Spanish America, Vol. II (of 2)

Battle succeeded battle, with no extraordinary result on either side, till the Dutch made a second attempt on the islands, in which they were repulsed as before, the natives again mistaking them for Spaniards.

Some wars took place after this, till the arrival of Don Francisco de Zuniga, Marquess of Baydes, who assumed the government in 1640. By his exertions, the preliminaries of a peace were arranged and finally settled on the 6th of January 1641, between Lincopichion, the Chilese general, and the Marquess, by which the two nations mutually agreed to suspend all hostilities, and the Araucanians, on their part, engaged to prevent any foreign power whatever from landing in their territories. In 1643, the Dutch made a third and last attempt to colonize this country, by building two forts, and taking possession of Valdivia; but being deprived of provisions by the Cunches, and hearing that a powerful army of Spaniards and Araucanians were marching against them, they evacuated Chili.

The peace thus happily settled, lasted until 1655, when war again broke out with all its former fury, being carried on by both parties for ten years with equal spirit. At the end of this period, Meneses a Portuguese noble, who held the reins of government, again persuaded the turbulent natives to consent to a peace. This was more lasting than the former, and the history of Chili presents nothing worthy of notice till the commencement of the eighteenth century, when the inhabitants of the islands of Chiloe revolted, but were soon quelled. The famous war of the succession happening in Europe at this epoch created much internal discussion in the Spanish colonies; several governors were removed for favouring the Bourbon party, but when a prince of that house was at last placed on the Spanish throne, the ports of Chili were filled with French ships, and from 1707, to 1717, many persons of that nation settled in the country.

About this time, the Araucanians began to show some symptoms of an inclination to break the treaty, and in 1722, they elected Vilumilla their toqui or war-chief. So actively did this chief employ himself, that he gained to his party, nearly the whole of the Indians from Peru to the river Biobio, causing them to agree to rise against the whites, at a certain moment, which was to take place when they should see the watch-fires on the mountains: accordingly on the 9th of March 1723, these fires blazed from Copiapo to Itata, but from some reason, which has not been related, the natives of the northern provinces did not join, and his scheme was put into execution by the Araucanians only, who took some places, and then made overtures of peace.

The year 1742 was famous for the arrival of Don Josef Manso, the new governor, who collected all the scattered colonists, and placed them in several cities which he founded, and which are now the capitals, and chief towns of the different provinces.

His successors continued this line of conduct, and in 1753, several new towns were built, and Don Domingo Rosa sent a colony to occupy the island of Juan Fernandez, which had remained uninhabited till that time.

In 1770, the governor, Don Antonio Gil Gonzago, created a new war, by endeavouring to force the Araucanians to live in towns, giving them materials to build with, appointing workmen to assist them, and sending a force to compel them to do so, and entering into a treaty with the Pehuenches, he attacked them on all sides. The Pehuenches were defeated, and instead of becoming the eternal enemies of their conquerors, they have since that time been their most faithful allies. The Spanish governor being thwarted by these warlike people in all his schemes, a peace was resorted to after a dreadful battle in 1773, and on this occasion the Araucanians insisted on being allowed to retain a resident agent at Santiago, which was granted.

A native of Ireland, Don Ambrosio Higgins, was appointed captain-general of Chili, in 1787, and being still at peace with the natives, this governor built several new towns, opened the mines, and encouraged commerce and agriculture.

In his government, the regular militia of Chili, amounted to 15,856 men. The veteran troops, or royal guard, was 1976 men; and beside these, each city has an armed force, with a local militia, the former being kept in constant pay.

Since the year 1792, several governors have presided over Chili, and nothing material occurs in its history, until 1810, when a partial revolution took place. Spain being overrun by the French armies, the creoles of this country judged it a favourable moment to throw off their allegiance, and accordingly, being the most numerous, they effected their object with little trouble. Since that period, the royal armies have subjected the kingdom, which has been thrown into fresh convulsions by the appearance of San Martin, with a detachment from the insurgent force of Buenos Ayres; at present the government is decidedly Spanish, though the capital and several strong places are occupied by the revolutionists, but very little is known concerning what particular cities, towns and forts they hold.

CLIMATE, FEATURES, &c

The climate of Chili is probably superior to that of any other country in Spanish America, as the air is remarkably salubrious, the inhabitants being troubled with few contagious diseases, and the extremes of heat and cold are not felt in continental Chili. The spring commences in September, summer in December, autumn in March, and winter in June. From September till March, south-east or south winds prevail, during which time the sky is clear and serene, but the north and north-west winds regularly occasion rain, and chiefly occur during the remaining months.

A singular circumstance attends the difference of climate between the countries lying on the eastern and western sides of the Chilian Andes; for though the winter is the rainy season of Chili, at that time Tucuman and Cuyo enjoy their finest weather. In the northern districts of Chili rain seldom falls; whilst in the southern parts and in the isles it is frequent. The Chilian Andes being very high, and many of them entering the regions of eternal snow, the lands lying in their neighbourhood are subject to occasional frosts, and the mountains themselves are impassable from April to November, on account of the frequent and overwhelming snow storms.

The want of rain in the northern provinces is supplied by abundant dews, and fogs are common on the coasts, but they are never of long continuance. On the whole it may be stated, that the climate of this country is temperate, and favourable for bringing forward the productions of its fertile soil.

This soil yields by cultivation all the grains common to Europe, and in the most uncultivated parts, is covered with a profuse and luxuriant vegetation. The crops are usually from sixty to eighty for one; but in the rich valleys, this proportion is greatly exceeded; but the sea-coast being the least productive, the harvests there do not give more than forty or fifty to one.

The grains most commonly sown are maize, wheat, barley and rye. Hemp and flax give abundant returns, but are not so much attended to.

European fruit trees find a genial clime in Chili, and in the southern provinces are woods of apple and quince trees, of several miles in extent, from which fruit of excellent quality is gathered. Pears, cherries, peaches, of which there are fourteen sorts, some weighing sixteen ounces; oranges, lemons and citrons, melons, &c., are every where to be seen in the fields growing without culture, and each in their kind yielding delicious fruit. Vines grow wild in the forests, and those which are planted give a red wine not inferior to the produce of any European vintage.

The olive trees thrive exceedingly, some of them reaching to a great height, and being three feet in diameter.

In the northern provinces the tropical fruits and plants grow in the greatest abundance; of these the sugar cane, the cotton plant, the banana, the pine apple, the manioc, jalap, pimento, indigo, contrayerva, tobacco, sarsaparilla, guiacum, cassia, tamarinds, pepper, canello, or white cinnamon, cocoa nut and date are the most common.

Besides the plants common to the other kingdoms of America, and the luxuriancy with which all kinds of European herbs, trees, grains and fruits, grow in Chili, this country has a long catalogue of vegetables peculiar to itself.

The plains, the valleys, and the lower mountains, are covered with beautiful trees, and with an herbage so high that it conceals the sheep which graze in it, and 3000 species of non-descript plants were collected by an able naturalist, who has enumerated the properties of some of them; of these the most singular are, a large strawberry, which is cultivated for the table, and also grows wild; the madi yielding a fine oil; relbun, a species of madder; panke, which gives a good black dye; the cachan-lahuen, a balsam equal to that of Peru; and the viravira, useful in intermittent fevers. Various kinds of creeping plants, whose flowers afford the most beautiful decorations to the gardens and forests; and the puya, whose bark is used for the same purposes as cork.

Ninety-seven kinds of trees are found in the Chilian forests, of which thirteen only shed their leaves; so that an everlasting verdure presents itself; of those resembling the European, the cypress, pine, oak, laurel and cedar, are varieties of the same kinds. The other most curious ones are the theige or Chili willow, which yields a great quantity of manna; the floripondio, whose flowers diffuse so great a fragrance that one is sufficient to perfume a garden; the Chilian orange, whose wood is esteemed by turners, on account of its fine yellow colour; the boighe, or white cinnamon, resembling the cinnamon of Ceylon, and esteemed a sacred tree by the Araucanians, who always present a branch of it to the embassadors, on concluding a peace. The luma, a myrtle which grows to the height of forty feet, and whose trunk affords the best wood for the coachmakers of Peru; the quillia, from whose bark a soap is manufactured; the palma Chilensis, or Chilian cocoa nut, whose fruit, though resembling that of the tropic nut, is not larger than an apple; the gevuin, which is a sort of walnut tree, and the pihuen, a sort of fir or pine, which is the most beautiful tree in Chili. Its trunk is generally eighty feet in height, and eight in girth; the limbs which branch from it begin at half its height, and leave it alternately by fours, decreasing in length as they approach the top. The fruit, like that of the pine, is very large, and has two kernels, which in taste nearly resembles the chestnut; a gum, used as frankincense, exudes from the bark; and its timber is highly useful.

Chili is as singular in its landscape as any, and perhaps more so than most other parts of America, as on the east it is shut out from La Plata by the Andes, which, rising to an enormous height, has its surface covered with pinnacles, which are in general volcanic. This Cordillera scarcely ever depresses itself in its course through the country, till it approaches Peru; and it seems probable that it attains a greater elevation in this kingdom than in Quito; no actual measurement has however been made of its highest summits, though they are well known by name. The Chilian Andes are about 120 miles in breadth, taking a direction from the Archipelago of Chonos to the frontiers of Tucuman, and consisting of an uninterrupted chain of ridges, constantly losing themselves in the snowy regions of the air; their sides are interspersed with fruitful valleys and dreadful precipices, and give birth to rivers, exhibiting the most beautiful and the most terrific features of nature.

The roads leading from Chili to Tucuman and Cuyo are not more than eight or nine in number, of which that leading from Aconcagua to Cuyo is the best. It is bordered on one side by the deep beds of the Chilé and the Mendoza rivers; on the other by lofty and impracticable precipices; and is so narrow that in many places the rider is obliged to descend from his mule and proceed on foot; nor does a year ever pass without some of those animals being precipitated into the thundering streams below.

The precipices which accompany this route occasionally open and display beautiful and fertile plains. In these places are seen the tambos of the Incas, only one of which has been destroyed. This road requires eight days to pass in good weather, but in winter it is totally impracticable. That portion of the Andes between the 24° and 33° south latitude is wholly desert, and the remainder, as far as the 45°, is inhabited by the Chiquillanes, Pehuenches, Puelches, and Huilliches, tribes who are in amity with the Araucanians.

The Chilian Andes form three parallel ridges, the centre being the most elevated, and flanked by the others at 20 or 30 miles distance, and they are connected by transversal branches.

The highest mountains of this chain are the Manflos, in 28° 45' south latitude, the Tupungato, in 33° 24', the Descabezado, in 35°, the Blanquillo, in 35° 4', the Longavi, in 35° 30', the Chillan, in 36°, and the immense Corcobado, in 43°; and it is said that all of these are more than 20,000 feet above the level of the sea, the lowest part of the chain being in the province of Copiapo.

This Cordillera has no fewer than fourteen volcanoes, in a constant state of eruption, and a much greater number discharging only smoke. Fortunately for the inhabitants, these are, with the exception of two, all situated on the very ridge of the Andes, and thus cover only a small space in their immediate vicinity with the devastating effects of the heated substances which are thrown from them. The greatest eruption ever known in this country was on the 3d of December 1760, when the volcano Peteroa burst forth by a new crater, and rent asunder a mountain in its vicinity.

It formed a lake by stopping up the passage of a considerable river, and was heard throughout the whole country.

The two volcanoes which are not on the ridge of the Andes, are that at the mouth of the river Rapel, which is inconsiderable, and ejects only vapour; and that of Villarica, near a lake of the same name in Arauco.

Villarica is so high, that its summit is covered with snow, and may be seen at 150 miles distance. Its base, which is fourteen miles in circuit, is covered with thick forests, and many rivers flow from it; and though in a constant state of activity, its eruptions are never very violent. Although the Chilese seldom suffer from the obvious effects of these volcanoes, their country is subjected to earthquakes, caused, in all probability, by the struggle in the bosom of the earth amid the combustible materials which are striving to vent themselves.

These earthquakes generally occur three or four times a year, but they are seldom of material consequence, and are not dreaded as in Peru and Caraccas. Since the arrival of the Spaniards only five violent shocks have occurred, in 1520, 1647; 1657, in 1730, when the sea rose over the walls of Concepcion, and in 1751, when that city was destroyed by the ocean; but only seven persons perished who were invalids and unable to move. These shocks are usually preceded by a noise under ground, which gives sufficient warning to the people to leave their houses, and as the earth rarely opens, few buildings are overthrown; and the towns are erected with such broad streets, and with such spacious courts and gardens behind the houses, that even should these fall, the people are safe.

Rivers.– Chili possesses more than 120 rivers, but as the distance from the Andes to the sea, is in no instance more than 300 miles, none of them are very large: they are however of great importance to the country, by affording the means of irrigating the fields, and of internal navigation.

The finest rivers are the Maule, the Cauten, the Tolten, Valdivia, Chaivin, Rio Bueno, and the Sinfondo.

The only lake of importance is that of Villarica, or Laquen, which is 72 miles in circumference. Sheets of fresh and salt water are common throughout Chili. In the marshes of the maritime ports are the Lakes Bucalemu, Caguil, and Bogerecu, which are salt, and from twelve to twenty miles in length. Salt springs are common in Coquimbo and Copiapo, and in the latter province is the Rio Salado, which, rising in the Andes, runs into the Pacific, and leaves a fine crystallized salt on its banks, which is so pure as not to need any preparation for use.

Mineral springs and thermal waters also are common.

Mines.– The mineral kingdom is not less rich in Chili than the vegetable one is. It produces all the known semi-metals; they are, however, neglected by the Spaniards, with the exception of mercury, so necessary for the refining of gold and silver: but the government having forbidden the two richest mines of quicksilver to be worked, that substance is only procured in a small quantity.

Lead is found in all the silver mines, and in various parts it is worked for its own value, in others on account of the silver it always contains. In the provinces of Copiapo, Coquimbo, Aconcagua and Huilquilemu are rich iron mines, and the sands of the rivers and sea yield this metal abundantly.

Tin is also plentiful in the sandy mountains; and mines of copper are scattered over the whole country, the richest being between the 24° and 36° south latitude; the ore usually containing gold. The copper mines of Coquimbo and Copiapo have been long known; they are said to amount to more than 1000, all of which are in constant work; and the richest mine of this metal was that of Payen, which the Spaniards were forced to abandon by the natives; lumps of pure copper were found in it, weighing from fifty to one hundred pounds; and it is said that the mine at Curico, recently discovered, is equally rich, its ore consisting of gold and copper in equal proportions, and having an uncommonly brilliant and beautiful appearance.

The silver mines are usually discovered in the highest and coldest parts of the mountain-country, on which account it has been found necessary to abandon several very rich veins. The most celebrated are those of Coquimbo, Copiapo, Aconcagua and Santiago. In these the metal is found pure, as well as in ores mineralized with arsenic and sulphur.

Uspallata, in the 33° south latitude, is the most productive. It is situated eight leagues north-west of Mendoza in Cuyo, and yields from forty to sixty marks per quintal. Gold is found, not only in the silver, copper and lead ores, but there is hardly a mountain in the kingdom which does not contain some of this precious metal; and it is found in the plains, and in the beds of the rivers. The most important mines and washings of gold in Chili being at Copiapo, Huasco, Coquimbo, Petorca, ten leagues south of Chuapa, Ligua, near Quillota, Tiltil, Llaoin, Putaendo, Yapel, or Villa de Cuscus, Caen, Alhue, Chibato and Huillipatagua, and all but the three last have been wrought ever since the conquest.

The quantity of gold and silver produced annually in Chili amounts, excluding that which is sent clandestinely out of the country, to the value of 357,000l. sterling annually; and there were 721,000 piastres of gold, and 146,000 of silver, coined at the mint of Santiago in 1790: but since that period the plain of Uspallata has yielded a greater proportion of silver. The contraband silver exported from Chili is as three to two on that which pays the fifth; the annual average of the fine gold and silver which receives the royal stamp in Chili being 1,737,380 piastres, or 376,432l. sterling, of which 10,000 marcs are gold, and 29,700 silver: but the administration consumes the revenue of Chili, which, therefore, never remitted any sum to the royal coffers.

Population.– The population of this extensive country is composed of Europeans, creoles, Indians, mestizoes and negroes; of these the creoles are by far the most numerous in the Spanish provinces. The country is in general thinly inhabited; the whites living in towns, and the independent Indians roaming in their native woods and mountains, it is not probable that the Spanish part contains more than 800,000 inhabitants including all the classes. The creoles are a well-made, brave and industrious race, and have a frankness and vivacity peculiar to themselves; being in general possessed of good talents, but which are not cultivated, owing to the want of proper places of education.

The other classes are much the same as in other parts of Spanish America; and the peasantry, though of European origin, dress in the Araucanian manner; and, dispersed over an extensive country, are perfectly free from restraint; they therefore lead contented and happy lives.

The general language is Spanish, excepting on the borders of Arauco, where the ancient dialect, the Chili-dugu, or Chilese tongue, is cultivated by all classes. The females of Chili are as luxurious in their dress and equipages as those of Lima: but are noted for their kindness and hospitality towards strangers; and this virtue is practised in its greatest extent by all the inhabitants of the Spanish portion. In short the Chilians appear to be the most frank, courteous and generous people of Spanish America.

Animals.– The animal kingdom is not so various as the vegetable in this country; the indigenous species amounting only to about thirty-six; of these the vicuna, resembling the animal of the same name in Peru, is a sort of camel, which lives in the highest regions of the Andes; its body is the size of a large goat with a long neck, round head, small straight ears and high legs. Its coat is of a fine dirty rose-coloured wool, which will take any dye, and is used for manufacturing a variety of cloths; they live in flocks on the highest heaths of the Andes, and are so timid, that they are taken by stretching a line across their path, to which pieces of cloth are tied, these fluttering in the wind terrify the vicunas, who stand still and suffer themselves to be caught. This animal has never been domesticated in Chili, but is chiefly sought after for its wool and flesh, the latter being esteemed equal to veal.

The Chilihueques, or Araucanian sheep, which resemble the European sheep, were employed as beasts of burden by the natives, who now use them for the sake of their fine wool, and they are a variety of the former.

The guanuco is another species of the American camel, exceeding the last in size; its length from the nose to the tail being about seven feet, and its height in front four feet three inches; many of them are however much taller; the body is covered with long reddish hair on the back and whitish under the belly; its head is round, the nose pointed and black, the tail short and turned up, and the ears straight. They live during the summer in the mountains, but quit them on the approach of winter for the plains in which they appear in herds of two or three hundred. They are hunted by the Chilians, whose horses are unable to keep pace with them, but the young being more feeble are generally taken.

The Indians, who are excellent horsemen, sometimes get near enough to throw the laqui between their legs, and thus take them alive. This laqui is a strip of leather five or six feet long, to each end of which is fastened a stone of two pounds weight, the huntsman holding one of these in his hand, and whirling the other, slings the string at the animal in so dexterous a manner that the stones form a tight knot round his legs. They have also longer strips of leather with a running noose at the end, which they carry coiled on their saddles, one end being made fast to them, and thrown with so sure an aim that the noose falls over the animal's head and neck, the rider then turning round, puts his horse into a full gallop, and such is the irresistible force with which he moves, that the game is compelled to follow. In this manner the Peons of Buenos Ayres, who are the natives of Paraguay that take charge of the immense herds of cattle roaming on the plains, catch them when they have occasion for their hide or carcass. The guanuco is naturally gentle, and is soon domesticated; it is used for the same purposes as the llamas and alpacos of Peru, which are only varieties of this animal. They resemble the camel in several particulars, having reservoirs in their stomachs for water, they can go for a long while without food, are very docile, kneel in order to discharge or receive their burdens, and have hoofs so firm as not to require shoeing, with such thick skins that they are rarely galled. Their step is slow but sure, even in the steepest parts of the mountains, and they pass the greater part of the night in ruminating, when they sleep folding their legs under them.