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 earthen pots, or roasting it in hot sand, and by grinding it into meal, which they prepared in the form of gruel, of cakes, and of bread. Meal made of parched grain was called murque, and when made from grain merely dried in the sun rugo. Of the first they made gruels, and a kind of beverage still used for breakfast. Of the second they made cakes, and a kind of bread called covque, which was baked in holes dug in the sides of hills or the banks of rivers, in the form of ovens, many of which are still to be seen. They had even invented a kind of sieve, called chignigue, to separate the bran from the flour, and employed leaven in baking their bread. From the grains already mentioned, and the fruits or berries of different trees, they made nine or ten different kinds of fermented liquors, which they made and kept in jars of earthen-ware.
Having adopted the settled mode of life indispensable to an agricultural people, the Chilese were collected into families or septs more or less numerous, in those situations which were best suited for procuring subsistence, where they established themselves in large villages, called cara, or in small ones called lov. These villages consisted only of a number of huts irregularly dispersed within sight of each other, and some of them still subsist in several parts of Spanish Chili. The most considerable of these are Lampa in the province of St Jago, and Lora in the province of Maule. In each village or hamlet they had a chief named Ulmen, who was subject in certain points, to the supreme ruler of the tribe, or apo-ulmen. The succession of these chiefs was by hereditary descent; and from their title of office, which signifies a rich man, it would appear that wealth had been the original means of raising these families to the rank they now occupy, contrary to the usages of other savage nations in which strength, skill in hunting, or martial prowess appear to have been the steps by which individuals have risen to rank and power. The authority of these chiefs or ulmens appears to have been extremely limited, being merely of a directive nature and not absolute. The right of private property was fully established among the Chilese, as every individual was the absolute master of the land he cultivated, and of the produce of his industry, both of which descended to his posterity by hereditary succession.
The houses or huts of the Chilese were built in a quadrangular form, of wood covered with clay, and the roof covered with rushes; though in some instances the walls were of brick, the use of which they seem to have learned from the Peruvians, as they used the Peruvian term tica for that material. From the wool of the Chilihueques they manufactured cloth for their apparel, using the spindle and distaff for spinning this wool into yarn, and two different kinds of looms for weaving the yarn into cloth. One of these, called guregue, is not very unlike the ordinary loom of Europe; but the other is vertical or upright, and called uthalgue, from the verb uthalen, signifying to stand upright. From a verb in their language, nudaven, which signifies to sew, they must have used some kind of needle to sew their garments; but I know not of what substance it was composed. They seem even to have been acquainted with the art of embroidery, called dumican in their language. From excellent clay which is found abundantly in Chili, they made pots, plates, cups, and large jars to hold their fermented liquors, baking these vessels in holes or ovens made in the declivities of hills; and they even used a kind of mineral earth called colo, for varnishing these vessels. Besides these vessels of clay, they made others of hard wood, and even of marble; some vases of which excellently polished have been dug out from under a large heap of stones in the mountains of Arauco. From the earth they extracted gold, silver, copper, tin, and lead, and employed these metals in a variety of useful and curious works. Particularly from their native copper, which is a kind of bell-metal and very hard, they made axes, hatchets, and other edged tools, but in small quantities, as these are very rarely met with in their ancient sepulchres; where, on the contrary, hatchets made of a species of basalt or very hard stone are very often found. They seem even to have known the use of iron, as it is called panilgue in their language, and weapons made of it are termed chiuquel, while those made of other materials are called nulin. A smith likewise is called ruthave, from ruthan, signifying to work in iron.
The ancient Chilese had discovered the art of making salt, both from sea water and from inland salt springs; calling the former chiadi, and the latter lilco-chiadi, or salt from the water of rocks. They procured dyes of various colours for their clothes, both from the juice of plants and from mineral earths, and had discovered the art of fixing them by means of the polcura, an aluminous or astringent mineral. Instead of soap, they used the back of the quillai, which is an excellent substitute. In their language there are many words discriminative of various kinds of baskets and mats, which they manufactured from various vegetables. From a plant called gnocchia, they procured a strong fibrous substance resembling hemp, of which they made ropes and fishing nets of different kinds; and the inhabitants on the coast used canoes of different kinds and sizes, and floats or rafts of wood, or of inflated seal skins. Though not peculiarly addicted to hunting, they were accustomed to kill the wild animals and birds of the country, both for amusement and subsistence; for which purpose they used bows and arrows, and the laque or running noose which is employed with so much ingenuity by many of the South American natives. It is a singular fact that they had the same device as the Chinese, for catching wild ducks in their lakes and rivers, covering their heads with perforated gourds, and wading among the flocks.
They had advanced so far in the knowledge of numbers, as to have distinctive names for the ten units, and for an hundred and a thousand, with all the intermediate numbers compounded of decimal terms. To preserve the memory of their transactions, they used a bunch of threads of several colours called pron, similar to the quippo of the Peruvians, oh which they cast a number of knots according to circumstances. The subject was indicated by the colour of the threads, and the knots designated the number or quantity, but I have not been able to discover any other purpose to which this species of register could be applied. The quippo is still used by the shepherds in Peru, to keep an account of the number in their flocks, to mark the day and hour when the different ewes yeaned, or when any of their lambs are lost.