APPENDIX.

No. I.

Account of the Archipelago of Chiloé, extracted chiefly from the DESCRIPCION HISTORIAL of that Province, by P. F. *Pedro Gonzalez de Agueros.-Madrid, 1791.

THE Province and Archipelago of Chiloé extends from point Capitanes to Quilan, from latitude 41. 30. south to 44. Longitude from the meridian of Teneriffe 302. to 303. 25. On the north it is bounded by the continent, where the Juncos and Rancos, two unconverted nations, possess the country towards Valdivia, to the north-east by the district of Osorno, a city no longer in existence, south by the Archipelago of Guaitecas, east by the Cordillera, which separates it from Patagonia, and west by the Pacific Ocean. The inhabited part of the province extends from Maullin to Huilad, comprising forty leagues of latitude, and from 18. to 20. of longitude, and consisting of twenty-five islands. Isla Grande, Achao, Lemúi, Quegúi, Chelin, Tanqui, Linlin, Llignua, Quenac, Meulin, Caguach, Alaú, Apeáu, Chaulinéc, Vuta-Chauquis, Anigué, Chegniáu, Caucague, Calbuco, Llaicha, Quenu,Tabon, Abtau, Chiduapi, and Kuar.

Isla Grande, being as its name imports the largest of these islands, is the most populous, and the seat of government. Castro, its capital, and the only city in the province, was

founded in 1566, by the marshal D. Marten Ruiz de Gamboa, during the administration of the viceroy Lope Garcia de Castro, in Peru.

The navigation of this Archipelago is very dangerous, from the strength and number of the currents, and nothing can be worse adapted for so perilous a sea than the boats which are used. These piraguas, as they are called, are without keel or deck. The planks of which they are made are laced together with strong withes, and calked with pounded cane leaves, over which the withes are passed: the cross timbers are fastened with tree-nails. In these vessels, so easily overset, the Chilotes, as the inhabitants of these islands are called, venture with a fearlessness which they derive from their being accustomed to danger, not from their skill in avoiding it. Their main sustenance is from the sea, which is generally most bountiful when the earth is least so. The mode of fishing is, I believe, peculiar to themselves. At low water they stake in a large sweep of shore, kuitting the stakes together with basket-work; the flood covers these corrales, or pens, and at the ebb the fish are left there. A sea weed, which they call luche, is also used for food. They dry it, and then, by some unexplained process, form it into loaves or cakes, which are greatly esteemed not only in Chiloé, but even by the wealthy inhabitants of Lima. Seals are more numerous in the adjoining Archipelagos of Guaitecas and Guayneco: none but the Indians eat them, and their constant use of this rank food is said to impart to them so rank an odour, that it is almost necessary to keep to windward when you talk with them. Whales sometimes run themselves aground here, though they are more frequent farther to the south: they have probably retired from a coast where they are persecuted, for ambergris was formerly found in great abundance upon these shores, but is now rarely cast up.

All the islands are mountainous or craggy, a few valleys among the hills, and the flat ground near the shore, are all that are cultivated. On this belt of cultivated ground all the

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settlements in Isla Grande are built, forty-one in number; there is a road across the mountains, but the whole of the interior is waste. The Isle of Quinchau has six settlements, Lemui and Llaicha each four, Calbuco three, the other inhabited islands only one each, and on the continent there are three. These pueblos may better be called parishes than any thing else; for the houses are as scattered as the property: every one lives upon his land, and the church stands near the beach, with a few huts round it, erected merely for the purpose of lodging the parishioners when they come to mass, or any festival. In the whole Archipelago there are but four places where the houses are near enough together to assume the appearance of a village, Chacao, Calbuco, the city of Castro, and the Puerto de San Carlos. This last is the largest and most flourishing. In 1774 it contained sixty houses, and four hundred and sixty-two inhabitants: in 1791 there were above two hundred houses, and the population exceeded eleven hundred. But its prosperity is founded upon the ruin of Chacao; for, till as late as 1768, Chacao was the only port in the Archipelago. This harbour is very dangerous in consequence of rocks and shoals, and is also exposed to the north and north-east. On this account, Don Carlos de Beranger, when governor of the province, recommended that a town should be built at Gacui del Ingles; and accordingly, in 1767, orders were issued by the court of Madrid to that effect. The bay was then newly named Bahia del Rey, and the harbour, Puerto de San Carlos. It is situated in latitude 41. 57. south. Ships are frequently wrecked at the entrance, but this is entirely occasioned by the tremendous hurricanes which come on suddenly, and completely hide the land. The port itself is good San Carlos is now the seat of government.

It is difficult to understand what motives could have induced the Spaniards to settle in this miserable country, when there was the whole of this side of South America open to them. Where there is gold or silver to be found, men will B b

VOL. II.

settle, however barren and unfavourable the country-where wealth is to be acquired by trade they will herd together, no matter how pestilential the situation. But Chiloé offers nothing to avarice, and only a bare and comfortless subsistence to industry. Perhaps the main part of the first settlers were from Chili, families who had escaped from the Araucanos, who wanted means to remove themselves to Peru, or to subsist if they had got there, and were glad therefore of any place of rest and security. There is, I believe, no other colony in the world to which Europeans have carried so few of their arts and comforts; nor indeed have they ever attempted to colonize against so many natural disadvantages, except in two instances, the project of Philip II. to fortify the straits of Magalhaens, and the unaccountable settlements of the Norwegians in Greenland. It frequently rains during a whole moon without intermission, and this rain is 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, which is their midsummer, they have often times long and heavy rains. During the height of the storm, if the clouds open to the south, however small may be this opening, fine weather succeeds; but first the wind comes suddenly from the south, with even greater violence than it had blown before from the opposite quarter, and with a sound as sudden and as loud as the discharge of cannon. Vessels are never in more danger than during these tremendous changes; the storm passes with rapidity proportioned to its violence, and then the weather clears. Thunder and lightning are seldom perceived here. The islands suffered severely by an earthquake in 1737, and a few days afterwards, it is said, that an exhalation or cloud of fire, coming from the north, passed over the whole Archipelago, and set fire to the woods in many of the islands of Guaitecas. It is said also, that those islands were covered with ashes, and that vegetation did not begin to appear upon them again till the year 1750.

Notwithstanding the quantity of rain which falls, the climate is not unhealthy; but never had people more cause to believe literally that the ground was cursed to bring forth thorns and thistles, and that it is the punishment of man to eat bread with the sweat of his brow than these poor Chilotes. They are proofs of the authenticity of this anathema, says, their historian; for perhaps there are no other people in the world who labour so hard, and procure so little. Such is their poverty, that there is no iron among them, or at least so little, that the family which happens to possess an axe, lays it by as a treasure. Their substitute for the plough consists in two separate stakes, about seven or eight feet long: one end is sharp, the other inserted in a round ball. These they take one in each hand, fix the point against the ground, and force the ends on with the body, which is protected with a sheepskin during this rude exertion. Laborious as this mode must needs be, even in the lightest soil, it is rendered still more so by the myrtle-roots which overspread the open country. The little corn which is raised can never be left to ripen, because of the rains; they cut it before it is ripe, and hang its sheaves in the sunshine, if the sun happens to shine, otherwise they let it dry within doors. Bread is of course a delicacy reserved for great occasions; and so little is the ordinary stock of corn, that many families let it remain in the ear till it is wanted for use. Good potatoes supply the want of bread, and Chiloé produces better than any part of Peru.

Apples and strawberries are their only fruit; these are good, and plentiful. The woods produce a plant called quilineja, much resembling the esparte of Spain, from which they manufacture their cables, and with various leafless parasitic plants, which supply the want of smaller cordage. A species of wild cane serves to roof their houses, and its leaves are the fodder of the few horses which are kept. A tree, which the Spaniards call alerse, and the Indians lahual, grows abundantly upon that part of the continent which is included in this province, and