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

478 AKAUCANTAN BOYS — ORATORY. July upwards. Nothing should be above the ground floor but a liglit strongly-secured wooden roof : and they should be placed upon firm ground — if possible, upon rock. The principal objec- tions against the present site of Concepcion are — that the earth upon which the houses stand is every where loose, and sandy, and that it is too near the river. One day, while visiting a gentleman at Talcahuano, he called three little Araucanian boys into the room where Mr. Rouse and I were sitting with him, and desired them to ha- rangue or make speeches to one another in their own way. The little fellows stepped forward boldly, and one of them spoke to the other two in a very fluent and expressive manner ; but ended every marked sentence, or portion of his subject, by the singular sharp rise of the voice which has so often been noticed as a peculiarity in the oratory of Indians in this country. Another boy replied in a similar manner ; and then they began to fight with their fists. This part of the display of course we stopped ; but we were much interested by the compo- sure and readiness with which the little boys spoke. One of the speakers was son of a cacique. All three had been obtained by actual (though secret) purchase from their countrymen, through the intervention of one of the ' Capitanes de los Ami- gos,"'* one of whose offices is to take the part of and protect the natives. Perhaps, in the first instance, these boys had been stolen or taken prisoners, and were not the children of those who sold them to the ' captain of the friends.' In the family of Don those boys found a comfortable and a happy home he had taken them from the rascally 'capitan'de los amigos"" as an act of charity, and intended to give them employment and land on his estate. I thought of Lautaro, as I noticed the bright eye of the little cacique. When I took leave of the Yntendente, he said that he was about to make a journey to the frontier, for the sake of in- specting the outposts and securing the assistance of the friendly Indians : and this, I afterwards understood, was in consequence * See page 399,