OVALLE*S HISTORICAL RELATION OF CHILE. 9 1 



The manufaftures of thefe iflands are the clothing for the Indians, who have a kind 

 of veft which they call Macun, and it is without fleeves, becaufe their arms are naked ; 

 and over this they put a garment called Choni, which ferves for a cloak, and is like 

 that which painters give to the apoftles in their pidlures. They have another commo- 

 dity from their woods, particularly of the plank they make of a tree, which is 

 a cedar, and of which they have vaft woods, and in them trees of a prodigious 

 fize ; for Friar Gregory of Leon, of the order of St. Francis, in his map of Chile, 

 which he dedicates to the prefident Don Loiiis Fernandes de Cordoua del Carpio, 

 fays, that fome of thefe trees are fo big that they cannot be hardly encompafled by 

 a rope of fix yards long ; and out of the wood of the boughs there has been made 

 fix hundred planks, of twenty-five feet long, and two feet broad ; and that which is 

 confiderable, is, that this plank is not fawed, but cut with axes ; in which there is 

 much more lofs. This author deferves belief, as well from the experience of forty-two 

 years that he lived in Chile, as from having been definitor of his order. Ahd what I 

 have heard from the mouth of a colonel, who was both born and bred in that country, 

 will ferve to confirm this ; which is, that if two men on horfe-back are on each fide 

 of the tree, when it lies along, they cannot fee one another ; for the body of the trunk 

 hinders them. Thefe planks are carried to Chile and Peru ; and in exchange they 

 bring back provifions to live on. The iflands of Chono are yet poorer than thefe ; 

 becaufe, that being nearer the pole, their fummer is fhorter, and their rains more 

 copious, infomuch that they drown the earth, and hinder it from producing. 



We have little knowledge of any other iflands befides thofe of Chiloe ; becaufe the 

 continent being fo large, and yet not thoroughly peopled, there has been little occa- 

 fion of inhabiting any more than fome few of thefe iflands ; by which means there is 

 but fmall difcovery made of their qualities ; though it is reafonable to think they re- 

 femble the land over-againft which they lie. 



As for the iflands of Juan Fernandes, I will relate what I find writ about them in 

 Theodore and John de Bry, in their relation of the voyage of John Scutten : they fay 

 then, that thefe two iflands are very high land : the leafl of the two, which is the 

 wefternmoft, appeared to them barren, as being covered with wood, and very moun- 

 tainous ; though not landing on it, they could make no judgment of the infide of the 

 ifland. The bigger ifland, which is the eafternmofl, is hkewife mountainous, but has 

 great variety of trees, and much grafs, with which are fed great herds of fwine and 

 goats, bred from fome few which were put on fhore by John Fernandes, who began 

 to cultivate thefe iflands as his own ; but he dying, and the Spaniards finding greater 

 advantages upon the continent, they forfook thofe iflands, which were out of all trade, 

 leaving their flocks of cattle behind them, which now are infinitely multiplied. 



They fay befides, that coming to this, which they call the Fine Ifland, they found 

 a port very fafe for their fhips, having twenty or thirty fathom depth, the fhore all 

 fandy and even, with a delicate valley full of trees of all forts, and wild boars, and 

 other animals feeding in it ; but they could not diftinguifh them, by reafon of the dif- 

 tance they were at. They extol particularly a moft beautiful fountain, which coming 

 down from high rocks, rolls into the fea by different canals, which form a pleafant 

 profpeft, and its water is very fweet and agreeable. They faw alfo great flore of feals, 

 and other fifh, which they caught in great plenty. In fhort, they were fo in love with 

 this ifland, for the good qualities they difcovered even at its entrance, that they were 

 very unwilling to leave it though prelTed in point of time. 



I do not doubt, but this is a very pleafant fituation : for in its temperature, and 

 other properdes, it rauft be very like Val Paraifo and St. Jago, becaufe it is almof^ 



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