cooi-EE] BIBLIOGRAPHY OF TRIBES OF TIERRA DEL FUEGO 199 



all describe. the Chilotan or Chonoan plank boat as having only three 

 planks; so, too, does Father Lozano (vol. ii, bk. 5, ch. 4, pp. 31, 455), 

 writmg in 1754-55, but utilizing earlier missionary reports, probably 

 Father Venegas' and others of the early seventeenth century. 

 Father Rosales adds that the plank boat was also used by the Pe- 

 guenches near ijake Naguelhuapi and other lakes close to Chiloe, 

 although the Indians of Villarica navigated Lake Epulabquen in balsas 

 and dugouts (a, vol. i, 176). 



Up to the end, therefore, of the seventeenth centuiy the plank boat 

 was of only three pieces. It was propelled by from 8 to 12 rowers 

 (Rosales, a, vol. i, 175; cf. also ErciUa, canto 36, the I'i-oared piragua 

 seen by him in 1558 in Chilotan watei-s was probably a plank boat; 

 GongoraM., 153, 5-12 rowers) ; the coxswain sat in the stem (Rosales, 

 loc. cit.). 



During the course of the eighteenth century the dalca developed 

 frojn a 3-plank to a 7-plank craft. Father Olivares, writing in 1736, 

 in all probabilit}^ from personal observation, states that the dalcas 

 were then usually made of 3 planks, though there were some larger 

 ones of 5 planks, but never niore than 5; the Spaniards made them 

 from about 8-12 "brazadas" (Olivares, 371) » ( = 45 to 65 feet) long 

 with 5 planks only (Olivares, 370-371; cf. also Alex. Campbell, 62-63; 

 inPrevost, xv, 388; Molina, a, 209; c, bk. 4, ch. 2; Byron, a, 151-153; 

 and in Fitz-Roy, h, 131). The ordmary length of the native dalca 

 was from 11 to 22 feet (Garcia, a, 23, 31, two to four brazados; 28, 

 eight varas; Gongora M., 153, 34 feet; Gonzalez de Agiieros, 66-67, 

 2-4 brazas; Moraleda, 351, up to 20 varas). Toward the end of the 

 eighteenth centuiy 7-plank dalcas are for the first time mentioned 

 (Gonzalez de Agiieros, 66; cf. also Moraleda, 350). 



The plank boat was first reported as seen within the Strait of 

 Magellan by Byron in 1765 (b, 79-81) and by the second de Cordoba 

 expedition in 1789 (Vargas Ponce, h, 59-60) — in both instances west 

 of Cape Upright, nei^r the western end of the Strait. ^ 



In the secon(l quarter of the last century the first English expedi- 

 tion under Capt. King encountered plank boats as far east as For- 

 tescue Bay and to the southeast off the Grafton Islands (King, 313, 

 377). The same expedition reported the largest Cliilotan dalcas as 

 being 35-40 feet long; a dalca encountered at Neesham Bay, near 

 Trinidad Channel, was upward of 23 feet long (King, 267) . Of special 



1 Brazada=l.G7 m. (An. hidr. mar. Chile, xi, 529). 



a De Brasses, in his account of Sarmiento's voyage taken from Argensola, wrote (I, 206): "lis virent 

 venir une pirogue qui est une esp^ce de barque plate sans vibord, faite de madriers joints ensemble, <fe 

 quelques fois tissue de joncs, ou composee de courges"— this was apparentlj' off the west coast of Hanover 

 Island, in what is now Alacalufan territory. The passage in Argensola reads (1609 ed., bk. 3, p. 117): 

 " Vieron venir por el agua una Piragua (es barquillo de maderos juntos, sin borde: texese algunas vezes de 

 juncos: y algunas de calaba<;'as)." The two latter sections of Argensola's explanation in parentheses are 

 evidence that the whole explanation is his own, and in fact the original passage in Sarmiento's own narra- 

 tive reads simply (122): "Y que habia visto venir una piragua con gente India." The term "piragua" 

 was used at the time to denote almost any kind of small craft (cf., e. g., Hernandez, xxv, xxix). 



64028°— Bull. 63—17 14 



