A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels Volume Xi Part 3

[Footnote 3: The Pehneuches are probably here meant, who dwell on the west side of the Andes, between the lat.i.tudes of 33 and 36 S. The Puelches on the same side of the Andes, from 36 to 40.--E.]

[Footnote 4: Perhaps, instead of the goats in the text, _vicunnas_ ought to be understood.--E.]

Besides the trade of hides, tallow, and dried meat, the inhabitants of Conception send every year eight or ten s.h.i.+ps of forty or fifty tons to Calao laden with corn; besides supplying meal and biscuit to the French s.h.i.+ps, which take in provisions there in order to proceed to Peru, and for their voyage back to France. All this were quite inconsiderable for so fine a country, were it better peopled; since the land is so extraordinarily fertile, were it well cultivated, that they only scratch it for the most part, by means of a plough made of a crooked stick, and drawn by two oxen; and, though the seed be scarcely covered, it produces seldom less than an hundred fold. Neither are they at any more pains in procuring their vines, in order to make good wine. Besides which, as they have not the art to glaze their jars in which the wine is secured, to make them hold in, they are under the necessity of pitching them. And this, together with the goat-skin bags in which it is carried from the estancias, gives it a bitter taste like treacle, and a flavour to which it is hard for strangers to accustom themselves. The gra.s.ses also are allowed to grow without any attention or industry being employed in grafting. Apples and pears grow naturally in the woods, and in such abundance as it is hard to comprehend how they could have so multiplied since the conquest, as they affirm there were none in the country before.

The mines of _Quilogoya_ and _Quilacura_ are within four leagues of this port, and afford vast quant.i.ties of gold. At the _Estancia del Re_, or king's farm, which is at no great distance, there is by far the most plentiful _lavaders_, or was.h.i.+ng-place for gold in all Chili, where sometimes they find lumps of pure gold of prodigious size. The mountains of the Cordelieras are reported to contain a continued chain of mines for many hundred miles, which certainly is highly probable, as hardly any of these mountains have hitherto been opened without vast quant.i.ties of metal being found in them, especially fine copper, of which all the artillery in the Spanish West Indies is constructed, at least all that are used in the countries on the South Seas.

The most considerable port in Chili is Valparaiso, which is esteemed one of the best harbours on the whole coast of the South Sea. It lies on a river fifteen leagues below St Jago, the capital of Chili.[5]

To this port all the riches of the mines on every side are brought, particularly from those of _Tiltil_, which are immensely rich, and are situated between St Jago and Valparaiso. The gold here is found in a very hard stone, some of which sparkles and betrays the inclosed treasure to the eye; but most of it does not shew the smallest sign of gold, appearing merely a hard harsh stone of various colours, some white, some red, some black. This ore, after being broken in pieces, is grinded or stamped in a mill by the help of water, into a gross powder, with which quicksilver is afterwards mixed. To this mixture a brisk stream of water is let in, which reduces the earthy matters to a kind of mud, which is carried off by the current, the amalgam of gold and quicksilver remaining at the bottom, in consequence of its weight.

This amalgam is then put into a linen bag, and pressed very hard, by which the greatest part of the mercury is strained off, and the remainder is evaporated off by the force of fire, leaving the gold in a little wedge or ma.s.s, shaped like a pine-apple, whence it is called a _pinna_. This is afterwards melted and cast in a mould, to know its exact weight, and to ascertain the proportion of silver that is mixed with the gold, no farther process of refining being done here. The weightiness of the gold, and the facility with which it forms an amalgam with the mercury, occasions it easily to part from the dross or earthy matters of the stone or matrix. This is a great advantage to the gold-miners, as they every day know what they get; but the silver-miners often do not know how much they get till two months after, owing to the tediousness of their operation, as formerly described.

[Footnote 5: This is a material error. Valparaiso is on no river, and lies forty English miles north from the river Maypo, on one of the upper branches of which, the Mapocho, St Jago is situated.--E.]

According to the nature of these gold-mines, and the comparative richness of the veins, every _caxon_, or chest of fifty quintals, yields four, five, or six ounces of gold. When it only yields two ounces, the miner does not cover his charges, which often happens; but he sometimes receives ample amends, when he meets with good veins; and the gold-mines are those which produce metals the most unequally. In following a vein, it frequently widens, then becomes narrower, and then seems to disappear, all within a small s.p.a.ce of ground; and this sport of nature makes the miners live in continual hopes of finding what they call a _purse_, being the expanded end of a vein, which is sometimes so rich as to make a man's fortune at once; yet this same inequality sometimes ruins them, which is the reason that it is more rare to see a gold-miner rich than a silver-miner, or even one in any other metal, although there be less expence in extracting gold from the mineral than any other metal. For this reason also the gold-miners have the particular privilege that they cannot be sued to execution in civil actions. Gold only pays a twentieth part to the king, which duty is called _Covo_, from the name of a private individual at whose instance the duty was thus reduced, gold having formerly paid a fifth, as silver still does.

On the descent of this mountain of _Tiltil_, there runs, during the rainy season, a brisk stream of water, which pa.s.ses through among the gold-ore, and washes away abundance of that rich metal, as it ripens[6] and breaks from its bed. On this account, this stream is accounted one of the richest lavaderos in all Chili for four months of every year; and well it may, as there are sometimes found in it pellets of gold of an ounce weight. At _Palma_, about four leagues from Valparaiso, there is another rich lavadero; and every where throughout the country, the fall of a brook or rivulet is accompanied by more or less of these golden showers, the richest of which fall into the laps of the jesuits, who farm or purchase abundance of mines and lavaderos, which are wrought for their benefit by their servants.

The soil in the neighbourhood of Valparaiso is exceedingly rich and fertile, so that forty s.h.i.+ps go from thence yearly to Calao, laden with corn; yet that commodity still remains so cheap at this place, where money is so abundant, that an English bushel of wheat may be bought for less than three s.h.i.+llings. It would be still cheaper, could all the country be cultivated; but as it has constant dry weather for eight months endurance, cultivation is only possible where they have brooks or little rills in the vales coming from the mountains, which can be applied for irrigating or watering the cultivated land.

[Footnote 6: That is, as the matrix or rock in which it is contained, moulders and decays by the influences of the weather and of this stream; for the notion of ores ripening is a mere dream or fancy.--E.]

There is a great trade carried on to all parts of Chili from the Atlantic ocean, by way of Buenos Ayres, whence the Chilese receive some European goods, together with large sums in silver, in return for their commodities. This is perhaps the largest route of Indian commerce in the world, as the road from Buenos Ayres to Potosi is 1500 miles; and though the distance from Valparaiso be not above 160 miles more,[7] yet it is attended with much greater difficulty, as the vast chain of mountains called the Cordelieras of the Andes has to be pa.s.sed, which can only be done during the three first months of the year, the pa.s.ses being impracticable at all other times. At that season the merchants come from Mendoza, an inland town about 300 leagues from Buenos Ayres, and travel through the mountains to St Jago. The pa.s.sage of the mountains usually takes up six or seven days, though only about sixty leagues, and the travellers have not only to carry their own provisions with them, but also the provender of their mules, as the whole of that part of the road is a continued series of rocks and precipices, and all the country round so barren and so exposed to snows in winter, that it is utterly uninhabitable. The remainder of the journey, from St Jago to the mines, and from thence to Valparaiso, is both safe and pleasant; and in this the merchants have nothing to fear, except staying too long, and losing their pa.s.sage home through the mountains for that season, in which case they would have to remain in Chili at least nine months longer than they intended.

[Footnote 7: In these estimates, Betagh has been very unfortunate, as the direct distance from Buenos Ayres to Potosi does not exceed 1100 miles, and the distance from Valparaiso, also in a straight line, is hardly 800 miles.--E.]

On the whole, though a very great part of the enormous extent of the Spanish dominions in South America be absolutely desert, and the people in some of the inhabited parts do not acquire large fortunes, yet the Spanish settlers in Chili certainly procure immense riches yearly, as the country is but thinly inhabited, and all the gold drawn from the mines and lavadores must be divided among them. It is evident, however, that the greater part of the inhabitants do not abound in wealth. Those among them who deal in cattle, corn, and the other productions of the country, only acquire moderate fortunes; and those who are concerned in the mines are frequently ruined by launching out into unsuccessful speculations, and by expensive living.

Those who are easy in their circ.u.mstances, and retire to the city of St Jago, Jago, live in such a manner as sufficiently demonstrates the riches of Chili; as all their utensils, even those of the most ordinary sort, are of pure gold, and it is believed that the wealth of that city cannot fall short of twenty millions.[8] Add to this, the gold-mines are continually increasing, and it is only for want of hands that they are not wrought to infinitely more advantage; for those already discovered and now neglected, would be sufficient to employ 40,000 men. It may also be observed, that the frauds practised against the royal revenue are increasing daily, and, as the riches of the Spanish West Indies are measured by the amount of the royal revenue, this must make them appear poorer than they are in reality.

We have one instance of this in the mines of Potosi, which are said to produce less silver than they did formerly; yet, on a computation for fifty years, the annual revenue to the king has amounted, on the average, to 220,000 _pesos_, of thirteen rials and a quarter yearly, which shews that the annual produce of these mines, so far as it has paid the royal duty, amounts nearly to two million pieces of eight, or dollars, and it may be confidently a.s.serted that the royal treasury does not receive above half of what is due: wherefore, from this example, the rest may be judged of.

[Footnote 8: The coin or denomination is not specified: If dollars, at 4s. 6d., this would amount to four millions and a half sterling.--E.]

-- 7. _SOME ACCOUNT OF THE FRENCH INTERLOPERS IN CHILI._

As the policy of Spain chiefly consists in endeavouring, by all possible means, to prevent the riches of these extensive dominions from pa.s.sing into other hands, so the knowledge possessed by other nations of the great wealth of these countries, and of the great demand for European manufactures among their inhabitants, has excited almost every nation in Europe to devise every possible contrivance for coming in for a share in these riches, and this with such effect, that it is even questionable whether any considerable portion of the riches of the new world centres among the inhabitants of Old Spain. This may be judged of from the following considerations: Even the trade carried on from Spain to the new world is of much greater importance to foreigners than to the Spaniards themselves. For as Spain has few commodities of its own, and carries on scarcely any manufactures, the Spanish merchants at Cadiz have to make up their cargoes by means of purchases from other countries; or rather the Cadiz merchants are mere factors for the merchants of England, France, and Holland, whose goods they send to America, and pay them by the returns made in the Plate fleets. Spain also is a country very ill provided with some of the necessaries of life, and most of the conveniences; so that prodigious sums of the money brought from America have to be yearly exported for the purchase of these.

Besides such drawbacks as the above, to which the Spaniards willingly submit, there are many others which they are forced to endure: For instance, all the negroes they employ in their plantations, in which every kind of labour is performed by them, are purchased from foreigners, particularly the English and Dutch, at a very large annual expence; and, under pretence of furnis.h.i.+ng them with negroes, a clandestine trade is carried on every year, along the whole coasts of their possessions on the Atlantic. In the South Sea, however, they were tolerably free from every thing except the depredations of pirates, till the general war on account of the succession to the crown of Spain, which created a new kind of contraband trade, unknown in former times, of which I now propose to give some account.

The _French interlopers_ carried vast quant.i.ties of goods directly from Europe into the South Seas, which till then had hardly ever been attempted by any European nation. This was always viewed with an evil eye by the court of Spain, as repugnant to the interests of Spain, and diametrically opposite to the maxims of her government; but there were many circ.u.mstances at that time which rendered this a kind of necessary evil, and obliged therefore the people of Old Spain to submit to it. As for the Creoles, they had European goods and at a cheaper rate, and it did not give them much concern who it was that received their money. The town of St Malo has always been noted for privateers, and greatly annoyed the trade of the English and Dutch during the whole reign of King William, and part of that of Queen Anne; and though some allege that money procured by privateering never prospers, yet I may safely affirm that the people of St Malo are as rich and flouris.h.i.+ng as any in all France. Privateering has thriven so well among them, that all their South Sea trade has arisen from thence; and, during the last war, they were so rich and generous, that they made several free gifts to Louis XIV.; and so dexterous were they, that though our Admiralty always kept a stout squadron in the Atlantic, we were never able to capture one of their South-Sea traders. The reason of this was, that they always kept their s.h.i.+ps extremely clean, having ports to careen at of which we knew not. In 1709, when I belonged to her majesty's s.h.i.+p the Loo, being one of the convoy that year to Newfoundland, we saw and chased upon that coast a s.h.i.+p of fifty guns, which we soon perceived to be French-built; but she crowded sail and soon left us. She had just careened at Placentia, and we wondered much to find such a s.h.i.+p in that part of the world. We afterwards learnt, from some French prisoners, that she was a French s.h.i.+p bound to St Malo, having two or three millions of dollars on board, and was then so trim that she trusted to her heels, and valued n.o.body. They went thus far to the north and west on purpose to have the advantage of a westerly wind, which seldom failed of sending them into soundings at one spirt, if not quite home. Since Placentia has been yielded to Great Britain, they now use St Catherine and Islagrande, on the coast of Brasil, and Martinico in the West Indies.

This trade succeeded so well, that all the merchants of St Malo engaged in it, sending every year to the number of twenty sail of s.h.i.+ps. In 1721, I saw eleven sail of these together at one time on the coast of Chili, among which were several of fifty guns, and one called the _Fleur-de-luce_, which could mount seventy, formerly a man-of-war.

As this trade was contrary to the _a.s.siento_ treaty between Great Britain and Spain, memorials were frequently presented against it at Madrid by the court of London; and the king of Spain, willing to fulfil his engagements to the king of England, resolved to destroy this contraband French trade. As there was no other way to accomplish this but by sending a squadron of men-of-war into the South Sea, and as few of the Spaniards were acquainted with the navigation of Cape Horn, or could bear the extreme rigour of the climate, the court of Spain was obliged to use foreigners on this expedition, and the four s.h.i.+ps sent oat were both manned and commanded by Frenchmen. The squadron consisted of the _Gloucester_, of 50 guns, and 400 men, the _Ruby_, of 50 guns, and 330 men, both of these formerly English s.h.i.+ps of war, the _Leon Franco_, of 60 guns, and 450 men, and a frigate of 40 guns, and 200 men. Monsieur _Martinet_, a French officer, was commodore of this squadron, and commanded the _Pembroke_,[1] and Monsieur _La Jonquiere_ the Ruby. The French conducted the navigation round the cape very well, though in the middle of winter; but the last s.h.i.+p of the four, which was manned with Spaniards, could not weather Cape Horn, and was forced back to the Rio Plata, where she was cast away. As the Spaniards have little or no trade into any of the cold climates, and are unused to hard work, it is not to be wondered that they failed on this occasion, especially considering the improper season of the year. The Biscaneers, indeed, are robust enough fellows; and had the Leon Franco been manned with them, she had certainly doubled the cape along with the other three s.h.i.+ps; but the Spaniards in general, since acquiring their possessions in America, have become so delicate and indolent, that it would be difficult to find an entire s.h.i.+p's company capable to perform that navigation.

[Footnote 1: No such name occurs, in enumerating the squadron immediately before--E.]

The vast advantage of the trade of Chili by way of Cape Horn, is so obvious, that his catholic majesty is obliged by treaty to shut out all the European nations from it, as well as the English, although his own subjects make nothing of it, as it very rarely happens that a Spanish s.h.i.+p ventures to go round Cape Horn. Owing to this, all European goods sell enormously dear in Chili and Peru; insomuch, that I have been told at Lima, that they are often at 400 per cent. profit, and it may be fairly a.s.serted, that the goods carried from France by Cape Horn are in themselves 50 per cent. better than those sent in the Cadiz _flota_ to Carthagena and Vera Cruz, because the former are delivered in six months, fresh and undamaged, while the latter are generally eighteen months before they reach Chili. In the course of this trade, the French sold their goods, furnished themselves with provisions, and got home again, all within twelve or fourteen months.

When Martinet arrived on the coast of Chili in 1717, furnished with a commission from the king of Spain to take or destroy all the s.h.i.+ps of his countrymen found trading in the South Sea, he soon had sufficient employment for his squadron and of fourteen s.h.i.+ps belonging to St Malo, then on the coast, only one escaped him, which lay hid in a landlocked creek unseen till he had gone to leeward. Although in this he executed the orders of his catholic majesty, and did a material benefit to the British South Sea company, yet he almost ruined the trading part of the Creole Spaniards, as hindering the circulation of money and spoiling business, so that they could not bear the sight of the French men-of-war, though they liked the French merchant s.h.i.+ps very much. On the other hand, imagining that they had done essential service to the Spaniards, the French expected to have received at least civil treatment in return, during their stay in these seas.

As soon, however, as Martinet brought his prizes into Calao, and the Frenchmen had received their shares of the prize-money, forgetting the ancient antipathy of the Spaniards for the French, they gave themselves extravagant airs on sh.o.r.e, by dancing and drinking, which still more incensed the creolians against them, who called them cavachos and renegados, for falling foul of their own countrymen. From one thing to another, their mutual quarrels grew so high, that the Frenchmen were obliged to go about Lima and Calao in strong armed parties, the better to avoid outrages and affronts. At last, a young gentleman, who was ensign of the Ruby, and nephew to Captain La Jonquiere, was shot from a window, and the murderer took refuge in the great church of Calao. Martinet and La Jonquiere pet.i.tioned the viceroy to have the murderer delivered up to justice: But the viceroy, who was at the same time archbishop, would on no account consent to violate the privileges of the church. On this refusal, they called all their men on board by beat of drum, and laid the broadsides of their three s.h.i.+ps to bear on the town of Calao, threatening to demolish the town and fortifications, unless the a.s.sa.s.sin were delivered up or executed. All this bl.u.s.tering, however, could not prevail upon the viceroy to give them any satisfaction, though they had several other men killed, besides that gentleman.

At length, unwilling to proceed to extremities, and no longer able to endure the place where his nephew had been murdered, La Jonquiere obtained leave of his commodore to make the best of his way home.

About this time, many _padros_ and many rich pa.s.sengers were a.s.sembled at Conception in Chili, intending to take their pa.s.sage to Europe in the French squadron, knowing that all s.h.i.+ps bound for Cape Horn must touch at Conception, or some places thereabout, for provisions.

La Jonquiere, having thus the start of his commodore, had all the advantage to himself of so many good pa.s.sengers in his s.h.i.+p; for, as the king of Spain had no officer at Conception to register the money s.h.i.+pped at that place, these pa.s.sengers and missionaries put astonis.h.i.+ng sums of money on board the Ruby. They were thereby spared the trouble of a voyage to Panama or Acapulco, and travelling thence for Portobello or Vera Cruz, where they must have had their coffers visited, to see if the _indulto_ of his majesty were fairly accounted for. They therefore saved every s.h.i.+lling of that _indulto_, as the Ruby touched first in France, where no cognizance whatever was taken of this affair. They also got clear of the other moiety payable in Spain, as they landed all their money in France.

Besides these rich pa.s.sengers and their money, the Ruby had also on board a considerable sum arising to his catholic majesty from the confiscation of the thirteen captured interlopers, all of which, as I was informed, amounted to four millions of dollars in that s.h.i.+p. What a fine booty we missed therefore by the obstinacy of Shelvocke! For, when this s.h.i.+p, the Ruby, found us at the island of St Catharine, her company was so sickly that she had not above sixty sound men out of four hundred; so that La Jonquiere was actually afraid of us, and would not send his boat to the watering-place, where we kept guard, and our coopers and sail-makers were at work, till he had first obtained leave of our captain; neither is this strange, for he knew we had a consort, and was in Spain all the time he staid there, lest the Success should have joined us.

After Commodore Martinet had cleared the coast of Chili and Peru of his countrymen, he sent his brother-in-law, Monsieur de Grange, express with the news to Madrid, who went by way of Panama, Portobello, Jamaica, and London. On delivering his message, the king of Spain asked what he could do for him, when he humbly requested his majesty would give him the command of a s.h.i.+p, and send him again round Cape Horn into the South Sea. He accordingly got the Zelerin, of fifty guns. He came first to _Calais_,[2] where the s.h.i.+p was getting ready, and was surprised to meet with a cold reception from the French merchants and other gentlemen of his acquaintance residing there; for, as there were merchants of various nations interested in the s.h.i.+ps taken and confiscated in the South Sea, they universally considered him and all the French in that squadron as false brethren, for serving the crown of Spain to the prejudice of their own countrymen. Thus, while he expected to have had a valuable cargo consigned to his care, no man would s.h.i.+p the value of a dollar with him. Captain Fitzgerald, who was then at _Cales_, made him a considerable offer for the privilege of going out as his second officer, with liberty to take out what goods he might be able to procure, in his own name. As de Grange was not a little embarra.s.sed, he accepted this offer, and procured a commission for Fitzgerald as second captain. They accordingly manned the Zelerin chiefly with French seamen, and some English, and got very well round Cape Horn. At this time our two privateers, the Success and Speedwell, were known to be in the South Seas, and the Zelerin was one of the s.h.i.+ps commissioned by the viceroy of Peru to cruize for us. Fitzgerald sold all his goods to great advantage at Lima, where he continued to reside; while de Grange served as captain under Admiral Don Pedro Miranda, who took Hately and me prisoners.

[Footnote 2: This, certainly, is a mistake for Cadiz, often named Cales by English seamen; and, in fact, only a few lines lower down, the place is actually named Cales.--E.]

Though great sufferers by so many confiscations, the merchants of St Malo were not entirely discouraged; for, in the year 1720, we found the Solomon of St Malo, of 40 guns, and 150 men, at _Ylo_, on the coast of Chili, with several Spanish barks at her stern. In the course of six weeks, she sold all her cargo, got in a supply of provisions, and left the coast without interruption, as by this time Martinet's squadron had left the coast. Encouraged by the success of the Solomon, the merchants of St Malo fitted out fourteen sail together, all of which arrived in the South Sea in the beginning of the year 1721.

Three of the commanders of these s.h.i.+ps, being well acquainted with the creolians, quickly sold their cargoes and returned home. About this time, the people of Lima judged that our privateers were gone off the coast, or at least would not commit any more hostilities, because of the truce between the two crowns. Wherefore, the three Spanish men-of-war that had been fitted out to cruize against us, were ordered against these fresh interlopers. I was on board the Flying-fish, an advice-boat that accompanied the men-of-war, when they came up with eleven sail of the St Malo s.h.i.+ps, which were then altogether on the coast of Chili, and, instead of firing on them, the Spaniards joined them as friends. At first, expecting to have been attacked, the French s.h.i.+ps drew up in a line, as if daring the s.h.i.+ps of war. This seemed to me somewhat strange, that three such s.h.i.+ps, purposely fitted out for this cruize, should decline doing their duty on their own coasts; for, had they proved too weak, they had ports of their own to retire to, under their lee. But the s.h.i.+ps of war contented themselves with watching the motions of the interlopers, keeping them always in sight; and when any of the French s.h.i.+ps drew near the sh.o.r.e, the Spaniards always sent a pinnace or long-boat along with her, carrying the Spanish flag, the sight of which effectually deterred the creolians from trading with the French. In this manner they contrived to prevent all these s.h.i.+ps from disposing of their goods, except when they were met with at sea by chance, and sold some of their commodities clandestinely. At length, completely tired out by this close superintendence, the French got leave to take in provisions, and went home, at least half of their goods remaining unsold. Notwithstanding these losses and disappointments, and severe edicts issued against this trade in France, the merchants of St Malo still persist to carry it on, though privately, nor is it probable they will ever leave off so lucrative a commerce, unless prevented by the strong arm of power, or supplanted by some other nation.

-- 8. RETURN OF BETAGH TO ENGLAND.

I now return to my own affairs, and the manner of my return to England from Peru. I have already acknowledged the kind reception I met with from the admiral of the South Seas, Don Pedro Miranda, and the reasons of his treating us so civilly. I think it barely justice to mention the several favours I received, during the eleven months that I continued at Lima, particularly from Don Juan Baptista Palacio, a native of Biscay, a knight of the order of St Jago, who came weekly to the prison while we were there, and distributed money to us all, in proportion to our several ranks. Captain Nicholas Fitzgerald procured my enlargement, by becoming security for me; and he afterwards supplied me with money and necessaries, from that time till my departure; and procured for me and twenty more, a pa.s.sage to Cadiz, in a Spanish advice-boat called the Flying-fish, of which our surgeon's mate, Mr Pressick, acted as surgeon, receiving wages, as did the rest of our men, being released from prison expressly to a.s.sist in navigating that vessel home to Spain. For my own part, being well treated, I did not think proper to eat the bread of idleness, but kept my watches as well as the other officers. And pray, what is the harm of all this? Though Shelvocke had the stupidity to call it treason; it must surely appear a very malicious, as well as an ignorant charge, after a man has been driven among the enemy, to call him a traitor because he has been kindly used, and for accepting his pa.s.sage back again; and, because I was not murdered in Peru, I ought to be executed at home. This is Shelvocke's great Christian charity and good conscience![1]

[Footnote 1: After all, had the Flying-fish been captured by a British cruizer, Betagh would have run great risk of being found guilty of treason for _keeping his watches_.--E.]

On my arrival at Cadiz, captain John Evers of the Britannia kindly gave me my pa.s.sage to London, and entertained me at his own table. On my return to London, and representing the hards.h.i.+ps I had undergone, nine honourable persons made me a present of ten guineas each; which afforded me the satisfaction of seeing, that such as were the best judges, had a proper idea of the miseries I had suffered, and approved the manner in which I had behaved, the only consolation I could receive in the circ.u.mstances in which I was left by that unfortunate voyage. The fair account I have given of facts, and the detail of my proceedings in the Spanish West Indies, together with the account of what I observed worthy of notice during my stay in these parts, will acquit me, I hope, in the opinion of every candid and impartial person, from the aspersions thrown upon me by Shelvocke, in the account he has published of his voyage.

_Note._

"Betagh has fully shewn, that the navigation round Cape Horn is no such dangerous or wonderful voyage. If twenty s.h.i.+ps from St Malo could perform it in one year, and not a single vessel either s.h.i.+pwrecked or forced to put back, what shall hinder an English s.h.i.+p or an English fleet from doing the same? We see from the foregoing account, with how much ease the French carried on a prodigious trade to the South Seas, at a time when the appearance of an English s.h.i.+p there was esteemed a prodigy. We certainly can send our frigates there, as well as the French can their s.h.i.+ps from St Malo; and it might be well worth the while of our merchants to send out s.h.i.+ps to the coasts of Chili and Peru, laden with proper goods for that country."--_Harris._

In the present day, this trade to the coasts of Chili and Peru has been resumed by the citizens of the United States; but the subjects of Britain are debarred from even attempting to take a share, because within the exclusive limits of the East India Company; although their s.h.i.+ps never come nearer to the western coast of America than Canton in China, at the enormous distance of 174 degrees of longitude, and 59 degrees of lat.i.tude, counting from Canton in China to Conception in Peru, or upwards of _twelve thousand English miles_. It is certainly at least extremely desirable, that a trade of such promise should not remain any longer prohibited, merely to satisfy a punctilio, without the most distant shadow of benefit to the India Company, or to the nonent.i.ty denominated the South-sea Company.--_Ed._

CHAPTER XIII.

VOYAGE ROUND THE WORLD, BY COMMODORE ROGGEWEIN, IS 1721-1723.[1]

INTRODUCTION.

There was, perhaps, no country in the world where commerce was more profitable, or held more honourable, than in Holland, or where more respect and attention was shewn to it by the government. As the republic chiefly subsisted by trade, every thing relating to it was considered as an affair of a public nature, in which the welfare of the state was concerned, and highly deserving therefore of the strictest and readiest attention. The great companies in Holland, as in other countries, were considered as injurious to trade in some lights, yet necessary to its welfare in others. The _West India Company_ of that country, originally erected in 1621, held, by an exclusive charter, the commerce of the coast of Africa, from the tropic of Cancer to the Cape of Good Hope, and that of America, from the southern point of Newfoundland in the N.E. all along the eastern coast to the Straits of Magellan or Le Maire, and thence northwards again along the western coast, to the supposed Straits of Anian, thus including the entire coasts of the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. The directors of this company consisted of seventy-two persons, divided into five chambers, of whom eighteen were chosen to administer the affairs of the Company, together with a nineteenth person, nominated by the States-General.

[Footnote 1: Harris, I. 256. Callender, III. 644.]

The affairs of this Company were once in so very flouris.h.i.+ng a condition, that it was considered as even superior to their East India Company. This prosperity was chiefly owing, to the happy success of their affairs at sea; as their admiral, Peter Haines, in the 1629, captured the Spanish plate fleet, laden with immense riches. They at one time made themselves masters of the greatest part of Brazil; and were so considerable that the great Count Maurice of Na.s.sau did not think it beneath him to accept a commission from this Company as Governor-General of Brazil; which country, however, after it had cost them immense sums to defend, they at length lost. The term of their charter, originally limited to twenty-four years, expired in 1647, and was then renewed for other twenty-five years. During this second period, their affairs became so perplexed, so that the Company was dissolved towards the close of that term, with its own consent.

In 1674, a new company was erected, by letters patent from the States-General, with nearly the same powers and privileges, which has subsisted ever since with great reputation.[2] The capital of this new company consisted of six millions of florins, which are equal to 545,454l. 10s. 10d. 10-11ths sterling. And the limits of their authority are the western coast of Africa and both coasts of America, all the establishments of the Dutch in these countries being under their authority, so that any one who proposes a new scheme of commerce in those parts, must necessarily apply himself to that company. Under these circ.u.mstances, a Mr Roggewein, a person of parts and enterprize, formed a project for the discovery of the vast continent and numerous islands, supposed to be in the southern part of the globe, under the name of _Terra Australis Incognita_, of which the world had hitherto only very imperfect notices from others; which project, with a plan for carrying the discovery into execution, they presented to the Dutch _East_ India Company[3] in 1696, by which it was favourably received, and he was a.s.sured of receiving all the a.s.sistance and support he could desire or expect, as soon as the affairs of the Company would permit. But the disturbances which soon afterwards followed put a stop to the good intentions of the Company; and Mr Roggewein died before any thing could be done. Mr Roggewein was a gentleman of the province of Zealand, who had addicted himself from his youth to mathematical studies, and we have reason to suppose recommended his projected discovery on his death-bed to his son.

[Footnote 2: This refers to the year 1743, when Harris wrote: It is hardly necessary to say, that Holland and its great commercial companies are now merely matters of history.--E.]

[Footnote 3: From what goes both before and after, this seems a mistake for the _West_ India Company.--E.]