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.

Among the northern Indians, each cast or small tribe is distinguished by
the name of some animal; as the tribe of the tyger, the lion, the
guanaco, the ostrich, and the like. They believe that each tribe had its
own particular creator, who resided in some huge cavern under a lake or
bill, to which all of that tribe will go after death, to enjoy the
felicity of eternal inebriation. These good creative spirits, according
to their opinion, having first created the world, made the different
races of men and animals, each in their respective cave. To the Indians,
they gave the spear, the bow