1835. 



RELIGION— KINDNESS— TRADE. 



381 



more often than any clear reference to our Saviour or the 

 Almighty. 



In the foregoing remarks on the Roman Catholic priests at 

 Chiloe whom I conversed with and heard much about between 

 18S9 and 1835, I do not include all. There was certainly one 

 man (I hope there were more) whom I believe to have been as 

 sincerely pious, and therefore good, as any Roman Catholic, 

 but there were others whose lives scandalized even their nomi- 

 nal Christianity. 



The foreigners settled in Chiloe of course resemble their 

 own countrymen as to morals and habits, not being likely to 

 take example from the Indians : and the Creoles adopt their 

 ideas as hastily as our milliners adopt French fashions. But 

 there is a virtue in Chiloe, which if sins could be atoned for 

 by the good works of man alone, would go far towards pur-- 

 chasing good treatment and very slight purgatory for the souls 

 of Chilotes : I mean the warm-hearted kindness shewn to one 

 another, and particularly to strangers. Conspicuous as such 

 a feeling of hospitality and disinterested good-nature is among 

 the descendants of Spaniards in South America, it is no where 

 more to be observed than in Chiloe. 



Increased intercourse with other countries is annually dimi- 

 nishing the local peculiarities of Chilote society, a remarkable 

 one being that of transacting mercantile business by barter, 

 for want of current coin. Planks of alerse, indigo, tobacco, 

 pepper, salt, &c. were substitutes for silver and gold in 1829, 

 excepting among a very few foreigners or comparatively rich 

 descendants of Spaniards and Creoles. At that time it was 

 extremely difficult to get a few dollars in exchange for a bill 

 upon good security at Valparaiso, even at the exorbitant price 

 of sixty-pence English for each dollar. In 1834, so much 

 had the state of trade improved at San Carlos, that there was 

 no difficulty in obtaining as many dollars as we wanted for forty- 

 eight pence each. 



In the first volume most of the products of Chiloe are men- 

 tioned, except fish and coal. Of the shell-fish there is a full 



