s their nautical vessels. To a stranger nothing can appear more
extraordinary than their mode of ploughing. As to a regular plough, I do
not believe such a thing is known in Chiloe. If a field is to be tilled,
it is done by two Indians, who are furnished with long poles, pointed at
one end. The one thrusts his pole, pretty deeply, and in an oblique
direction, into the earth, so that it forms an angle with the surface of
the ground. The other Indian sticks his pole in at a little distance,
and also obliquely, and he forces it beneath that of his fellow-laborer,
so that the first pole lies as it were above the second. The first
Indian then presses on his pole, and makes it work on the other, as a
lever on its fulcrum, and the earth is thrown up by the point of the
pole. Thus they gradually advance, until the whole field is furrowed by
this laborious process.

The Chiloe boats are merely hulks. They obey the helm reluctantly, but
they bear away before the wind. Several individuals usually join
together, and convey in these boats, the produce of their respective
localities, in the southern villages, to San Carlos. Women as well as
men take their turn at rowing the boats, and after being out all day,
they run into some creek, where they pass the night. When a favorable
breeze springs up, they hoist a sail, made of _ponchos_. The poncho is
an important article of male clothing in this country. It consists of a
piece of woollen cloth, measuring from 5 to 7 feet long, and from 3 to 4
feet broad. In the middle there is a slit from 12 to 14 inches long;
through this slit the wearer passes his head. The poncho thus rests on
the shoulders, and hangs down in front and behind as low as the knees.
At the sides, it reaches to the elbow, or middle of the forearm, and
thus covers the whole of the body. The carters and wagoners in Swabia
wear, in rainy weather, a covering somewhat resembling the poncho, which
they make out of their woollen horse-coverings. When a Chiloe boat is on
its passage on the coast, and a sail happens to be wanted, the men give
up their ponchos and the women their mantillas. The slits in the ponchos
are stitched up, and both ponchos and mantillas being sewn together are
fixed to a pole or bar of wood, which is hoisted to a proper position on
the mast. This patchwork sail can only be serviceable when the wind is
fresh. At nightfall, when the boat runs into one of the creeks for
shelter, the sail is lowered, and the s