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. QUIAPO 'ULTV'' CATTLE. 461 At Quiapo we had a mixture of corn and water, which I thought tolerably good. It is a common mess among the lower class of natives in many countries besides Chile.* A few handfuls of roasted corn, roughly pounded between two stones, were put into a cow's horn, half full of cold water, and well stirred about with a stick until changed into a sub- stantial mess of cold porridge. Our haste shortened the jour- ney, and we should have reached Aravxco in good time, had not a second guide (the man who waited at Quiapo with the Arauco horses) mistaken the road, and taken us along a track which was crossed by two rivers, not then fordable. His error was not discovered until too late, and to pass the rivers we were obliged to make a delay of several hours. The tract of country we traversed this day, was as fine as any that I have attempted to describe. I do not think we rode over or even saw an acre of unproductive land. The woody districts were very pleasing to the eye, and as specimens of a rich and fertile country almost in a state of nature, equally so to the mind. In many places our road lay through an open forest, where fine trees stood at considerable distances apart, and not being surrounded by underwood allowed us to gallop between them as we pleased. I thought of England's forests in the ' olden time.' In one of the quiet woodland glades we passed through, some of the finest cattle I ever saw were grazing. One im- mense animal would have attracted admiration, even by the side of show-cattle in England. Very large, well-shaped, and extremely fat, he looked and moved as if few things had ever caused him to turn against his will. These cattle have owners, I was told, but are seldom molested : once perhaps in some years a large number may be killed for the sake of their hides and tallow; and even then so extensive and so little known a;-e these woods, that a considerable proportion of the cattle are not seen by their indolent destroyers, nor yet at the almost nominal musters which take place annually. The • Among- the Araucanian aborigines it is made with maize, and called ulpu.