neers are valiant and
hardy soldiers, yet are they fond of adorning themselves like women,
decorating themselves with ear-rings and bracelets of glass-beads, with
which also they ornament their hair, and hang small bells around their
heads. Although possessed of numerous herds of cattle and sheep, their
usual food is horse flesh, which like the Tartars they prefer to all
other kinds, and always eat cooked, either by boiling or roasting. Like
the Bedowin Arabs, the Pehuenches dwell in tents made of skins, disposed
in a circular form around a spacious area, in which their cattle feed
while the herbage lasts; and when that begins to fail they remove their
camp to a fresh pasture, continually traversing in this manner the
valleys among the Andes. Each village or encampment is governed by a
hereditary ulmen. Their language and religion resemble those of the
Araucanians. They are extremely fond of hunting, and often traverse the
immense plains which stretch from the great Rio Plata to the Straits of
Magellan in pursuit of game, sometimes extending their excursions as far
as Buenos Ayres, and even occasionally indulge in plundering the
vicinity of that city. They frequently attack the caravans which pass
between Buenos Ayres and Chili, and have been so successful in these
predatory enterprises as almost to have stopped that commerce entirely.

[Footnote 84: A comparison more familiar to the British reader might be
made to the _philabeg_ or short petticoat worn by the Scots
Highlanders--E.]

[Footnote 85: In this part of dress they likewise resemble the Scots
Highlanders of old, who wore a kind of shoes made of raw hides with the
hair on, called _rough rullions_. In both of course using the most
obvious and easiest means of decency and protection. Before the
introduction of European cattle into Chili, the natives must have
employed the skins of the original animals of the country, probably of
the _guemul_ or _huemul_, the equus bisulcus of Molina and other
naturalists, an animal having some resemblance to a horse but with
cloven hoofs--E.]

It may be proper to relate what I noticed on a journey in that country,
having set out from Mendoza in the province of Cujo, on the 27th of
April 1783, with post horses for Buenos Ayres. We soon learnt, from some
people whom we met, that the Pehuenches were out upon predatory
excursions, and soon afterwards received the melancholy intelligence
that they had committed horrible massacres in