Chilians

“ Neither could the Spaniards, despite armor and cannon. Not even the Chilians, with the improved weapons of modern times could conquer the Auraucanos. They are the finest tribe or race of Indians inhabiting the southern portion of the continent, and it is their intermarriage with the whites in the last forty or fifty years which has helped make Chile what it is today—a country with many qualities which distinguish it from its sister republics. ”

“ The aboriginal inhabitants of Chili, from the ocean to the Andes, from Peru to Magellan, all speak the same language. It is a regular, harmonious, and rich language, and so elegant, expressive, and copious, that Europeans who have studied it, think the Chilians must, in former times, have possessed a much greater degree of civilization than at present; because mere savages could never have formed a dialect so perfect. ”

“ If climate and environment have a great influence on the moulding of racial character, it is not unnatural to suppose that the exceptional characteristics of Chili have had their due effect upon the inhabitants. The Chilians have been called the “English of South America,” and it has been put{158} forward that they derive their origin from the natives of Northern Spain, whereas other South American States were colonised by adventurers from the southern part of the Peninsula. ”

“ The ovation accorded to the victorious Chilians upon their return to Valparaiso was enthusiastic in the extreme; the officers were everywhere fêted and made much of; and Jim Douglas and Terry O’Meara came in for a very large share of attention owing to the fact that they were British. The sympathies of Great Britain had been decidedly turned in favour of Chili by the atrocities which had been committed by the Peruvian fleet in its war against commerce, and by which English ships had suffered to a very serious extent. ”

“ It is observable that all the Chilians who inhabit the eastern valleys of the Andes, namely, the Pehuenches, the Puelches, the Huilliches, and the Chiquillanians, are much redder than their countrymen dwelling westward of those mountains. All the mountaineers dress themselves in skins and paint their faces; and, living in general by hunting, lead a wandering and unsettled life. They are, generally speaking, of a lofty stature and of great strength.{169}
CHAPTER XI.
BRAZIL: DISCOVERY OF THE MINES; ATTEMPT OF THE FRENCH ON RIO DE JANEIRO. ”

“ The Chilians have a colder climate, and the people for the most part came from the north of Spain; they are hardier and more active; then, too, they are not so strict in church matters, and here they call them heretics, and a Peruvian hates a heretic a great deal worse than he does the father of all evil. ”

“ 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. ”

“ The land of Chili, from 30° Ssouth latitude, was and is still in part occupied by several tribes who speak the same language. They form the fourth and most southern group of the Andes people, and are called Araucanians. Like almost all American tribal names, the term Araucanian is indefinite; sometimes it is restricted to a single band, and sometimes so extended as to embrace a group of tribes. Some regard them as a separate family, calling them Chilians, while others, whom we follow, regard them as the southern members of the Andes group, and still others class them with the Pampas Indians. ”

“ Chili was at war with the confederation of Peru and Bolivia, and an expedition was fitting out in all haste. Sundry decrees of the Peruvian Protector, Santa Cruz, had excited the ire of the Chilians, especially one diminishing the harbour dues on vessels arriving direct from Europe and discharging their cargoes in a Peruvian port. This had damaged the commerce of Chili; and already one army under General Blanco had been landed on the Peruvian coast to revenge the injury. It had signally failed in its object. Outmanœuvred and surrounded, it was taken prisoner to a man. ”

“ The Indians had learned how to use the weapons which they had captured, and obtained repeated victories. In the end, the Spaniards made peace. The river Biobio was fixed as the boundary between Auraucania and the colony of Chile.
“The Chilians also were unable to overcome the Auraucanos. In the end, however, in 1881, the Auraucanian tribal chiefs held a grand council, and decided to cast in their lot with the people who had overthrown the Spaniards. They incorporated themselves as citizens of Chile. ”

“ The Araucanians when met with farther north had a story current amongst them of having discovered a settlement of white people, who spoke an unknown tongue, in the recesses of the mountains in the same vicinity. The Chilotes and Chilians from the western side fondly cherish the belief in the existence of La Ciudad Encantada, and the mythical people Los Cesares, to the discovery of which, according to De Angelis—to whose research is due the collection of all the records on the subject—the attention of Buenos Ayres, Lima, and Chili was so long directed. ”

“ It is very seldom that any pure descendants of the original inhabitants are to be seen; we met with only two. They struck me as very similar to the Puris of Brazil, except that they have not such small ugly-shaped eyes. In this country there are no slaves.
The dress of the Chilians is quite in the European taste, especially as regards the women. The only difference with the men is that, instead of a coat, they frequently wear the Poncho, which is composed of two pieces of cloth or merino, each about one ell broad and two ells long. ”

“ They burn and slay wherever they go; in fact they leave a trail of blood and ashes behind them plain enough for anybody to follow. Mercy seems a thing absolutely unknown among these desperadoes; and instead of carrying on their warfare in a civilised manner, they are committing the most dreadful atrocities on all Chilians, both civil and military, who fall into their hands. Now, these men are a menace which we cannot tolerate; for, unless the band is rooted out and utterly destroyed, there will never be peace or safety in the northern part of Chili. ”

“ The unfortunate internal dissensions of the Bolivians assist the Chilians greatly in their efforts to absorb the whole of this rich mineral district of Atacama, but as the Chilians are a far more enterprising people than the Bolivians, one can scarcely regret that such a rich territory should become the property of a people capable of developing its resources. For information upon this part of Bolivia an inquirer should procure a work entitled “Ten Years in South America,” written by Benjamin S. Dingman, an American engineer, and published by Messrs. ”

“ Accordingly Jim returned to the flagship, where he was heartily welcomed by his old comrades, who informed him that the destination of the squadron was thought to be Callao, and that in all probability the Chilians would bombard the place, and then endeavour to take Lima, the Peruvian capital; so that there promised to be plenty of excitement and adventure in store for everybody. ”

“ The fare from one end of the town to the other is one real (21⁄2d.) There are also a great number of asses, mostly employed in carrying water and provisions.
The lower classes are remarkably ugly. The Chilians have a yellowish brown complexion, thick black hair, most unpleasant features, and such a peculiarly repulsive cast of countenance, that any physiognomist would straightway pronounce them to be robbers or pickpockets at the least. Captain Bell had told me a great deal of the extraordinary honesty of these people ”

“ Embleton, the conduct of the Chilians in that matter of the Carreras shows that, however bravely they may fight, as yet they have not much idea of subordination. They know nothing of sea-service, and the chances are that interest and family will go further in obtaining the appointment of officers to ships than any question of abilities ”

“ The captains of the Cochrane and the O’Higgins were in favour of an attack by the whole squadron upon the Peruvian fleet supposed to be lying in the harbour, but the commodore, with the captains of the Loa and Mathias Cousino, opposed that plan, on the grounds that the harbour was very strongly defended by forts; consequently, if such an attack were carried out the Chilians would be obliged to silence the batteries before they could turn their attention to the Peruvian ironclads. ”

“ From earliest times the history of Chile upon this coast has been a tortured one—the barbarities and the sufferings both of the early Spanish conquerors, the reprisals of the Indians, the bloodthirsty and unsubduable Araucanians, the feuds between the Spaniards themselves, the toll of earthquakes and tidal waves, the battles between Spaniard and colonist and between Chilean and Peruvian and Bolivian, the dreadful pages of revolutionary and civil strife. It is veritably a blood-stained coast, and both man and nature might well cry to Heaven for surcease. ”

“ It is said that a Frenchman can never be denationalized. The same is true of the Chillano. There has not been a successful revolution in Chili since 1839; and although there is nowhere a more unruly and discordant people, nowhere so much murder and other serious crimes, in their love of country the haughty don and the patient peon, the hunted bandit and the cruel soldier, are one.
PATRICK LYNCH.
Many of the leading men of Chili are and have been of Irish descent. ”

“ Beyond the limits of the Inca conquest the Indians of Chile were distinguished by fierce independence of character and by their warlike qualities. Rude and ignorant as they were, they possessed a rough military organization; each community was led by its ulmen (chief) , and in war the tribes fought together under an elected leader (toqui) . The name of the Araucanians, the most powerful of the tribes, came to be applied to the whole confederation of Indians living south of the Bio-bio river. ”

“ The followers of Almagro and assassins of Pizarro were always known as “los de Chile”. The name of Chile was long applied only to the valley of Aconcagua, including Quillota; and that was no doubt the sense in which it was used by the natives and by their Ynca conquerors. Afterwards, the Spaniards gave the name of Chile to the whole country on the Pacific coast, from Copiapo to Valdivia. The native form of the word was Chilli, which the Spaniards softened into Chile. In the north of Peru, in the provinces of Chachapoyas and Pataz, there are three villages called Chilia ”

“ The population of Chili presented the usual mixture{166} of Europeans, Creoles, Natives, Negroes, and Mustees, or half-castes. The Creoles, or colonial Spaniards, displayed a laudable desire for education, to complete which they, in many instances, proceeded to Lima. The peasantry, though for the greater part of Spanish origin, wore the Araucanian costume. Their lot was a happy one. Possessed of perfect liberty, and dwelling in a delightful climate, they lived on the produce of a fertile soil, and were robust, healthy, and lively. ”

“ The Incas being much more advanced in civilization than the Indian tribes of Chile, introduced ideas and customs that furnished the foundation upon which was later erected the superstructure of the Republic. They taught the Indians how to irrigate and to cultivate the soil, the value of precious metals, how to weave fabrics from the fur of the vicuña and guanaco, and the art of manufacturing pottery. They also introduced maize, beans and vegetables of various kinds, in the cultivation and uses of which they instructed the natives. ”

“ Favoured by the fertility of the country and the salubrity of the climate, the population of Chili may be readily supposed to have then been considerable, as we know that the whole extent of its territory was occupied by fifteen independent tribes or communities, each of which was governed by its respective chiefs, or Ulmens. These, tribes, beginning at the north on the confines of the desert of Atacama, were called Copaipins, Coquimbans, Quillotans, Mapochians, Promaucians, Cures, Cauques, Pencones, Araucanians, Cunches, Chilotes, Chiquilanian, Pehuenches, Puelches, and Huilliches ”

“ In addition to the Spanish blood a large percentage have more or less of the blood of the Araucanian Indians, who were the most stubborn race to conquer of any that the Spaniards encountered in South America. As soldiers the Chileans have no sense of mercy, and this characteristic has shown itself in all of their wars. They are impetuous, impulsive, passionate and generous, but have very little self-control. Many of them fight simply for the love of fighting, just as do many of the Irish, who seem to scrap simply for the sake of scrapping. ”

“ Every particular of this campaign he remembers as precisely as though it had occurred but yesterday; and he will yarn for hours together about Prat, Condell, Lynch, Simpson, Williams, and all the rest of them; men of English descent for the most part, who had adopted Chili as their home and country, and who helped to make the Republic what she now is, a credit to herself and to them, and a worthy protégé of that greater country across the sea from which sprang the noble and gallant gentlemen who raised Chili to the position of first of the South American Republics. ”