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APPENDIX. 



passage was too low for him to enter otherwise. After having pro- 

 ceeded a considerable way thus, he arrived at a spacious chamber ; 

 but whether hollowed out by hands, or natural, he could not be 

 positive. The light into this chamber was conveyed through a hole 

 at the top ; in the midst was a kind of bier, made of sticks laid 

 crossways, supported by props about five feet in height. Upon this 

 bier, five or six bodies were extended, which, in appearance, had been 

 deposited there a long time ; but had suffered no decay or diminu- 

 tion. They were without covering, and the flesh of these bodies was 

 become perfectly dry and hard ; which, whether done by any art or 

 secret the savages may be possessed of, or occasioned by any drying 

 virtue in the air of the cave, could not be guessed. Indeed, the sur- 

 geon finding nothing there to eat, which was the chief inducement 

 for his creeping into the hole, did not amuse himself with long dis- 

 quisitions, or make that accurate examination which he would have 

 done at another time ; but, crawling out as he came in, he went and 

 told the first he met of what he had seen. Some had the curiosity 

 to go in likewise. I had forgot to mention that there was another 

 range of bodies, deposited in the same manner, upon another plat- 

 form under the bier. Probably this was the burial-place of their 

 great men, called caciques ; but from whence they could be brought, 

 we were utterly at a loss to conceive, there being no traces of any 

 Indian settlement hereabout. We had seen no savage since we left 

 the island, or observed any marks in the coves or bays to the north- 

 ward, where we had touched, such as fire-places, or old wigwams, 

 which they never fail of leaving behind them ; and it is very pro- 

 bable, from the violent seas that are always beating upon this coast, 

 its deformed aspect, and the very swampy soil that every where 

 borders upon it, that it is httle frequented." 



** A few days after our return, the mystery of the nailing up of 

 the hut, and what had been doing by the Indians upon the island in 

 our absence was partly explained to us ; for about the fifteenth day 

 after there came a party of Indians to the island in two canoes, 

 who were not a little, surprised to find us here again. Among these 

 was an Indian of the tribe of the Chonos, who live in the neighbour- 

 hood of Chiloe. He talked the Spanish language, but with that 

 savage accent which renders it almost unintelligible to any but those 

 who are adepts in that language. He was likewise a cacique, or 



