They Entered Another Bay On The 1st February, Which They Called Popish
Bay, Probably Owing To Some Cross Erected On Its Shore, And In Which
They Were Exposed To Much Danger.
On the 27th, they saw at a distance a
huge mountain of ice in Penguin bay.
The 28th they passed Cape Deseado,
or Desire, into the South Sea, bidding adieu to the many dismal
prospects of the Straits of Magellan. Their company, originally 248 men,
was now reduced to 147, but was soon still farther lessened by losing
company of the Henry Frederick, which never rejoined. Waiting for that
ship in vain till the 12th March, they sailed to the island of Mocha on
the coast of Chili, in lat. 38 deg. 22' S. and six miles [twenty English]
from the continent. This island is remarkable by a high mountain in the
middle, which is cloven at the top, and whence a water-course descends
into the vale land at its foot. They here bartered knives and hatchets
with the natives for sheep, poultry, maize, bartulas,[76] and other
fruits. The town consisted of about fifty straw huts, where the Dutch
were regaled with a sour kind of drink, called cici, made of maiz
steeped in water, which is the favourite drink of the Chilese at their
feasts. Polygamy is much practised among these people, who buy as many
wives as they can afford to maintain; so that a man who has many
daughters, especially if they be handsome, is accounted rich. If one man
kill another, he is judged by the relations of the deceased, as they
have no laws or magistrates among them, so that the murderer may
sometimes buy off his punishment by giving a drinking-bout of cici.
Their cloathing is manufactured from the wool of a large kind of sheep,
which animal they also employ to carry burdens. They would not sell any
of these, but parted freely with another kind, not very different.
[Footnote 76: This probably means battatas or potatoes, a native
production of Chili. - E.]
From thence they went to the island of St Mary, in lat. 37 deg. S. eighteen
miles [ninety-five English] from Mocha, where they fell in with a
Spanish ship carrying lard and meal from Conception to Valdivia in
Araucania, which they chased and took. The pilot of this ship informed
them that they would not be able to return to the island of St Mary,
owing to the south wind, and that two Spanish ships of war were waiting
for them at Arica. Upon this information they resolved to sail for
Valparaiso, and by that means quite lost all chance of being rejoined by
the Henry Frederick, which might otherwise have got up with them.
Besides, they concluded that the missing ship had failed to find St
Mary's isle, owing to its being wrong placed in the map of Plancius, in
lat. 38 deg. S. which error they themselves had fallen into, had they not
been set right by the observations of Mr Mellish. They were farther
confirmed in the resolution of not returning to the island of St Mary,
by hearing of the misfortune which had there befallen Simon de Cordes,
who was there butchered with twenty-three of his men, after being
invited on shore in a friendly manner by the Indians, owing to the
treachery of the Spaniards endeavouring to get possession of his two
ships, and sending intelligence to Lima and all about the country of the
arrival of the Dutch in these seas, with a list of their ships, and the
names of all their commanders. For these reasons they proceeded to
Valparaiso, where they took two ships and killed some Indians, but all
the Spaniards escaped on shore. Valparaiso is in lat. 35 deg. 5' S. And
about eighteen miles inland, [100 English miles] is the town of St Jago,
abounding in red wine and sheep. They kill these animals merely for the
sake of their tallow, with which alone they load many vessels. Here they
received letters from the captain of the Flying Hart, one of the
squadron under Verhagen, who had been treacherously captured by the
Spaniards; owing, as he alleged, to the wrong placement of the island of
St Mary in the map, by which he had been misled.
At Valparaiso they intercepted some letters giving an account of the
wars in Chili between the Spaniards and the Indians, who it seems were
in rebellion, had sacked the town of Valdivia, putting vast numbers of
Spaniards to the sword, and carrying off many captives. They burnt the
houses and churches, knocking off the heads of the popish images,
crying, "Down go the gods of the Spaniards." They then crammed the
mouths of these images with gold, bidding them satisfy themselves with
that, for the sake of which their votaries had committed so many
barbarous massacres of their nation. They afterwards laid close siege to
the city of Imperial, and had almost starved the Spanish garrison into a
surrender. The valiant Indians who undertook this enterprise were about
5000, of whom 5000 were cavalry, 100 were armed with muskets, and 70 had
corslets, all of which were plunder they had taken from the Spaniards.
They so mortally hate the Spaniards, that they rip up the breasts of all
they overcome, tearing out their hearts with their teeth, and they
delight to drink their favourite liquor from a cup made of a Spaniard's
skull.
These Indians [the Araucans] are for the most part very stout, and
skilful soldiers, and commit the management of all their military
affairs to the direction of one supreme general, whose orders are
implicitly obeyed. Their method of election to this high dignity is very
singular; for he who carries a certain log of wood on his shoulders the
longest, and with the smallest appearance of weariness, is saluted
general by the army. In this trial several carried the log four, five,
and six hours; but at length one carried it twenty-four hours on end,
and this person was now general.
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