1834.] POVERTY OF THE INDIANS. 279 



scarcely worth anything, but their eagerness for tobacco Mas 

 something quite extraordinary. After tobacco, indigo came next 

 in value ; then capsicum, old clothes, and gunpowder. The latter 

 article was required for a very innocent purpose : each parish has 

 a public musket, and the gunpowder was wanted for making a 

 noise on their saint or feast days. 



The people here live chiefly on shell-fish and potatoes. At 

 certain seasons they catch also, in " corrales," or hedges under 

 water, many fish which are left on the mud-banks as the tide 

 falls. They occasionally possess fowls, sheep, goats, pigs, horses, 

 and cattle ; the order in which they are here mentioned, ex- 

 pressing their respective numbers. I never saw anything more 

 obliging and humble than the manners of these people. They 

 generally began with stating, that they were poor natives of the 

 place, and not Spaniards, and that they were in sad want of 

 tobacco and other comforts. At Cavlen, the most southern 

 island, the sailors bought with a stick of tobacco, of the value of 

 three-halfpence, two fowls, one of which, the Indian stated, had 

 skin between its toes, and turned out to be a fine duck ; and with 

 some cotton handkerchiefs, worth three shillings, three sheep 

 and a large bunch of onions were procured. The yawl at this 

 place was anchored some way from the shore, and we had fears 

 for her safety from robbers during the night. Our pilot, Mr. 

 Douglas, accordingly told the constable of the district that we 

 always placed sentinels with loaded arms, and not understanding 

 Spanish, if we saw any person in the dark, we should assuredly 

 shoot him. The constable, with much humility, agreed to the 

 perfect propriety of this arrangement, and promised us that no 

 one should stir out of his house during- that night. 



During the four succeeding days we continued sailing south- 

 ward. The general features of the country remained the same, 

 but it was much less thickly inhabited. On the large island of 

 Tanqui there was scarcely one cleared spot, the trees on every 

 side extending their branches over the sea-beach. I one day 

 noticed, growing on the sandstone cliffs, some very fine plants of 

 the panke (Gunnera scabra), which somewhat resembles the 

 rhubarb on a gigantic scale. The inhabitants eat the stalks, 

 which are subacid, and tan leather with the roots, and prepare a 

 black dye from them. The leaf is nearly circular, but deeply 



