4 



midable. Of course, M. Buffon has been led into 

 an error in asserting, in his treatise on man, that the 

 ChiUans are accustomed to enlarge their ears. 



Their complexion, like that of the other Ameri- 

 can nations, is of a reddish brown, but it is of a 

 clearer hue, and readily changes to white. A tribe 

 who dwell in the province of Baroa are of a clear 

 white and red, without any intermixture of the cop- 

 per colour. As they differ in no other respect from 

 the other ChiHans, this variety may be owing to some 

 peculiar influence of their climate, or to the greater 

 degree of civilization which they possess ; it is, how- 

 ever, attributed by the Spanish writers to the pri- 

 soners of that nation, who w^ere confined in this pro- 

 vince during the unfortunate war of the sixteenth 

 century. But as the Spanish prisoners were equally 

 distributed among the other provinces of their con- 

 querors, none of whose inhabitants are white, this 

 opinion would seem to be unfounded. Besides, as 

 the first Spaniards who came to Chili were all from 

 the southern provinces of Spain, where the ruddy 

 complexion is rare, their posterity would not have 

 , exhibited so great a diiferencc. 



On examining the harmony and richness of their 

 language, we are naturally led to conclude that the 

 Chilians must have, in former times, possessed a 

 much greater degree of civilization than at present; 

 or, at least, that they are the remains of a great and 

 illustrious nation, ruined by some of those physical 

 or moral revolutions so common to our globe. 

 Tiie improvement and perfection of language con- 



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