ii 



what a nation can perform when animated by a spirit 

 of liberty, and determined upon freedom or death. 

 The Araucanians, it is true, to their high sense of 

 independence and unyielding courage, had the good 

 fortune of uniting a system of tactics so excellent as 

 even to excite the admiration of their enemies, and 

 to this in a great measure may be ascribed their suc- 

 cessfully opposing, with far inferior arms, a powerful 

 and disciplined foe. 



Whether the peculiar character of the Araucani- 

 ans proceeds from the influence of climate combi- 

 ning with moral causes, or is wholly derived from 

 their institutions and free form of government ; 

 whether, with the Chilians in general, they arc 

 of foreign origin and a distinct race from the other 

 natives of America, the remains, as the author sup- 

 poses, of a great and powerful people, who had 

 attained a high degree of civilization, and possessed 

 a polished and copious language ; or whether their 

 agricultural knowledge, military skill, and the cul- 

 tivation of their idiom, are owing merely to fortui- 

 tous circumstances, are points of curious inquiry, 

 and sqch as will afford an am.ple field for conjecture. 



The author of the present work, Don Juan Igna- 

 tius Molina, was a native of Chili, distinguished for 

 his literary acquirements, and particularly his know- 

 ledge of natural history, large collections in which 

 he had made during his residence in that country. 

 On the dissolution of the celebrated order of the 

 Jesuits, of which he was a member, he shared the 

 general fate of that community, in being expelled 

 from the territories of Spain, and was at the same 



) ■ 



