186 



iliey also raise great quantities of barley, beans, 

 peas, quïnoa and potatoes which are the largest and 

 best of any in Chili. From the excessive moisture 

 of the atmosphere the grape never acquires suffi- 

 cient maturity to be made into wine, but its want is 

 supplied by various kinds of cider, obtained from 

 apples^and other wild fruits of the country. 



The necessity that they are under of often going 

 from one island to another, where the sea is far from 

 deserving the name of the Pacific, renders the Chi- 

 lotes excellent sailors. Their piragues are composed 

 of three or five large planks sewed together, and 

 caulked with a species of moss that grows on a 

 shrub. These arc in great numbers throughout the 

 whole of the Archipelago, and are managed with 

 sails^ and oars, and in these frail skiffs the natives 

 will frequently venture as far as Conception.* 



These people are fond of fishing, an occupation to 

 which they are led from the great variety of fish 

 with which their coasts abound. Large quantities of 

 these are dried and sent to foreign countries. They 

 likewise dry the testaceous kinds, particularly the 

 conchs, the clamps and the piures. For this pur- 

 pose they arrange them in a long trench, covering 

 them with the large leaves of the panke tinctoria» 

 Over these they place stones on which they make a 

 hot fire for several hours. They then take the roast- 

 ed animals from their shells, and string them upon 



* It will not be improper to observe here, that the Indians who 

 form the principal part of the sailors of the South Seas are very 

 active, docile and industrious, and excellent seamen for the&e mild 

 and temperate climates Spanish Trann. ¡ 



