The Whole Of Chili, From St Jago To
Valdivia, Is One Of The Most Fertile And Most Delightful Countries In
The World.
It abounds in all kinds of cattle and fruit, has many rich
gold mines, and its climate is so sweet and salubrious as to exclude the
use of medicine, being health and life in itself.
They entered the bay of Guasco[77] on the 1st April, where they remained
till the 7th. The 11th they came into a large bay, named Moro Gorch,
in lat. 18 deg. 30' S. ten miles from which is Moro Moreno, from which the
shore runs to Arica, and all this coast, up to the hill of St Francis,
is very much subject to south winds, though the adjoining seas have the
winds variable and uncertain. On the 20th the whole air was darkened by
an Arenal which is a cloud of dust, and so thick that one cannot see a
stone's throw. These are raised by the wind from the adjoining shore,
and are very common in these parts. The 25th they were within view of
the famous city of Lima in Peru. At this time they learnt the value of
the treasure of which the Spaniards had deprived them, in the ships they
took on the coast of Chili. Nicholas Peterson, the captain of one of
these prizes, acquainted Van Noort that he had been informed by a negro
of a great quantity of gold having been on board the ship, as he
believed to the amount of three tons, having helped to carry a great
part of it on board. On this information the admiral closely examined
the Spanish pilot, who at first denied all knowledge of any gold; but
another negro having corroborated the information, with some farther
circumstances, the pilot at last owned that they had on board fifty-two
chests, each containing four arobas of gold, and besides these 500 bars
of the same metal, weighing from eight to ten and twelve pounds each;
all of which, together with what private stock belonged to any of the
company, the captain had ordered to be thrown overboard in the night,
when first chased, amounting in the whole to about 10,200 pounds weight
of gold; and, from its fineness, worth about two million pieces of
eight, or Spanish silver dollars. Upon this the admiral ordered the ship
and all the prisoners to be searched, but there was only found a single
pound of gold dust, tied up in a rag, in the breeches pocket of the
Spanish pilot. The prisoners owned that all this gold was brought from
the island of St Mary, from mines discovered only three years before;
and that there were not more than three or four Spaniards on that
island, and about 200 Indians, only armed with bows and arrows.
[Footnote 77: Perhaps Huasco in lat. 28 deg. 27' S. or it may possibly have
been Guacho, in 25 deg. 50' S. - E.]
The 5th September they came in sight of the Ladrones, and came on the
16th to Guam, one of these an island of about twenty Dutch miles in
extent, and yielding fish, cocoa-nuts, bananas, and sugar canes, all of
which the natives brought to the ships in a great number of canoes.
Sometimes they met 200 of these canoes at one time, with four or five
men in each, bawling out hiero, hiero, meaning iron; and often in
their eagerness they run their canoes against the ships, overturning
them and losing all their commodities. These islanders were a sly subtle
people, and honest with good looking after; for otherwise, they would
sell a basket of cocoa-nut shells covered over with a small quantity of
rice, as if full of rice. They would also snatch a sword from its
scabbard, and plunge instantly into the water, where they dived like so
many ducks; and the women were as roguish as the men, stealing as
impudently, and diving as expertly to carry off their prizes.
The 17th of September they sailed for the Philippines; and on the 20th
they met with ice, though then only in the latitude of 3 deg. N.[78] On the
16th October they came to Bayla bay, in a very fertile land, at which
place they procured abundance of all kinds of necessaries for their
ships, by pretending to be Spaniards. The Spaniards, who are lords here,
make the Indians pay an annual capitation tax, to the value of ten
single rials for every one above twenty years of age. The natives of
these islands are mostly naked, having their skins marked with figures
so deeply impressed, [tatooed] that they never wear out. Being
discovered to be Dutch, but not till they had gained their ends, they
sailed for the Straits of Manilla, all the coasts near which appeared
waste, barren, and rocky. Here a sudden squall of wind from the S.E.
carried away some of their masts and sails, being more furious than any
they had hitherto experienced during the voyage. The 23d some of the
people went ashore, where they eat palmitoes and drank water so
greedily, that they were afterwards seized with the dysentery. The 24th
they entered the straits, sailing past an island in the middle, and came
in the evening past the island of Capul, seven miles within the straits,
near which they found whirlpools, where the sea was of an unfathomable
depth, so far as they could discover.
[Footnote 78: This surely is an error for 18 deg., Guam being in lat. 18 deg.
20' N. yet even here, the fact of meeting ice so far within the tropic
is sufficiently singular. - E.]
They now crowded sail for Manilla, which is eighty miles from Capul, but
wanted both a good wind to carry them, and good maps and a skilful pilot
to direct them to that place. The 7th November they took a junk from
China, laden with provisions for Manilla.
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