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

But to return to our present situation at Juan Fernandez. The refreshment which our men found here greatly encouraged and revived them; and the broths and stewings which we made of the goats' flesh which we killed there, than which nothing could be wholesomer, restored all our sick men, so that we lost but two men in our whole passage from the East Indies, and had lost but eight men in our whole voyage from England, except I should reckon those five men and a boy to be lost which run away from us in the country among the Indians, as I have already related.

I should have added, that we careened and cleaned our ships here, and put ourselves into a posture for whatever adventures might happen; for as I resolved upon a trading voyage upon the coast of Chili and Peru, and a cruising voyage also, as it might happen, so I resolved also to put our ships into a condition for both, as occasion should present.

Our men were nimble at this work, especially having been so well refreshed and heartened up by their extraordinary supply of fresh meats, and the additions of good broths and soups which they fed on every day in the island, and with which they were supplied without any manner of limitation all the time they were at work.

This I say being their case, they got the Madagascar ship hauled down, and her bottom washed and tallowed, and she was as clean as when she first came off the stocks in five days' time: and she was rigged, and all set to rights, and fit for sailing in two more.

The great ship was not so soon fitted, nor was I in so much haste, for I had a design in my head which I had not yet communicated to anybody, and that was to send the Madagascar ship a-cruising as soon as she was fitted up; accordingly, I say, the fifth day she was ready, and I managed it so that the captain of the Madagascar ship openly, before all the men, made the motion, as if it had been his own project, and desired I would let him go and try his fortune, as he called it.

I seemed unwilling at first, but he added to his importunity, that he and all his crew were desirous, if they made any purchase, it should be divided among all the crews in shares, according as they were shipped; that if it was provisions, the captain should buy it at half price, for the use of the whole, and the money to be shared.

Upon hearing his proposals, which were esteemed very just, and the men all agreeing, I gave consent, and so he had my orders and instructions, and leave to be out twelve days on his cruise, and away he went. His ship was an excellent sailer, as has been said, and being now a very clean vessel, I thought he might speak with any other, or get away from her if he pleased; by the way, I ordered him to put out none but French colours.

He cruised a week without seeing a sail, and stood in quite to the Spanish shore in one place, but in that he was wrong. The eighth day, giving over all expectations, he stood off again to sea, and the next morning he spied a sail, which proved to be a large Spanish ship, and that seemed to stand down directly upon him, which a little checked his forwardness; however, he kept on his course, when the Spaniard seeing him plainer than probably he had done at first, tacked, and crowding all the sail he could carry, stood in for the shore.

The Spaniard was a good sailer, but our ship plainly gained upon her, and in the evening came almost up with her; when he saw the land, though at a great distance, he was loath to be seen chasing her from the shore; however, he followed, and night coming on, the Spaniard changed his course, thinking to get away, but as the moon was just rising, our men, who resolved to keep her in sight, if possible, perceived her, and stretched after her with all the canvass they could lay on.

This chase held till about midnight, when our ship coming up with her, took her after a little dispute. They pretended, at first, to have nothing on board but timber, which they were carrying, as they said, to some port for the building of ships; but our men had the secret to make the Spaniards confess their treasure, if they had any, so that after some hard words with the Spanish commander, he confessed he had some money on board, which, on our men's promise of good usage, he afterwards very honestly delivered, and which might amount to about sixteen thousand pieces of eight.

But he had what we were very glad of besides, viz., about two hundred great jars of very good wheat flour, a large quantity of oil, and some casks of sweetmeats, all which was to us very good prize.

But now our difficulty was, what we should do with the ship, and with the Spaniards; and this was so real a difficulty that I began to wish he had not taken her, lest her being suffered to go, she should alarm the country, or if detained, discover us all.

It was not above one day beyond his orders that we had the pleasure of seeing the captain of the Madagascar come into the road, with his prize in tow, and the flour and oil was a very good booty to us; but upon second and better thoughts, we brought the Spaniards to a fair treaty, and, which was more difficult, brought all our men to consent to it. The case was this. Knowing what I proposed to myself to do, namely, to trade all the way up the Spanish coast, and to pass for French ships, I knew the taking this Spanish ship would betray us all, unless I resolved to sink the ship and murder all the men; so I came to a resolution of talking with the Spanish captain, and making terms with him, which I soon made him very glad to accept of.

First, I pretended to be angry with the captain of the Madagascar ship, and ordered him to be put under confinement, for having made a prize of his catholic majesty's subjects, we being subjects to the king of France, who was in perfect peace with the king of Spain.

Then I told him that I would restore him his ship and all his money, and as to his flour and oil, which the men had fallen greedily upon, having a want of it, I would pay him the full value in money for it all, and for any other loss he had sustained, only that I would oblige him to lie in the road at the island where we were, till we returned from our voyage to Lima, whither we were going to trade, for which lying I also agreed to pay him demurrage for his ship, after the rate of eight hundred pieces of eight per month, and if I returned not in four months, he was to be at his liberty to go.

The captain, who thought himself a prisoner and undone, readily embraced this offer; and so we secured his ship till our return, and there we found him very honestly at an anchor, of which I shall give a farther account in its place.

We were now, as I have said, much about the middle of our voyage, at least as I had intended it; and having stored ourselves with every thing the place afforded, we got ready to proceed, for we had, as it were, dwelt here near a fortnight.

By this time the weather was good again, and we stood away to the south-east for the port of Baldivia, as above, and reached to the mouth, of the harbour in twelve days' sail.

I was now to change faces again, and Captain Merlotte appeared as captain, all things being transacted in his name, and French captains were put into the brigantine, and into the Madagascar ship also. The first thing the captain did was to send a civil message to the Spanish governor, to acquaint him, that being come into those seas as friends, under his most Christian majesty's commission, and with the king of Spain's permission, we desired to be treated as allies, and to be allowed to take water and wood, and to buy such refreshments as we wanted, for which we would pay ready money; also we carried French colours, but took not the least notice of our intention to trade with them.

We received a very civil answer from the governor, viz., That being the king of France's subjects, and that they were in alliance with us, we were very welcome to wood and water, and any provision the place would afford, and that our persons should be safe, and in perfect liberty to go on shore; but that he could not allow any of our men to lie on shore, it being express in his orders that he should not permit any nation not actually in commission from the king of Spain to come on shore and stay there, not even one night; and that this was done to prevent disorders.

We answered, that we were content with that order, seeing we did not desire our men should go on shore to stay there, we not being able to answer for any misbehaviour, which was frequent among seamen.

While we continued here, several Spaniards came on board and visited us, and we often went on shore on the same pretence; but our supercargo, who understood his business too well not to make use of the occasion, presently let the Spaniards see that he had a great cargo of goods to dispose of; they as freely took the hint, and let him know that they had money enough to pay for whatever they bought; so they fell to work, and they bought East India and China silks, Japan ware, China ware, spice, and something of everything we had. We knew we should not sell all our cargo here; nor any extraordinary quantity; but we knew, on the other hand, that, what we did sell here, we should sell for 100l. per cent. extraordinary, I mean more than we should sell for at Lima, or any other ports on that side, and so we did; for here we sold a bottle of arrack for four pieces of eight, a pound of cloves for five pieces of eight, and a pound of nutmegs for six pieces of eight; and the like of other things.

They would gladly have purchased some European goods, and especially English cloth and baize; but as we had indeed very few such things left, so we were not willing they should see them, that they might not have any suspicion of our being Englishmen, and English ships, which would soon have put an end to all our commerce.

While we lay here trafficking with the Spaniards, I set some of my men to work to converse among the native Chilians, or Indians, as we call them, of the country, and several things they learned of them, according to the instructions which I gave them; for example, first, I understood by them that the country people, who do not live among the Spaniards, have a mortal aversion to them; that it is rivetted in their minds by tradition from father to son, ever since the wars which had formerly been among them, and that though they did not now carry on those wars, yet the animosity remained; and the pride and cruel haughty temper of the Spaniards were such still to those of the country people who came under their government, as make that aversion continually increase. They let us know, that if any nation in the world would but come in and assist them against the Spaniards, and support them in their rising against them, they would soon rid their hands of the whole nation. This was to the purpose exactly, as to what I wanted to know.

I then ordered particular inquiry to be made, whether the mountains of Andes, which are indeed prodigious to look at, and so frightful for their height, that it is not to be thought of without some horror, were in any places passable? what country there was beyond them? and whether any of their people had gone, over and knew the passages?

The Indians concurred with the Spaniards in this (for our men inquired of both), that though the Andes were to be supposed, indeed, to be the highest mountains in the world, and that, generally speaking, they were impassable, yet that there had been passages found by the vales among the mountains; where, with fetching several compasses and windings partly on the hills, and partly in the valleys, men went with a great deal of ease and safety quite through or over, call it as we will, to the other, named the east side, and as often returned again.

Some of the more knowing Indians or Chilians went farther than this, and when our men inquired after the manners, situation, and produce of the country on the other side, they told them, that when they passed the mountains from that part of the country, they went chiefly to fetch cattle and kill deer, of which there were great numbers in that part of the land; but that when they went from St. Jago they turned away north some leagues, when they came to a town called St. Anthonio de los Vejos, or, the town of St. Anthony and the Old Men; that there was a great river at that city, from whence they found means to go down to the Rio de la Plata, and so to the Buenos Ayres, and that they frequently carried thither great sums of money in Chilian gold, and brought back European goods from thence.

I had all I wanted now, and bade my men say no more to them on that subject, and only to tell them, that they would come back and travel a little that way to see the country. The people appeared very well pleased with this intelligence, and answered, that if they would do so, they should find some, as well Spaniards as Chilians, who would be guides to them through the hills; also assuring them, that they would find the hills very practicable, and the people as they went along very ready to assist and furnish them with whatever they found they wanted, especially if they come to know that they were not Spaniards, or that they would protect them from the Spaniards, which would be the most agreeable thing to them in the world; for it seems many of the nations of the Chilians had been driven to live among the hills, and some even beyond them, to avoid the cruelty and tyranny of the Spaniards, especially in the beginning of their planting in that country.

The next inquiry I ordered them to make was, whether it was possible to pass those hills with horses or mules, or any kind of carriages? and they assured them, they might travel with mules, and even with horses also, but rather with mules; but as to carriages, such as carts or waggons, they allowed that was not practicable. They assured us, that some of those ways through the hills were much frequented, and that there were towns, or villages rather, of people to be found in the valleys between the said hills; some of which villages were very large, and the soil very rich and fruitful, bearing sufficient provisions for the inhabitants, who were very numerous. They added, that the people were not much inclined to live in towns as the Spaniards do, but that they lived scattered up and down the country, as they were guided by the goodness of the land; that they lived very secure and unguarded, never offering any injury to one another, nor fearing injury from any but the Spaniards.

I caused these inquiries to be made with the utmost prudence and caution, so that the Spaniards had not the least suspicion of our design; and thus, having finished our traffick, and taken in water and provisions, we sailed from Baldivia, having settled a little correspondence there with two Spaniards, who were very faithful to us, and with two Chilian Indians, whom we had in a particular manner engaged, and whom, to make sure of, we took along with us; and having spent about thirteen days here, and taken the value of about six thousand pieces of eight in silver and gold, but most of it in gold, we set sail.

Our next port was the Bay of the Conception; here, having two or three men on board who were well acquainted with the coast, we ran boldly into the bay, and came to an anchor in that which they call the Bite, or little bay, under the island Quinquina; and from thence we sent our boat, with French mariners to row, and a French cockswain, with a letter to the Spanish governor, from Captain Merlotte. Our pretence was always the same as before, that we had his most Christian majesty's commission, &c., and that we desired liberty to wood and water, and to buy provisions, having been a very long voyage, and the like.

Under these pretences, we lay here about ten days, and drove a very considerable trade for such goods as we were sure they wanted; and having taken about the value of eight thousand pieces of eight, we set sail for the port or river that goes up to St. Jago, where we expected a very good market, being distant from the Conception about sixty-five leagues.

St. Jago is the capital city of Chili, and stands twelve leagues within the land; there are two ports, which are made use of to carry on the traffic of this place, viz., R. de Ropocalmo, and port de Valparaiso. We were bound to the last, as being the only port for ships of burden, and where there is security from bad weather.

We found means here, without going up to the city of St. Jago, to have merchants enough to come down to us; for this being a very rich city, and full of money, we found all our valuable silks of China, our atlases, China damasks, satins, &c., were very much valued, and very much wanted, and no price was too high for us to ask for them. For, in a word, the Spanish ladies, who, for pride, do not come behind any in the world, whatever they do for beauty, were so eager for those fine things, that almost any reasonable quantity might have been sold there; but the truth is, we had an unreasonable quantity, and therefore, as we had other markets to go to, we did not let them know what a great stock of goods we had, but took care they had something of everything they wanted. We likewise found our spices were an excellent commodity in those parts, and sold for a great profit too, as indeed everything else did, as is said above.

We found it very easy to sell here to the value of one hundred and thirty thousand pieces of eight, in all sorts of China and East-India goods; for still, though we had some of the English cargo loose, we let none of it be seen. We took most of the money in gold uncoined, which is got out of the mountains in great quantities, and of which we shall have occasion to speak more hereafter.

Our next trading port was Coquimbo, a small town but a good port. Here we went in without ceremony, and upon the same foot, of being French, we were well received, traded underhand with the Spanish merchants, and got letters to some other merchants at Guasco, a port in a little bay about fifteen leagues north from Coquimbo.

From hence to the port of Copiapo, is twenty-five leagues. Here we found a very good port, though no trading town or city; but the country being well inhabited, we found means to acquaint some of the principal Spaniards in the country of what we were, and (with which they were pleased well enough) that they might trade with us for such things, which it was easy to see they gave double price for to the merchants who came from Lima, and other places. This brought them to us with so much eagerness, that though they bought for their own use, not for sale, yet they came furnished with orders, perhaps for two or three families together, and being generally rich, would frequently lay out six hundred or eight hundred pieces of eight a man; so that we had a most excellent market here, and took above thirty thousand pieces of eight; that is to say, the value of it, for they still paid all in gold.

Here we had opportunity to get a quantity of good flour, or wheat meal, of very good European wheat, that is to say, of that sort of wheat; and withal, had good biscuit baked on shore, so that now we got a large recruit of bread, and our men began to make puddings, and lived very comfortably. We likewise got good sugar at the ingenioes, or sugar-mills, of which there were several here, and the farther north we went their number increased, for we were now in the latitude of 28° 2' south.

We had but one port now of any consequence that we intended to touch at, until we came to the main place we aimed at, which was Lima, and this was about two-thirds of the way thither; I mean Porto Rica, or Arica, which is in the latitude of 18° of thereabouts. The people were very shy of us here, as having been much upon their guard for some years past, for fear of buccaneers and English privateers: but when they understood we were French, and our French captain sent two recommendations to them from a merchant at St. Jago, they were then very well satisfied, and we had full freedom of commerce here also.

From hence we came the height of Lima, the capital port, if not the capital city, of Peru, lying in the latitude of 12° 30'. Had we made the least pretence of trading here, we should, at least, have had soldiers put on board our ships to have prevented it, and the people would have been forbidden to trade with us upon pain of death. But Captain Merlotte having brought letters to a principal merchant of Lima, he instructed him how to manage himself at his first coming into that port; which was to ride without the town of Callao, out of the command of the puntals or castles there, and not to come any nearer, upon what occasion soever, and then to leave the rest to him.

Upon this, the merchant applied himself to the governor for leave to go on board the French ship at Callao; but the governor understood him, and would not grant it by any means. The reason was, because there had been such a general complaint by the merchants from Carthagena, Porto Bello, and other places, of the great trade carried on here with French ships from Europe, to the destruction of the merchants, and to the ruin of the trade of the galleons, that the governor, or viceroy of Peru, had forbid the French ships landing any goods.

Now, though this made our traffick impracticable at Lima itself, yet it did by no means hinder the merchants trading with us under cover, &c., but especially when they came to understand that we were not loaden from Europe with baize, long ells, druggets, broadcloth, serges, stuffs, stockings, hats, and such like woollen manufactures of France, England, &c.; but that our cargo was the same with that of the Manilla ships at Acapulca, and that we were loaden with calicoes, muslins, fine-wrought China silks, damasks, Japan wares, China wares, spices, &c., there was then no withholding them: but they came on board us in the night with canoes, and, staying all day, went on shore again in the night, carrying their goods to different places, where they knew they could convey them on shore without difficulty.

In this manner we traded publicly enough, not much unlike the manner of our trade at the Manillas; and here we effectually cleared ourselves of our whole cargo, as well English goods as Indian, to an immense sum. Here our men, officers as well as seamen, sold their fine pearl, particularly one large parcel, containing one hundred and seventy-three very fine pearls, but of different sizes, which a priest bought, as we are told, to dress up the image of the blessed Virgin Mary in one of their churches.

In a word, we came to a balance here, for we sold everything that we had the least intention to part with; the chief things we kept in reserve, were some bales of English goods, also all the remainder of our beads and bugles, toys, ironwork, knives, scissors, hatchets, needles, pins, glass-ware, and such things as we knew the Spaniards did not regard, and which might be useful in our farther designs, of which my head was yet very full. Those, I say, we kept still.

Here, likewise, we sold our brigantine, which, though an excellent sea-boat, as may well be supposed, considering the long voyage we had made in her, was yet so worm-eaten in her bottom, that, unless we would have new sheathed her, and perhaps shifted most of her planks too, which would have taken up a great deal of time, she was by no means fit to have gone any farther, at least not so long a run as we had now to make, viz., round the whole southern part of America, and where we should find no port to put in at, (I mean, where we should have been able to have got anything done for the repair of a ship), until we had come home to England.

It was proposed here to have gone to the governor or viceroy of Peru, and have obtained his license or pass to have traversed the Isthmus of America, from port St. Maria to the river of Darien. This we could easily have obtained under the character that we then bore, viz., of having the King of France's commission; and had we been really all French, I believe I should have done it, but as we were so many Englishmen, and as such were then at open war with Spain, I did not think it a safe adventure, I mean not a rational adventure, especially considering what a considerable treasure we had with us.

On the other hand, as we were now a strong body of able seamen, and had two stout ships under us, we had no reason to apprehend either the toil or the danger of a voyage round Cape Horn, after which we should be in a very good condition to make the rest of our voyage to England. Whereas, if we travelled over the Isthmus of America, we should be all like a company of freebooters and buccaneers, loose and unshipped, and should perhaps run some one way and some another, among the logwood cutters at the bay of Campeachy, and other places, to get passage, some to Jamaica and some to New England; and, which was worse than all, should be exposed to a thousand dangers on account of the treasure we had with us, perhaps even to that of murdering and robbing one another. And, as Captain Merlotte said, who was really a Frenchman, it were much more eligible for us, as French, or, if we had been such, to have gone up to Acapulca, and there to sell our ships and get license to travel to Mexico, and then to have got the viceroy's assiento to have come to Europe in the galleons; but, as we were so many Englishmen, it was impracticable; our seamen also being Protestants, such as seamen generally are, and bold mad fellows, they would never have carried on a disguise, both of their nation and of their religion, for so long a time as it would have been necessary to do for such a journey and voyage.

But, besides all these difficulties, I had other projects in my head, which made me against all the proposals of passing by land to the North Sea; otherwise, had I resolved it, I should not have much concerned myself about obtaining a license from the Spaniards, for, as we were a sufficient number of men to have forced our way, we should not much have stood upon their giving us leave, or not giving us leave, to go.

But, as I have said, my views lay another way, and my head had been long working upon the discourse my men had had with the Spaniards at Baldavia. I frequently talked with the two Chilian Indians whom I had on board, and who spoke Spanish pretty well, and whom we had taught to speak a little English.

I had taken care that they should have all the good usage imaginable on board. I had given them each a very good suit of clothes made by our tailor, but after their own manner, with each of them a baize cloak; and had given them hats, shoes, stockings, and everything they desired, and they were mighty well pleased, and I talked very freely with them about the passage of the mountains, for that was now my grand design.