LXXXIX. rent periods, the day as well as the year was divided into BOOK twelve parts, each of which was equivalent to two of our hours. Such a method was not peculiar to the Araucanians, it is used by the Chinese and the natives of Japan. They observed the planets;* gau, the term by which they were called, was a derivative of the verb gaun, to wash. They held on this subject the same opinions as the ancients, and supposed that these bodies hastened at their setting to plunge themselves into the ocean. An eclipse of the sun or moon was said to be the death of one of them, which corresponds with the defectus solis aut lunæ of the Romans. The Araucanians evinced much Games. ingenuity in their games and amusements. Leibnitz has remarked that men have never given greater proof of talent than in the invention of games. If the German philosopher be correct, we must entertain no unfavourable opinion of this nation; it is certain chess was known to them long before the first invasion of the Spaniards.t But they delighted most in gymnastic exercises, for by them they were inflamed by a love of war. During peace their time was spent in these diversions; the peuco represented the siege of a fortress, and the palican differed little from the mock fight of the Greeks. The inhabitants of different districts met frequently for this purpose; such amusements were not considered useless, they had improved the natives in the military art. Polygamy was lawful among the Araucanians, some of Polygamy. them could form a correct notion of a man's fortune from the number of his wives. But the first wife was treated with great respect by all the others; they acknowledged her to be their superior; she was entitled to precedence and other marks of distinction, not without their charms even to women in a savage state. The marriage ceremony was very simple, it consisted merely in carrying off the bride, who generally feigned reluctance. This method * Tableau civil et moral des Araucans, trad. du Viajero universal, Annales des Voyages, XVI, p. 100. + Molina. The Spheromachia. VOL. V. 60 LXXXIX. Trade. BOOK was considered, both by the Araucanians and the negrocs, as an essential preliminary to matrimony. Each wife was obliged to present daily to her husband, a dish prepared with her own hands; hence there were as many fires in the Araucanian houses as female inhabitants. How many fires have you? was a polite way of asking a man the number of his wives. Besides other presents, the husband received every year a ponchos or embroidered cloak. The women paid great attention to the cleanliness of their persons. The trade which this people carried on, was very limited, money was lately introduced amongst them; before that time they exchanged one commodity for another, and the proportionate value of different articles was ascertained by a conventional tariff; a practice analogous to that of the Greeks in the time of Homer. Thus the value of an ordinary horse was considered as unity, and that of an ox as two. Their commerce with the Spaniards was confined to ponchos and cattle, which were bartered for wine and the merchandise of Europe. The exactness with which the Araucanians fulfilled their contracts has been commended by the colonists. Tuyu. The The province of Tuyu is situated to the south of Buenos Ayres, on the other side of the Andes and between the two rivers Saladillo and Hucuque. It is covered with marshes and small lakes. Cusahati, the most remarkable mountain in the country, has been seen by mariners at the distance of twenty leagues from the shore. The Puelches Puelches. inhabit a district in the neighbourhood of that mountain. Falconer tells us that he was acquainted with a cacique there, who was upwards of seven feet, and adds that the Puelches had colonies on the Straits of Magellan. It is Pampas. probable that the Pampas or deserts of America extend from Tucuman to the 40th degree of south latitude. Two rivers, the Colorado and the Negro, rise at the base of the Chilian Andes and flow through these vast and unknown regions. A series of lakes and running waters, extending in a parallel direction to the mountains, receives the waters of the two streams near their source. Some Deserta. savage tribes, descended from the Puelches, wander in the BOOK Pampas. Not long after the Spanish breed of horses was LXXXIX. known in their country, many became as expert horsemen as the Tartars; others, neglecting the advantages which these animals afforded them, retain still their ancient customs. According to the Spanish maps, Comarca Deserta, or Comarca the desert province, extends from the 40th to the 45th degree of south latitude; its coast only has as yet been explored. The bays of Anegada, Camarones, and St. George, afford good anchorage for ships, but there are neither inhabitants, wood, nor fresh water in the adjacent country; a few aquatic birds and sea wolves remain unmolested on these dismal shores. Shrubs and different plants appear on the lands near Country of Cape Blanco, which are surrounded by immense plains, the Cesares impregnated with salt. If there be such a people as the Cesares, we must look for them in these unfrequented regions, at no great distance perhaps from the sources of the Camerones or Gallego. "Their country," says Father Feuillée, "is fertile, and pleasantly situated, enclosed on one side by the Cordilleras, and bounded on the west by a large and rapid river, which separates it from Araucania. The greater number of the Cesares are descended from the sailors belonging to three Spanish vessels, who, worn out by the fatigues of a long voyage, revolted and fled for shelter to that retired region. No stranger is ever permitted to enter their territory." But Falconer, who denies the existence of that people, has brought forward strong arguments in support of his opinion.* The Tehuels The report that there is a nation in these parts, descended from Europeans, or the remains of shipwrecks, is, I verily believe, entirely false, and is occasioned by misunderstanding the accounts of the Indians. For if they be asked in Chili concerning any inland settlement of Spaniards, they give an account of towns and white people, meaning Buenos Ayres, &c.; not having the least idea that the inhabitants of these two distant countries are known to each other. Upon my questioning the Indians on this subject, I found my conjecture to be right; and they acknowledged, upon my naming Chiloe and Valdivia, (at which they seemed amazed,) that these were the places which they had mentioned wwww BOOK inhabit the interior of the country between the Comarca LXXXIX. Deserta and the Andes. Falconer thinks that they are a tribe of the Puelches, because many of them are very tall, he concludes that they make excursions as far as the Straits of Magellan, and that they are the same people whom travellers have described under the name of Patagonians. The Tehuels are peaceable and humane; some of their customs are singular. They carry, for instance, the bones of their relatives along the sea-shore to the desert, and deposit them in cemeteries amidst the skeletons of horses. That practice, however, cannot be of ancient orgin, for the horse was unknown to all the wandering tribes of America before the Patagonia, arrival of the Spaniards. Patagonia is situated at the southern extremity of America beyond the 46th degree of latitude. Although we can give no additional *information concerning its inhabitants, still so much has been said of them, that we cannot pass them over in silence. The following account is taken from the voyage of Fernandes de Magalhanes :-"The fleet had been two months at port San Julian, without our having an opportunity of seeing any of the natives. One day, when it was least expected, a person of gigantic stature appeared on the shore. He sang, danced, and sprinkled dust on his forehead; under the description of European settlements. What farther makes this settlement of the Cesares to be altogether incredible, is the moral impossibility that even two or three hundred Europeans, without having any communication with a civilized country, could penetrate through so many warlike and numerous nations, and maintain themselves as a separate republic, in a country which produces nothing spontaneously, and where the inhabitants live only by hunting; and all this for the space of two hundred years, (as the story is told) without being extirpated either by being killed, or made slaves by the Indians, or without losing all European appearances by intermarrying with them. And, besides, there is not a foot of all this continent that the wandering nations do not ramble over every year; to bury the dry bones of the dead and to look for salt. Their caciques and others of the greatest repute for truth amongst them, have often protested to me that there are no white people in all those parts, except such as are known to all Europe, as in Chili, Buenos Ayres, Chiloe, Mendoza, &c.-Falconer's Description of Patagonia. a sailor was sent to land, with orders to imitate his BOOK gestures, which were considered signals of peace. The LXXXIX. seaman performed his part so well that the giant accompanied him to the commander's vessel. He pointed to the sky, wishing to inquire if the Spaniards had descended from heaven. The sailors' heads did not come up to his waist."* Herrara's description of these people is not so marvellous as that of Pigafetta. He says that the least person amongst them was taller than any man in Castille. The origin of their name has been disputed. Magalhanes called them Pata-gones, because their shoes resembled the hoof of the guanaco. Others insist that their ordinary stature exceeded seven feet, and for that reason they were termed HTaynaves, or men of five cubits. Mr. Thomas Cavendish crossed the Straits of Magellan in the year 1592; having observed the dead bodies of two Patagonians, he measured their foot marks in the shore, and found them four times larger than his own. Three of his men, while sailing in a boat, were nearly put to death by the rocks which the natives threw into the sea. In short, his whole account puts one more in mind of the fable of Polyphemus than of an historical narrative. The relation of Sarmiento, a Spanish corsair, is less liable to objection. "The Indian that my sailors had taken" says he, "appeared to be taller than the rest of the natives; he recalled to my imagination the poetical description of the Cyclops. The other savages were strong and well made, but their height did not exceed three varas." Hawkins cautions navigators to beware of the natives on the coast of Magellan. "They are cruel and treacherous, and of so lofty a stature, that several voyagers have called them giants. Wood and Narbo * Pigafetta's account of Magellan's voyages. + Collection of voyages by Purchass, vol. IV. book VI. Histoire de la conqueste des Moluques, par Argensola. The vara is a measure that varies in different parts of Spain; in some places it is less than two feet and a half. |