furnishes the main branch of their external commerce. From 50 to 60,000 planks are annually sent to Lima. The wood grows to a great size, and its grain is so even that it is cleft with wedges into boards of any thickness, even better and smoother than could be done by the saw. Neither Agueros nor Falkner had ever seen the tree; the latter supposed it, from the description which he had heard, to be of the fir tribe. If plants or seeds of this tree, he says, were brought over into England, it is very probable they would thrive here, the climate being as cold as in the country where it grows: and it is there reckoned to be the most valuable timber they have, both for its beauty and duration. The bark of the alerse makes excellent oakum for that part of a ship which is under water, but must not be used when it would be exposed to the sun and air.

They export also the wood of the luma for axle-trees and poles of coaches, of the hazle for ship-building, and especially for oars, and chests and boxes of cypress and of ciruelillo. Hams form a main article of export, pigs being the only animals which abound in this Archipelago, because they keep themselves. Few sheep are kept, enough however to furnish employment for the women with their wool. They make the poncho, two of which are a full year's work for a woman, working as they do without a loom; the warp is stretched and fastened with pegs, and they then weave with their fingers, and with this painful industry what they make is remarkably fine, strong, and beautiful. They make also a smaller kind of poncho called bordillos, which are the ordinary dress of the negroes at Lima; blankets and rugs, which are curiously wrought in colours. Linen they weave in a loom.

During their summer, when the vessels from Callao arrive, San Carlos is like a fair. This is the only opportunity the Chilotes have of supplying themselves with any thing except what they produce themselves, and their only opportunity also of disposing of their surplus produce. There is no cir

culating medium, and trade is therefore carried on by barter. This would leave the islanders at the mercy of the Lima mèrchants, if it were not for the interference of government. When the first ship arrives, the cabildo, or municipality of San Carlos, fixes the price in money at which every thing shall be rated. It is obvious that such an interference is absolutely necessary, the Chilotes being obliged, when they bought, to pay what the seller chose to demand, and when they sold, to take what the purchaser chose to give. Still it would materially benefit them if they could export their goods them selves; but the whole Archipelago does not contain one vessel large enough for a voyage to the ports of Peru, or even Chili. The soldiers who were formerly paid in clothes and other effects, are, by a late regulation, that is about eighteen or twenty years ago, to be paid in specie. If this be continued, it must have produced an important change in Chiloé. The militia of the Archipelago consists of 1,569 men, including officers: they do garrison duty, but receive no pay, nor even ratios. San Carlos has a garrison of regular troops, consisting of 33 artillerymen, 53 dragoons, and 53 infantry.

There are but two classes of people in Chiloé, Spaniards and Indians, no negroes, and no mixed breed. Why there are no negroes is explained by the poverty of the islanders how it has happened that the other races have not intermingled is not explained. This is the more remarkable, because nowhere, perhaps, has so extraordinary a change in language taken place as among these islands; during the last half century that of the Indian inhabitants has changed: they now speak a language of which the words are Spanish, but all the inflections, syntax, and idioms, Chilese, that is to say,* Moluche.

The Spaniards, both men and women, go barefoot, except

*This very remarkable fact is noticed by Hervas in his great work upon languages, Agueros has overlooked it.

a few of the principal families, who sacrifice convenience to pride; for in a country so continually wet, it is safer to expose the feet than to cover them. The men usually wear the poncho instead of the cloak. Their houses, or rather hovels, are built of wood, and the crevices stopped with pieces of sheep-skin, and with rags; the roofs are of thatch, which rots so soon in that rainy climate, that it must frequently be renewed. They consist of a single room, in which the family, the poultry, and whatever cattle they happen to possess, are equally accomodated. The few who can afford it build better houses, but still of wood, divide them into several apartments, wainscot them within, and roof them with planks. Fires are very frequent, but as the houses are scattered, the mischief does not extend.

Such is the inclemency of the weather, and such the state of the roads, that a family in one of these solitary habitations is often weeks, and sometimes months, without any communication with their neighbours. There is neither hospital, phy sician, nor physic, in the Archipelago. A sick person is laid upon a bed, or upon a heap of skins, close to a large fire, and there they let him lie. The missionaries could find no books to teach the children to read; and when they would have taught them to write, there was no paper. Necessity produced a substitute: they made wooden tablets, which, like slates, could be washed clean when they were filled. Such is the miser. able situation of the Spaniards in Chiloé, they dare not leave their wretched birth-place in the hope of bettering their fortunes; for those who have attempted it have been cut off by the small-pox, a disease unknown in the Archipelago. The whole population, in 1783, amounted to 23,477, of whom 11,985 were Spaniards.-E. E.

APPENDIX.

No. II,

Account of the Native Tribes who inhabit the Southern Extre- . mity of South America, extracted chiefly from Falkner's Description of Patagonia.

ERCILLA has made the name of Araucano so celebrated, that it must not be changed. But it properly belongs only to those hordes of the Picunches who possessed the country of Arauco.

The nations who inhabit this extremity of South America are known among themselves by the general names of Moluches and Puelches. The Moluches, or warlike people, as the word implies, are divided into the Picuuches, or people of the north, Pehuenches, people of the fine country, and Huilliches, people of the south. The first of these inhabit the mountains from Coquimbo to somewhat below Santiago, in Chili. The second border upon them to the north, and extend from the parallel of Valdivia to 35 degrees south latitude. Both these are included in history under the name of Araucanos. The long and obstinate wars with the Spaniards, with the Puelches, and with one another, have greatly diminished their numbers; but they have been still more diminished by the havoc which brandy has made among them. For this accursed liquor, as it may well be called by the American

Indians, they have been known to sell their wives and children? the madness which it produces occasions bloodshed; and the deaths which then happen bring on deadly feuds. The small-pox has nearly completed the work of drunkenness and of war; and when Falkner left the country they were not able to muster four thousand men among them all.

The Huilliches possess the country from Valdivia to the straits of Magalhaens. They are subdivided into four nations, who are improperly classed under one general appellation, inasmuch as three of them are evidently a different race from the fourth. That branch which reaches to the sea of Chiloé, and beyond the lake of Nahuelhuaupi, speaks the general? language of Chili, differing only from the Pehuenches and Picunches in pronunciation. The others speak a mixed lan guage of the Moluche and Tehuel (or Patagonian) tongue, and are, by their greater stature, manifestly of Patagonian origin. Collectively they are called the Vuta, or Great Huilliches; separately, Chonos, who inhabit the Archipelago of Chiloé, and its adjoining shores. Poy-yus, or Peyes, who possess the coast from latitude 48. to something more than 51. and Keyyus, or Keyes, who extend from thence to the Straits. The Moluches maintain some flocks of sheep for their wool, and sow a small quantity of corn,

The Puelches, or eastern people, so called by those of Chili, are bounded on the west by the Moluches, south by the Straits, east by the sea, and north by the Spaniards. They are subdivided into four tribes: 1. The Taluhets, a wandering race, who prowl over the country from the east side of the first Desaguadero, as far as the lakes of Guanacache, in the jurisdiction of St. Juan and St. Luiz de la Punta. There are some also in the jurisdiction of Cordova, on the rivers Quarto, Ter- * cero, and Segundo. When the Jesuits were expelled they could scarcely raise two hundred fighting men of their own nation, and not above five hundred with all their allies. 2. The Diuihets, also a wandering race, who border west,