ey wrote with a substance which
could be washed out. Such is the miserable situation of the Spanish
inhabitants of the archipelago of Chiloe: yet they dare not leave their
wretched birth-place in the hope of bettering their fortunes. The
small-pox is hitherto unknown among them, and those, who have attempted
to go elsewhere have been cut off by that loathsome disease. In 1783,
the entire population of this dreary province amounted to 23,477, of
whom 11,985 were of Spanish descent, and 11,492 Indians.

SECTION XIV.

_Account of the Native Tribes inhabiting the southern extremity of South
America [119]._

[Footnote 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.]

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 Aranco[120]. 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.

[Footnote 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
th