Their wars are terrible, and as they are excellent horsemen, the Araucanian cavalry is very formidable, their arms being swords and lances; those of the infantry, clubs and pikes; their onset is furious, but always conducted with order, and though swept down in rants by the cannon, they close with their Spanish enemies, and fighting hand to hand, are frequently victors in spite of the superiority of European discipline and arms.
After a great victory they sacrifice a prisoner to the manes of their warriors who have fallen in battle; and this ceremony is said to be attended with some disgusting circumstances, such as the toqui and chiefs sucking the blood from the panting heart of the victim, which is cut for that purpose from his breast.
These people have always resisted the attempts of the English and Dutch to land on the shores of Chili; they were seen by Sir Francis Drake in his celebrated voyage round the world, in some of the islands near the coast, and subsequently they drove the Dutch from several points on which they had landed.
They have hitherto frustrated all the attempts of the Spaniards to conquer their country, and being in strict alliance with the surrounding nations, keep the Europeans at defiance.
The Araucanians are said to wander over the Andes with the Puelches, in order to attack the convoys of merchandize and the travellers going from Buenos Ayres to Chili through the Pampas; and have even penetrated in the disguise of friendly Indians, as far as Buenos Ayres itself.
We shall conclude this account of Spanish America with a short description of a Spanish settlement formerly made in the Straits of Magalhaens, and of the islands on the coasts of South America belonging to or claimed by that power.
The Straits of Magalhaens and others in their vicinity being at present, though it is to be hoped that the voyage now performing by order of the British Government will not long allow them to remain so, the only passage from the Atlantic into the Pacific Ocean, it may not be uninteresting to state that they were discovered by Ferdinand Magalhaens a Portuguese navigator, who having turned his mind to the circumstance of the extreme probability of there being a communication between the two oceans which had in vain been sought for by Columbus and his followers, offered to conduct an expedition to explore the southern part of America for this purpose.
Meeting with a denial from his own court, he went to Madrid, where, from his known talents and previous voyages, he received the utmost favour; a fleet was fitted out, and, being placed under his orders, Magalhaens sailed from the Guadalquivir on the 10th of August 1519, and discovering the coast of Patagonia, proceeded along its shores to the south, where the land bearing away to the west, the admiral followed it, till he found his squadron in the straights that now bear his name, through which he passed, and entered the great South Sea on the 28th of November, 1520; proceeding through it till he discovered the Ladrones, and in one of those isles was killed in a skirmish with the natives; after which, one of his ships only arrived in Spain by way of the Cape of Good Hope, on the 7th of September, 1522, having been absent three years and twenty-seven days; and having had the honour of being the first to circumnavigate the globe.
Sir Francis Drake, following Magalhaens by the same route into the South Sea, and taking much treasure and many ships from the people of Chili, Peru and Mexico, it was determined by the Spanish court that the newly discovered passage should be explored and fortified. With this view Sarmiento, the best naval officer in the service, was selected in Peru to pass the Straits from the South Sea into the Atlantic; he accordingly performed this voyage; and so plausible were the representations he made to the cabinet of Madrid, that Philip II. ordered twenty-three ships to be fitted out, with 3500 men, under Don Diego de Valdez, and Sarmiento with 500 veterans was directed to settle and fortify such positions as he deemed the best.