THE VOYAGE OF THE BEAGLE 293 



of view, three great active volcanoes, each about seven thou- 

 sand feet high. In addition to this, far to the south, there 

 were other lofty cones covered with snow, which, although 

 not known to be active, must be in their origin volcanic 

 The line of the Andes is not, in this neighbourhood nearly 

 so elevated as in Chile; neither does it appear to form so 

 perfect a barrier between the regions of the earth. This 

 great range, although running in a straight north and south 

 line, owing to an optical deception, always appeared more or 

 less curved; for the lines drawn from each peak to the 

 beholders eye, necessarily converged like the radii of a 

 semicircle, and as it was not possible (owing to the clearness 

 of the atmosphere and the absence of all intermediate ob- 

 jects) to judge how far distant the farthest peaks were off, 

 they appeared to stand in a flattish semicircle. 

 ^ Landing at midday, we saw a family of pure Indian extrac- 

 tion. The father was singularly like York Minster ; and some 

 of the younger boys, with their ruddy complexions, might 

 have been mistaken for Pampas Indians. Everything I have 

 seen, convinces me of the close connexion o- the different 

 American tribes, who nevertheless speak distinct languages. 

 This party could muster but little Spanish, and talked to each 

 other in their own tongue. It is a pleasant thing to see the 

 aborigines advanced to the same degree of civilization, how- 

 ever low that may be, which their white conquerors have 

 attained. More to the south we saw many pure Indians: 

 indeed, all the inhabitants of some of the islets retain their 

 Indian surnames. In the census of 1832, there were in Chiloe 

 and its dependencies forty-two thousand souls; the greater 

 number oi these appear to be of mixed blood. Eleven thou- 

 sand retain their Indian surnames, but it is probable that not 

 nearly all of these are of a pure breed. Their manner of life 

 is the same with that of the other poor inhabitants, and they 

 are all Christians; but it is said that they yet retain some 

 strange superstitious ceremonies, and that they pretend to 

 hold communication with the devil in certain caves. For- 

 merly, every one convicted of this offence was sent to the 

 Inquisition at Lima. Many of the inhabitants who are not 

 included in the eleven thousand with Indian surnames, can- 

 not be distinguished by their appearance from Indians. 



