I20 ovalle's historical relation of chile. 



CHAP. V. — Of other Qualities proper to the Natives of Chile. 



FROM this ftrong conftitution comes the admirable patience of their minds, and 

 the little fenfe they fhew of that which amongft us Europeans would be a great mor- 

 tification. That which happened between an Indian and Father Lewis of Valdivia is 

 admirable upon this fubje£t. The Indian came to confefs to the father ; who, to make 

 him enter into a penance for his fins, ordered him to wear a cilice, or hair-cloth, upou 

 his fkin : it was a very hard one, and fuch as would have puniftied one of us feverely. 

 The Indian put it on, and about a year after, there was a proceflion of the holy facra- 

 ment, at which he danced, and feeing his confeflbr in the church, he left his danc- 

 ing, and came to him faying, " Look here how I have prefer ved what thou gaveft me 

 a year ago, " and fhewed it him upon his naked fkin. The father was aflonifhed to 

 fee, that what he gave him to mortify him, was turned to an ornament ;' and afking 

 him how long he had worn it, was anfwered by him, " I have never left it off one 

 minute fince thou gavefl it me ; " and fo returned to his dancing, fhewing his compa- 

 nions the prefent the father had made him, as pleafed with it, as if it had been a gold 

 or filver brocade ; and fo far he was from taking it for mortification, or feeling its 

 roughnefs, that he wore it for a favour given him by his father confefTor. 



Thefe Indians of Chile are the fairefl complexioned and whitefl of all America j and 

 thofe of the coldeft countries are the whitefl, as we fee in Europe ; but the very anti- 

 podes of Flanders never came to be fo white as the Flemings ; and among all the 

 Chilenians, I do not remember a red-haired one ; for they all, both men and women, 

 have black hair, and that very rough, and hard, and thick j infomuch that the mef- 

 titos, or mungrel breed of a Spanifh man and Indian woman, are known and diftin- 

 guifhed by that from the children of a Spanifh man and Spanifh woman ; and this 

 will lafl to the fecond and third generations before it foftens. There is little difference 

 in any thing elfe, either of fhape, feature, or difpofition ; nor in the manner of fpeak- 

 ing, or found of the voice ; and as for the language, not only the meflitos, but the 

 Indians bred among the Spaniards, are as ready at the phrafe and turn of the Spanifh 

 tongue, as any Spaniard. I have made experience of this often in confeffing them ; 

 for the confeflionary is fo turned, as the father-confefTor cannot fee the woman that 

 enters to confefs. It happened to me often to have an Indian woman come in after 

 a Spanifh woman, and I could not find any difference, till fhe herfelf, finding I ufed 

 her with that difHnftion and civility due to Spanifh ladies, would humbly tell me fhe 

 was but an Indian. „ 



The conftitution of thefe people is the caufe that time does not make fo flrong an 

 imprefTion on them, as on us ; and they bear their years mighty well, turning grey 

 very late, at three fcore or thereabouts ; and till then they look like young men. 

 When they are over white, or have any baldnefs, you may guefs them at about an 

 hundred : they all live long, and particularly the women ; and when by age they lofe 

 their judgment, they feldom falter in their memory, which lafls them to their dying 

 day, even to remember all the particulars of their young days from their infancy. 

 Their teeth and eyes are fo good, that they feldom lofe either ; and, in fhort, all the 

 infirmities of old men, which are the forerunners of death, come to them later than 

 to the other nations. But yet, if they happen to go out of their own country, they 

 lofe all their vigour, as we experience daily in our prifoners of war ; who being fold 

 to Peru, as foon as they feel the heat of the tropic, they fall fick, and mofl of them 

 die : and this is no more than what happens to the Spaniards, when they come from 



their 



