able, thinking we never could eat enough after
what we had suffered; and we were much of the same opinion. They are, in
general, a charitable, good sort of people, but very ignorant, and governed
by their priests, who make them believe just what they please.

The Indian language is chiefly spoken here, even by the Spaniards one
amongst another; and they say they think it a finer language than their
own. The women have fine complexions, and many of them are very handsome;
they have good voices, and can strum a little upon the guitar; but they
have an ugly custom of smoking tobacco, which is a very scarce commodity
here, and therefore is looked upon as a great treat when they meet at one
another's houses. The lady of the house comes in with a large wooden pipe
crammed with tobacco, and after taking two or three hearty whiffs, she
holds her head under her cloak lest any of the smoke should escape, and
then swallows it; some time after, you see it coming out of her nose and
ears. She then hands the pipe to the next lady, who does the same, till it
has gone through the whole company. Their houses are but very mean, as will
be easily imagined by what I have said of the governor's. They make their
fire in the middle of their rooms, but have no chimneys; there is a small
hole at each end of the roof to let the smoke out.

It is only the better sort of people that eat bread made of wheat, as they
grow but very little here, and they have no mills to grind it; but then
they have great plenty of the finest potatoes in the world: These are
always roasted in the ashes, then scraped, and served up at meals instead
of bread. They breed abundance of swine, as they supply both Chili and Peru
with hams. They are in no want of sheep, but are not overstocked with cows,
owing, in a great measure, to their own indolence in not clearing away the
woods, which if they would be at the pains to do, they might have
sufficient pasture. Their trade consists in hams, hogs-lard, which is used
throughout all South America instead of butter; cedar-plank, which the
Indians are continually employed in cutting quite to the foot of the
Cordilleras, little carved boxes, which the Spanish ladies use to put their
work in, carpets, quilts, and punchos neatly embroidered all round; for
these, both in Chili and Peru, are used by the people of the first fashion,
as well as the inferior sort, by way of riding-dress, and are esteemed to
be much more convenient for a h