Part 16 (1/2)

That they were sensible they gave excessive prices for everything, even ten or twenty for one; but as gold, he said, was the growth of that country, and the other things, such as cloth, linen, fine silks, &c, were the gold of Europe, they did not think much to give what was asked for those things. In short, I found that the people in this country, though they kept large plantations in their hands, had great numbers of cattle, ingenios, as they call them, for making sugar, and land, under management, for the maintenance of themselves and families, yet did not wholly neglect the getting gold out of the mountains, where it was in such plenty; and, therefore, it seems the town adjacent is called Villa Rica, or the Rich Town, being seated, as it were, at the foot of the mountains, and in the richest part of them.

After I had sufficiently admired the vast quant.i.ty of gold he had, he made signs to the doctor that I should take any piece or any quant.i.ty that I pleased; but thought I might take it as an affront to have him offer me any particular small parcel. The doctor hinted to me, and I bade him return him thanks; but to let him know that I would by no means have any of that, but that I would be glad to take up a piece or two, such as chance should present to me, in the mountains, that I might show in my own country, and tell them that I took it up with my own hands. He answered, he would go with me himself; and doubted not but to carry me where I should fully satisfy my curiosity, if I would be content to climb a little among the rocks.

I now began to see plainly that I had no manner of need to have taken his sons for hostages for my safety, and would fain have sent for them back again, but he would by no means give me leave; so I was obliged to give that over. A day or two after, I desired he would give me leave to send for one person more from the s.h.i.+ps, who I had a great mind should see the country with me, and to send for some few things that I should want, and, withal, to satisfy my men that I was safe and well.

This he consented to; so I sent away one of the two mids.h.i.+pmen, whom I called my servants, and with him two servants of the Spaniard, my landlord, as I styled him, with four mules and two horses. I gave my mids.h.i.+pman my orders and directions, under my hand, to my supercargo, what to do, for I was resolved to be even with my Spaniard for all his good usage of me. The mids.h.i.+pman and his two companions did not return in less than ten days, for they came back pretty well laden, and were obliged to come all the way on foot.

The whole of this time my landlord and I spent in surveying the country, and viewing his plantation. As for the city of Villa Rica, it was not the most proper to go there in public, and the doctor knew that as well as the Spaniard, and, therefore, though we went several times _incognito_, yet it was of no consequence to me, neither did I desire it.

One night I had a very strange fright here, and behaved myself very much like a simpleton about it. The case was this. I waked in the middle of the night, and, chancing to open my eyes, I saw a great light of fire, which, to me, seemed as if the house, or some part of it, had been on fire, I, as if I had been at Wapping or Rotherhithe, where people are always terrified with such things, jumped out of bed, and called my friend, Captain Merlotte, and cried out, Fire! fire! The first thing I should have thought of on this occasion should have been, that the Spaniards did not understand what the words fire! fire! meant; and that, if I expected they should understand me, I should have cried Fuego, Fuego!

However, Captain Merlotte got up, and my Madagascar captain, for we all lay near one another, and, with the noise, they waked the whole house; and my landlord, as he afterwards confessed, began to suspect some mischief, his steward having come to his chamber door, and told him that the strangers were up in arms; in which mistake we might have all had our throats cut, and the poor Spaniard not to blame neither.

But our doctor coming hastily in to me, unriddled the whole matter, which was this: that a volcano, or burning vent among the hills, being pretty near the Spanish side of the country, as there are many of them in the Andes, had flamed out that night, and gave such a terrible light in the air as made us think the fire had at least been in the outhouses, or in part of the house, and, accordingly, had put me in such a fright.

Upon this, having told me what it was, he ran away to the Spanish servants, and told them what the meaning of it all was, and bade them go and satisfy their master, which they did, and all was well again; but, as for myself, I sat up almost all the night staring out from the window at the eruption of fire upon the hills, for the like wonderful appearance I had never seen before.

I sincerely begged my landlord's pardon for disturbing his house, and asked him if those eruptions were frequent? He said no, they were not frequent, for they were constant, either in one part of the hills or another; and that in my pa.s.sing the mountains I should see several of them. I asked him if they were not alarmed with them? and if they were not attended with earthquakes? He said, he believed that among the hills themselves they might have some shakings of the earth, because sometimes were found pieces of the rocks that had been broken off and fallen down; and that it was among those that sometimes parts of stone were found which had gold interspersed in them, as if they had been melted and run together, of which he had shown me some; but that, as for earthquakes in the country, he had never heard of any since he came thither, which had been upwards of fifteen years, including three years that he dwelt at St. Jago.

One day, being out on horseback with my landlord, we rode up close to the mountains, and he showed me at a distance, an entrance as he called it, into them, frightful enough, indeed, as shall be described in its place. He then told me, that was the way he intended to carry me when he should go to show me the highest hills in the world; but he turned short, and, smiling, said it should not be yet; for, though he had promised me a safe return, and left hostages for it, yet he had not capitulated for time.

I told him he need not capitulate with me for time; for if I had not two s.h.i.+ps to stay my coming, and between three and four hundred men eating me up all the while, I did not know whether I should ever go away again or not, if he would give me house room. He told me as to that, he had sent my men some provisions, so that they would not starve if I did not go back for some days. This surprised me not a little, and I discovered it in my countenance. Nay, seignior, says he, I have only sent them some victuals to maintain my two hostages, for you know they must not want.

It was not good manners in me to ask what he had sent; but I understood, as soon as my mids.h.i.+pman returned, that he had sent down sixteen cows or runts, I know not what else to call them, but they were black cattle, thirty hogs, thirteen large Peruvian sheep, as big as great calves, and three casks of Chilian wine, with an a.s.surance that they should have more provisions when that was spent.

I was amazed at all this munificence of the Spaniard, and very glad I was that I had sent my mids.h.i.+pman for the things I intended to present him with, for I was as well able to requite him for a large present as he was to make it, and had resolved it before I knew he had sent anything to the s.h.i.+ps; so that this exchanging of presents was but a kind of generous barter or commerce; for as to gold, we had either of us so much, that it was not at all equal in value to what we had to give on both sides, as we were at present situated.

In short, my mids.h.i.+pman returned with the horses and servants, and when he had brought what I had sent for into a place which I desired the Spaniard to allow me to open my things in, I sent my doctor to desire the Spaniard to let me speak with him.

I told him first, that he must give me his parole of honour not to take amiss what I had to say to him; that it was the custom in our country, at any time, to make presents to the ladies, with the knowledge and consent of their husbands or parents, without any evil design, or without giving any offence, but that I knew it was not so among the Spaniards. That I had not had the honour yet either to see his lady or his daughter, but that I had heard he had both; however, that if he pleased to be the messenger of a trifle I had caused my man to bring, and would present it for me, and not take it as an offence, he should see beforehand what it was, and I would content myself with his accepting it in their behalf.

He told me, smiling, he did not bring me thither to take any presents of me. I had already done enough, in that I had given him his liberty, which was the most valuable gift in the world: and, as to his wife, I had already made her the best present I was able, having given her back her husband. That it is true, it was not the custom of the Spaniards to let their wives appear in any public entertainment of friends, but that he had resolved to break through that custom; and that he had told his wife what a friend I had been to her family, and that she should thank me for it in person; and that then, what present I had designed for her, since I would be a maker of presents, she should do herself the honour to take it with her own hands, and he would be very far from mistaking them, or taking it ill from his wife.

As this was the highest compliment he was able to make me, the more he was obliging in the manner, for he returned in about two hours, leading his wife into the room by the hand, and his daughter following.

I must confess I was surprised, for I did not expect to have seen such a sight in America. The lady's dress, indeed, I cannot easily describe; but she was really a charming woman, of about forty years of age, and covered over with emeralds and diamonds; I mean as to her head. She was veiled till she came into the room, but gave her veil to her woman when her husband took her by the hand. Her daughter I took to be about twelve years old, which the Spaniards count marriageable; she was pretty, but not so handsome as her mother.

After the compliments on both sides, my landlord, as I now call him, told her very handsomely what a benefactor I had been to her family, by redeeming him from the hands of villains; and she, turning to me, thanked me in the most obliging manner, and with a modest graceful way of speech, such as I cannot describe, and which indeed I did not think the Spaniards, who are said to be so haughty, had been acquainted with.

I then desired the doctor to tell the Spaniard, her husband, that I requested his lady to accept a small present which my mids.h.i.+pman had brought for her from the s.h.i.+p, and which I took in my hand, and the Spaniard led his wife forward to take it; and I must needs say it was not a mean present, besides its being of ten times the value in that place as it would have been at London; and I was now very glad that, as I mentioned above, I always reserved a small quant.i.ty of all goods unsold, that I might have them to dispose of as occasion should offer.

First, I presented her with a very fine piece of Dutch Holland, worth in London about seven s.h.i.+llings an ell, and thirty-six ells in length, and worth in Chili, to be sure, fifteen pieces of eight per ell, at least; or it was rather likely that all the kingdom of Chili had not such another.

Then I gave her two pieces of China damask, and two pieces of China silks, called atla.s.ses, flowered with gold; two pieces of fine muslin, one flowered the other plain, and a piece of very fine chintz, or printed calico; also a large parcel of spices, made up in elegant papers, being about six pounds of nutmegs, and about twice as many cloves.

And lastly, to the young lady I gave one piece of damask, two pieces of China taffity, and a piece of fine striped muslin.

After all this was delivered, and the ladies had received them, and given them their women to hold, I pulled out a little box in which I had two couple of large pearls, of that pearl which I mentioned we found at the Pearl Islands, very well matched for ear-rings, and gave the lady one pair, and the daughter the other; and now, I think, I had made a present fit for an amba.s.sador to carry to a prince.

The ladies made all possible acknowledgment, and we had the honour that day to dine with them in public. My landlord, the Spaniard, told me I had given them such a present as the viceroy of Mexico's lady would have gone fifty leagues to have received.