These islands abound in wood, of which they supply large quantities yearly. As it rains almost incessantly, the cultivated lands are commonly wet the whole year. Though they have abundance of cattle, these are not employed for ploughing the ground, which is tilled, or cultivated in the following singular manner. About three months before seed-time, their sheep are turned upon the lands intended for a crop, changing their situation every three or four nights, in the manner called folding in Europe, by which the land is sufficiently manured. The field is then strewed over with the seed corn, and a strong man scratches or slightly turns over the soil to cover the seed, by means of a rude implement composed of two crooked sticks of hard wood fastened together and made sharp, which he forces into the ground with his breast. Notwithstanding this very imperfect tillage, the subsequent crop of wheat generally yields ten or twelve for one. They likewise grow large quantities of barley, beans, peas, guinoa, which is a species of chenopodium used in making a pleasant species of drink, and the largest and best potatoes that are to be found in all Chili. Owing to the moisture of the climate, the grape never comes to sufficient maturity for making wine; but its want is supplied by various kinds of cyder, made from apples and other wild fruits which abound in the country.
Owing to their habitude of frequently going from one island to another, where the sea is far from being pacific, the Chilotans are all excellent sailors, and being active, docile, and industrious, they are very much employed in navigating the shipping of the South Sea. Their native barks or piraguas are formed of from three to five planks, sewed together, and caulked with a species of moss which grows on a particular shrub. There are vast numbers of these barks all through the archipelago, which they manage very dexterously both with sails and oars, and the natives often venture as far as Conception in these frail vessels. They are much addicted to fishing, and procure vast quantities and many kinds of excellent fish on the sea around their shores. Of these they dry large quantities, which they export to Chili and Peru, and the other countries on the Pacific Ocean. They likewise cure considerable quantities of testaceous fishes, such as conchs, clams, and piures, in the following manner. These shell fish are laid in a long trench, covered over with the large leaves of the panke tinctoria, over which a layer of stones is laid, on which a hot fire is kindled and kept up for several hours. The roasted fish are then taken out of the shells, strung upon lines, and hung up for some time in the smoke of wood fires. Cured in this manner they keep well for a considerable time, and are carried for sale to Cujo and other inland districts.
The Christian religion was very readily embraced by the Chilotans after their subjugation, and they have ever since continued stedfast in its observance. Their spiritual concerns are under the direction of the bishop of Conception. Formerly the government was administered by a lieutenant-governor appointed by the governor of Chili, but that officer is now nominated by the viceroy of Peru. The whole external trade of these islands is carried on by three or four ships which come there annually from Peru and Chili, by which they receive wine, brandy, tobacco, sugar, herb of Paraguay, salt, and European goods, for which they give in exchange red cedar boards, timber of different kinds, ponchos of various qualities, hams, pilchards, dried shell-fish, white-cedar boxes, embroidered girdles, and a small quantity of ambergris which is found on their shores.
The navigation in this archipelago is difficult and even dangerous owing to the strength and number of the currents, and nothing can appear worse adapted for so perilous a sea than the piraguas or boats which are used by the islanders. They are without keel or deck, and the planks of which they are composed are sewed or laced together by means of strong withies, the seams being caulked or stuffed with a kind of moss, or with pounded cane leaves, over which the withies are passed. The cross timbers or thwarts are fixed by means of pegs or tree-nails. In these frail barks, which are very easily overset, the Chilotans venture with a fearlessness proceeding entirely from being accustomed to danger, not from skill in avoiding it. Their main source of food is from the sea, which is general most bountiful in those parts of the world where the earth is least so. Their mode of fishing is singular and ingenious. At low water, they inclose a large extent of the flat shore with stakes interwoven with boughs of trees, forming a kind of basket-work; which pens or corrales are covered by every flood and left dry by the ebb tide, at which time they generally find abundance of fish. They likewise employ as food a species of sea-weed, called luche, which they form into a kind of loaves or cakes which are greatly esteemed even by the wealthy inhabitants of Lima. Seals are more numerous in the archipelagos of Guaitecas and Guayneco, still farther to the south, where they are eaten by the natives, who are said to acquire so rank an odour from the use of this food that it is necessary to keep them to leeward. Whales sometimes run aground among these islands but are greatly more numerous farther to the south. They have probably retired from this part of the coast in consequence of being persecuted, as ambergris was formerly found in great abundance on these shores, but is now very rare.
All the islands are very mountainous and craggy, so that only a few vallies among the hills and the flat grounds near the shore are susceptible of cultivation. On this scanty cultivable ground, there are forty-one settlements, called pueblas or townships, in the isla grande, or large island of Chiloe. There is one road indeed across the mountains, but the whole interior of the island is uninhabited. The isle of Quinchau has six pueblas; Lemui and Llaicha each four, Calbuco three, all the other inhabited islands only one each, and there are three on the continent, in all eighty-one. In these pueblas or townships, the houses are much scattered, each being placed upon its attached property. The church stands near the beach, having a few huts erected in the neighbourhood, which serve to accommodate the parishioners when they come to church on Sundays or any festival to attend mass. In the whole archipelago there are but four places where the houses are placed so near together as to assume the appearance of a town or village. These are the city of Castro as it is called, Chacao, Calbuco, and the port of San Carlos. This last is the largest and most flourishing. In 1774 it contained sixty houses, with 462 inhabitants. In 1791, it had increased to two hundred houses and eleven hundred inhabitants; but its prosperity arose on the ruin of Chacao, which was the only port in the whole archipelago till 1768. The harbour of Chacao is rendered very dangerous by reason of many rocks and shoals, and is much exposed to winds from the north and north-east; on which account Don Carlos de Berenger, when governor, recommended that a town should be built at Gacui del Ingles, or English harbour, which was accordingly ordered by the court of Spain in 1767. The bay was then named Bahia del Rey; or Kings Bay, and the town and harbour San Carlos. It is in lat. 41° 57' S. and long. 73° 58' W. The port is good, but ships are often wrecked at the entrance, in consequence of tremendous hurricanes which come on suddenly, at which time the land cannot be seen. Since the erection of this town, the seat of government has been removed to it from Castro.
It is difficult to understand what motives could have induced the Spaniards to settle in this miserable country, when the whole extent of this western side of South America was open to them. Where gold and silver are to be found, or where wealth is to be acquired by commerce, men will readily settle, however barren and unfavourable the country, or however pestilential the climate. But Chiloe offers no incitements to avarice, and only a bare and comfortless subsistence to perpetual industry. Perhaps the principal part of the original settlers were people who escaped from the fury of the Araucanians, unable to remove to Peru, or to subsist if they got there, and who were therefore glad of getting any place of rest and security. There is perhaps no other colony in the world to which Europeans have carried so few of their arts and comforts, or where they have attempted to colonize under so many natural disadvantages. Two instances indeed may be excepted; the project of Philip II. to fortify the Straits of Magellan, and the unaccountable settlements of the Norwegians in Greenland. In Chiloe it often rains for a whole month without intermission, and these rains are frequently accompanied by such tremendous hurricanes that the largest trees are torn up by the roots, and the inhabitants do not feel safe in their houses. Even in January, their mid-summer, they have often long-continued heavy rain. If during the height of a storm the smallest opening be perceived in the clouds towards the south, fine weather soon succeeds; but first the wind changes suddenly to the south, with even greater violence than it blew before from the opposite quarter, and comes on with a crash as loud and sudden as the discharge of a cannon. The storm then passes away with a rapidity proportional to its violence, and the weather clears up. But at this critical change of the wind, vessels are exposed to the utmost danger. Thunder and lightning are rare, but earthquakes are frequent. In 1737 these islands suffered severely by an earthquake; a few days after which a cloud or exhalation of fire, coming from the north, passed over the whole archipelago, and, as is said, set fire to the woods in many of the islands in the group of the Guaitecas. It is said also that these islands were then covered over with ashes, and that vegetation did not again appear upon them till 1750, thirteen years afterwards.