a city of Chili in South America, was visited in 1786 by the celebrated, though unfortunate, navigator La Perouse, who gives an account of some particulars relating to it very different from what we have given of it under the article CONCEPTION, Encycl. So far are the Spaniards from living in security with respect to the Indians; that, according to him, they are under continual alarms of being attacked by those bold and enterprising savages. "The Indians of Chili (says he) are no longer those Americans who were inspired with terror by European arms. The increase of horses, which are dispersed through the interior of the immense deserts of America, and that of oxen and sheep, which has also been very great, have converted these people into a nation of Arabs, in everything resembling those who inhabit the deserts of Arabia. Constantly on horseback, they consider an excursion of two hundred leagues as a very short journey. They march accompanied by their flocks; feed upon their flesh and milk; and sometimes upon their blood; and cover themselves with their skins, of which they make helmets, cuirasses, and bucklers. All their old customs are laid aside. They no longer feed upon the same fruits, nor wear the same dress; but have a more striking resemblance to the Tartars, or to the inhabitants of the banks of the Red Sea, than to their ancestors, who lived two centuries ago. So decisive an influence has the introduction of two domestic animals had upon the manners of that once timid people. It is easy to conceive what formidable enemies they must now be to the Spaniards; for supposing them defeated in battle, How is it possible to follow them in such long excursions? How is it possible to prevent assemblages, which bring together in a single point nations scattered over 400 leagues of country, and thus form armies of 50,000 men?"

Of these people M. Rollin, surgeon-major of the frigate la Buffale, gives the following physiological particulars: "They are, in general (says he), of lower stature, and less robust, than Frenchmen, though they endure with great courage the fatigues of war and all its attendant privations. There is a great sameness in the phaenogamy of most individuals. The face is larger and rounder than that of Europeans. The features are more strongly marked. The eyes are small, dull, black, and deeply seated. The forehead is low; the eyebrows black and shaggy; the nose short and flattened; the cheek-bones high; the lips thick; the mouth wide; and the chin diminutive. The women are short, ill-made, and with disgusting countenances. Both men and women bore their nose and ears, which they adorn with glass or mother-of-pearl trinkets. The colour of their skin is a reddish brown: That of their nails is similar, but not so deep. The hair of both is black, coarse, and very thick. The men have little beard; but their arm-pits and parts of sex are well furnished with hair, which parts, in most of the women, have none."

The military governor of Conception, who was an Irishman, returned, while M. de la Perouse was there, from the frontiers of the Spanish settlements, where he had just concluded a glorious peace with the Indians. This peace was highly necessary to the people of his government, whose distant habitations were exposed to the incursions of savage cavalry, whose practice it is to massacre the men and children, and to make the wo This amiable man, whose name was Higgins (probably Higgins), had succeeded in gaining the good-will of these savages, and thereby rendered the most signal service to the nation that had adopted him. For while the Indians and Spaniards are at variance, an alliance with the former by any of the maritime powers of Europe would become so formidable to the latter, as to induce them, for fear of their lives, to abandon their settlements in Chili, and retire to Peru. This was clearly seen by Monneron the engineer on the expedition, who, with the true spirit of a Frenchman, pointed out to his government the method of wresting from its most faithful ally one of the most valuable provinces of the Spanish empire.

La Pérouse describes the common people of Conception as much addicted to thieving, and the women as exceedingly easy of access. "They are a degenerated mongrel race (says he); but the inhabitants of the first class, the true-bred Spaniards, are polite and obliging in the extreme. The bishop was a man of great talent, of agreeable manners, and of a charity of which the Spanish prelates afford frequent examples." He was a Creole, and had never been in Europe. Of the monks our author gives a very different character. "The misfortune (says he) of having nothing to do, the want of family ties, the profession of celibacy, without being separated from the world, and their living in the convenient retirement of their cells, has rendered, and could not fail to render, them the greatest proliferates in America. Their effrontery is inconceivable. I have seen some of them stay till midnight at a ball; aloof, indeed, from the good company, and seated among the servants. These same monks gave our young men more exact information than they could get elsewhere concerning places with which priests ought to have been acquainted only in order to interdict the entrance."

M. de la Pérouse represents that part of Chili, which is called the Bishopric of Conception, as one of the most fertile countries in the universe. Corn yields sixty to one; the vineyards are equally productive; and the plains are covered with innumerable flocks, which, tho' left to themselves, multiply beyond all imagination. Yet this colony is far from making the profits that might be expected from a situation so favourable to an increase of population. The influence of the government incessantly counteracts the climate and the soil. Prohibitory regulations exist from one end of Chili to the other; and this kingdom, of which the productions, if carried to their highest pitch, would feed the half of Europe; of which the wool would suffice for the manufactures of Great Britain and France, even when manufactures flourished in the latter country; and of which the cattle, if salted down, would produce an immense revenue—is entirely destitute of commerce, and its inhabitants sunk in sloth and indolence. Unless, therefore, Spain change its system entirely, Chili will never reach that pitch of prosperity which might be expected from its situation and fertility. For the latitude and longitude of Conception, see Encyc.