ad endured in
their imprudent march through the deserts intervening between Peru and
that country. With these advantages of abundant provisions in a fertile
soil and mild climate, it appears that the first writers who treated of
Chili cannot have greatly exaggerated in saying that it was filled with
inhabitants at the first arrival of the Spaniards. Even the circumstance
of one language being spoken through the whole country, is a proof that
all the tribes were in the habit of continual intercourse, and that they
were not isolated by vast unpeopled deserts, as is the case in many
other parts of America.

Agriculture appears to have made no inconsiderable progress among the
Chilese, who cultivated a great variety of alimentary plants, all
distinguished by peculiar and appropriate names, which could not have
been the case except in consequence of an extensive and varied
cultivation. They even had aqueducts in many parts of the country for
watering or irrigating their fields; and, among these, the canal which
runs for many miles along the rough skirts of the mountains near the
capital, and waters the lands to the north of that city, remains a
remarkably solid and extensive monument of their ingenious industry.
They were likewise acquainted with the use of manure, called _vunalti_
in their language; but, from the great fertility of the soil, little
attention was paid to that subject. They used a kind of spade or
breast-plough of hard wood for turning the soil, which was pushed
forwards by their breasts. At present the native Chilese use a very
simple plough, called _chetague_, made of the branch of a tree crooked
at one end, having a wooden share and a single handle by which it is
guided. Whether this simple implement has been taught them by the
Spaniards, or is of their own invention I know not; but should believe
it original, as Admiral Spilsberg observed a plough of this kind, drawn
by two Chilihueques, used by the natives of the Isle of Mocha in the
Araucanian Sea, where the Spaniards never had a settlement. The Fathers
Bry add, that the Chilese tilled their lands by means of these animals
before the arrival of any European cattle. However this may have been,
it is certain that this Araucanian camel was employed by the natives as
a beast of burden before the arrival of the Spaniards, and the
transition from burden to draught is not difficult.

The Chilese cooked their grain for food in various ways, by boiling in
eart