ith a
happy talent of observation, combined with all those qualities of mind
and character, which render men capable of conceiving and executing the
greatest enterprises, especially when stimulated by oppression[103]."

[Footnote 103: This character of the Creoles is inserted by the original
translator, in a note, from the Abbe Raynal.--E.]

Whatever intelligent and unprejudiced travellers have observed
respecting the characters of the French and English Creoles, will
perfectly apply to those of Chili. The same modes of thinking and the
same moral qualities are discernible in them all. They generally have
respectable talents, and succeed in all the arts to which they apply.
Had they the same motives to stimulate them as are found in Europe, they
would make as great progress in the useful sciences as they have
already made in metaphysics. They do not readily imbibe prejudices, and
are not tenacious in retaining them. As however, scientific books and
philosophical instruments are very scarce and difficultly attainable in
Chili, their talents have no opportunity of being developed, and are
mostly employed in trifling pursuits; and as the expence of printing is
enormous, they are discouraged from literary exertion, so that few among
them aspire to the reputation of becoming authors. The knowledge of the
civil and canon law is held in high estimation, so that many of the
youth of Chili, after completing their academical education in their own
country, proceed to Lima to study law. The fine arts are in a low state
in Chili, and even the mechanical arts are far from perfection. The arts
of carpentry, of working in iron, and in the precious metals, are
however to be excepted, in which they have made considerable progress,
in consequence of the information and example of some German artists,
who were introduced into Chili by that worthy ecclesiastic Father
Carlos, a native of Hainhausen in Bavaria. The important changes which
the beneficence of an enlightened administration in Spain have lately
introduced into the American colonies, by directing the attention of the
subjects to useful improvements, have extended their influence even to
Chili. Arts and sciences, formerly unknown or but very imperfectly, now
engage the attention of the inhabitants, and there is reason to hope
that the country will soon assume a better aspect.

The peasantry of Spanish Chili, though for much the greater part of
Spanish descent, dress after the ma