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. 'boroanos"' — tubul river. 465 lenger''s people, for the sake of plunder as well as because they had been on friendly terms with Colipi. This hostile tribe, whose visit he was anticipating, was that called ' Boroanos,' by the Chilians (' Boroa-che,' by the In- dians). I have before said that in Boroa there are fair Indians ; and that I saw, when at Valdivia, one of the natives of that district. The Indian girl, whom I mentioned just now as a captive, agreed exactly in what she stated of them, with the account I had previously heard. She and the ' Boroana ' at Val- divia both said, that " their fathers had told them that the ' rubios' (meaning red and white, or red-haired people) were children of the women whom their ancestors took prisoners when they destroyed the seven cities." Many of these ' rubios' had blue eyes, with rather fair complexions ; and some few had red hair. If this is the true story, they must be gradually losing such striking peculiarities ; and the assertion made a century ago that there were white Indians in Araucania, might well be thought erroneous now. Both of the ' Boroanos' whom I saw had dark blue or grey eyes, and a lighter com- plexion than other Indians; but their features were similar to those of their countrywomen, and they had long black hair. In our way to Arauco this morning, we passed by Tubul, a place admirably adapted for a large town, but now occupied only by a few poor families living in huts. Hills surround a fine plain, through which the river Tubul winds to the sea lying in that river, I saw the remains of a whaler (the Her- silia) captured by Benavides, when at anchor near the island of Santa Maria.* She was brought into the Tubul, plun- dered, and partly burned. Some years ago, ships of two hundred tons could enter the mouth of this river, and pass up nearly a mile ; but the late earthquake had raised the land so much, that only very small vessels could enter at this time. May not changes of relative level, similar to this, have occurred at the rivers * Captain Hall's Journal, vol. i. p. 312-13. VOL. II. 2 H