He was going to break off the discourse upon the occasion of the Chilian's returning, who was just come in from his hunting, telling me, he would talk farther of it by the way; but I told him I could not quite dismiss the subject, because I must bespeak him to make some mention of it to the Chilian, that he might, on his account, be an assistant to our men, as we saw he was capable of being, in their passing by those difficult ways, and for their supply of provisions, &c. Trouble not yourself with that, seignior, said he, for when your men come, the care shall be mine; I will come myself as far as this wealthy Chilian's, and procure them all the assistance this place can afford them, and do anything that offers to forward them in the undertaking.
This was so generous, and so extraordinary, that I had nothing to say more, but to please myself with the apparent success of my attempt, and acknowledge the happiness of having an opportunity to oblige so generous, spirited, and grateful a person.
I would, however, have made some farther acknowledgment to our Chilian benefactor, but I had nothing left, except a couple of hats, and three pair of English stockings, one pair silk and the other two worsted, and those I gave him, and made him a great many acknowledgments for the favours he had shown us, and the next morning came away.
We made little stay anywhere else in our return; but, making much such stages back as we did forward, we came the fourteenth day to our patron's house, having made the passage through in something less than sixteen days, and the like back in fifteen days, including our stay at the Chilian's, one day.
The length of the way, according to the best of my calculations, I reckoned to be about one hundred and seventy-five English miles, taking it with all its windings and turnings, which were not a few, but which had this conveniency with them, that they gave a more easy and agreeable passage, and made the English proverb abundantly good, namely, that the farthest way about is the nearest way home.
The civilities I received after this from my generous Spaniard were agreeable to the rest of his usage of me; but we, that had so great a charge upon us at the sea-side, could not spare long time in those ceremonies, any more than I do now for relating them.
It is enough to mention, that he would not be excused, at parting, from going back with us quite to the ships, and when I would have excused it, he said, Nay, seignior, give me leave to go and fetch my hostages. In short, there was no resisting him, so we went all together, after staying two days more at his house, and came all safe to our ships, having been gone forty-six days from them.
We found the ship in very good condition, all safe on board, and well, except that the men seemed to have contracted something of the scurvy, which our Spanish doctor, however, soon recovered them from.
Here we found the two Spanish youths, our patron's hostages, very well also, and very well pleased with their entertainment; one of our lieutenants had been teaching them navigation, and something of the mathematics, and they made very good improvement in those studies, considering the time they had been there; and the Spaniard, their father, was so pleased with it, that not having gold enough to offer the lieutenant, as an acknowledgment for his teaching them, he gave him a very good ring from his finger, having a fine large emerald in it of some value, and made him a long Spanish compliment for having nothing of greater consequence to offer him.
We now made preparations for sailing, and our men, in my absence, had laid in a very considerable supply of provisions, particularly excellent pork, and tolerable good beef, with a great number of goats and hogs alive, as many as we could stow.