27 



coming from the infected district to perform a rigo- 

 rous quarantine, and by that means have preserved 

 themselves from the ravages of that destructive 

 malady. Whenever the Indians suspect any one to 

 be attacked with it, which sometimes happens from 

 their intercourse with the Spaniards, they burn him 

 in his own hut, by means of fiery arrows. By this 

 method, which is truly a violent one, they have 

 hitherto prevented its progress, and been exempted , 

 from this disorder. 



A physician of the country, Matthias Verdugo, a 

 monk of the order of St. John, was the first who, in 

 1761, introduced inoculation, and since that period it 

 has been practised with great success. Tertian and 

 quartan fevers are also unknown there ; and the in- 

 habitants of the neighbouring provinces who are 

 afflicted with them, are accustomed to come into 

 Chili for the benefit of their health, where they very 

 soon recover. A violent fever, accompanied with 

 delirium is sometimes prevalent among the country 

 people, particularly in summer and in autumn. 

 This complaint which the Indians cure with certain 

 herbs, whose properties they have learnt by ex- 

 perience, bears the name of chavo longo ^ which 

 signifies the disorder of the head. The venereal 

 disease is but little known in the Spanish settle- 

 ments, and still less among the Indians. As the 

 last have no word in their language expressive of 

 it, there is every reason to presume that this malady 

 was not known among them until after the arrival of 

 the Spaniards. The rickets, a disease which for 

 three centuries has been such a scourge to Europe, 



