264 



whom they resemble in appearance, custom and language, these 

 people are extremely timid and very docile. They are remarka- 

 ble for their ingenuity, and readily acquire a knowledge of any 

 thing to which they apply themselves. There are among them 

 very expert carpenters, cabinet-makers, and farmers. In the 

 manufacturing of flax and wool they display much skill, and make 

 beautiful bed coverings itom these materials mixed with feathers, 

 and also some cloths, which they embroider with various colours. 

 They have a strong attachment to a sea life, and become excellent 

 sailors. Their barks, called piragues, consist of three or four 

 large planks sewed together, and caulked with a kind of oakum 

 or moss, collected from a shrub. JThese are very numerous through- 

 out the Archipelago, and are managed with sails and oars, and 

 voyages are often made in them as far as Conception. The Chi- 

 lotes educate their sons well, and accustom them to labour at an 

 early age. When taught, they make a rapid progress in learning. 

 Some years since, a school was established for them in a village 

 called Chonchi, into which one hundred and sixty were admitted, 

 and all of them in the space of a single year were taught to read 

 and write, the first rules of arithmetic, the doctrines of Christiani- 

 ty, and the Spanish language. They were easily converted to 

 Christianity, and they live in such strict regard to its duties, 

 that the purity of the primitive church appears to be revived in. 

 them. Some tribes of savages, have likewise settled in these 

 islands, who have been persuaded by the missionaries to leave the 

 Magellanic districts in order to establish themselves in the Archi- 

 pelago. 



The government is vested in a governor, who is dependant 

 upon the president of Chili, and resides at Chacao, a Cabildo, 

 or magistrate, with his Prefect, or Corregido!'^ m the city of 

 Castro, who have conjunctively cognisance of the private suits 

 of the Indians, and a commandant in the island of Calbuco, 

 situated in the novthermost part of the Gulph. The Archipelago 

 is divided into three parishes, dependant upon the diocese of Con- 

 ception, the bishops of which, except one and a hishoTp in fiar tibus, 

 never go there, because of the dai^er of the voyage. It contains 

 seventy-ñve towns, mostly inhabited by Indians, who are under 

 the govej nment of their Ulmenes, in each of which, the Jesuits 

 had a misionary church. The two principal places are Castro and 

 Chacao. 



Castro, the capital of the whole Archipelago, is situated in the 

 eastern part of the great island, upon an arm or gulph of the sea, 

 in 42. 58. degrees of latitude, and 303. 15. of longitude. The houses, 



