233 



the human species, M'ill explain the rapid inci'case of 

 population, which has taken place within the last 

 thirty years. 



The inhabitants of Chili are either aboriginal, or 

 the descendants of Europeans or Africans. Tliose 

 descended from Europeans are well shaped, particu- 

 larly the women, some of whom are very beautifu]. 

 The aboris^ines form but one nation divided into 

 many tribes, all of whom speak the same language, 

 which they call Chiliduga, or the Chilian tongue. 

 This language is soft, harmonious, expressive and 

 regular, and possesses a great number of words not 

 only expressive of natural objects, but also of moral 

 and metaphysical ideas. The colour of the natives 

 is a reddish or coppery brown, excepting the Ba- 

 roanes, who live in the midst of the Araucanian pro- 

 vinces, in the thirty-ninth degree of latitude ; these 

 are white, and as well formed as the northern Euro- 

 peans. Nothing appears to me to be more ridiculous 

 than the assertion of several authors, that all the 

 Americans resemble each other, and th^it from seeing' 

 one you are able to judge of the whole. These gentle- 

 men seem to have been led into this error by a very 

 slight resemblance arising from their colour. It is only 

 necessary to see different individuals to be convinced 

 of the contrary. A Chilian is as easily distinguish- 

 able from a Peruvian as an Italian from a German. I 

 have seen natives of Cujo, of Paraguay, and of the 

 Straits of Magellan, and I can confidently affirm that 

 their countenances present a very striking diiference. 

 The Chilians, like the Tartars, have but little beard, 

 Vol. I. li 



