an exceeding fine prospect of it, the country declininggradually for near ten miles; and we thought, as well as the distance ofthe place would allow us, we saw a great river, but, as I learnedafterwards, it was rather a great lake than a river, which was suppliedby the smaller rivers, or rivulets, from the mountains, which met thereas in a great receptacle of waters, and out of this lake they all issuedagain in one river, of which I shall have occasion to give a fartheraccount hereafter.
While we were at dinner, I ordered my midshipmen to take theirobservations of every distant object, and to look at everything withtheir glasses, which they did, and told me of this lake; but my patroncould give no account of it, having never been, as he said before, onestep farther that way than where we were.
However, my men showed me plainly that it was a great lake, and thatthere went a large river from it towards the east-south-east, and thiswas enough for me, for that way lay all the schemes I had laid.
I took this opportunity to ask my midshipmen, first, if they had takensuch observations in their passage of the mountains as that they weresure they could find their way through to th
is place again withoutguides? And they assured me they could.
Then I put it to them whether they thought it might not be practicableto travel over that vast level country to the North Seas? and to make asufficient discovery of the country, so as that hereafter Englishmencoming to the coast on the side of those seas, might penetrate to thesegolden mountains, and reap the benefit of the treasure without going aprodigious length above Cape Horn and the Terra del Fuego, which wasalways attended with innumerable dangers, and without breaking throughthe kingdom of Chili and the Spaniards' settlements, which, perhaps, wemight soon be at peace with, and so be shut out that way by our ownconsents?
One of my men began to speak of the difficulties of such an attempt, thewant of provisions, and other dangers which we should be exposed to onthe way; but the other, a bold, brisk fellow, told me he made noquestion but it might be easily done, and especially because all therivers they should meet with would, of course, run along with us, sothat we should be sure to have