A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels Volume V Part 21

Owing to their habitude of frequently going from one island to another, where the sea is far from being pacific, the Chilotans are all excellent sailors, and being active, docile, and industrious, they are very much employed in navigating the shipping of the South Sea. Their native barks or piraguas are formed of from three to five planks, sewed together, and caulked with a species of moss which grows on a particular shrub. There are vast numbers of these barks all through the archipelago, which they manage very dexterously both with sails and oars, and the natives often venture as far as Conception in these frail vessels. They are much addicted to fishing, and procure vast quant.i.ties and many kinds of excellent fish on the sea around their sh.o.r.es. Of these they dry large quant.i.ties, which they export to Chili and Peru, and the other countries on the Pacific Ocean. They likewise cure considerable quant.i.ties of testaceous fishes, such as conchs, clams, and _piures_, in the following manner. These sh.e.l.l fish are laid in a long trench, covered over with the large leaves of the _panke tinctoria_, over which a layer of stones is laid, on which a hot fire is kindled and kept up for several hours.

The roasted fish are then taken out of the sh.e.l.ls, strung upon lines, and hung up for some time in the smoke of wood fires. Cured in this manner they keep well for a considerable time, and are carried for sale to Cujo and other inland districts.

The Christian religion was very readily embraced by the Chilotans after their subjugation, and they have ever since continued stedfast in its observance. Their spiritual concerns are under the direction of the bishop of Conception. Formerly the government was administered by a lieutenant-governor appointed by the governor of Chili, but that officer is now nominated by the viceroy of Peru. The whole external trade of these islands is carried on by three or four ships which come there annually from Peru and Chili, by which they receive wine, brandy, tobacco, sugar, herb of Paraguay, salt, and European goods, for which they give in exchange red cedar boards, timber of different kinds, ponchos of various qualities, hams, pilchards, dried sh.e.l.l-fish, white-cedar boxes, embroidered girdles, and a small quant.i.ty of ambergris which is found on their sh.o.r.es.

The navigation in this archipelago is difficult and even dangerous owing to the strength and number of the currents, and nothing can appear worse adapted for so perilous a sea than the piraguas or boats which are used by the islanders. They are without keel or deck, and the planks of which they are composed are sewed or laced together by means of strong withies, the seams being caulked or stuffed with a kind of moss, or with pounded cane leaves, over which the withies are pa.s.sed. The cross timbers or thwarts are fixed by means of pegs or tree-nails. In these frail barks, which are very easily overset, the Chilotans venture with a fearlessness proceeding entirely from being accustomed to danger, not from skill in avoiding it. Their main source of food is from the sea, which is general most bountiful in those parts of the world where the earth is least so. Their mode of fishing is singular and ingenious. At low water, they inclose a large extent of the flat sh.o.r.e with stakes interwoven with boughs of trees, forming a kind of basket-work; which pens or _corrales_ are covered by every flood and left dry by the ebb tide, at which time they generally find abundance of fish. They likewise employ as food a species of sea-weed, called _luche_, which they form into a kind of loaves or cakes which are greatly esteemed even by the wealthy inhabitants of Lima. Seals are more numerous in the archipelagos of Guaitecas and Guayneco, still farther to the south, where they are eaten by the natives, who are said to acquire so rank an odour from the use of this food that it is necessary to keep them to leeward. Whales sometimes run aground among these islands but are greatly more numerous farther to the south. They have probably retired from this part of the coast in consequence of being persecuted, as ambergris was formerly found in great abundance on these sh.o.r.es, but is now very rare.

All the islands are very mountainous and craggy, so that only a few vallies among the hills and the flat grounds near the sh.o.r.e are susceptible of cultivation. On this scanty cultivable ground, there are forty-one settlements, called _pueblas_ or townships, in the _isla grande_, or large island of Chiloe. There is one road indeed across the mountains, but the whole interior of the island is uninhabited. The isle of Quinchau has six pueblas; Lemui and Llaicha each four, Calbuco three, all the other inhabited islands only one each, and there are three on the continent, in all eighty-one. In these pueblas or townships, the houses are much scattered, each being placed upon its attached property.

The church stands near the beach, having a few huts erected in the neighbourhood, which serve to accommodate the parishioners when they come to church on Sundays or any festival to attend ma.s.s. In the whole archipelago there are but four places where the houses are placed so near together as to a.s.sume the appearance of a town or village. These are the city of Castro as it is called, Chacao, Calbuco, and the port of San Carlos. This last is the largest and most flourishing. In 1774 it contained sixty houses, with 462 inhabitants. In 1791, it had increased to two hundred houses and eleven hundred inhabitants; but its prosperity arose on the ruin of Chacao, which was the only port in the whole archipelago till 1768. The harbour of Chacao is rendered very dangerous by reason of many rocks and shoals, and is much exposed to winds from the north and north-east; on which account Don Carlos de Berenger, when governor, recommended that a town should be built at _Gacui del Ingles_, or English harbour, which was accordingly ordered by the court of Spain in 1767. The bay was then named Bahia del Rey; or Kings Bay, and the town and harbour San Carlos. It is in lat. 41 57' S. and long. 73 58'

W. The port is good, but ships are often wrecked at the entrance, in consequence of tremendous hurricanes which come on suddenly, at which time the land cannot be seen. Since the erection of this town, the seat of government has been removed to it from Castro.

It is difficult to understand what motives could have induced the Spaniards to settle in this miserable country, when the whole extent of this western side of South America was open to them. Where gold and silver are to be found, or where wealth is to be acquired by commerce, men will readily settle, however barren and unfavourable the country, or however pestilential the climate. But Chiloe offers no incitements to avarice, and only a bare and comfortless subsistence to perpetual industry. Perhaps the princ.i.p.al part of the original settlers were people who escaped from the fury of the Araucanians, unable to remove to Peru, or to subsist if they got there, and who were therefore glad of getting any place of rest and security. There is perhaps no other colony in the world to which Europeans have carried so few of their arts and comforts, or where they have attempted to colonize under so many natural disadvantages. Two instances indeed may be excepted; the project of Philip II. to fortify the Straits of Magellan, and the unaccountable settlements of the Norwegians in Greenland. In Chiloe it often rains for a whole month without intermission, and these rains are frequently accompanied by such tremendous hurricanes that the largest trees are torn up by the roots, and the inhabitants do not feel safe in their houses. Even in January, their mid-summer, they have often long-continued heavy rain. If during the height of a storm the smallest opening be perceived in the clouds towards the south, fine weather soon succeeds; but first the wind changes suddenly to the south, with even greater violence than it blew before from the opposite quarter, and comes on with a crash as loud and sudden as the discharge of a cannon.

The storm then pa.s.ses away with a rapidity proportional to its violence, and the weather clears up. But at this critical change of the wind, vessels are exposed to the utmost danger. Thunder and lightning are rare, but earthquakes are frequent. In 1737 these islands suffered severely by an earthquake; a few days after which a cloud or exhalation of fire, coming from the north, pa.s.sed over the whole archipelago, and, as is said, set fire to the woods in many of the islands in the group of the Guaitecas. It is said also that these islands were then covered over with ashes, and that vegetation did not again appear upon them till 1750, thirteen years afterwards.

Though excessively rainy, the climate is not unhealthy; but no people on earth ever had more cause to believe that the ground was cursed to bring forth thorns and thistles, and that man is condemned to eat bread with the sweat of his brow, as there are none who labour so hard and procure so little. They are so poor as to have no iron, or so very little that a family which has an axe guards it like a treasure. Their subst.i.tute for a plough has been already described as made of two crooked branches of a tree, with a sharp point at one end and a round ball at the other, which they force into the ground by means of their breast, protected by a sheeps skin during this rude operation of tillage. Laborious as this mode must be even in a free soil, it is rendered still more so in Chiloe by the myrtle roots which everywhere infest their cultivated land. The little corn they raise can never be left to ripen in the field, on account of the heavy and frequent rains. It must be cut before it ripens, and its sheaves hung up to dry in the sun-shine, if the sun happens then to shine; and otherwise it has to be dried within doors[117]. Bread is consequently a luxury which is reserved for great occasions; and the want of which is supplied by means of excellent potatoes, far better than any that are produced in Peru or Chili.

[Footnote 117: In many parts of Norway, the peasants have to win, or dry, their corn sheaves spitted on wooden spars set upon stakes in the open air; and a n.o.bleman in the western Scots Highlands, has shades in which to dry his corn and hay, where the sheaves are hung upon pegs like herrings in a curing house. Yet bad as is the climate of Chiloe, Iceland and Kamtshatka can grow no corn at all.--E.]

Apples and strawberries are their only fruit, both of which are good and plentiful. The woods produce a plant called _quilineja_, much resembling the _esparto_ or broom of Spain, from which they manufacture their cables; and they make smaller ropes from several leafless parasitical plants which twine round the larger trees like vines or bindwood. A species of wild cane or reed serves to roof their houses, and its leaves serve as hay or fodder for the few horses which are kept in this inhospitable country. In that part of the continent which belongs to this province, there is a tree, called _alerse_ by the Spaniards and _lahual_ by the Indians, which supplies the princ.i.p.al part of their exports, as from 50,000 to 60,000 planks of its wood are sent yearly to Lima. It grows to a large size, and has so even and regular a grain as to admit of being cleft by wedges into boards or planks of any desired thickness, even smoother than could be done by a saw. Neither Agueros nor Falkner had ever seen the tree; but the latter supposed it of the fir tribe from description, and supposes it might thrive in England if its seeds could be brought over, as the country in which it grows is as cold as Britain, and it is reckoned the most valuable timber of that country both for beauty and duration. The bark of this tree makes excellent oak.u.m for that part of ships which is under water, but does not answer when exposed to the sun and air. They export also the wood of a tree named _luma_, for axle-trees and the poles of carriages; of a particular kind of hazle for ship-building, which answers excellently for oars; they likewise make chests and boxes of a species of cypress, and of a tree named _ciruelillo_.

Hams are a principle article among their exports, as hogs are the most numerous animals in Chiloe, where they find their own food in the woods.

Few sheep are kept, yet there are sufficient to furnish wool to give employment to the women. From this they manufacture _ponchos_, two of which, give sufficient work to a woman for a whole year, as they work without a loom. The warp is stretched between a set of pegs, and they weave in the woof with their fingers, yet make the work remarkably fine, strong, and beautiful. They make also a smaller kind, called _bordillos_, which are the ordinary dress of the negroes at Lima.

Besides these, they manufacture blankets and rugs, or coverlets for beds, and linen cloth; which last is woven in looms.

In summer, when the vessels arrive from Callao, San Carlos is like a fair, as this is the only opportunity enjoyed by the Chilotans to get supplied with any thing which is not the produce of their own country, or to dispose of any portion of their surplus produce. As they have no money or circulating medium of commerce, the whole trade is carried on by means of barter, which would leave the islanders at the mercy of the merchants from Lima, but for the interference of the government. On the arrival of the first ship of the season, the cabildo or munic.i.p.al magistracy of San Carlos, fixes a money price at which every thing is to be rated on both sides; which means of regulating the market seems absolutely necessary, as otherwise the Chilotans in buying would be obliged to give any price demanded by the seller, and in selling would have to take any price offered. Still it would be much for their advantage to export their own commodities; but the whole archipelago does not contain a single vessel large enough to make a voyage to Peru or even to Chili. Formerly the soldiers who were in garrison in this province used to receive their pay in clothes and other articles of which they might be in want; but they were ordered by a late regulation to be paid in specie; and if this be continued it must occasion an important change in the commercial situation of Chiloe, by introducing a circulating medium. In San Carlos there is a garrison of regular troops, consisting of 33 artillerymen, 58 dragoons, and 53 infantry. The militia of the archipelago consists of 1569 men, including officers; which have to do garrison duty, but receive no pay or rations, having to serve entirely at their own expence.

The inhabitants of Chiloe consists only of two cla.s.ses of people, Spaniards and Indians, there being no negroes and no mixed breed or mestees. The want of negroes is easily explained by the poverty of the islanders; but we are not told how it happens that the other two races have not intermixed[118]. This is the more remarkable, as a most extraordinary change has taken place in the language of these islands during the latter half of the eighteenth century; insomuch that the language of the Indian inhabitants consists entirely of Spanish words, but all the inflexions, the syntax, and the idiomatic manner of expression are Chilese, that is to say exactly corresponding to the Moluchese dialect of the Chilidugu.

[Footnote 118: Probably the gradations have not been attended to, because the nice discrimination of ranks has not been deemed worth while in so poor a country. Perhaps the mestees and their gradations are all elevated to the rank of Spaniards, or all depressed to that of va.s.sal Chilotans.--E.]

Both men and women of the Spanish population in Chiloe go barefooted, except a few of the princ.i.p.al families who sacrifice convenience to pride; as in a country so continually wet it is safer to go about with naked feet than to have them in wet coverings. The men universally wear the _poncho_. The houses, or hovels rather, are all built of wood, and the crevices are stopped with sheep-skin or rags. The roofs are all thatched; and the climate is so rainy that this soon rots and must be frequently renewed. These dwellings consist of a single room, in which the family, the cattle, and the poultry, are all accommodated. A few of the inhabitants who can afford superior accommodation, have houses divided into several apartments, wainscoted within, and roofed with deal. Being all of wood, fires are frequent occurrences; but as the houses are scattered, the mischief does not extend. Owing to the inclemency of the weather, and the miserable state of the roads, a family in the scattered and solitary situation in which the houses are placed, is often weeks, and sometimes months without any communication with their neighbours. There is neither hospital, physician, nor surgeon in the whole province. A sick person is laid in a bed or a heap of skins near a large fire, and remains there till recovery or death supervene.

The missionaries who visited these islands could find no books from which to teach the children to read, and when they wished them to write there was no paper. Necessity produced a subst.i.tute, and they used wooden boards or tablets, on which they wrote with a substance which could be washed out. Such is the miserable situation of the Spanish inhabitants of the archipelago of Chiloe: yet they dare not leave their wretched birth-place in the hope of bettering their fortunes. The small-pox is. .h.i.therto unknown among them, and those, who have attempted to go elsewhere have been cut off by that loathsome disease. In 1783, the entire population of this dreary province amounted to 23,477, of whom 11,985 were of Spanish descent, and 11,492 Indians.

SECTION XIV.

_Account of the Native Tribes inhabiting the southern extremity of South America [119]._

[Footnote 119: This supplementary section or appendix is added to the second volume of Molina, apparently by the English translator, and is said to be chiefly extracted from the description of Patagonia by Falkner. As the subject is new and interesting, we have been induced to extend somewhat beyond the rigid letter of a collection of voyages and travels. The picture of man in varied circ.u.mstances of savage life, is one of the most important pieces of information to be derived from a collection such as that we have undertaken and where direct means of communicating that intelligence are unattainable, it is surely better to employ such as on be procured than none.--E.]

The poet Ercilla has made the name of the _Araucanians_ so famous that it were improper now to change the appellation. But that denomination properly belongs only to these tribes of the _Picunches_ who inhabit the country of Aranco[120]. The nations or tribes who inhabit the southern extremity of South America are known among themselves by the general names of _Moluches_ and _Puelches_; the former signifying the warlike people, and the latter the eastern people.

[Footnote 120: It will easily be seen in the immediate sequel, that Falkner very improperly uses Picunches as a generic term, as it signifies in a limited manner the northern people. Molina most properly denominates the whole aborigines of Chili on both sides of the Andes, Chilese, as speaking one language, the Chili-dugu; names the tribes of Arauco and those in the same republican confederacy Araucanians; and gives distinct names like Falkner to the allied tribes: the Puelches, Cunchese, Huilliches, Pehuenches, and others. Falkner appears to have chosen to denominate the whole from the tribe whose dialect he first became acquainted with; and some others seem to select the Moluches as the parent tribe.--E.]

The _Moluches_ or warlike people, are divided into the _Picunches_, or people of the north, the _Pehuenches_ or people of the fine country, and _Huilliches_ or people of the south. The Picunches inhabit the mountains from Coquimbo to somewhat below St Jago in Spanish Chili. The Pehuenches border on these to the north, and extend to the parallel of Valdivia.

Both of these are included in history under the name of Araucanians[121]. Their long and obstinate wars with the Spaniards, with the Puelches and with each other, have greatly diminished their numbers; but they have been still more diminished by the havoc which has been made among them by brandy, that curse of the American Indians, for which they have often been known to sell their wives and children, and to engage in savage scenes of civil bloodshed, entailing wide and endless deadly feuds. The small-pox has nearly completed the work of war and drunkenness, and when Falkner left the country they could hardly muster four thousand men among them all.

[Footnote 121: This account differs essentially from the history we have just given from the writings of Molina, an intelligent native of Chili, which cannot be repeated in the short compa.s.s of a note.--E.]

The Huilliches possess the country from Valdivia to the Straits of Magellan. They are divided into four tribes, who are improperly cla.s.sed together as one nation, since three of them are evidently of a different race from the fourth. That branch which reaches to the sea of Chiloe and beyond the lake of Nahuelhuaupi speaks the general language of Chili, differing only from the Pehuenches and Picunches in p.r.o.nunciation. The others speak a mixed language, composed of the Moluche and Tehuel tongue, which latter is the Patagon; and these tribes, from their great stature, are evidently of Patagonian origin. Collectively these three tribes are called the Vuta-Huilliches, or great southern-people; separately they are named Chonos, Poy-yes, and Key-yes. The Chonos inhabit the archipelago of Chili, and the adjoining sh.o.r.es of the continent. The Poy-yes or Peyes possess the coast from lat. 48 to something more than 51 S. The Key-yes or Keyes extend from thence to the Straits of Magellan. The Moluches maintain some flocks of sheep, princ.i.p.ally for the sake of their wool, and cultivate a small quant.i.ty of corn.

The Puelches or eastern people, which name they receive from the natives of Chili, are bounded on the west by the Moluches, on the south by the Straits of Magellan, on the east by the sea, and on the north by the Spaniards. They are subdivided into four tribes, the Taluhets, Diuihets, Chechehets, and Tehuelhets. The _first_ of these or _Taluhets,_ are a wandering race who prowl over the country, from the eastern side of the first _desaguadero_ as far as the lakes of Guanacache in the jurisdiction of San Juan and San Luiz de la Punta. Some of them are also to be found in the jurisdiction of Cordova, on the rivers Segundo Terzo and Quarto. When the Jesuits were expelled from the missions, this tribe could scarcely raise two hundred fighting men, and even in conjunction with all their allies not above five hundred. The _second_ of these tribes, called the _Diuihets,_ is, also a wandering race, which borders westwardly on the Pehuenches, between the lat.i.tudes of 35 and 38 S.

They extend along the rivers Sanguel Colorado and Hueyque, and nearly to the Casuhati on the east. This nation and that of the Taluhets are collectively called Pampas by the Spaniards, whose settlements in Tac.u.man and on the southern sh.o.r.e of the La Plata they have always infested, and sometimes even endangered. The _third_ tribe of the Puelches is named the Chechehets, or eastern-people. The country which they chiefly frequent is situated between the rivers Hueyque and the first desaguadero or Rio Colorado, and from thence to the second desaguadero or Rio Negro. They are a tall and stout wandering race resembling the Patagonians, but speak a quite different language. Their dispositions are friendly and inoffensive, but they are a bold and active enemy when provoked. They are now reduced to a small number by the ravages of the small-pox. The fourth race, called the _Tehuelhets,_ or in their own language the Tehuel-kunnees or southern-men, are the real Patagonians. These are again subdivided into many tribes, all of which and the Chechehets also are called _Serranos_ or mountaineers by the Spaniards. The _Leuvuches,_ who seem to be the head tribe of all the Serranos, live on the Rio Negro. They speak the same language with the Chechehets, but with a small mixture of the Tehuel. This tribe used to keep on good terms with the Spaniards, that they might hunt in security in the pampas or immense plains of Buenos Ayres. About the year 1740, however, they were provoked to war by a most wanton and treacherous attack, and Buenos Ayres would in all probability have been destroyed, had not these injured people been appeased by the Jesuit missionaries.

The Tehuelhets are more numerous than all the other tribes of these parts together, and are the perpetual enemies of the Moluches who are so terrible to the Spaniards, whom they would have long since destroyed if they had been equally well supplied with horses.

To the south of these are the Chulilau-Kunnees, and the Sehuan-Kunnees, who are the most southerly of the equestrian tribes. The country beyond them, all the way to the Straits of Magellan, is possessed by the last of the Tehuel tribes, called Yacana-Kunnees or foot-people, as they have no horses. These are an inoffensive race, who are very swift runners, and subsist mostly on fish. The other Tehuelhets and the Huilliches sometimes attack this tribe for the purpose of making slaves of the prisoners. The ordinary stature of all the Tehuel tribes is from six to seven feet. None of the Puelches either keep sheep or cultivate the ground, but depend altogether on hunting, for which purpose they keep a great number of dogs.

The belief in an infinite number of spirits, good and evil, is common to all the native tribes south of the Rio Plata. From the north of that river to the Orinoco a different language prevails, accompanied by a different form of superst.i.tion The Puelches do not appear to acknowledge any of those numerous spirits as supreme over the rest. The Taluhets and Diuihets call a good spirit _Soychu,_ or he who presides in the land of strong drink. The Tehuelhets call an evil spirit Atskanna Kanatz, the other Puelches denominate the same being Valichu. Huecuvu must be another name for the evil spirit; as the Chechehets give the name of Huecuvu-mapu or the devils-country to a great sandy desert, into which they never venture lest they should be overwhelmed.

Among the northern Indians, each cast or small tribe is distinguished by the name of some animal; as the tribe of the tyger, the lion, the guanaco, the ostrich, and the like. They believe that each tribe had its own particular creator, who resided in some huge cavern under a lake or bill, to which all of that tribe will go after death, to enjoy the felicity of eternal inebriation. These good creative spirits, according to their opinion, having first created the world, made the different races of men and animals, each in their respective cave. To the Indians, they gave the spear, the bow and arrow, and the _lague_ or ball and thong: to the Spaniards fire arms. Animals they allege were likewise created in these subterranean abodes of the spirits, such as were nimblest coming first out. When bulls and cows were coming out last of all, the Indians were frightened at the sight of their horns, and stopped up the mouth of their cavern; but the Spaniards were wiser and let them out. Thus they explain the reason why they had no cattle till after the coming of the Spaniards. In. their opinion, all the animals who have been created in these hidden caverns have not yet emerged. They attribute all the misfortunes or diseases which happen to men or animals to the agency of the evil spirits, who are continually wandering about the world in search of mischief. Their priests or jugglers rather, are each supposed to be attended by two familiar evil spirits, to whom the souls of these jugglers are a.s.sociated after death, and with whom they go about to do mischief. The jugglers are of both s.e.xes; but it seems as if it were thought an occupation beneath the dignity of a man, as the male wizards are compelled to dress like women and are not permitted to marry. The female jugglers are under no such restriction. They are generally chosen while children to be initiated in the mysteries of this profession, from among those who are most effeminate, and such as happen to be subject to epilepsy or St Vitus' dance are considered as especially marked out for the service of the jugglers. It is a very dangerous profession, as these jugglers are frequently put to death when any calamity happens to befal either the chiefs or the people.

No ceremonies are performed in honour of the good spirits. That which is addressed to the evil ones is performed in the following manner. The a.s.sistants a.s.semble in the hut or tent of the wizard, who is concealed in a corner of the tent, where he has a drum, one or two round calabashes with a few small sea sh.e.l.ls in them to make a noise, like the _maraca_ or rattle of the Brazilian sorcerers, and some square bags of painted hide in which he keeps his spells. He begins the ceremony by making a strange noise with his drum and rattle, after which he feigns to fall into a fit, which is supposed to be occasioned by a struggle with the evil spirit who then enters into him. During this fit, he keeps his eye-lids lifted up, distorts his features, foams at the mouth, seems to dislocate his joints, and after many violent and unnatural motions remains stiff and motionless, like a person in a fit of epilepsy. After some time he comes to himself, as if having gained the victory over the evil spirit. He next causes a faint shrill mournful voice to be heard within his tabernacle, as of the evil spirit, who is supposed to acknowledge himself vanquished; after which the wizard, from a kind of tripod, answers all questions that are put to him. It is of little consequence whether these answers turn out true or false, as on all sinister events the fault is laid on the spirit. On these conjuring occasions, the juggler is well paid by those who consult the destinies.

These southern nations make skeletons of their dead, as is done likewise by the native tribes on the Orinoco; but it is singular that this practice does not prevail among the intermediate tribes, that inhabit between the Maranon and Rio Plata. On such occasions, one of the most distinguished women of the tribe performs the ceremony of dissection.

The entrails are burnt, and the bones, after the flesh has been cut off as clean as possible, are buried till the remaining fibres decay. This is the custom of the Molnuches and Pampas, but the Serranos place the bones on a high frame-work of canes or twigs to bleach in the sun and rain. While the dissector is at work on the skeleton, the Indians walk incessantly round the tent, having their faces blackened with soot, dressed in long skin mantles, singing in a mournful voice, and striking the ground with their long spears, to drive away the evil spirits. Some go to condole with the widow and relations of the dead, if these are wealthy enough to reward them for their mourning with bells, beads, and other trinkets; as their customary condolence is not of a nature to be offered gratuitously, for they p.r.i.c.k their arms and legs with thorns, and feel pain at least if not sorrow. The horses belonging to the deceased are slain, that he may ride upon them in the _alhue-mapu,_ or country of the dead; but a few of these are reserved to carry his bones to the place of sepulchre, which is done in grand ceremony within a year after his death. They are then packed up in a hide, and laid on the favourite horse of the deceased, which is adorned with mantles, feathers, and other ornaments and trinkets. In this manner the cavalcade moves to the family burial-place, often three hundred leagues from the place of death, so wide and distant are their wanderings in the boundless plains to the south of the Rio Plata.

The Moluches and Pampas bury in large square pits about six feet deep, the bones being first accurately put into their proper places and tied together, clothed in the best robes of the deceased, and ornamented with beads and feathers, all of which are cleaned or changed once a-year.

These skeletons are placed in a sitting posture in a row, with all the weapons and other valuables belong to each laid beside him. The pit is then covered over with beams or twigs, on which the earth is spread. An old matron of each tribe is appointed to the care of these sepulchres, who has to open them once a-year, to clean and new clothe the skeletons, for which service she is held in great estimation. The bodies of the slain horses are placed round the sepulchre, raised on their feet and supported by stakes. These sepulchres are generally at a small distance from the ordinary habitations of the tribe. Every year they pour upon them some bowls of their first made _chica,_ or fermented liquor, and drink to the happiness of the dead. The Tehuelhets and other southern tribes carry their dead to a great distance from their ordinary dwellings, into the desert near the sea-coast, where they arrange them above ground surrounded by their horses. It is probable that only those Indians who carry their dead to considerable distances reduce them to skeletons, from the following circ.u.mstance. In the voyage of discovery made in 1746 in the St Antonio from Buenos Ayres to the Straits of Magellan, the Jesuits who accompanied the expedition found one of these tents or houses of the dead. On one side six banners of cloth of various colours, each about half a yard square, were set up on high poles fixed in the ground; and on the other side five dead horses stuffed with straw and supported, on stakes. Within the house, there were two _ponchos_ extended, on which lay the bodies of two men and a woman, having the flesh and hair still remaining. On the top of the house was another _poncho,_ rolled up and tied with a coloured woolen band, in which a pole was fixed, from which eight ta.s.sels of wool were suspended.

Widows are obliged to observe a long and rigorous mourning. During a whole year after the death of their husbands, they must keep themselves secluded in the tents, never going out except on the most necessary avocations, and having no communication with any one. In all this time, they must abstain from eating the flesh of horses, cows, ostriches, or guanacos, must never wash their faces which are constantly smeared with soot, and any breach of chast.i.ty during this year of mourning is punished with the death of both parties by the relations of the husband.

The office of _ya,_ or chief, is hereditary, and all the sons of a ya may be chiefs likewise if they can procure followers; but the dignity is of so little consequence that n.o.body almost covets the office. To him belongs the office of protecting his followers, of composing differences, and of delivering up any offender who is to be capitally punished; in all which, cases his will is the sole law. These petty despots are p.r.o.ne to bribery, and will readily sacrifice their va.s.sals and even their kindred for a good bribe. They are esteemed in proportion to their eloquence, and any chief who is not himself eloquent employs an orator to harangue the tribe in his place. When two or more tribes form an alliance against a common enemy, they elect an _apo,_ or commander-in-chief, from the ablest or most celebrated of the _yas,_ or hereditary chiefs. But this office, though nominally elective, has been long hereditary among the southern tribes in the family of Cangapol. The hereditary chiefs, named _yas, elmens_, or _ulmens,_ have no power to take any thing from their va.s.sals, neither can they oblige them to perform any work without payment. On the contrary they must treat them kindly and relieve their wants, or their va.s.sals will put themselves under the protection of a more generous chief. Many of them therefore wave the privilege of their birth, and decline having any va.s.sals, because they are expensive appendages, which yield little profit. But every-one must attach themselves to some chief, or they would undoubtedly be put to death or reduced to slavery.

Every man buys his wife from her relations, with or without her consent, and then takes possession of her as his property. But if the woman happens to have fixed her affections on another, she contrives to wear out the patience of her purchaser, who either turns her away or sells her to the man of her choice, but seldom uses her ill. Widows, and orphan girls are at their own disposal. The yas or ulmens have generally two or three wives; and even the common people may have as many as they please, but wives are dear and they are generally contented with one.

The lives of the women are one continued series of labour. They fetch wood and water; dress the victuals; make, mend, and clean the tents; cure the skins; make them into mantles; spin and manufacture ponchos; pack up every thing for a journey, even the tent poles; load, unload, and arrange the baggage; straiten the girths of the horses; carry the lance before their husbands; and at the end of the journey set up the tents. Sickness or even the most advanced pregnancy give no relief from these labours, and it would be reckoned ignominious in the husbands to give them any a.s.sistance. The women of n.o.ble families may have slaves to relieve them of these labours; but when in want of these, must undergo the same fatigues as the rest. Yet the tribes of the southern extremity of America are not brutal to their women like those in the north, and the marriages only endure during pleasure, though those who have children seldom separate. The husband invariably protects his wife, even when in the wrong; and if detected in any criminal intercourse, all his anger falls upon the paramour, who is cruelly beaten, unless he can atone for the injury by payment. Their jugglers sometimes persuade them to send their wives into the woods, to prost.i.tute themselves to the first person they meet, which is obviously a device for consoling themselves from the celibacy to which they are condemned. The husbands readily obey these directions; but there are women in whom native modesty overpowers superst.i.tion, who refuse obedience to their husbands on such occasions, and bid defiance to the wizard.

The dresses of all these tribes are formed of skins; but all except the _serranos_ or mountaineers, weave mantles or ponchos of woollen yarn, beautifully died of various colours, which when wrapped round the body reach from the neck to the calf of the legs. A similar mantle is tied round the waist and reaches to the ankles. Besides these they have a three-cornered piece of dressed hide, of which two of the corners are tied round the waist, and the third, being pa.s.sed between the legs is fastened behind. The hair is tied up from behind with the points upwards, by means of a woollen band bound many times round the head; but they are fond of wearing hats when they can get them from the Spaniards.

They paint their faces red or black, and wear necklaces and bracelets of sky-blue beads. When on horseback they wear a particular kind of cloaks, having a slit in the middle through which they put their heads, and the skirts hang down to the knees or even sometimes to the feet. Their stockings or boots consist of the skin of a horses thigh and leg, flayed off whole, dried and softened with grease, and rendered supple by wringing. The women wear straw hats in shape like those used by the Chinese. Their defensive armour consists of a helmet of double bulls hide shaped like a broad-brimmed hat; a tunic or bodice of hardened skin three or four fold, which is very heavy, but effectually resists the arrow and spear, and is even said to be musquet proof. When on foot, they have likewise a large unwieldy shield of bulls hide. The Tehuelhets and Huilliches sometimes poison their arrows. Their spears are of cane, four or five yards long, and are pointed with iron; and they use swords when they can procure them from the Spaniards. They use the _laqui_ both in war and hunting; but that used in war has a ball, or weight fastened to one or both ends of the leathern thong instead of a noose. The ball weighs about a pound. When used single, or with only one ball, it is aimed at the head of the enemy, to knock out his brains. With the double _laqui_, having a ball at each end, they can fasten a man to his horse, and effectually entangle both man and beast.

END OF THE HISTORY OF CHILI.

CHAPTER X.

DISCOVERY OF FLORIDA, AND ACCOUNT OF SEVERAL INEFFECTUAL ATTEMPTS TO CONQUER AND SETTLE THAT COUNTRY BY THE SPANIARDS.

INTRODUCTION.

In the preceding Chapters of this _Second Book_, we have given an extended account of the _Discovery_ of AMERICA by COLUMBUS, and of the establishment of the princ.i.p.al Spanish Colonies in the New World, from authentic Original authors, a large portion of which never appeared before in any Collection of Voyages and Travels, and some important parts are now given for the first time in the English language. It is not the object of this work to attempt giving a regular series of the History of America, by inserting the establishments of all the European colonies which have been settled in that quarter of the world, which would occupy more room than can be conveniently allowed in our Collection, and for which we do not possess original doc.u.ments of sufficient interest. In the present chapter it is only meant to give a relation of the Discovery of Florida by Juan Ponce de Leon in 1512; of the disastrous attempt of Panfilo de Narvaez to conquer that country in 1528; and of the romantic exploratory expedition of Ferdinand de Soto in the years 1539-1543: All of which is taken from the General History of America by Herrera, which may be considered as an original and almost contemporary authority.

Antonio de Herrera, who was historiographer to the king of Spain, appears to have composed his work only a short time after the middle of the sixteenth century, as he continues the series of events no farther than 1554; though he incidentally alludes to one transaction which happened in 1572. The authenticity of his work is unquestionable, as the author a.s.sures us that it was composed by royal command, from all the best and most authentic sources of information which the crown could furnish, both in print and ma.n.u.script; and that he had carefully consulted and followed the original papers preserved in the royal archives, and the books, registers, relations, and other papers of the supreme council of the Indies, together with all the best authors on the subject then extant. As a literary curiosity of its kind, we subjoin his list of what were then considered the best writers on the affairs of the New World--Those in Italics have been already inserted into this work.