Narrative of the surveying voyages of his majesty's ships Adventure and Beagle (vol.2): between the years 1826 and 1836 : describing their examination of the southern shores of South America, and the Beagles's circumnavigation of the globe

1835. FEATURES — DRESS — FEELING. 399 intelligence that at once said, " we are restrained, but not sub- dued.'" Their countenances were less wide, and more swarthy, than those to which our eyes had been accustomed ; and they eyed us with a sinister although resolute glance, which seemed to ask whether we were also come to try for a share of their country. These men were of a middle stature ; and formed more slightly than those of the south. They were all tolerably clothed in blue cloth of their own manufacture ; and the men of different tribes were distinguished by a slight difference in dress ; the Juncos, who live south of Valdivia, wearing a sort of petticoat, instead of trowsers, while the Rancos, another subdivision, wore short loose breeches. In other respects they are similar, as to outward appearance, and their language is that of all southern Chile.* These Juncos and Rancos are but portions of that collection of tribes usually known among Eu- ropeans by the celebrated name of Araucanians ; but among the natives, by the terms Molu-che, Huilli-che, &c. I certainly gazed at these Indians with excessive interest, while I reflected on the multiplied sufferings undergone by their ancestors — the num- bers that perished in mines — or in trying to defend their coun- try — and the insidious attempts made to thin their numbers by frequent intoxication, if not by introducing deadly disease.-f* To keep these Indians on peaceable terms, and in order to have early intelligence of any general combination, the Chilians maintain among them ' capitanes de los amigos,' whose apparent office is 'to take the part of an Indian, if he should be ill- treated by a ChiHan (of Spanish descent), and to interpret between parties who wish to barter goods. There is also a ' comisario de los Indios,' who is a centre of reference for the ' capitanes,' and who ought to be the friend and protector of the aborigines. Many tribes, however, will have nothing to say to either the commissary or his captains, seeing through their object, and detesting even the descendant of a Spaniard too deeply to admit any one of that abhorred race into their territory. About Valdivia there are only a few leagues of ground held by Chile, excepting which all that magnificent * The Huilli-ehe. t By giving them infected things.