746 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 102 



it is a level road but wooded and forest country, and with one large 

 river to cross. 



1974. Osorno was founded by Don Garcia de Mendoza in the year 

 1559 after he had pacified the whole country and put down all the 

 rebels. It is in the same latitude as the town of Madrid, 40°26', 

 but S., while Madrid is N., of the Equator. He colonized it with 

 many nobles and distinguished gentlemen, who had helped him subdue 

 the country. In its territory very large amounts of high-grade gold 

 were extracted, for it is all paved with gold ore ; it had a large native 

 population, which, with its fertility and the rapid increase of its 

 cattle, made it very wealthy. It had a parish church, Dominican and 

 Franciscan convents, and one of Santa Clara nuns. It was at a 

 distance from the sea, near the Cordillera. 



1975. Its neighborhood consisted of fine fertile land, which pro- 

 duced abundance of everything — all kinds of Spanish fruit and many 

 native varieties, filbert trees, very large pine groves (pinales), with 

 huge cones and nuts (pinones) common in those parts and like big 

 acorns, and other trees with valuable and highly prized timber. It 

 was the last city on the mainland in the Kingdom of Chile this side 

 of the Straits of Magellan. From Osorno to the city of Castro, 

 which is built on the islands of the Chiloe Archipelago to the WSW., 

 it is 48 leagues, 30 by land and 18 by water. That was the district 

 held by the Diocese of La Imperial before the death of Gov. Martin 

 Garcia de Loyola, which was the origin and cause of the Indian 

 uprising in that Kingdom and the complete ruin and destruction of 

 the cities of that Kingdom. 



The wealthy city of Osorno kept growing in numbers and importance 

 on account of the richness and fertility of its territory. There were 

 woolen cloth mills in the city and other fine products were turned 

 out. Two leagues out of the city there was a beautiful lake, called 

 Laguna de Gaeta, full of delicious fish with which the city was 

 admirably supplied ; on it was a great variety of waterfowl — ducks, 

 geese, herons, egrets, widgeons, and many others. The port utilized 

 by the city was that of Las Canoas, called also that of Osorno. There 

 was abundance of wild hogs, fallow deer, deer, guanacos, vicufias, 

 tarugas, ostriches, and many others of various sorts. 



Chapter XIII 



Of the District of the Kingdom of Chile, Its Harbors, and the 

 Distances in Leagues along the Coast. 



1976. The Kingdom of Chile stretches along the Pacific Coast, 

 starting at the end of the Kingdom of Peru with the Copiapo Valley, 



i 



