nation : So that the inhabitants o f thefe diltinft provinces believed
themfelves to be lacrificed to an ambition, which never coniidered
their convenience or emoluments, nor paid any regard to the reputa—
tion of their name, or the honour of their country. That this was
the temper of the Creolian Spaniards at that time, might be proved
from a hundred inftances j but I ihall content myfelf with one,
which is indeed conclufive : This is the teftimony of the French
Mathematicians fent into America, to meafure the magnitude of an
equatorial degree of latitude. For in the relation of the murder
of a furgeon belonging to their company in one o f the cities o f
Peru, and of the popular tumult thence occafioned, written by one
o f thofe aftronomers, the author confefles, that the multitude*
during the uproar, univerfally joined in imprecations on their bad
Government, and bellowed the moll abufive language upon the
French, detelling them, in all probability, more particularly as being
of a nation, to whofe influence in the Spanifh Counfels the:
Spaniards imputed' all their misfortunes.
And whilll the Creolian Spaniards were thus diflatisfied, it appears
by the letters we intercepted, that the Indians, on almolt
every frontier, were ripe for a revolt, and would have taken up-
arms upon the flighted: encouragement; particularly the Indians in
the fouthern parts o f P eru ; as likewife the Araucos, and the reft
o f the Chilian Indians, the mod powerful and terrible to the Spa-
nijh name of any on that Continent. For it feems, in fome disputes
between the Spaniards and the Indians, which happened a
Ihort time before our arrival, the Spaniards had infulted the Indians
with an account o f the force which they expelled from Old
Spain under the command of Admiral Pizarro, and had vaunted-
that he was coming thither to compleat the great work, which had
been left unfinilhed by his anceftors. Thefe threats alarmed the
Indians, and made them believe that their extirpation was refolved
on : For the Pizarro's being the firft conquerors o f that coaft,
the Peruvian Indians held the name,, and all that bore it, in execrationi
not having forgot the deftrudtion of their Monarchy, the
maflacre
maflacre of their beloved Inca, Atapalipa, the extinflion of their
religion, and the (laughter of their anceftors; all perpetrated by
the family of the Pizarro’s, The Chilian Indians too abhorred a
Chief who was defcended of a race, which, by its Lieutenants, had
firft attempted to inflave them, and had neceflitated the flouted of
their Tribes, for more than a century to be continually wafting
their blood in defence of their independancy.
Nor let it be fuppofed, that among barbarous nations the traditions
o f thefe diftant tranfaétions could not be preferved for fo
long an intervalm, fince thofe who have been acquainted with that
part of the world agree, that the Indians, in their publiek leads,
and annual folemnities, conllantly revive the memory of thefe tragiek
incidents; and fuch as have been prefent at thefe fpe&acles,
have conllantly obferved, that all the recitals and reprefentations of
this kind were received with emotions fo vehement, and with fo en-
thufiaftick a rage, as plainly demonftrated how ftrongly the memory
of their former wrongs was implanted in them, and how acceptable
the means of revenge would at all times prove. To this I
mull add too, that the Spanijh Governors themfelves were lo fully
informed of the difpofition of the Indians at this conjuncture; and
were fo apprehenfive of a general defeétion among them, that they
employed all their induftry to reconcile the moll dangerous tribes,
and to prevent them from immediately taking up arms : Among
the’reft, the Prefident of Chili in particular made large conceflrons
to the Araucos, and the other Chilian Indians, by which, and by
diftributing confiderable prefents to their leading men, he at laft
got them to confent to a prolongation o f the truce between the two
nations. But thefe negotiations were not concluded at the time
when they might have been in the South-Seas ; and, had they been
compleated, yet the hatred of thefe Indians to the Spaniards was fo
great, that it would have been impoffible for their Chiefs, how
deeply foever corrupted, to have kept them from joining us againft
their old detefted enemy.
O o 2 Thus