A New Voyage Round the World by a Course Never Sailed Before Part 14

He made his excuses to me that he was come away naked, according to his profession; that he had purposed to have furnished himself with some provisions for the voyage, but that the unexpected suspicions of the head of their college, or house, had obliged him to come away in a manner that would not admit of it; for that he might rather be said to have made his escape than to have come fairly off.

I told him he was very welcome (and indeed so he was, for he had been already more worth to us than ten times his pa.s.sage came to), and that he should be entered into immediate pay, as physician to both the s.h.i.+ps, which I was sure none of our surgeons would repine at, but rather be glad of; and accordingly I immediately ordered him a cabin, with a very good apartment adjoining to it, and appointed him to eat in my own mess whenever he pleased, or by himself, on his particular days, when he thought proper.

And now it was impossible to conceal from him that we were indeed an English s.h.i.+p, and that I was the captain in chief, except, as has been said, upon occasion of coming to any particular town of Spain. I let him know I had a commission to make prize of the Spaniards, and appear their open enemy, but that I had chosen to treat them as friends, in a way of commerce, as he had seen. He admired much the moderation I had used, and how I had avoided enriching myself with the spoil, as I might have done; and he made me many compliments upon that head, which I excused hearing, and begged him to forbear. I told him we were Christians, and as we had made a very prosperous voyage, I was resolved not to do any honest man the least injustice, if I could avoid it.

But I must observe here, that I did not enter immediately into all this confidence with him neither, nor all at once; neither did I let him into any part of it, but under the same solemn engagements of secrecy that he had laid upon us, nor till I was come above eighty leagues south from Lima.

The first thing I took the freedom to speak to him upon was this.

Finding his habit a little offensive to our rude seamen, I took him into the cabin the very next day after we came to sea, and told him that I was obliged to mention to him what I knew he would soon perceive; namely, that we were all Protestants, except three or four of the Frenchmen, and I did not know how agreeable that might be to him. He answered, he was not at all offended with that part; that it was none of his business to inquire into any one's opinion any farther than they gave him leave; that if it was his business to cure the souls of men on sh.o.r.e, his business on board was to cure their bodies; and as for the rest, he would exercise no other function than that of a physician on board the s.h.i.+p without my leave.

I told him that was very obliging; but that for his own sake I had a proposal to make him, which was, whether it would be disagreeable to him to lay aside the habit of a religious, and put on that of a gentleman, so to accommodate himself the more easily to the men on board, who perhaps might be rude to him in his habit, seamen being not always men of the most refined manners.

He thanked me very sincerely; told me that he had been in England as well as in Ireland, and that he went dressed there as a gentleman, and was ready to do so now, if I thought fit, to avoid giving any offence; and added that he chose to do so. But then, smiling, said he was at a great loss, for he had no clothes. I bade him take no care about that, for I would furnish him; and immediately we dressed him up like an Englishman, in a suit of very good clothes, which belonged to one of our mids.h.i.+pmen who died. I gave him also a good wig and a sword, and he presently appeared upon the quarter-deck like a grave physician, and was called doctor.

From that minute, by whose contrivance we knew not, it went current among the seamen that the Spanish doctor was an Englishman and a protestant, and only had put on the other habit to disguise himself and make his escape to us; and this was so universally believed that it held to the last day of the whole voyage, for as soon as I knew it, I took care that n.o.body should ever contradict it: and as for the doctor himself, when he first heard of it, he said nothing could be more to his satisfaction, and that he would take care to confirm the opinion of it among all the men, as far as lay in his power.

However, the doctor earnestly desired we would be mindful, that as he should never offer to go on sh.o.r.e, whatever port we came to afterwards, none of the Spaniards might, by inquiry, hear upon any occasion of his being on board our s.h.i.+p; but above all, that none of our men, the officers especially, would ever come so much in reach of the Spaniards on sh.o.r.e as to put it in their power to seize upon them by reprisal, and so oblige us to deliver him up by way of exchange.

I went so far with him, and so did Captain Merlotte also, as to a.s.sure him, that if the Spaniards should by any stratagem, or by force, get any of our men, nay, though it were ourselves, into their hands, yet he should, upon no conditions whatever be delivered up. And indeed for this very reason we were very shy of going on sh.o.r.e at all; and as we had really no business any where but just for water and fresh provisions, which we had also taken in a very good store of at Lima, so we put in nowhere at all on the coast of Peru, because there we might have been more particularly liable to the impertinencies of the Spaniard's inquiry; as to force, we were furnished not to be in the least apprehensive of that.

Being thus, I say, resolved to have no more to do with the coast of Peru, we stood off to sea, and the first land we made was a little unfrequented island in the lat.i.tude of 17 13', where our men went on sh.o.r.e in the boats three or four times, to catch tortoises or turtles, being the first we had met with since we came from the East Indies. And here they took so many, and had such a prodigious quant.i.ty of eggs out of them, that the whole company of both s.h.i.+ps lived on them till within four or five days of our coming to the island of Juan Fernandez, which was our next port. Some of these tortoises were so large and so heavy that no single man could turn them, and sometimes as much as four men could carry to the boats.

We met with some bad weather after this, which blew us off to sea, the wind blowing very hard at the south-east; but it was not so great a wind as to endanger us, though we lost sight of one another more in this storm than we had done in all our voyage. However, we were none of us in any great concern for it now, because we had agreed before, that if we should lose one another, we should make the best of our way to the island of Juan Fernandez; and this we observed now so directly, that both of us shaping our course for the island, as soon as the storm abated, came in sight of one another long before we came thither, which proved very agreeable to us all.

We were, including the time of the storm, two hundred and eighteen days from Lima to the Island of Juan Fernandez, having most of the time cross contrary winds, and more bad weather than is usual in those seas; however, we were all in good condition, both s.h.i.+ps and men.

Here we fell to the old trade of hunting of goats. And here our new doctor set some of our men to simpling, that is to say, to gather some physical herbs, which he let them see afterwards were very well worth their while. Our surgeons a.s.sisted, and saw the plants, but had never observed the same kind in England. They gave me the names of them, and it is the only discovery in all my travels which I have not reserved so carefully as to publish for the advantage of others, and which I regret the omission of very much.

While we were here, an odd accident gave me some uneasiness, which, however, did not come to much. Early in the grey of the morning, little wind, and a smooth sea, a small frigate-built vessel, under Spanish colours, pennant flying, appeared off at sea, at the opening of the north-east point of the island. As soon as she came fair with the road, she lay by, as if she came to look into the port only; and when she perceived that we began to loose our sails to speak with her, she stretched away to the northward, and then altering her course, stood away north-east, using oars to a.s.sist her, and so she got away.

Nothing could be more evident to us than that she came to look at us, nor could we imagine anything less; from whence we immediately concluded that we were discovered, and that our taking away the doctor had given a great alarm among the Spaniards, as we afterwards came to understand it had done. But we came a little while afterwards to a better understanding about the frigate.

I was so uneasy about it, that I resolved to speak with her if possible, so I ordered the Madagascar s.h.i.+p, which of the two, was rather a better sailer than our own, to stand in directly to the coast of Chili, and then to ply to the northward, just in sight of the sh.o.r.e, till he came into the lat.i.tude of 22; and, if he saw nothing in all that run, then to come down again directly into the lat.i.tude of the island of Juan Fernandez, but keeping the distance of ten leagues off farther than before, and to ply off and on in that lat.i.tude for five days; and then, if he did not meet with me, to stand in for the island.

While he did this, I did the same at the distance of near fifty leagues from the sh.o.r.e, being the distance which I thought the frigate kept in as she stood away from me. We made our cruise both of us very punctually; I found him in the station we agreed on, and we both stood into the road again from whence we came.

We no sooner made the road, but we saw the frigate, as I called her, with another s.h.i.+p at an anchor in the same road where she had seen us; and it was easy to see that they were both of them in a great surprise and hurry at our appearing, and that they were under sail in so very little time as that we easily saw they had slipped their cables, or cut away their anchors. They fired guns twice, which we found was a signal for their boats, which were on sh.o.r.e, to come on board; and soon after we saw three boats go off to them, though, as we understood afterwards, they were obliged to leave sixteen or seventeen of their men behind them, who, being among the rocks catching of goats, either did not hear the signals, or could not come to their boats time enough.

When we saw them in this hurry, we thought it must be something extraordinary, and bore down upon them, having the weather-gage.

They were s.h.i.+ps of pretty good force, and full of men, and when they saw we were resolved to speak with them, and that there was no getting away from us, they made ready to engage; and putting themselves upon a-wind, first stretching ahead to get the weather-gage of us, when they thought they were pretty well, boldly tacked, and lay by for us, hoisting the English ancient and union jack.

We had our French colours out till now; but being just, as we thought, going to engage, I told Captain Merlotte I scorned to hide what nation I was of when I came to fight for the honour of our country; and, besides, as these people had spread English colours, I ought to let them know what I was; that, if they were really English and friends, we might not fight by mistake, and shed the innocent blood of our own countrymen; and that, if they were rogues, and counterfeited their being English, we should soon perceive it.

However, when they saw us put out English colours, they knew not what to think of it, but lay by awhile to see what we would do. I was as much puzzled as they, for, as I came nearer, I thought they seemed to be English s.h.i.+ps, as well by their bulk as by their way of working; and as I came still nearer, I thought I could perceive so plainly by my gla.s.ses that they were English seamen, that I made a signal to our other s.h.i.+p, who had the van, and was just bearing down upon them, to bring to; and I sent my boat to him to know his opinion. He sent me word, he did believe them to be English; and the more, said he, because they could be no other nation but English or French, and the latter he was sure they were not; but, since we were the largest s.h.i.+ps, and that they might as plainly see us to be English as we could see them, he said he was for fighting them, because they ought to have let us known who they were first. However, as I had fired a gun to bring him too, he lay by a little time till we spoke thus together.

While this was doing we could see one of their boats come off with six oars and two men, a lieutenant and trumpeter it seems they were, sitting in the stern, and one of them holding up a flag of truce; we let them come forward, and when they came nearer, so that we could hail them with a speaking trumpet, we asked them what countrymen they were? and they answered Englishmen. Then we asked them whence their s.h.i.+p? Their answer was, from London. At which we bade them come on board, which they did; and we soon found that we were all countrymen and friends, and their boat went immediately back to let them know it. We found afterwards that they were mere privateers, fitted out from London also, but coming last from Jamaica; and we let them know no other of ourselves, but declined keeping company, telling them we were bound now upon traffick, and not for purchase; that we had been at the East Indies, had made some prizes, and were going back thither again. They told us they were come into the South Seas for purchase, but that they had made little of it, having heard there were three large French men-of-war in those seas, in the Spanish service, which made them wish they had not come about; and that they were still very doubtful what to do.

We a.s.sured them we had been the height of Lima, and that we had not heard of any men-of-war, but that we had pa.s.sed for such ourselves, and perhaps were the s.h.i.+ps they had heard of; for that we were three sail at first, and had sometimes carried French colours.

This made them very glad, for it was certainly so that we had pa.s.sed for three French men-of-war, and they were so a.s.sured of it, that they went afterwards boldly up the coast, and made several very good prizes. We then found also that it was one of these s.h.i.+ps that looked into the road, as above, when we were here before, and seeing us then with French colours, took us for the men-of-war they had heard of; and, they added, that, when we came in upon them again, they gave themselves up for lost men, but were resolved to have fought it out to the last, or rather to have sunk by our side, or blown themselves up, than be taken.

I was not at all sorry that we had made this discovery before we engaged; for the captains were two brave resolute fellows, and had two very good s.h.i.+ps under them, one of thirty-six guns, but able to have carried forty-four; the other, which we called the frigate-built s.h.i.+p, carried twenty-eight guns, and they were both full of men. Now, though we should not have feared their force, yet my case differed from what it did at first, for we had that on board that makes all men cowards, I mean money, of which we had such a cargo as few British s.h.i.+ps ever brought out of those seas, and I was one of those that had now no occasion to run needless hazards. So that, in short, I was as well pleased without fighting as they could be; besides, I had other projects now in my head, and those of no less consequence than of planting a new world, and settling new kingdoms, to the honour and advantage of my country; and many a time I wished heartily that all my rich cargo was safe at London; that my merchants were sharing the silver and gold, and the pearl among themselves; and, that I was but safe on sh.o.r.e, with a thousand good families, upon the south of Chili, and about fifteen hundred good soldiers, and arms for ten thousand more, of which by and by, and, with the two s.h.i.+ps I had now with me, I would not fear all the power of the Spaniards; I mean, that they could bring against me in the South Seas.

I had all these things, I say, in my head already, though nothing like to what I had afterwards, when I saw farther into the matter myself; however, these things made me very glad that I had no occasion to engage those s.h.i.+ps.

When we came thus to understand one another, we went all into the road together, and I invited the captains of the two privateers on board me, where I treated them with the best I had, though I had no great dainties now, having been so long out of England. They invited me and Captain Merlotte, and the captain of the Madagascar s.h.i.+p in return, and, indeed, treated us very n.o.bly.

After this, we exchanged some presents of refreshments, and, particularly, they sent me a hogshead of rum, which, was very acceptable; and I sent them in return a runlet of arrack, excusing myself that I had no great store. I sent them also the quant.i.ty of one hundred weight of nutmegs and cloves; but the most agreeable present I sent them was twenty pieces of Madagascar dried beef, cured in the sun, the like of which they had never seen or tasted before; and without question, it is such an excellent way of curing beef, that if I were to be at Madagascar again, I would take in a sufficient quant.i.ty of beef so preserved to victual the whole s.h.i.+p for the voyage; and I leave it as a direction to all English seamen that have occasion to use East-India voyages.

I bought afterwards six hogsheads of rum of these privateers, for I found they were very well stored with liquors, whatever else they wanted.

We stayed here twelve or fourteen days, but took care, by agreement, that our men should never go on sh.o.r.e the same days that their men went on sh.o.r.e, or theirs when ours went, as well to avoid their caballing together, as to avoid quarrelling, though the latter was the pretence.

We agreed, also, not to receive on board any of our s.h.i.+ps respectively, any of the crews belonging to the other; and this was their advantage, for, if we would have given way to that, half their men would, for aught I know, have come over to us.

While we lay here, one of them went a-cruising, finding the wind fair to run in for the sh.o.r.e; and, in about five days, she came back with a Spanish prize, laden with meal, cocoa, and a large quant.i.ty of biscuit, ready baked; she was bound to Lima, from Baldivia, or some port nearer, I do not remember exactly which. They had some gold on board, but not much, and had bought their lading at St. Jago. As soon as we saw them coming in with a prize in tow, we put out our French colours, and gave notice to the privateers that it was for their advantage that we did so; and so indeed it was, for it would presently have alarmed all the country, if such a fleet of privateers had appeared on the coast. We prevailed with them to give us their Spanish prisoners, and to allow us to set them on sh.o.r.e, I having a.s.sured them I would not land them till I came to Baldivia, nor suffer them to have the least correspondence with anybody till they came thither; the said Spaniards also giving their parole of honour not to give any account of their being taken till fourteen days after they were on sh.o.r.e.

This being the farthest port south which the Spaniards are masters of in Chili, or, indeed, on the whole continent of America, they could not desire me to carry them any farther. They allowed us a quant.i.ty of meal and cocoa out of their booty for the subsistence of the prisoners, and I bought a larger quant.i.ty besides, there being more than they knew how to stow, and they did not resolve to keep the Spanish s.h.i.+p which they took; by this means I was doubly stocked with flour and bread, but, as the first was very good, and well packed in casks and very good jars, it received no injury.

We bought also some of their cocoa, and made chocolate, till our men gorged themselves with it, and would have no more.

Having furnished ourselves here with goats' flesh, as usual, and taking in water sufficient, we left Juan Fernandez, and saw the cruisers go out the same tide, they steering north-north-east, and we south-south-east.

They saluted us at parting, and we bade them good-bye in the same language.

While we were now sailing for the coast of Chili, with fair wind and pleasant weather, my Spanish doctor came to me and told me he had a piece of news to acquaint me with, which, he said, he believed would please me very well; and this was, that one of the Spanish prisoners was a planter, as it is called in the West Indies, or a farmer, as we should call it in England, of Villa Rica, a town built by the Spaniards, near the foot of the Andes, above the town of Baldivia; and that he had entered into discourse with him upon the situation of those hills, the nature of the surface, the rivers, hollows, pa.s.sages into them, &c.

Whether there were any valleys within the hills, of what extent, how watered, what cattle, what people, how disposed, and the like; and, in short, if there was any way of pa.s.sing over the Andes, or hills above mentioned; and he told me, in few words, that he found him to be a very honest, frank, open sort of a person, who seemed to speak without reserve, without the least jealousy or apprehension; and that he believed I might have an ample discovery from him of all that I desired to know.

I was very glad of this news; and, at my request, it was not many hours before he brought the Spaniard into the great cabin to me, where I treated him very civilly, and gave him opportunity several times to see himself very well used; and, indeed, all the Spaniards in the s.h.i.+p were very thankful for my bringing them out of the hands of the privateers, and took all occasions to let us see it.

I said little the first time, but discoursed in general of America, of the greatness and opulency of the Spaniards there, the infinite wealth of the country, &c.; and I remember well, discoursing once of the great riches of the Spaniards in America, the silver mines of Potosi, and other places, he turned short upon me, smiling, and said, We Spaniards are the worst nation in the world that such a treasure as this could have belonged to; for if it had fallen into any other hands than ours, they would have searched farther into it before now. I asked him what he meant by that? and added, I thought they had searched it thoroughly enough; for that I believed no other nation in the world could ever have spread such vast dominions, and planted a country of such a prodigious extent, they having not only kept possession of it, but maintained the government also, and even inhabited it with only a few people.

Perhaps, seignior, says he, you think, notwithstanding that opinion of yours, that we have many more people of our nation in New Spain than we have. I do not know, said I, how many you may have; but, if I should believe you have as many here as in Old Spain, it would be but a few in comparison of the infinite extent of the King of Spain's dominions in America. And then, replied he, I a.s.sure you, seignior, there is not one Spaniard to a thousand acres of land, take one place with another, throughout New Spain.

Very well, said I, then I think the riches and wealth of America is very well searched, in comparison to the number of people you have to search after it. No, says he, it is not, neither; for the greatest number of our people live in that part where the wealth is not the greatest, and where even the governor and viceroy, enjoying a plentiful and luxurious life, they take no thought for the increase either of the king's revenues, or the national wealth. This he spoke of the city of Mexico, whose greatness, and the number of its inhabitants, he said, was a disease to the rest of the body. And what, think you, seignior, said he, that in that one city, where there is neither silver nor gold but what is brought from the mountains of St. Clara, the mines at St. Augustine's and Our Lady, some of which are a hundred leagues from it, and yet there are more Spaniards in Mexico than in both those two prodigious empires of Chili and Peru?

I seemed not to believe him; and, indeed, I did not believe him at first, till he returned to me with a question. Pray, seignior capitain, says he, how many Spaniards do you think there may be in this vast country of Chili? I told him I could make no guess of the numbers; but, without doubt, there were many thousands, intimating that I might suppose, near a hundred thousand. At which he laughed heartily, and a.s.sured me, that there were not above two thousand five hundred in the whole kingdom, besides women and children, and some few soldiers, which they looked upon as nothing to inhabitants, because they were not settled anywhere.

I was indeed surprised, and began to name several large places, which, I thought, had singly more Spaniards in them than what he talked of. He presently ran over some of them, and, naming Baldivia first, as the most southward, he asked me how many I thought were there? And I told him about three hundred families. He smiled, and a.s.sured me there were not above three or four-and-fifty families in the whole place, and about twenty-five soldiers, although it was a fortification, and a frontier.

At Villa Rica, or the Rich Town, where he lived, he said there might be about sixty families, and a lieutenant, with twenty soldiers. In a word, we pa.s.sed over the many places between and came to the capital, St.

Jago, where after I had supposed there were five thousand Spaniards, he protested to me there were not above eight hundred, including the viceroy's court, and including the families at Valparaiso, which is the seaport, and excluding only the soldiers, which as he said, being the capital of the whole kingdom, might be about two hundred, and excluding the religious, who he added, laughing, signified nothing to the planting a country, for they neither cultivated the land nor increased the people.

Our doctor, who was our interpreter, smiled at this, but merrily said, that was very true, or ought to be so, intimating, that though the priests do not cultivate the land, yet they might chance to increase the people a little; but that was by the way. As to the number of inhabitants at St. Jago, the doctor agreed with him, and said, he believed he had said more than there were, rather than less.

As to the kingdom or empire of Peru, in which there are many considerable cities and places of note, such as Lima, Quito, Cusco, la Plata, and others, there are besides a great number of towns on the seacoasts, such as Porto Arica, St. Miguel, Prayta, Guyaquil, Truxillo, and many others.

He answered, that it was true that the city of Lima, with the town of Callao, was much increased within a few years, and particularly of late, by the settling of between three and four hundred French there, who came by the King of Spain's license; but that, before the coming of those gentlemen, at which he shook his head, the country was richer, though the inhabitants were not so many; and that, take it as it was now, there could not be reckoned above fifteen hundred families of Spaniards, excluding the soldiers and the clergy, which, as above, he reckoned nothing as to the planting of the country.

We came then to discourse of the silver mines at Potosi, and here he supposed, as I did also, a very great number of people. But seignior, says he, what people is it you are speaking of? There are many thousands of servants, but few masters; there is a garrison of four hundred soldiers always kept in arms and in good order, to secure the place, and keep the negroes, and criminals who work in the mines, in subjection; but that there were not besides five hundred Spaniards, that is to say, men, in the whole place and its adjacents. So that, in short, he would not allow above seven thousand Spaniards in the whole empire of Peru, and two thousand five hundred in Chili; at the same time, allowing twice as many as both these in the city of Mexico only.