666 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 102 



Valley in the district of Chile. The first village in this province is 

 Tocompsi, as one goes from the Province of Los Lipes ; then comes 

 the village of San Pedro de Chiochio, which was converted by Capt, 

 Pedro Alvarez Holguin; from there it is 28 leagues to the port of 

 Cobija on the Pacific ; on that coast there are the ports of Tocopilla, 

 El Morro, and others. 



1749. The Corregidor of this province resides in Atacama la 

 Grande, which is 14 leagues from Chiochio in a straight line toward 

 Chile. From here to the village of Toconado in the same valley it 

 is 6 leagues, and so flat that the one village can be seen from the 

 other. Tocompsi is 7 leagues toward Chile from Toconado, and is 

 the last in this province. In its valleys they raise wheat, corn, 

 algarrobas, potatoes, and grapes, cultivated by the Indians, and there 

 are besides orchards of Spanish and native fruit trees in the tiny 

 depressions in the midst of those uninhabitable sandy wastes, like 

 the Catarbe Valley which is very cool and delightful, and all under 

 irrigation ; that of Toconado, Tocompsi and others. 



1750. On the coast of this province there are no valleys, for the 

 water in the rivers does not reach the coast, being absorbed in those 

 desert wastes of sand. The Indians along the coast have no food 

 crops ; they are fishermen and live exclusively on fish and shellfish 

 of various kinds, which are excellent ; there are oyster beds there, 

 from which they get food also. These oysters grow many fine pearls, 

 but they are not gathered because the district is so remote and labor 

 so scarce. On this coast there is a lofty headland on which the sea 

 beats and in which there are veins of green stone ; when ground 

 up and drunk, this is a potent remedy for urinary troubles and it 

 consumes bladder stones. 



1751. On most occasions when enemy ships have come through 

 the Straits into this sea and run up the coast within sight of land, 

 they have reached this region ; but since its Indians have no habita- 

 tions except the shelters they make out of sea lions' skins for shade 

 from the intensity of the sun, and which they leave when they want 

 to go elsewhere in their search for shellfish which is their chief 

 sustenance, the enemy have not stayed or even landed there. 



1752. The Indians on this coast dress in sea lions' skins and make 

 their boats or rafts out of them, on two skins blown up with air ; 

 they go out to sea on them to fish, for ofif that coast there are extensive 

 fisheries of conger eels, spotted dogfish (tollos), lisas, dorados, arma- 

 dos, bagres, jureles, tunnies, octopi, and many other kinds of fish, 

 which they salt down and which are carried by great troops of 

 llamas to Potosi, Chuquisaca, Lipes, and all those provinces of the 



