kinds, the patatoe, the oxalis tuberosa^ the common 

 and the yellow pumpkin or gourd, the Guinea pep- 

 per, the madi and the great strawberr}'. To these 

 provisions of the vegetable kind, which are far from 

 despicable, rnay be added the little rabbit, the Chili- 

 heuque, or Araucanian camel, whose ficsh furnished 

 excellent food, and ^\ hose wool clothing for these 

 people. If tradition may be credited, they had also 

 the hog and the domestic fowl. Their dominion 

 over the tribe of animals was not extended beyond 

 these, although they might as readily have domes- 

 ticated the guanaco, a very useful animal, the 

 pudu, a species of wild goat, and various birds 

 with which the country abounds. 



However, with these productions, which required 

 but a very moderate degree of industry, they sub- 

 sisted comfortably, and even with a degree of abun- 

 dance, considering the few things which their situa- 

 tion rendered necessary. 



To this circumstance is owing, that the Spa- 

 niards, who under the command of Almagro in- 

 vaded Chili, found upon their entering its vallies 

 an abundance of provisions to recruit themselves 

 after the hunger which they had endured in their 

 imprudent march through the desarts bordering 

 upon Peru. 



Subsistence, the source of population, being thus 

 secured, the country, as we before remarked, be- 

 came rapidly peopled under the influence of so mild 

 a climate ■; whence it appears, that the first writers 

 who treated of Chili cannot have greatly exaggerat- 

 (hI in saying that the Spaniards found it filled with 



