Seme writer«, arbolgg whom is M. d ’QhMgny, the
©ante of Araueanos to alt the Chilian nations. We 4re &§-
sated fey the Afebate D. J. Ign&tias de Molina, the historian
of Chili, that the AraueanoS are only a partieffl&f tribe, and
that their name eannoff properly serve as a designation f?#
the whole race. The family of nations indeed to which the
aborigines of Chili belong seems to 'be very exten#My
spread, and, as I shall show in the following section, is by
some writers supposed to comprehend alt the sonthern nations
of America - beyond the latitude of the estuary of La Plata.
In the present section I shall confine my fematfes-#b the
nations of Chili.
Molina assures us that all the aboriginal tribes of that
country, however independent of each other, Speak the satoe
language and resemble each other in appearance. It iS not
clear how widely he here extends the designation of Chilians.
I n his account of the conquest of ChiM by the .Peruvian IfigSf
Lloque Yupanqui, who reigned about 1540, Mofina sa ^W a i
the inhabitants of Chili were divided into fifteen tr-ibefe'or
communities. These tribes, beginning at the north, ■I liNste
called the Copiapins, the Coquimbanes, the Quilfotaaes, the
Mapochinians, the Promanecans, the Cares, the Caftques,
Peacones, Araucanians, Cunches, Chdoles, Chiqiiilancansj
Pehuenches, Puelches, and Iluilliches. If all these are to
be reckoned among them, the race included besides the proper
Chilians, as we shall hereafter find, all the nations of
South America to the southward of Buenos Ayres.
M. d’Orbigny says that the Araucanos have precisely the
same tinge of complexion as the Peruvians, an olive brown
or olive colour j but he adds that this colour is of a much
lighter shade in the Chilians than the Peruvians, and much
lighter in the young than in the old. He says it is certainly
not a copper colour, as M. Lesson had described it. He discredits
the assertion of Molina that the Boro,as, who are a
particular tribe in Chili, are very fair and have blue eyes.
The existence of this tribe of fair and even xanthous complexion
in Chili has been a subject of controversy, and I
must cite the authors whose testimony is most important
in regard to it.
In Molina, who is allowed by ail to have
been very accurately informed as to the history and description
. ®f the Ghilrânsp-grves the foil owing account. ^ A tribe
who dwelt in the provmce of Boroa are of a .clear white and
red, without any intermixture o f the copper colour.” % As
they differ in no ..reject from the other Chilians-, this variety
may be owing te some peculiaa" infiueftice of thmr ctifinate, of
t© the greater degree of civilisation* which they potseis i' it is,
however, attributed by the Spanish- writers to thé prisoners
f f that nation who were ooipfined in this" province duringthe
.unfortunate war of. f tafri^teeötsh century ; fout ^a*s the %>anish
prisoners Were equally distributed araongtbe other provinces
of their conquoflors, none of whose ^inhabitants -are white,
this ©pinion would seem to. fee .unfounded» Besides,” . Molina
. continues,■ the.-fif-St Spani^rdsnwho came to» Chili were all
-horn the soüÆeTn.ptevmées of Spain, whete the ruddy côna-
plexkm ,jiÿïare, their posterity would not have exhibited, so
greata difieiefioe.” g
. An extract from a Spanish work entitled “ JEi Viagero
Universal,” given by Malte-Brun in Annales des Voyages,”
gives the most. positive: (testimony upon thisffsubject.
The writer .says : r—“ iis ont le teint brun-roux et. plus clair
que celui de|| autres ; Américaine. ^Cbux die du tribu ‘des
Msfroem&s sont même M&nüsèt Monde.”
, Captain Fitzroyhasgivenus an accurate and interesting
account of t |e Araucanos in general, and of the tribe of
Boroans in particular. In reference fo the former he says
u I was much struck by the peculiar physi©gnomy iof those
aboriginal natives whom I saw during, lay stay in Chili, and
there must have been some ground for Mr* Darwin and myself
remarking at different times, unknown a t first to one
another, that their countenances reMnded us of poTtraits of
Charles I. This was my impression at the first jglanoe, but
after a closer examination if wore off, and I thought less of
that likeness than I did of their: resemblance to the Hindoo
race. There was neither the open h onesty off a Patagonian,
nor the brutal look'of most Fuegians ; but a ^sombre cast of
depressed intelligence that at once said, * we are restrained
but not subdued.’ Their countenances were less wide and