have no existence except in the fancies of those who take pleasure in
marvellous stories.

* * * * *

S3. _The Indian Country, or Araucania._

That part of Chili which remains unconquered reaches from the river
Biobio in the north to the Archipelago of Chiloe in the south, or
between the latitudes of 37° and 42' S. This country is inhabited by
three independent nations, the Araucanians, the Cunches, and the
Huìllìches. The territory of the Araucanians, contains the finest plains
in Chili, and is situated between the rivers Biobio and Callacallas,
stretching along the sea-coast for about 186 miles, and is generally
allowed to be the most pleasant and fertile district in the kingdom of
Chili. Its extent from the sea to the foot of the Andes, was formerly
reckoned at 300 miles; but as the Puelches, a nation inhabiting the
western side of the mountains, joined the confederacy of the Araucanians
in the seventeenth century, its present breadth cannot be less than 420
miles, and the whole territory is estimated at 78,120 square miles or
nearly 50 millions of acres.

The Araucanians derive their name from the province of Arauco, the
smallest in their territory, but which has given name to the whole
nation, as having been the first to propose the union which has so long
subsisted among the tribes, or from having at some remote period reduced
them under its dominion. Enthusiastically attached to their
independence, they pride themselves on the name of _auca_, signifying
_freemen_[52]; and by the Spaniards who were sent from the army in
Flanders to serve in Chili, this country has been called Araucanian