376 



Indians, they hare been known to sell their wives and children: 

 the madness which it produces occasions bloodshed ; and the 

 deaths which, thtn happen briiig on deadly feuds. The 

 small-pox has nearly completed the work of drunkenness and 

 of war ; and when Falkner left the country they were not able 

 to niuster four thousand men among iheni all. 



The Huilliches possess the country from Valdivia to the 

 straits of Magalhaens. They are subdivided into four nations, 

 who are improperly classed under one general appellation, 

 inasmuch as three of them are evidently a different race from 

 the fourth. That branch which reaches to the sea of Chiloe, 

 and beyond the lake of Nahuelhuaupi, speaks the general 

 language of Chili, differing only from the Pehuenches and Pi- 

 cunches in pronunciation. The otiiers speak a mixed lan- 

 guage of the Moluche and Tehuel (or Patagonian) tongue, and 

 are, by their greater stature, manifestly of Patagonian origin. 

 Collectively they are called the Vuta, or Great Huilliches ; 

 separately, Cbouos, who inhabit the Archipelago of Chiloe, 

 and its adjoining shores. Poy-yus, or Peyes, who possess the 

 coast from latitude 48. to something mere than 51. and Key- 

 yus, or Keyes, who extend from thence to the Straits. The 

 Moluches maintain some flocks of sheep for their wool, and 

 sow a small quantity of com. 



The Puelches, or eastern pe<^le, so called by those of Chili, 

 are bounded on the west by the Moluches, south by the Straits, 

 cast by the sea, and north by the Spaniards. They are sub- 

 divided into four tribes: l.The Taluhets, a wandering race, 

 who prowl over the country from the eastern side of tlie first 

 J)esaguadeTo, as far as the lakes of'Guanacache, in the juris- 

 diction of St, Juan and St. Luiz dc la Punta. There are some 

 also in the jurisdiction of Cordova, on the rivers Quarto, Ter- 

 cero, and Seguado. When the Jesuits were expelled they 

 could scarcely raise two hundred fighting men of their own 

 nation, and not above five hundred with all their allies. 

 i2. The Diuihets, also a wan'lering . race, who border west. 



