227 



disposition, these people arc the most industrious 

 and c-ommercial of any of Ihe savages. When 

 in their tents they are never idle. The women 

 weave cloths of various colours ; the men occupy 

 themselves in making baskets and a variety of 

 beautiful articles of wood, feathers, or skins^ 

 which are highly prized by their neighbours. 

 They assemble every year on the Spanish frontier, 

 where they hold a kind of fair that ususally 

 continues for fifteen or twenty days. Hither 

 they bring fossil salt, gypsum, pitch, bed>cover- 

 ings, ponchos, skins, wool, bridle-reins beau- 

 tifully wrought of plaited leather, baskets, 

 wooden vessels, feathers, ostrich eggs, horses, 

 cattle, and a variety of other articles ; and re- 

 ceive in exchange, wheat, wine, and the manu- 

 factures of Europe. They are very skillful io 

 traiSic, and can with difficulty be overreached. 

 For fear of being plundered by those who be- 

 lieve that any thing is lawful against infidels, 

 they never all drink at the same time, but sepa- 

 rate themselves into several compajiies, and while 

 some keep guard the others indulge themselves 

 in the pleasures of wine. They are generally 

 humane, - complacent, lovers of justice, and 

 possess all those good qualities that are produced 

 or perfected by comn^erce. 



The Chiquillanians, whom some have erro- 

 neously supposed to be apart of the Pehuenches, 

 Ijve to the north-rcast of them, on the eastern 



