42 VALDIVIA. 



tired horse, I determined to stop at the Mission of 

 Cudico, to the friar of which I had a letter of in- 

 troduction. Cudico is an intermediate district be- 

 tween the forest and the Llanos. There are a 

 good many cottages, with patches of corn and po- 

 tatoes, nearly all belonging to Indians. The tribes 

 dependent on Valdivia are " reducidos y Cristia- 

 nos." The Indians faither northward, about Arau- 

 co and Imperial, are still very wild, and not con- 

 verted ; but they have all much intercourse with 

 the Spaniards. The padre said that the Christian 

 Indians did not much like coming to mass, but that 

 otherwise they showed respect for religion. The 

 greatest difficulty is in making them observe the 

 ceremonies of marriage. The wild Indians take 

 as many wives as they can support, and a cacique 

 will sometimes have more than ten : on entering 

 his house, the number may be told by that of the 

 separate fires. Each wife lives a Aveek in turn 

 with the cacique ; but all are employed in weaving 

 ponchos, &c., for his profit. To be the wife of a 

 cacique is an honour much sought after by the 

 Indian women. 



The men of all these tribes wear a coarse wool- 

 len poncho : those south of Valdivia wear short 

 trousers, and those north of it a petticoat, like the 

 chilipa of the Gauchos. All have their long hair 

 bound by a scarlet fillet, but with no other covering 

 on their heads. These Indians are good-sized men ; 

 their cheek-bones are prominent, and in general 

 appearance they resemble the great American fam- 

 ily to which they belong ; but their physiognomy 

 seemed to me to be slightly different from that of 

 any other tribe which I had before seen. Their 

 expression is generally grave, and even austere, 

 and possesses much character : this may pass either 

 for honest bluntness or fierce determination. The 



