470 SOUTH AMERICA— THE ANDES REGIONS. 



dealers being their confederates in these plundering expeditions. The animals 

 were thus procured at a low price, and generally sold at a large profit at the 

 famous horse and cattle fairs of Chilian. 



Tierra del Fuego is best suited for this industr}^, and here numerous cattle- 

 farms have already been established along the shores of Magellan Straits and 

 the lateral inlets. But in Fuegia scarcely any agricultural produce can be raised 

 except some vegetables, especially potatoes, and a few fruits such as strawberries. 

 All attempts to acclimatise cereals have failed, owing to the fierce south-western 

 gales and the morning frosts, which are felt even in January, which is the mid- 

 summer of these austral lands. 



But while agriculture makes rapid progress, the condition of the peasant 

 classes has perhaps deteriorated. Owning no laud, they are obliged to seek 

 employment under the great territorial proprietors, who possess vast domains of 

 from 100,000 to 500,000 acres. With low wages, wretched dwellings, insufficient 

 and often unwholesome food, the rate of mortalit}^ is naturally excessive amongst 

 the peones or huasos ("Hodges" or "farm labourers"). Amongst them the 

 inquilinos (" tenants ") constitute a sort of aristocracy, because, although receiving 

 less pay, they are provided with cabins and a plot of land, always located on the 

 boundaries, in order to defend the estate from marauders. 



This system of large domains, combined with the extremely low rate of wages, 

 bars all competition on the part of German, Swiss, Italian or other foreign 

 peasantry, who must have at least a " living wage." The European squatters 

 have to live apart on small holdings assigned to them by the Government in the 

 still thinly-peopled southern provinces. But most of the recent arrivals have a 

 hard battle to fight before they can acquire even a moderate degree of comfort. 

 Despised or hated as gringos by the native populations, often ill-treated by the 

 Government underlings, cheated by the dealers and middlemen, they often run 

 great risk of falling into the helpless condition of the peones. Their plight is at 

 times even worse, for they lack the power of endurance which can be acquired 

 only by long suffering. 



The public domain is disposed of at an average rate of about 125,000 acres a 

 year, yielding a revenue of from £240,000 to £320,000. In the Magellanic 

 regions, however, the lands are not sold, but leased in very large lots for a period 

 of twenty years. 



Mineral Resources — The Nitrates. 



The mineral resources of Chili surpass even those of the neighbouring Peru- 

 vian and Bolivian States, famous as they are for their mineral treasures. It 

 should, however, be noticed that a large part of the Chilian mines lies in territory 

 but recently wrested from these two central Andean republics. The annexed 

 provinces may be regarded as one vast deposit of silver, nitrates, copper, borax 

 and salt. 



Although one of the least widely diffused metals in Chili, gold has yielded 



