agreeable to such of my
readers as are strangers to it.

The fruitful Chili is a long and narrow strip of coast-land, bathed on
the West by the Great Ocean, so falsely called the Pacific; divided on
the North from Peru by the desert tract of Atacoma; and on the East,
from Buenos Ayres, by the chain of the Cordilleras, or Andes, whose
snow-covered summits are diversified by the columns of fire continually
emitted from numerous volcanoes; on the South it extends as far as the
Straits of Magellan, and indeed also claims the wholly useless island of
Terra del Fuego, which is rarely, if ever, visited by a Chilian.

The Spaniard Valdivia may be considered as the real discoverer of Chili.
He established here the first Spanish settlement, the present capital,
St. Jago, and subsequently, the town of Conception. For a long time the
Spaniards were engaged in bloody and uninterrupted war with the original
inhabitants of the country, called Araucanians. This strong and
enterprising people withdrew into the mountains, where they were
invincible, and from whence they have continued, to the present day, to
annoy the descendants of the intruders, who acknowledge and have
hitherto respected their independence. They still preserve in their
mountains and fastnesses their ancient mode of living, and remain
faithful to the religion and manners of their ancestors. Unluckily for
the Spaniards, they have become very dangerous neighbours by providing
themselves with horses, which, as they are skilful riders, enable them
to execute their predatory expeditions with a rapidity that renders them
almost always successful. A few of them have settled in the valleys, at
the foot of the mountains, and adopted the Christian religion, without
however amalgamating with the Spaniards, or losing their freedom.

The lower class of the present inhabitants of Chili is a mixed race,
sprung from the union of Spaniards with Araucanian women: they are well
grown, of a dark brown complexion, and have a lively red in their
cheeks. The men are all good riders, and have brought to great
perfection the art of catching wild animals with the _lasso_. The upper
classes have preserved their Spanish blood pure: they are also very well
formed, the females nearly always handsome, and some of them remarkably
beautiful. La Perouse found them decorated with metal rings; they now
adorn themselves with much taste in Parisian fashions, which reach them
by the way of Peru: their man