8 



CHAP. II. 



Conquest of the Peruvians in Chili. 



The history of the Chilians does not precede the 

 middle of the fifteenth century of our era ; he- 

 fore that periodj for want of records, it is lost 

 in the obscurity of time. The first accounts of 

 them are contained in the Peruvian annals ; that 

 nation, as they were more civilized, being more 

 careful to preserve the memory of remarkable 

 events. 



About that time the Peruvians had extended 

 their dominion from the equator to the tropic of 

 Capricorn. Chili, bordering upon that tropic, 

 was too important an acquisition not to attract 

 the ambitious views of those conquerors. This 

 country, which extends for 1260 miles upon the 

 Pacific Ocean, enjoys a delightful and salutary 

 climate. The vast chain of the Cordilleras bor- 

 dering it upon the east, supplies it with an 

 abundance of rivers, which increase its natural 

 fertility. The face of the country, which is 

 inountainous towards the sea, and level near the 

 Andes, is well suited to every kind of vegetable 

 production, and abounds with mines of gold, 

 silver, and other useful metals. 



