368 



founded in 15^6, by the marshal D. Marten Ruiz de Gamboa, 

 during the administration of the viceroy Lope Garcia de 

 Castro, in Peru. 



TJie narigatiou of this Archijielago is very dangerous, from 

 the strength and number of the currents, and nothing can be 

 worse adapted for so perilous a sea than the boats which are 

 used. These piraguas, as they are called, are without keel or 

 deck. The planks of which they are made are laced together 

 with strong withes, and calked with pounded cane leaves, over 

 .which the withes are passed : the cross timbers are listened 

 with tree-nails. In these vessels, so easily overset, the Chilotes, 

 as the inhabitants of these islands are called, venture with a 

 fearlessness which they derive from their being accustomed to 

 danger, not from their skill in avoiding it. Their main suste- 

 nance is from the sea, which is generally most bountiful when 

 the earth is least so. The mode of fishing is, I believe, peculiar 

 to tliemselves. At low water they stake in a large sweep of 

 shore, knitting the stakes together with basket-work ; the flood 

 covers these corraies, or pens, and at the ebb the fish are left 

 ttiere. A. sea weed, which they call luche, is also used for 

 food. They dry it, and then, by some unexplained process, 

 form it into loaves or cakes, which are greatly esteemed not 

 only in Cliilo6, but even by the wealthy inhabitants of Lima. 

 Seak are more numerous in the adjoining Archipelagos of 

 Guaitecas and Guayneco : none but the Indians cat them, and 

 their constant use of this rank food is said to impart to them 

 Bo rank an odour, that it is almost necessary to keep to wind- 

 ward when you talk with them. Whales sometimes run them- 

 selves aground here, though they aremore frequent farther to 

 Hie south: they have probably retired from a coast where they 

 are persecuted, for ambergris was formerly found ia great 

 abundance upon these shores, but is now rarely cast up. 



All the islands are moimtainous or craggy, a few valleys 

 among the hills, and the flat ground near the shore, are all 

 tbat'atc ^oh^vated. On this belt of cultivated ground all the 



