C Jl I L E . 



CHAPTER I. 



DESCRIPTIVE GEOGRAPHY. 



INVASION OF CHILE; ITS LIMITS; ORIGIN OF THE NAME. MOUNTAINS; VOLCANOES: ANTUCO AND ITS NEW CRATER; 

 LLAYMA; LLOGOL. MOUNTAIN PASSES: THE CUMBRE ; THE PORTILLO ; COME-CAVALLO ; LACUNA AND DOffA ANA; 

 LA DEHESA; LOS PATOS; EL PLANCHON; ANTUCO. TABLE SIIOWINc; Till. Ill K. Ills, LATITUDES, AND LONGITUDES 



OF THE PRINCIPAL SUMMITS. LAKES; LLANQU1HUE; RUPANCO; PI M III I KANCO ; IIUITAUI i: : .l \\KGUE; RIMIU K ; 

 PIREHUECO; LAJARA; VILLARICA; GUALLETUE; LAJA; AMARGO ; TOTORAL ; MAULE; MONDACA; LAS GARZAS; 

 TAGUATAGUA; CAUQUENES; ACULEO; INCA; THE LAKES OF COQUIMBO AND ATACAMA. RIVERS: ORIGIN OF 

 NEARLY ALL THE CHILE STREAMS: THE BUENO ; VALDIVIA, OR CALLE-CALLE ; TOLTEN; IMPERIAL; BIOBIO: IT ATA ; 

 UBLE; MAULE; MATAQUITO; RAPEL; MAYPU; ACONCAGUA; CHUAPA; LIMARI; COQUIMBO; HUASCO; COPIAPO. 

 BAYS AND HARBORS: VALPARAISO; TALCAHUANO; COQUIMBO; HERRADURA; HUASCO; COPIAPO AND CALDKRA; 

 PORT YNGLES; CONST1TUCION; VALDIVIA; ANCUD; PORT FAMINE. ISLANDS: rnii.ui: AND THE SURROUNDING 

 ISLANDS; MOCHA; SANTA MARIA; QUIRIQUINA; JUAN FERNANDEZ; SANTA CLARA; MAS-AFUERA; PAJAROS. 



With an arid desert on its northern frontier successive ranges of mountains, whose summits 

 are covered by everlasting snows, on the east; Cape Horn, with its appalling storms of ice and 

 sleet, to the south ; and the vast unexplored Pacific ocean washing its western shore, the 

 holy fathers, who accompanied Pedro de Valdivia to the Chilean territory in 1540, may well 

 have regarded themselves at "lafinde la Christiandad." No terrestrial obstacles, however, 

 were of sufficient magnitude to overcome the thirst for gold and conquest which enticed so 

 many sons of Spain from their homes during the sixteenth century ; and the desert of Atacama, 

 with scarcely a drop of water or a particle of sustenance for man or beast in many hundred 

 miles, was traversed by a handful of Spaniards, with a few Peruvian allies, confident in their 

 success against the host which had virtually expelled Almagro but a year or two previously. 

 Valdivia, meeting with little resistance from the natives in the northern portion of the country, 

 only halted in his march to leave a dozen men, with a few allies, in the valley of Coquimbo 

 river ; and there, in the vicinity of Serena, was established the first colony of his new posses- 

 sion. The main body, numbering one hundred and forty of his own countrymen and the 

 Peruvians, pushed on toward the plain in which lies the present city of Santiago ; neither 

 the ornaments of the natives about Copiapo, nor Coquimbo, being sufficiently rich to gratify 

 their avarice. 



In the body of the commission conferred by Valdivia on Pastene, in 1544, the territory of 

 Nueva Estremadura, as the country was then called, was only recognised to consist of the 

 " valley of Posicion, which, in the Indian tongue, is called Copayapo ; the valley of Coquimbo, 

 Chile, and Mapocho; and provinces of Promaocaes, Rabeo, and Quiriquino, with the island 

 of Quiriquina, now ruled by the chief Leochengo," that is to say, from the desert of. Atacama 

 to the parallel of Concepcion. Indeed, even a part of this territory was still in possession of 

 unsubdued Indians. During the preceding four years, his sway over the natives of the northern 



