are pigs, potatoes, and fish. The people all dress in strong woollen
garments, which each family makes for itself, and dyes with indigo of a
dark blue colour. The arts, however, are in the rudest state;--as may
be seen in their strange fashion of ploughing, their method of
spinning, grinding corn, and in the construction of their boats. The
forests are so impenetrable, that the land is nowhere cultivated except
near the coast and on the adjoining islets. Even where paths exist,
they are scarcely passable from the soft and swampy state of the soil.
The inhabitants, like those of Tierra del Fuego, move about chiefly on
the beach or in boats. Although with plenty to eat, the people are
very poor: there is no demand for labour, and consequently the lower
orders cannot scrape together money sufficient to purchase even the
smallest luxuries. There is also a great deficiency of a circulating
medium. I have seen a man bringing on his back a bag of charcoal, with
which to buy some trifle, and another carrying a plank to exchange for
a bottle of wine. Hence every tradesman must also be a merchant, and
again sell the goods which he takes in exchange.
November 24th.--The yawl and whale-boat were sent under the command of
Mr. (now Captain) Sulivan, to survey the eastern or inland coast of
Chiloe; and with orders to meet the Beagle at the southern extremity of
the island; to which point she would proceed by the outside, so as thus
to circumnavigate the whole. I accompanied this expedition, but
instead of going in the boats the first day, I hired horses to take me
to Chacao, at the northern extremity of the island. The road followed
the coast; every now and then crossing promontories covered by fine
forests. In these shaded paths it is absolutely necessary that the
whole road should be made of logs of wood, which are squared and placed
by the side of each other. From the rays of the sun never penetrating
the evergreen foliage, the ground is so damp and soft, that except by
this means neither man nor horse would be able to pass along. I
arrived at the village of Chacao shortly after the tents belonging to
the boats were pitched for the night.
The land in this neighbourhood has been extensively cleared, and there
were many quiet and most picturesque nooks in the forest. Chacao was
formerly the principal port in the island; but many vessels having been
lost, owing to the dangerous currents and rocks in the straits, the
Spanish government burnt the church, and thus arbitrarily compelled the
greater number of inhabitants to migrate to S. Carlos. We had not long
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