Fischer: Apples of the Cordiheras 



361 



while navigating up these two rivers, 

 his scouting parties brought in apples 

 that they had got by barter from the 

 Indians. He mentions apples weighing 

 as high as 17 ounces and remarks about 

 what good apple gatherers the Indians 

 were as they never left "even one" on 

 the trees found by his men. The 

 Indians made chicha from them, evi- 

 dently a kind of cider, and or ej ones, 

 dried apples. The following is a 

 literal translation of the entry in 

 Villarino's diary for the twenty-ninth 

 of April, 1783, probably written not 

 very far from the present town of 

 Junin de los Andes : 



"It dawned cloudy, with the wind W. 

 strong and very cold. At 8 it commenced to 

 clear, and I set out to observe the latitude of 

 the mouth of the River Huechum-Huechuen; 

 I returned at 4 in the afternoon. Today the 

 Chinas (Indian women) led in fifty to sixty 

 packs with apples. They set out at 8 o'clock 

 and returned at 2 in the afternoon; others who 

 set out yesterday noon, returned today at 

 4 o'clock in the afternoon, and these say they 

 went to Huechum-Huechuen, because the 

 apples from there are much better than those 

 from other parts. I could very easily and at 

 small cost have loaded the shallops with this 

 fruit, but the apples came all bruised and 

 battered, not only because they pick them up 

 from the ground when they are already bruised 

 from the fall, but because of striking and 

 rubbing against one another in the packs, 

 through the motion and trotting of the horses, 

 so that few sound ones remain that can be 

 saved. I put on board more than 8,000 and 

 inspecting them this afternoon found them 

 nearly all rotted : so that I think I shall inspect 

 them tomorrow, and of the pieces which I 

 find sound make orejones. Many are the 

 varieties of the apples on hand, and in flavor 

 the apples of Galicia, my native land, surely 

 do not excel them. This evening they Isrought 

 me twelve pippins, which they were able to 

 select from the less bruised; it is surely a 

 pleasure to look at them, and apples of this 

 kind are called repifialdos reales in my country. 

 In none of all the places ever traversed by me, 

 were there such good apples and such a variety 

 and abundance as here. . . . " 



On the following fourth of May, 

 discouraged by sickness among his men, 

 by the hostility of the Indians to his 

 plans and by the approaching snows of 

 the season, Villarino started out on his 

 return voyage. 



And now as to the date of the first 

 possible introduction of the apple into 

 the region east of the Andes, from which 

 its rapid and remarkable spread might 

 be traced. The Spaniards first at- 



tempted to conquer and settle southern 

 Chile between the years 1541 and 1551, 

 those being the dates of the founding of 

 Santiago and Valdivia ' on about the 

 33d and 40th parallels of latitude 

 respectively. In 1553 Francisco de 

 Villagran, a captain of Valdivia, crossed 

 the Andes in 39° latitude as far as a 

 large river (perhaps the Alirmine) and 

 in the same year most of the settlements 

 in Chile were destroyed by the Arau- 

 canians, followed by nearly 100 years of 

 almost incessant warfare until the peace 

 of Quillen in 1640 (which was soon 

 followed by other wars, however), 

 allowed the Indians undisputed sway 

 over all the territory south of the 

 Bio Bio, or 37° and 3^° latitude. The 

 first settlement east of the Andes was 

 that of the Jesuit mission founded by 

 Nicolas Mascardi in latitude 41 on 

 the shores of lake Nahuel Huapi in 

 1670, but destroyed in 1717. Unsuc- 

 cessful attempts at its restoration were 

 made in 1764 and, outside of a few other 

 unimportant expeditions which could 

 have left no impression upon the region, 

 and the notable expedition of Villarino 

 in 1783, the country was left undis- 

 turbed by white men until settled 

 during the latter half of the nineteenth 

 century by the gradual infiltration of 

 settlers from Chile and still later from 

 Argentina. 



Taking into account the unsettled 

 conditions on the Chilean side of the 

 southern Andes or Cordilleras and that 

 the eastern side had hardly been touched 

 by white men, and above all that the 

 influence of the Jesuits was never great 

 among the Araucanians and Transandine 

 tribss, the wide distribution of the 

 apple in a region so remote at such 

 an early date as 1783, is truly remark- 

 able. It proves that it spread very 

 rapidly either from the solitary mission 

 post on Nahuel Huapi or through the 

 passes in the Andes from Chile, or both, 

 by natural means such as animals or 

 semi-savage Indians and water currents, 

 and that it found exceptionally congenial 

 conditions for its development. A closer 

 study and comparison of this region 

 with some of those parts of the old 

 world where the apple appears in- 

 digenous might throw additional light 

 on its origin. 



