45 



hundred fold ;* others, that the crop is con- 

 sidered as poor if it does not exceed a hun- 



* The river of Chile, called also the river of Acoiicagjia, 

 from its rising in a valley of that name, is celebrated for the 

 prodigious quantity of wheat which is every year produced 

 upon its shores ; from whence, and the vicinity of St. Jago, 

 is brought all the grain exported from V^alparaiso to Callao, 

 Lima, and other parts of Peru. Such is the quantity, that it 

 19 inconceivable to any one unacquainted with the excellence 

 of the soil, which usually yields from sixty to eighty for one, 

 how a country so thinly peopled, whose cultivable lands are 

 comprised within a few valle\s of not more than ten leagues 

 square, can furnish such quantities of grain in addition to what 

 is wanted for the support of the inhabitants. During the 

 eight months while we were at Valparaiso, there sailed from 

 that port alone thirty vessels loaded with wheat, each of which 

 would average six thousand fanegas, or three thousand mule 

 loads, a quantity sufficient for the subsistence of sixty thousand 

 persons for a year. Frazier's Voyage, vol. i. 



Besides the c>3mmerce of hides, tallow, and dried beef, the 

 inhabitants of Conception carry on a trade in wheat, with 

 which they annually load eight or ten ships of four or five hun- 

 dred tons burthen for Callao, exclusive of the flour and ship 

 bread for the supply of the French ships that stop at Peru oa 

 their return to France. Bat all this would be little for this 

 excellent countiy, if the earth was properly cultivated, which 

 is so fertile and easy of tillage, that the inhabitants merely- 

 scratch it over with a plough, or more frequently with the 

 crooked branch of a tree, used for that purpose, drawn by a 

 pair of oxen ; and so prolific is the soil, that, for tlie purpose 

 of vegetation, the seed scarcely requires a slight covering, and 

 will yield a hundred for one. /^jc/. 



