1835. FEATURES — DRESS — FEELING. 399 



intelligence that at once said, " we are restrained, but not sub- 

 dued." Their countenances were less wide, and more swarthy, 

 than those to which our eyes had been accustomed ; and they 

 eyed us with a sinister although resolute glance, which seemed 

 to ask whether we were also come to try for a share of their 

 country. These men were of a middle stature ; and formed 

 more slightly than those of the south. They were all tolerably 

 clothed in blue cloth of their own manufacture ; and the men 

 of different tribes were distinguished by a slight difference in 

 dress ; the Juncos, who live south of Valdivia, wearing a sort 

 of petticoat, instead of trowsers, while the Rancos, another 

 subdivision, wore short loose breeches. In other respects they 

 are similar, as to outward appearance, and their language is 

 that of all southern Chile.* These J uncos and Rancos are but 

 portions of that collection of tribes usually known among Eu- 

 ropeans by the celebrated name of Araucanians ; but among the 

 natives, by the terms Molu-che, Huilli-che, &c. I certainly gazed 

 at these Indians with excessive interest, while I reflected on the 

 multiplied sufferings undergone by their ancestors — the num- 

 bers that perished in mines — or in trying to defend their coun- 

 try — and the insidious attempts made to thin their numbers by 

 frequent intoxication, if not by introducing deadly disease.-j- 



To keep these Indians on peaceable terms, and in order to 

 have early intelligence of any general combination, the Chilians 

 maintain among them ' capitanes de los amigos,' whose apparent 

 office is to take the part of an Indian, if he should be ill- 

 treated by a Chilian (of Spanish descent), and to interpret 

 between parties who wish to barter goods. There is also a 

 ' comisario de los Indios,'' who is a centre of reference for the 

 ' capitanes,' and who ought to be the friend and protector of 

 the aborigines. Many tribes, however, will have nothing to say 

 to either the commissary or his captains, seeing through their 

 object, and detesting even the descendant of a Spaniard too 

 deeply to admit any one of that abhorred race into their 

 territory. About Valdivia there are only a few leagues of 

 ground held by Chile, excepting which all that magnificent 



* The I-Iuilli-che. 



t By giving tliem infected things. 



