74 PARISIAN FASHIONS IN CHILI. 
with horses, which, as they are skilful riders, 
enable them to execute their predatory expedi- 
tions with a rapidity that renders them almost 
always successful. A few of them have settled 
in the valleys, at the foot of the mountains, and 
adopted the Christian religion, without however 
amalgamating with the Spaniards, or losing 
their freedom. 
The lower class of the present inhabitants of 
Chili is a mixed race, sprung from the union of 
Spaniards with Araucanian women: they are 
well grown, of a dark brown complexion, and 
have a lively red in their cheeks. The men are 
all good riders, and have brought to great per- 
fection the art of catching wild animals with 
the /asso. The upper classes have preserved 
their Spanish blood pure: they are also very 
well formed, the females nearly always hand- 
some, and some of them remarkably beautiful. 
La Pérouse found them decorated with metal 
rings; they now adorn themselves with much 
taste in Parisian fashions, which reach them by 
the way of Peru: their manners, though they 
do not approach so nearly to the forms of Eu- 
ropean society as do those of the upper ranks 
