i^O OVALLE S HISTORICAL RELATION OF CHILE. 



lemoteft part of it towards the fouth, it was neceffary to pafs all the reft before it 

 could be difcovered ; and therefore, though I have not a defign to make any relation 

 but of the kingdom of Chile, I (hall neverthelefs touch upon the other difcoveries, 

 and follow the fteps of the conquerors in order, as the hiftories of them do relate ; 

 fo the fubjed of this book will be better underftood, by opening the manner of the 

 finding them, and the order of time in which this progrefs was made ; and fo place 

 each kingdom according to its antiquity. 



CHAP. II. — Of America in general^ and what light may be found of the it among antient 



Philofephers. 



AMERICA, called otherwife the New World, becaufe of its late difcovery, is now 

 as well known as it was formerly hid for fo many pafled ages, not only to the vulgar, 

 but to thofe piercing wits among the pagans, Ariftotle, Parmenides, Pliny; and 

 among the chriftian philofophers, to St. Auftin, Ladtantius, and others, who judged 

 all that climate to be inhabitable that lay between the tropics, founding their opinion 

 upon a point of their philofophy, which was, that the prefervation of the animal 

 demanded by its temper the juft proportion of the firft four quahties, which they fup- 

 pofed could not be found under the torrid zone ; for fo they called it, becaufe of the 

 :fe)rce of the fun upon it, it being all the year almoft perpendicular to it ; and having 

 obferved its effects on this fide the tropics, how it dries the earth in fummer, confumes 

 t;he fountains, thinking that if it did not withdraw to the other tropic, it would have 

 entirely fired the earth, though refrefhed by the nights, it is no wonder if they were 

 perfuaded that where its beams were continual, there could be no habitation for man. 



But experience, which is the touch-ftone of all philofophical difcourfes, has difco- 

 vered that not only there is a plain paffage, though troublefome, from one pole to 

 the other, but alfo that thofe regions contained under the Zodiac have been, and are 

 inhabited by innumerable nations ; and that there are even under the equinoctial line, 

 fome places, as that of Quito, fo temperate and healthy, that they are manifeftly pre- 

 ferable to feveral in the temperate zone. This new world has, by common confent, 

 been called America unjuftly enough, as Herrera complains in the firft book of his 

 fifth decade, by the crafty ufurpation of this difcovery appropriated to Americo Vefpu- 

 fio, inftead of Columbus, who by this means is deprived of his true glory. 



It is not eafy to make out what knowledge the antients have had of this new world : 

 Marinco Siculo pretends, in his Spanilh Chronicles, that the Romans had known it, 

 and made fome conquefts in it ; and his foundation is, that in one of the gold mines 

 of America, there was found a medal or antient coin, with the figure of Au'guftus 

 Csefar ; which, he fays, was fent to the pope by Joannes Rufo, archbilhop of Co- 

 zenfa ; but this is refuted, as ridiculous, by Pedro Bercio in his geography ; and 

 it is not very probable, that that coin alone, and no other, fhould have been found 

 in all this length of time, fince the mines are working in the Weft-Indies. But, 

 befides, if the Romans had been once in polTeftion of thofe parts, it would not have 

 been eafy to have loft all commerce with them, confidering the great riches that com- 

 munication produces ; for the nations would have called in one another, as we fee 

 they have done fince the difcovery made by Their Catholic Majefties, and their poflef- 

 fing of thofe parts, to which there goes every year fo much people from Europe. 



As to the Roman coin, it is probable that fome who pafled from Europe with the 

 firft conquerors of the Indies, and out of a humour of fpreading novelties, (which 



lo though 



