in the island. The whole population of Chiloé amounts BOOK to 25,000 souls, and the language spoken by the island- LXXXIX. ers, differs in some respects from that of the colonists on the mainland. The climate is not unwholesome, but the country is subject to earthquakes. A very dreadful one took place in the year 1737; the Guaytecas, a group of islands to the south, were covered with ashes, which destroyed almost every sort of vegetation for a period of thirteen years.* The two islands of Juan Fernandes are 110 leagues from the coast of Chili; the largest was discovered in 1563, by a Spaniard, who gave it his own name; since that time, it was so much praised by early navigators, that it has been thought an earthly paradise. It is not more than four leagues in length from east to west; the country in general is mountainous, but interspersed with woods and fertile vallies. Its chief advantage arises from its being a good resting place for ships. Many English navigators touched there in their voyages round the world. It has been occupied for more than fifty years by Spanish settlers, who have erected a battery, and built a town on the island.† The name of Mas-atierra, or near the land, has been given to the largest, the other is generally called Mas-a-fuero, or the more remote. The Isla de Cabros is an uninhabited rock at no great distance from the south-western extremity of Juan Fernandes. The cedar and sandal trees grow on these islands. Two persons, whose romantic adventures gave rise to the novel of Robinson Crusoe, resided on one of them. Alexander Selkirk, a Scotsman, being left by his fellow sailors, lived there for four or five years, and obtained a scanty subsistence by hunting; the other, a Mosquito Indian, was abandoned by a party of Buccaneers. Cuyo, formerly a Chilian province, is separated from the rest of the country by the Andes, and for that rea * Viajero Universal, XV. p. 366. + Relation de M. Moss, Anuales des Voyages, XVI. p. it9. BOOK son sometimes called Trasmontano. Eastern Cuyo. It is bounded on LXXXIX. the north by Tucuman, on the east by the deserts of Buenos Ayres, and on the south by Patagonia. That part of the Andes which divides it from Chili is exposed to violent and frequent storms. The climate of Cuyo is variable; on the high grounds, the winter is intensely cold, and the plains are scorched by the summer's heat. The country, for want of moisture, is barren; in the neighbourhood of rivers or even of canals, it is verdant and fruitful. The eastern part consists of fertile plains, unlike those of the Oronoco, or La Plata, they are covered with lofty trees. A remarkable species of the cocoa palm is not uncommon in the vallies, its leaves resemble the aloe's, and the centre of its trunk is so soft, that the inhabitants use it for making cloth, which, if it be not very fine, is at least strong and flexible. It is only lately that the gold and silver mines in the north of Cuyo have been worked. Lead, sulphur, coal, and gypsum are found on the mountains, and salt is easily obtained from the lakes and marshes. The hills near St. Juan de la Frontera are composed of white marble; the people use it for making lime or building bridges across the canals that irrigate their fields. The wealth of the district depends chiefly on that of the surrounding countries, and it must be greatly increased if ever the trade of China or the east extends to the southern or western shores of America. Mendoza, the capital of Cuyo, is a flourishing city, and its population is rapidly increasing. The province of Tucuman, a country little frequented, and consequently not very accurately known, lies to the north-east of Cuyo. Branches of the Andes traverse it on the north, the rest of the district is one immense plain. Many rivers in Tucuman are changed into large sheets of water, from which they never issue. The Rio Salado falls into El Mon Chiqueto and the Rio Dolce, after a course of two hundred leagues, unites with the Salado, and is lost along with it. These lakes, occasioned by the inundations of rivers, are not very deep. The Tucuman. LXXXIX. land in many places is impregnated with fossil salt, and BOOK the water of every pool or river in that part of the country is brackish and disagreeable to the taste. The cattle devour eagerly the salt on the herbage; it is indeed necessary to their existence, for they perish if deprived of it for a short time. Saltpetre may be collected on the plains, the ground is frequently whitened with it after a shower. Although there is hardly any transition from winter to summer, the climate has been considered healthy and salubrious. The districts watered by rivers, afford rich pasture, and are generally covered with sheep and oxen. Of the wild animals the deer and different sorts of game are the most common. The soil is well adapted for the culture of maize, cotton, or indigo. Swarms of wild bees frequent the forests between the Dolce and Salado, and the aramos weaves on the trees its beautiful net-work of silver coloured silk.* Mr. Helm states that there are in Tucuman two mines of gold, as many of copper and lead, one of silver, and another of rock salt. The Quebracho tree, so called from its excessive hardness, grows in the vicinity of San Miguel; the axe is sometimes broken before the tree can be cut asunder. The commerce of Tucuman consists of corn, wine, and cattle. It is computed that 60,000 mules are fattened every year on the valley of Lerma, previous to their being exposed for sale at the great annual fair. The principal towns of the province. are San Felipe or Salta; its inhabitants, and especially the lower orders, are often inflicted with a species of leprosy, and the women are disfigured by goitres at an early age; Jujui, built near a volcano that emits clouds of dense air, and a great quantity of dust; Corvoda, the residence of a bishop, and the finest city in the country. The university of the Jesuits at that place was considered a good seminary of education. A few villages, scattered over the wide plains of Tucuman, have been sometimes dignified with the name * Viajero Universal, XX. p, 126--129. + Idem, ibid. 139. BOOK of towns. London was founded in 1555, to commemorate LXXXIX. the marriage of Mary, queen of England, with Philip the Paraguay Second of Spain. We may form a tolerably correct notion of these towns from the letters of Cattaneo a Jesuit. The following is an extract from one of them. "The Provincial-general set out with his secretary to visit the different settlements in Tucuman, on their way to Rioja, a town about two hundred leagues north-east of Cordova, they had to travel along a road as solitary as it was difficult of access. Their progress was slow, for the path was surrounded by precipices. About the twentieth day of their journey, the secretary, who had gone before his companions, fell asleep under the shade of a tree. The muleteer came up to him, and remarked that a person of his condition ought not to sleep in a street. The secretary, astonished at such a rebuke, replied that he had travelled three weeks and had long since despaired of ever seeing Rioja. You are now there, rejoined the muleteer, this is the market place, and the convent is behind the trees." The inhabitants of Tucuman, free from the cares and disquietude of great towns, enjoy the blessings of a country life. Their groves resound to the music of dancing; the shepherds and shepherdesses sing to the accompaniment of a rustic guitar, alternate strains ruder but not unlike those of Theocritus or Virgil; even the Christian names of the people are pastoral, and remind the traveller of old Arcadia.* The country watered by the Plata has been generally or Buenos called Paraguay, although, to speak correctly, that name Ayres. should be confined to a single province. Aspect of the coun try. It has already been remarked that the vallies in the province of Chaco and the districts westward of the Great River, are impregnated with salt and nitre. These plains are sometimes overwhelmed by moving sands, or rendered *For instance, Nemesto, Gorgonio, Spiridion, Nazaria, Rudescinda, &c. Reorganisacion de las colonias orientales de la Plata, &c. Addressed to Charles the IV. of Spain. LXXXIX. unwholesome by marshes, into which the rivers flow for BOOK want of a sufficient declivity to carry them to the ocean. But the face of nature is very different on the eastern banks of the Plata. Hills extend from that river to the Uraguay, which flows down steep and lofty mountains before it reaches the sea. On the one side the whole country is of the primitive, and on the other of the alluvial formation. The rapid Uraguay, shaded by thick forests, becomes very broad near its mouth, and surpasses in magnitude the Rhine or the Elbe; even at four hundred miles up the river, the distance from one bank to another is more than a league. It is navigable till within seventy leagues of the sea, or as far as Salto Chico; the rest of its course is broken by torrents. Horses and The country near Buenos Ayres is fertile, but ill supplied with wood; its sandy soil is mixed with a rich black mould. The pampas extend to the south, and the view is bounded by these deserts. A stunted shrub, or even a tuft of marine plants, is seldom seen by the weary traveller. The great increase of European horses and oxen, both in a wild and domestic state, is a remarkable Oxen. circumstance in the natural history of these countries. M. D'Azara, who has minutely examined this subject, states that horses and oxen were imported from the year 1530 to the year 1550. Many of the horses are now wild, and ten thousand of them are sometimes seen in a single herd. The greater number are of a dark sorrel colour, they are easily broken, and not inferior to the common horse. The oxen in the province of Chiquito and the plains of Monte Video are as useful to the colonists, as the rein deer or camel to the Laplanders or Arabs; they not only afford them nourishment, but their hides are an important article in trade; cups and spoons are made of the horns, and the leather is converted into pitchers, mattresses, and cloaks; candles, soap, and a particular sort of oil, are obtained from the tallow. The cattle in Monte Video are larger than those in the |