The winter season is rainy, but not cold; and the heat of the summer sun is moderated by the winds from the south, which are cooled by travelling over the Pacific; or by those from the east, which are refreshed by passing over the snowy tops of the Cordillera.
The jurisdiction of Conception extends from the river Maule in 34° 50´ to Cape Lavapies in 37° 10´. In it are the correginientos or prefectures of Puchacay and Rere. Its principal towns and villages are Gualqui, San Juan, Quilpolemu, Luanco, Villavicencio, Comicó, and Chillan, which was ruined by the Araucanians in 1599, and has not since been a place of much note.
The inhabitants of this province consist of a few Spaniards, some white creoles, mestizos, a few slaves of different colours, and fewer indians, the aboriginal tribe of Promaucians being now extinct. The whites or Creoles are a very fine race. The men are well formed, and have regular features and good complexions. The women are generally handsome and remarkably polite. The mestizos can scarcely be distinguished from the whites, and it is perhaps their situation in life, not the uncontroulable accident of birth which constitutes the difference. The greatest blessing to a stranger, hospitality, is the constant inmate, or rather ruler of every house, cottage or cabin; and, contrary to the rites of other hospitable people, who limit this virtue to a stated period, the longer a stranger remains the more kindly is he treated. Those who come to visit are often tempted to establish a residence, and may positively call themselves strangers at home.
Nature has been extremely bountiful to this country. Its equable and mild climate, and its rich soil produce every fruit, pulse and vegetable known in Europe, if we except some exotics, which have been reared in the more southern latitudes: oranges, lemons, sugar-cane, bananas and sweet potatoes do not thrive here, owing perhaps more to the cold rains in the winter than to any other cause. Horned cattle, and horses, of an excellent quality, are in great plenty. The vineyards are numerous and fertile. Those near the river Maule yield a grape of a very superior taste, from which a large supply of wine is produced for home consumption and for the Lima market, where any quantity is acceptable and finds a ready sale. For want of proper vessels, however, a large portion is lost, and the quality of the whole much injured. Light wines might be made equal to the best French, and generous ones equal to Sherry and Madeira. A sort of wine called Muscadel far exceeds that of the same name in Spain, and is quite as good as Frontignac. The simple utensils used are made of baked clay, in which the juice is fermented and the wines preserved, having only a wooden cover. Notwithstanding such disadvantages, some of the wines are of remarkably good strength and flavour. Their brandy, from a want of proper vessels, is also greatly deteriorated. The vines mostly grow on espaliers, and are not detached stems as in the generality of the European vineyards.
Excellent wheat is produced in great abundance, the crops yielding from eighty to one hundred fold. Very large quantities are annually sent to Lima, Guayaquil, Panama, and Chiloe. The average price at Conception is ten reals for 216 pounds weight, about five shillings and sixpence; and at Lima thirty reals, or sixteen shillings and sixpence. It may be considered the great staple commodity of the country.—Barley, maize, garbansos, beans, quinua, and lentils are also cultivated for exportation, and yield heavy crops. Potatoes, radishes and other esculents, as well as all kinds of culinary vegetables and useful herbs are raised in the gardens. The zapallo is very much and justly esteemed, being, when green, equal to asparagus, and when ripe, similar to a good potatoe. It will keep in a dry place for six months. Tobacco was formerly grown near the river Maule, but the royal monopoly put an end to its cultivation, which on the emancipation of the country will probably again be attended to.
The greater portion of these rich lands is appropriated to the breeding and fattening of horned cattle, goats and sheep, and the necessary attendance upon them forms the chief occupation of the lower classes. The generality of the cows are never milked, but are left to rear their calves in the plains. When the latter are a year old they are separated, branded, and put on another part of the farm, for enclosed fields or pastures are a refinement with which the graziers of South America are unacquainted. Indeed the farms themselves are divided by such landmarks as a hill, a mountain, a river, the sea, &c. The price of land being low, disagreements respecting boundaries are very rare.
Land in the interior, of such quality as to produce every sort of grain, or to feed all kinds of cattle, is often sold for a dollar, or even much less, the quadra, one hundred square yards, being more than two acres. When the horned cattle are sufficiently fat, or rather at the killing season, which is about the months of February and March, from five hundred to a thousand, according to the size of the farm, are slaughtered. The whole of the fat is separated from the meat and melted, forming a kind of lard called grasa, which is employed in domestic purposes. The tallow is also kept separate, and the meat is jerked. This process is performed by cutting the fleshy substance into slices of about a quarter of an inch thick, leaving out all the bones. The natives are so dexterous at this work that they will cut the whole of a leg, or any other large part of a bullock into one uniformly thin piece. The meat thus cut is either dipped into a very strong solution of salt and water, or rubbed over with a small quantity of fine salt. Whichever mode of curing is adopted, the whole of the jerked meat is put on the hide and rolled up for ten or twelve hours, or until the following morning. It is then hung on lines or poles, to dry in the sun, which being accomplished, it is made into bundles, lashed with thongs of fresh hide, forming a kind of network, and is ready for market. In this operation it loses about one third of its original weight. The dried meat, charqui, finds immediate sale at Lima, Arica, Guayaquil, Panama and other places. Besides the large quantity consumed in Chile, it furnishes a great part of the food of the lower classes, the slaves, and particularly the seamen, being the general substitute for salt beef and pork. The grasa and tallow are also readily sold at the places above mentioned, and are of more value than the meat. The hides are generally consumed in making bags for grain, pulse, &c., thongs for the various purposes to which rope is applied in Europe, or leather of a very good quality.
The slaughtering season is as much a time of diversion for the inhabitants of this country as a sheep-shearing is in England. For two or three days the peasants, huasos, are busy collecting the cattle from the woods and mountains, and driving them into an enclosure made for the purpose. The fat and lean cattle being mixed together, the latter are separated from the former, and driven out; after which one fixed upon for slaughter is allowed to pass the gate, where a peasant stands armed with a sharp instrument in the shape of a crescent, having the points about a foot apart, and as the beast passes he first cuts the hamstring of one leg, and then of the other. Should he miss his aim, a bystander follows the animal at full gallop, and throws the laso over its horns, by which it is caught and detained till another comes up, and either hamstrings or casts a second laso round its hind legs, when the two men, riding in different directions, throw the beast down, and immediately kill it. One of them now takes off the skin, collects into it the tallow and fat, which with the meat he carries to a shed, when the process of jerking, salting, &c. as already described, is immediately begun.
The females in the mean time are all busy cutting up the fat, frying it for grasa, and selecting some of the finer meat for presents and home consumption. The tongues are the only part of the head that is eaten, the remainder being left to rot. In the above manner great numbers of cattle are annually killed, their bones being left to whiten on the ground where they fed.
It is surprizing to Europeans and other strangers to see with what dexterity the laso is thrown. Made of platted or twisted raw hide, it is about one and a half inch in circumference, sometimes less, and being greased in the process of its manufacture, is extremely pliable, stronger than any other kind of rope of treble the thickness, and very durable. The length is from twenty to thirty feet, and at one end is a noose, through which a part of the thong being passed a running knot is formed. Instead of the noose there are occasionally a button and loop. The huaso (or laso thrower) extending the opening formed by passing the thong through the noose, lays hold of the laso, and begins to whirl it over his head, taking care that the opening does not close. Having determined on his object the laso is thrown with unerring precision. A bullock is caught by the horns, and a horse or a sheep by the neck;
