A LONGITUDINAL JOURNEY THROUGH CHILE 



249 



tween. A day is often consumed in de- 

 termining the final victor. 



There is no more exciting sport for 

 riders, horses, and spectators than a good 

 topio match. 



The Chileans have never cared for 

 bull-fights or cock-fights, favorite sports 

 with others of Spanish blood. Among 

 transplanted sports, the educated class 

 has taken to football, tennis, and polo, 

 but is not enthusiastic over golf or base- 

 ball. The national dance, the cueca, once 

 popular throughout the country, is still in 

 vogue in many of the villages. 



We sped southward through the irri- 

 gated bottom lands of central Chile, 

 with their refreshing alfalfa fields, their 

 browsing cattle. It is a country of large 

 estates, where the roto toils for the mas- 

 ter — the ancient feudal system. 



concepcion, chile's third city. 



Few foreigners stop between Santiago 

 and Concepcion, a day or a night journey 

 on the express. Concepcion, Chile's third 

 city in importance, is on the north shore 

 of the Bio-Bio River, not far from the 

 sea. 



The Bio-Bio, the largest river on the 

 west coast of South America, was long 

 the dividing line between civilized Span- 

 ish Chile and the territory of the in- 

 domitable Araucanian Indians, who for 

 more than three centuries defied their 

 country's invaders. As a frontier post 

 and the seat of innumerable earthquakes, 

 Concepcion has known turbulent days. 



Xine miles from Concepcion lies its 

 seaport, Talcahuano, with the best har- 

 bor in southern Chile. It is the seat of 

 the whaling industry, whales being found 

 nearer the shore here than in most parts 

 of the world. 



Southward lie the ports of Coronel 

 and Lota, where vast coal mines ex- 

 tend under the sea. Although Chile is 

 the principal coal-producing country of 

 South America, with an estimated coal 

 reserve of two billion tans, only one and 

 a half million tons were produced last 

 season, great quantities of coal being 

 imported from the United States, Great 

 Britain and Australia and fuel oil from 

 Mexico. 



When we crossed the Bio-Bio River 

 we entered that romantic territory known 

 to the Chileans as the Frontera. Within 



the memory of the living, white men 

 might not enter this region of great for- 

 ests and noble rivers. It was the domain 

 of the Araucanians. 



We dropped off in Temuco, to study 

 and photograph this once strongest and 

 most valorous of all South American 

 tribes, for centuries unconquered by Inca, 

 Spaniard, or Chilean. It was left to evil 

 old John Barleycorn at last to batter 

 down their splendid resistance. 



Nowadays the Indians and Chilean 

 peons cannot get their drink too strong. 

 They mix the native aji, a very hot pep- 

 per, with crude brandy to give it suffi- 

 cient "pep." 



There are about 100,000 Araucanians 

 left in southern Chile. They call them- 

 selves Mapuche, which means "people of 

 the country." They live in no particular 

 place, being scattered through the forest 

 from the ocean to the Andes ; but there 

 are more of them around the town of 

 Temuco than in any other section. Here 

 they farm on a small scale, raising wheat, 

 corn, potatoes, and apples ; some raise 

 cattle. In the mountains to the east they 

 raise cattle and sheep. 



Formerly these Indians had a much 

 wider range, extending across the Andes 

 toward the Atlantic. Some of their rela- 

 tives, now differing widely in customs, 

 still live on the Argentine side of the 

 mountains. 



The Incas of Peru failed to subjugate 

 these people and gave them the name of 

 Araucanians, derived from the Quichua 

 word aucca, meaning rebel ; but vestiges 

 of Peruvian culture somehow drifted 

 down to them. From the Incas they 

 learned the art of weaving, and woolen 

 blankets replaced the old guanaco-skin 

 garments. 



The guanaco, now found on the Pata- 

 gonian plains east of the Andes, still 

 strays occasionally, through some low- 

 lying mountain pass, into Chilean terri- 

 tory. 



The black and white designs on mod- 

 ern Mapuche ponchos remind me of cer- 

 tain ancient Central American designs. 

 The mass of silver ornaments still worn 

 by Mapuche women show Incan influ- 

 ence — the silver figures of llamas and the 

 silver pins fastening the blanket across 

 the woman's breast (the tupu of the 

 Incas). 



