OVALLE S HISTORICAL RELATION OF CHILE. 



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In the diftrlbution of the booty and Haves taken in war, there is no other method, than 

 that every one has what he can get, fo that the braveft and moft diligent are the beft 

 provided, without any obligation of giving any part of it to their captains or general ; 

 for in this they are all equal, and valour alone makes the diftindion, which they 

 fhow in an eminent degree, being very defirous to recover fome of our arms, fuch . 

 as guns, fwords, lances ; for they have no iron of their own. When they return 

 from war, and find what men they have loft, it is incredible what lamentations, cries, 

 and tears, proceed from the widows and children of thofe who are dead ; and though 

 this be a common fentiment of humanity, pra6Hfed amongft all nations who value 

 fociety and proximity of blood, which are the foundation of friendfhip, yet the Indian 

 women feem to furpafs all others ; for they do not cry in fecret, but fet up their^ 

 notes, fo that when any one hears them at a diftance, it provokes more to laughter 

 than moves to compaffion. When a man dies at home, the manner of their exprelT- 

 ing their Ibrrow is more remiarkable ; for the women all get about the dead body, 

 and the eldeft beginning, the others follow all in the fame tone j and thus they con- 

 tinue a great while, fo that they never give over as long as they can hold out ; and 

 this cuftom they preferve, even after they are baptized, and live among Chriftians ; 

 but not that which they had of opening the dead bodies, to- know of what difeafe 

 they died, and to put meat, and drink, and clothes in their grave with them, as alfo 

 jewels and things of value ; neither do they cover their graves with pyramids of ftones, 

 nor ufe other ceremonies practifed by the gentiles of diofe parts. 



CHAP. VI. — Of the Chilenian Indians^ who inhabit the IJlands of Chile, 



WE divided the kingdom of Chile into three parts, and the Iflands made one: 

 ihefe are very well peopled : thofe who live in the fertile iflands, which are capable 

 of producing corn, and feeding flocks, pafs their lives as the Indians of Terra Firma 

 do, eating flefli, and feveral fruits, the product of their iflands. Thofe who inhabit 

 the barren or lefs fertile iflands, eat fifli of the fea, and ftiell-fifti, as alfo potatoes ; 

 and fome, who cannot have any wool, clothe themfeves with the barks of trees. 

 Some go ftark naked, though their climate is mighty cold, and by cuftom do not feel 

 the hardinefs of the weather overmuch. 



Others have a ftrange way of clothing themfelves, which is to gather a certain 

 earth with roots about it, to give it a confiftency ; and others clothe themfelves with 

 feathers, as Brother Gregory of Leon reports in his map. They are all tall men, and 

 in fome places there are giants, as the Dutch relate, who fay, they found fculls 

 that would contain within them fome of their heads ; for they ufed to put them on . ,,. 

 like helmets : they found alfo dead men's bones of ten and eleven feet long, whofe 3<}| '^'^ 

 bodies, by confequence, muft have been thirty feet high, which is a prodigious thing. 

 Thofe whom they faw alive, were generally taller by the head and flioulders than the 

 Dutch. This appears by the relation of General Schewten ; and from that of George 

 Spilberg we learn, that when they were in the ftraights of Magellan, they came to 

 an ifland, which they called the ifland of Patagoons, or giants, becaufe of fome they 

 faw there, and on the Terra del Fuego. Among the reft, they faw one who was upon 

 a rock, to fee the ftiips go by, and they fay of him, that he was immanis admodum, 

 et horrenda longitudinis. 



Likewife we know, from the fleet commanded by Don Fray Garcia, Jofre de Loaifa, 

 a Knight of St. John's order, that at the cape of the Eleven Thoufand Virgins they 



R 2 found 



