1834.] POVERTY OF THE INDIANS. 267 



They occasionally possess fowls, sheep, goats, pigs, horses, ami 

 cattle; the order in which they are here mentioned, expressing 

 their respective numbers. I never saw anything more obliging 

 and humble than the manners of these people. They generally 

 began with stating that they were poor natives of the place, and 

 not Spaniards, and that they were in sad want of tobacco and other 

 comforts. At Caylen, the most southern island, the sailors bought 

 with a stick of tobacco, of the value of three-halfpence, two fowls, 

 one of which, the Indian stated, had skin between its toes, and 

 turned out to be a fine duck ; and with some cotton handkerchiefs, 

 worth three shillings, three sheep and a large bunch of onions 

 were procured. The yawl at this place was anchored some way 

 from the shore, and we had fears for her safety from robbers during 

 the night. Our pilot, Mr. Douglas, accordingly told the constable 

 of the district that we always placed sentinels with loaded arms, 

 and not xinderstauding Spanish, if we saw any person in the dark, 

 we should assuredly shoot him. The constable, with much humi- 

 lity, agreed to the perfect propriety of this arrangement, and 

 promised us that no one should stir out of his house during that 

 night. 



During the four succeeding days we continued sailing southward. 

 The general features of the country remained the same, but it was 

 much less thickly inhabited. On the large island of Tauqui thero 

 was scarcely one cleared spot, the trees on every side extending 

 their branches over the sea-beach. I one day noticed, growing on 

 the sandstone cliffs, some very fine plants of the panke (Gunnera 

 scabra), which somewhat resembles the rhubarb on a gigantic 

 scale. The inhabitants eat the stalks, which are subacid, and tan 

 leather with the roots, and prepare a black dye from them. Tho 

 leaf is nearly circular, but deeply indented on its margin. I mea- 

 sured one which was nearly eight feet in diameter, and therefore no 

 less than twenty-four in circumference! The stalk is rather more 

 than a yard high, and each plant sends out four or five of these 

 enormous leaves, presenting together a very noble appearance. 



December 6th. We reached Caylen, called " el fin del Cristian- 

 dad." In the morning wo stopped for a few minutes at a house 

 on the northern end of Laylec, which was the extreme point of 

 South American Christendom, and a miserable hovel it was. The 

 latitude is 43 10', which is two degrees farther south than the Rio 

 Negro on the Atlantic coast. These extreme Christians were very 



