rated for the public welfare. The Apo-Ulmenes, or Arch-Ulmenes, govern the provinces under their respective Toquis. The Ulmenes, who are the prefects of the regues, or counties, are dependant upon the Apo-Ulmenes. This dependance, however, is confined almost entirely to military affairs. Although the Ulmenes are the lowest in the scale of the Araucanian aristocracy, the superior ranks, generally speaking, are comprehended under the same title, which is equivalent to that of Cacique.

The discriminative badge of the Toqui is a species of battle-axe, made of porphyry or marble. The Apo-Ulmenes, and the Ulmenes, carry staves with silver heads, but the first by way of distinction have a ring of the same metal around the middle of their staves. All these dignities are hereditary in the male line, and proceed in the order of primogeniture. Thus have the dukes, the counts, and marquisses of the military aristocracy of the north been established, from time immemorial, under different names, in a corner of South America.

With its resemblance to the feudal system, this government contains also almost all its defects. The Toqui possesses but the shadow of sovereign authority. The triple power that constitutes it, is vested in the great body of the nobility, who decide every important question;. in the manner of the ancient Germans, in a ge

neral diet, which is called Butacoyog or Aucacoyog, the great council, or council of the Araucanians. This assembly is usually held in some large plain, where they combine the pleasures of the table with their public deliberations.

Their code of laws, which is traditionary, is denominated Admapu, that is to say, the customs of the country. In reality these laws are nothing more than primordial usages, or tacit conventions that have been established among them, as was originally the case with almost all the laws of other nations; they have, consequently, all the defects peculiar to such systems, since, as they are not written, they can neither be very compendious, nor made sufficiently public.

The clearest and most explicit of their political and fundamental laws are those that regulate the limits of each authority; the order of succession in the Toquiates and in the Ulminates, the confederation of the four Tetrarchates, the choice and the power of the commanders in chief in time of war, and the right of convoking the general diets, which is the privilege of the Toquis; all these laws have for their object the preservation of liberty and the established form of government. According to them, two or more states cannot be held under the rule of the same chief. Whenever the male branch of the reigning family becomes extinct, the vassals recover their natural right of electing their own chief

from that family which is most pleasing to them. But before he is installed, he must be presented to the Toqui of their Uthalmapu, who gives notice of his election, in order that the new chief may be acknowledged and respected by all in that quality.

The subjects are not, as under the feudal government, liable to a levy, or to any kind of personal service, except in time of war. Neither are they obliged to pay any contributions to their chiefs, who must subsist themselves by means of their own property. They respect them, however, as their superiors, or rather as the first among their equals; they also attend to their decisions, and escort them whenever they go out of the state. These chiefs, elated with their authority, would gladly extend its limits, and govern as absolute masters; but the people, who cannot endure despotism, oppose their pretensions, and compel them to keep within the bounds prescribed by their customs.

The civil laws of a society whose manners are simple, and interests but little complicated, cannot be very numerous. The Araucanians have but a few; these, however, would be sufficient for their state of life, if they were more respected and less arbitrary. Their system of criminal jurisprudence, in a particular manner, is very imperfect. The offences that are deemed deserving of capital punishment are, treachery,

intentional homicide, adultery, the robbery of any valuable article, and witchcraft. Nevertheless, those found guilty of homicide can screen themselves from punishment by a composition with the relations of the murdered. Husbands and fathers are not subject to any punishment for killing their wives or children, as they are declared, by their laws, to be the natural masters of their lives. Those accused of sorcery, a crime only known in countries involved in ignorance, are first tortured by fire, in order to make them discover their accomplices, and then stabbed with daggers.

Other crimes of less importance are punished by retaliation, which is much in use among them, under the name of thaulonco. Justice is administered in a tumultuous and irregular manner, and without any of those preliminary formalities, for the most part useless, that are observed among civilized nations. The criminal who is convicted of a capital offence, is immediately put to death, according to the military custom, without first being suffered to rot in prison, a mode of confinement unknown to the Araucanians. It was, however, a little before my leaving Chili, introduced into Tucapel, the seat of the government of Lauquen-mapu, by Cathicura, the Toqui of that district; but, I know not the success of this experiment, which was at first very ill received by his subjects.

The Ulmenes are the lawful judges of their vassals, and for this reason their authority is less precarious. The unconquerable pride of this people prevents them from adopting the wise measures of public justice; they alone possess some general and vague ideas upon the principles of political union, whence the executive power being without force, distributive justice is ill administered, or entirely abandoned to the caprice of individuals. The injured family often assumes the right of pursuing the aggressor or his relations, and of punishing them. From this abuse are derived the denominations and distinctions, so much used in their jurisprudence, of genguerin, genguman, genla, &c. denoting the principal connections of the aggressor, of the injured, or the deceased, who are supposed to be authorized, by the laws of nature, to support by force the rights of their relatives.

A system of judicial proceeding so irregular, and apparently so incompatible with the existence of any kind of civil society, becomes the constant source of disorders entirely hostile to the primary object of all good government, public and private security. When those who are at enmity have a considerable number of adherents, they mutually make incursions upon each others possessions, where they destroy or burn all that they cannot carry off. These private quarrels, called malocas, resemble much the feuds of the ancient