18 DISEASES OF [PART I. 



lent vegetable, the Sonchus oleraceus, and many 

 different berries. Of animals they consumed fishes, 

 dogs, the indigenous rat, crawfish, birds, and guanas. 

 Rough mats of their own making, or dog-skins, 

 constituted their clothing. They were hardened 

 against the influence of the climate by the necessity 

 of exerting themselves in procuring these provi- 

 sions, and by their frequent predatory and travelling 

 excursions, which produced a healthy excitement, 

 and with it an easy digestion of even this crude 

 diet. 



This state of things has been gradually changed 

 since the Europeans arrived in the country. They 

 have given them the common potato, a vegetable 

 which is produced in great quantities with little 

 labour ; and as this labour could be mostly done 

 by the slaves or by the women, potatoes became the 

 favourite food of the aborigines. They preferred 

 feeding upon them to procuring what was far more 

 wholesome, but gave them more trouble in obtain- 

 ing. They have exchanged the surplus of their 

 crops for blankets, which keep the skin in a con- 

 tinual state of irritation, and harbour vermin and 

 dirt far more than the native mats. The Euro- 

 peans also brought them maize ; but, in order to 

 soften the grains of it, the natives lay them in 

 water, and allow them to ferment or decompose 

 until they produce a sickening smell ; they are 

 then pounded and baked in cakes, and are con- 

 sumed in large quantities, but form a very un- 



