distant of all the early European colonies in the New World, and which
presents the singular and solitary phenomenon, of a native nation
inhabiting a fertile and champaign country, successfully resisting the
arts, discipline, and arms of Europeans, and remaining unconquered and
independent to the present day, after the almost perpetual efforts of
the Spaniards during a period of 277 years.

In the composition of this chapter, we have been chiefly guided by the
geographical natural and civil history of Chili, by the Abbe Don Juan
Ignatio Molina, a native of the country, and a member of the late
celebrated order of the Jesuits. On the dissolution of that order, being
expelled along with all his brethren from the Spanish dominions, he went
to reside at Bologna in Italy, where in 1787 he published the first part
of his work, containing the natural history of Chili, and the second
part, or civil history, some years afterwards. This work was translated
and published some years ago in the United States of North America; and
was republished in London in the year 1809, with the addition of several
notes and appendixes from various sources by the English editor. In the
present abridged version of the second part of that work, or civil
history of Chili, we have collated the whole with An Historical Relation
of the Kingdom of Chili, by Alonzo de Ovalle, or Ovaglia, likewise a
native and a Jesuit, printed at Rome in 1649, of which an English
translation is inserted in Churchill's collection of voyages and
travels, Vol. III. p. 1-146. In other divisions of this work, more
minute accounts will be furnished, respecting the country of Chili and
its inhabitants and productions, by means of several voyages to that
distant and interesting country.


SECTION I.