[Footnote 259:  Chiloe reaches from lat. 41 deg. 50’ to 43 deg. 50’, both S. and from long. 73 deg. 18’ to 74 deg. 24’, both W. extending 135 English miles in extreme length, by 35 in medium breadth.  See vol.  V. p. 592, for an account of the Archipelago of Chiloe.—­E.]

[Footnote 260:  Shelvocke seems here to describe the harbour leading to the town or village of San Carlos.—­E.]

My pilot carried me the contrary way to that here directed, advising me to keep near the main land of Chili, which I did till I got to Carelampo Point, having several small islands to the southward of my course, which proved unfortunate for me by the loss of my anchor.  The soil of Chiloe is very fertile, producing all sorts of European fruits and grains, and has fine pasture lands, in which great numbers of cattle are grazed, particularly sheep.  The air is wholesome and temperate; yet I suspect the winter may be rigorous, being bounded on the west by an immense ocean, without any land to screen it from the cold moist vapours brought thither by the tempestuous westerly winds, which generally reign in these latitudes, and which must render it uncomfortable in the winter months, as the parallels of latitude to the south of the equator are much colder than those in the same degrees to the northwards.

In this island they have abundance of very handsome middle-sized horses, which the natives are said to manage with great dexterity.  They have also an animal, called guanaco or carneso de tierra, that is, sheep of the country, which very much resembles a camel, but not nearly so large.  They have long necks, and I have seen one of them between five and six feet high.  Their wool or soft hair is very fine.  They smell very rank, and move with a very slow majestic pace, which hardly any violence can make them quicken; yet they are of great service at the mines in Peru, where they are employed in carrying the ore and other things.  Their flesh is very coarse, as we experienced, having salted some of them for our future use.  Besides these, the inhabitants have European sheep and great numbers of hogs, but not many black cattle.  The island has plenty of fowls, both wild and tame.  Among the former is a small species of goose, found on the banks of the rivers, which are beautifully white, and of an excellent taste.  The tame poultry are of the same kinds with our own.

The natives are almost in all respects the same with those on the continent of Chili, of moderate stature, with deep olive complexions, and coarse shaggy black hair, some of them having by no means disagreeable features.  They seem naturally of fierce and warlike dispositions; but the oppressions of the Spaniards, and the artifices of the jesuits, who are the missionaries in these parts, have curbed and broken their spirits.  Frezier says, that the Indians on the continent, to the southward of this island, are called Chonos, who go quite naked; and that there is a race of men