The poet Ercilla has made the name of the Araucanians so famous that it were improper now to change the appellation. But that denomination properly belongs only to these tribes of the Picunches who inhabit the country of Aranco120. The nations or tribes who inhabit the southern extremity of South America are known among themselves by the general names of Moluches and Puelches; the former signifying the warlike people, and the latter the eastern people.
The Moluches or warlike people, are divided into the Picunches, or people of the north, the Pehuenches or people of the fine country, and Huilliches or people of the south. The Picunches inhabit the mountains from Coquimbo to somewhat below St Jago in Spanish Chili. The Pehuenches border on these to the north, and extend to the parallel of Valdivia. Both of these are included in history under the name of Araucanians121. Their long and obstinate wars with the Spaniards, with the Puelches and with each other, have greatly diminished their numbers; but they have been still more diminished by the havoc which has been made among them by brandy, that curse of the American Indians, for which they have often been known to sell their wives and children, and to engage in savage scenes of civil bloodshed, entailing wide and endless deadly feuds. The small-pox has nearly completed the work of war and drunkenness, and when Falkner left the country they could hardly muster four thousand men among them all.
The Huilliches possess the country from Valdivia to the Straits of Magellan. They are divided into four tribes, who are improperly classed together as one nation, since three of them are evidently of a different race from the fourth. That branch which reaches to the sea of Chiloe and beyond the lake of Nahuelhuaupi speaks the general language of Chili, differing only from the Pehuenches and Picunches in pronunciation. The others speak a mixed language, composed of the Moluche and Tehuel tongue, which latter is the Patagon; and these tribes, from their great stature, are evidently of Patagonian origin. Collectively these three tribes are called the Vuta-Huilliches, or great southern-people; separately they are named Chonos, Poy-yes, and Key-yes. The Chonos inhabit the archipelago of Chili, and the adjoining shores of the continent. The Poy-yes or Peyes possess the coast from lat. 48° to something more than 51° S. The Key-yes or Keyes extend from thence to the Straits of Magellan. The Moluches maintain some flocks of sheep, principally for the sake of their wool, and cultivate a small quantity of corn.
The Puelches or eastern people, which name they receive from the natives of Chili, are bounded on the west by the Moluches, on the south by the Straits of Magellan, on the east by the sea, and on the north by the Spaniards. They are subdivided into four tribes, the Taluhets, Diuihets, Chechehets, and Tehuelhets. The first of these or Taluhets, are a wandering race who prowl over the country, from the eastern side of the first desaguadero as far as the lakes of Guanacache in the jurisdiction of San Juan and San Luiz de la Punta. Some of them are also to be found in the jurisdiction of Cordova, on the rivers Segundo Terzo and Quarto. When the Jesuits were expelled from the missions, this tribe could scarcely raise two hundred fighting men, and even in conjunction with all their allies not above five hundred. The second of these tribes, called the Diuihets, is, also a wandering race, which borders westwardly on the Pehuenches, between the latitudes of 35° and 38° S. They extend along the rivers Sanguel Colorado and Hueyque, and nearly to the Casuhati on the east. This nation and that of the Taluhets are collectively called Pampas by the Spaniards, whose settlements in Tacuman and on the southern shore of the La Plata they have always infested, and sometimes even endangered. The third tribe of the Puelches is named the Chechehets, or eastern-people. The country which they chiefly frequent is situated between the rivers Hueyque and the first desaguadero or Rio Colorado, and from thence to the second desaguadero or Rio Negro. They are a tall and stout wandering race resembling the Patagonians, but speak a quite different language. Their dispositions are friendly and inoffensive, but they are a bold and active enemy when provoked. They are now reduced to a small number by the ravages of the small-pox. The fourth race, called the Tehuelhets, or in their own language the Tehuel-kunnees or southern-men, are the real Patagonians. These are again subdivided into many tribes, all of which and the Chechehets also are called Serranos or mountaineers by the Spaniards. The Leuvuches, who seem to be the head tribe of all the Serranos, live on the Rio Negro. They speak the same language with the Chechehets, but with a small mixture of the Tehuel. This tribe used to keep on good terms with the Spaniards, that they might hunt in security in the pampas or immense plains of Buenos Ayres. About the year 1740, however, they were provoked to war by a most wanton and treacherous attack, and Buenos Ayres would in all probability have been destroyed, had not these injured people been appeased by the Jesuit missionaries. The Tehuelhets are more numerous than all the other tribes of these parts together, and are the perpetual enemies of the Moluches who are so terrible to the Spaniards, whom they would have long since destroyed if they had been equally well supplied with horses.
To the south of these are the Chulilau-Kunnees, and the Sehuan-Kunnees, who are the most southerly of the equestrian tribes. The country beyond them, all the way to the Straits of Magellan, is possessed by the last of the Tehuel tribes, called Yacana-Kunnees or foot-people, as they have no horses. These are an inoffensive race, who are very swift runners, and subsist mostly on fish. The other Tehuelhets and the Huilliches sometimes attack this tribe for the purpose of making slaves of the prisoners. The ordinary stature of all the Tehuel tribes is from six to seven feet. None of the Puelches either keep sheep or cultivate the ground, but depend altogether on hunting, for which purpose they keep a great number of dogs.
The belief in an infinite number of spirits, good and evil, is common to all the native tribes south of the Rio Plata. From the north of that river to the Orinoco a different language prevails, accompanied by a different form of superstition The Puelches do not appear to acknowledge any of those numerous spirits as supreme over the rest. The Taluhets and Diuihets call a good spirit Soychu, or he who presides in the land of strong drink. The Tehuelhets call an evil spirit Atskanna Kanatz, the other Puelches denominate the same being Valichu. Huecuvu must be another name for the evil spirit; as the Chechehets give the name of Huecuvu-mapu or the devils-country to a great sandy desert, into which they never venture lest they should be overwhelmed.
119
This supplementary section or appendix is added to the second volume of Molina, apparently by the English translator, and is said to be chiefly extracted from the description of Patagonia by Falkner. As the subject is new and interesting, we have been induced to extend somewhat beyond the rigid letter of a collection of voyages and travels. The picture of man in varied circumstances of savage life, is one of the most important pieces of information to be derived from a collection such as that we have undertaken and where direct means of communicating that intelligence are unattainable, it is surely better to employ such as on be procured than none.-E.
120
It will easily be seen in the immediate sequel, that Falkner very improperly uses Picunches as a generic term, as it signifies in a limited manner the northern people. Molina most properly denominates the whole aborigines of Chili on both sides of the Andes, Chilese, as speaking one language, the Chili-dugu; names the tribes of Arauco and those in the same republican confederacy Araucanians; and gives distinct names like Falkner to the allied tribes: the Puelches, Cunchese, Huilliches, Pehuenches, and others. Falkner appears to have chosen to denominate the whole from the tribe whose dialect he first became acquainted with; and some others seem to select the Moluches as the parent tribe.-E.
121
This account differs essentially from the history we have just given from the writings of Molina, an intelligent native of Chili, which cannot be repeated in the short compass of a note.-E.