Narrative of the surveying voyages of his majesty's ships Adventure and Beagle (vol.3)

366 vALDiviA. Feb. 1835. woods), the circumstance appears to me, as I have before stated, of very difficult explanation. On account of the tired horse, I determined to stop close by, at the Mission of Cudico ; to the friar of which I had a letter of introduction. Cudico is an intermediate district between the forest and the Llanos. There are a good many cottages, with patches of corn and potatoes, nearly all be- longing to Indians. The tribes dependant on Valdivia are "reducidos y cristianos." The Indians further northward, about Arauco and Imperial, are stiU very wild and not converted ; but they all have much intercourse with the Spaniards. The padre said that the Christian Indians did not much like coming to mass, but that otherwise they show respect for rehgion. The greatest difficulty is in making them observe the ceremonies of marriage. The wild Indians take as many wives as they can support ; and a cacique will sometimes have more than ten. On entering his house, the number may be told by that of the separate fires. This plan must be a good one to prevent quarrelling. Each wife lives a week in turn with the cacique ; but all are employed in weaving ponchos, &c., for his advantage. To be the wife of a cacique is an honour much sought after by the Indian women. The men of all the tribes wear a coarse wooUen poncho but those south of Valdivia wear short trousers, and those northward a petticoat, like the chilipa of the Gauchos. All have their long hair bound by a scarlet fillet round their heads; but otherwise they are uncovered. These Indians are good-sized men ; their cheek-bones are very prominent, and in general appearance they resemble the great American family to which they belong; but their physiognomy seemed to me to be slightly different from that of any other tribe which I had before seen. Their expression is generally grave and even austere, and possesses much character: this may pass either for honest bluntness, or fierce deter- mination. The long black hair, the grave and much-lined features, and the dark complexion, called to my mind old