264 CfilLOi:. [CHAP. int. 



straight north and south line, owing to an optical deception, always 

 appeared more or less curved ; for the lines drawn from each peak 

 to .the beholder's eye, necessarily converged like the radii of a 

 semicircle, and as it was not possible (owing to the clearness of the 

 atmosphere and the absence of all intermediate objects) to judge 

 how far distant the farthest peaks were off, they appeared to 

 stand in a flattish semicircle. 



Landing at midday, we saw a family of pure Indian extraction. 

 The father was singularly like York Minster; and some of the 

 younger boys, with their ruddy complexions, might have been 

 mistaken for Pampas Indians. Everything I have seen, convinces 

 rnc of the close connexion of the different American tribes, who 

 nevertheless speak distinct languages. This party could muster 

 but little Spanish, and talked to each other in their own tongue. 

 It is a pleasant thing to see the aborigines advanced to the same 

 degree of civilization, however low that may be, which their white 

 conquerors have attained. More to the south we saw many pure 

 Indians : indeed, all the inhabitants of some of the islets retain 

 their Indian surnames. In the census of 1832, there were in 

 Chiloe and its dependencies forty-two thousand souls; the greater 

 number of these appear to be of mixed blood. Eleven thousand 

 retain their Indian surnames, but it is probable that not nearly 

 all of these are of a pure breed. Their manner of life is the 

 game with that of the other poor inhabitants, and they are all 

 Christians ; but it is said that they yet retain some strange super- 

 stitious ceremonies, and that they pretend to hold communication 

 with the devil in certain caves. Formerly, every one convicted of 

 this offence was sent to the Inquisition at Lima. Many of the 

 inhabitants who are not included in the eleven thousand with 

 Indian surnames, cannot be distinguished by their appearance 

 from Indians. Gomez, the governor of Lemuy, is descended from 

 noblemen of Spain on both sides ; but by constant intermarriages 

 with the natives the present man is an Indian: On the other 

 hand, the governor of Quinchao boasts much of his purely kept 

 Spanish blood. 



We reached at night a beautiful little cove, north of the island 

 of Caucahue. The people here complained of want of land. This 

 is partly owing to their own negligence in not clearing the woods, 

 and partly to restrictions by the government, which makes it 

 necessary, before buying over so small a piece, to pay two shillings 



