350 THE NATIVE INDIANS. 



they exhibited, have driven the Spaniards from the country. 

 The rebellion was put down with the atrocious cruelties to 

 which the Spaniards have invariably subjected this unhappy 

 race. 



On the eastern slopes of the Andes are found savage tribes, 

 wearing few or no clothes, painting their skins, and orna- 

 menting: themselves with the coloured feathers of birds. 

 Towards the southern end of Chili, the fierce Araucanians 

 inhabit the mountains. Beyond them are the large-limbed 

 Patajronians, clothed in skins ; and at the extreme end, the 



D 7 J ' 



wretched Fuegans, living in nearly a state of nature, on seals 

 and fish. 



The race supposed to have been the most civilized before 

 the time of the Incas were the Aymaras, whose descendants 

 still inhabit the shores of Lake Titicaca. Their language 

 differs from the Quichua, though evidently a sister-tongue. 



This expanse of water, already mentioned, is about eighty 

 miles long and forty broad. Numerous rivers flow into it ; 

 in some places it is very deep, but in others so shallow that 

 there is only just room to force the balsas through the rushes. 

 It abounds in fish of peculiar form, and in aquatic birds. 

 Several islands rise above its surface. That of Titicaca, from 

 which it takes its name, is most celebrated. 



During; one of the several occasions when the Indians rose 

 against their taskmasters to free themselves from the mita — • 

 a system which compelled one-seventh part of the male popu- 

 lation to labour in the mines — the lake, for a long time, 

 afforded them a place of refuge. In some places along the 

 shores, beds of rushes exist nine leagues long and one broad. 

 In the midst of them there is an island, to which lanes were 

 cut through the tangled mass. This w T atery labyrinth was 



