In the early days of
Chile it is literally true that the colonists were obliged to go about
their labours with a handful of seed in one hand and a weapon of defence
in the other. It was owing to this constant warlike preoccupation that
the early cities of Chile were of so comparatively mean an order, for,
harassed by continuous Indian attacks as they were, the settlers could
find no leisure to devote their energies to anything of a pretentious or
even reasonably commodious order in the way of town-building.
In the north of the Continent the enervating climate, facile conquest,
and easy life had naturally tended to atrophy the energy of the
Spaniards. In Chile, on the other hand, the constant and fierce
struggles of the warlike natives, the hardships and frugal living, and
the temperate and exhilarating atmosphere, tended not only to preserve
the energy, but even to increase the virility of the settler in the
south.
It is true that in the central provinces of the country, where the
Indians were less numerous and less warlike than the Araucanians of the
south, a certain number of the natives were distributed into
_encomiendas_, and set to work at enforced tasks, but the number of
these, compared with those which existed in the centre and north of the
Continent, remained utterly insignificant.
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