ovalle's historical relation of chile. 89 



greateft ladies. The moft common drink of the Indians is made of maize, which is 

 the ordinary bread and fuftenance of the Indians. 



Let us end with "'the tree called Murtilla ; though, if we believe the authors who 

 treat of it, it deferves to be ranked in the firft place. Antonio de Herrera fpeaks fo 

 well of this tree in the ninth decade of his Hiftory of the Indies, Book IX,, and folio 

 247, that I will relate only what he fays, and that in his own words, which are as 

 follows : — " There is a kind of fruit of trees that grow on the mountains, which grow 

 from thirty-feven degrees upwards, and in thofe countries it is a common food ; the 

 natives call it Uni, and the Caftillans, Murtilla. It is red, and like a fmall grape, 

 fomething bigger than a fwollen "^pea ; its fhape and colour is like the pomegranate 

 grains, its fmell and tafte agreeable, and not unlike a grape. It has little grains hke 

 a fig, which are almoft imperceptible to the tongue ; its temperature is hot and dry : 

 of this they make a wine, which exceeds all other liquors, even that of the Eaft India 

 cocoa, or palm-tree : neither cyder, mead, nor beer, nor all the other drinks defcribed 

 by Andres de Laquuna, are to be preferred to it. This wine is clear, fine, warm, and 

 very agreeable to the tafte, as well as profitable to the . ftomach. It confumes all va- 

 pours in the head, its heat warming the ears without going any further : it comforts 

 and cherilhes the ftomach, increafes appetite, and never takes it away. It never offends 

 the head, or makes it heavy, or burthens the ftomach ; and it bears as much water 

 again as wine will do. Thofe who have tafted it, commend its colour and flavour, as 

 much as that of grapes. Its colour is golden, and mighty bright ; and it is as fweet 

 and good as the wine of Ciudad Real. There is little of it made, and fo it lafts but 

 eight months ; for which reafon, it is not known how many years it would keep. It 

 takes up as much labour and care as wine, in the making : if it be left to itfelf, and 

 without fire, it is forty days before it ferments. It cafts down a lee, and works out 

 the frothy part at the top of the veffel ; and, for that reafon, care is taken to fcum it 

 as it boils, and then it is drawn off into another velTel. When it is turned to vinegar, 

 its vinegar has a better tafte and colour than wine-vinegar ; for it retains the colour of 

 the fruit, which is very odoriferous and fweet.*' Thus far this author : from whence 

 it may be inferred, that this land had good wine of its own ; and it had alfo very good 

 oil made of a feed called Madi ; it is extremely well relifhed ; but now it is not much 

 in ufe, becaufe that of olives is fo common. 



It is not pofTible to defcribe particularly, one by one, all the various forts of trees 

 that are bred in the woods and mountains of Chile ; and it would take up a very large 

 treatife, which is not mv purpofe ; yet when we come to treat of the ftraights of Ma- 

 gellan, we will fpeak of the cinnamon-tree, which is to be found there, and of the 

 barks of fome other trees of that foil, which have the fame tafte as the Eaft India pep- 

 per. All that I can fay at prefent, is, that there are few of thefe trees that lofe their 

 leaves in winter, particularly thofe which grow wild in the woods, which are generally 

 aromatick, and of a very fragrant fmell ; and of them, all the fineft of this kind are 

 bred in the territory of the Conception. I would not have believed it, if I had not feen 

 it ^ for in travelling I met with lovely groves, which bordered the highways, and eaft out 

 fo rich a fmell from their leaves, that the flowers of jafmin did not appear fweeter. 

 There are alfo abundance of myrtles and laurels, which grow in great groves naturally ; 

 and yet among them there are trees whofe leaves exceed them infinitely in the perfume 

 of their fmell ; infomuch that, pafTmg one's hand over them, one would think one ha4 

 amber gloves on. 



VOL. XIV. N BOOK 



