276 CHILOE. [chap. xiii. 



canic. The line of the Andes is not, in this neighbourhood, 

 nearly so elevated as in Chile ; neither does it appear to form so 

 perfect a barrier between the regions of the earth. This great 

 range, although running in a straight north and south line, 

 owing to an optical deception, always appeared more or less 

 curved ; for the lines drawn from each peak to the beholder's 

 eye, necessarily converged like the radii of a semicircle, and as 

 it was not possible (owing to the clearness of the atmosphere and 

 the absence of all intermediate objects) to judge how far distant 

 the farthest peaks were off, they appeared to stand in a fiattish 

 semicircle. 



Landing at midday, we saw a family of pure Indian extraction. 

 The father was singularly like York Minster ; and some of the 

 younger boys, with their ruddy complexions, might have been 

 mistaken for Pampas Indians. Everything I have seen, con- 

 vinces me of the close connexion of the different American tribes, 

 who nevertheless speak distinct languages. This party could 

 muster but little Spanish, and talked to each other in their own 

 tongue. It is a pleasant thing to see the aborigines advanced to 

 the same degree of civilization, however low that may be, which 

 their white conquerors have attained. More to the south we saw 

 many pure Indians: indeed, all the inhabitants of some of the 

 islets retain their Indian surnames. In the census of 1832, there 

 were in Chiloe and its dependencies forty -two thousand souls : 

 the greater number of these appear to be of mixed blood. Eleven 

 thousand retain their Indian surnames, but it is probable that 

 not nearly all of these are of a pure breed. Their manner of life 

 is the same with that of the other poor inhabitants, and they are 

 all Christians ; but it is said that they yet retain some strange 

 superstitious ceremonies, and that they pretend to hold commu- 

 nication with the devil in certain caves. Formerly, every one 

 convicted of this offence was sent to the Inquisition at Lima. 

 Many of the inhabitants who are not included in the eleven 

 thousand with Indian surnames, cannot be distinguished by their 

 appearance from Indians. Gomez, the governor of Lemuy, is 

 descended from noblemen of Spain on both sides ; but by con- 

 stant intermarriages with the natives the present man is an 

 Indian. On the other hand, the governor of Quinchao boasts 

 much of his purely kept Spanish blood. 



