Note (return) — Chapter XII · VOYAGE ROUND THE WORLD, BY CAPTAIN GEORGE SHELVOCKE, IN 1719-1722. (continued 2)

Notwithstanding its many advantages, this vast country is very thinly inhabited; so that through its whole extent there are scarcely five towns deserving that appellation, and only one city, named St Jago. Through all the rest of the country there are only farms, called estancias, which are so remote from each other, that the whole country cannot muster 20,000 whites capable of bearing arms, of which St Jago contains 2000. All the rest of the population consists of mesticoes, mulattoes, and Indians, the number of whom may amount to three times as many.1 This is exclusive of the friendly Indians to the south of the river Biobio, who are reckoned to amount to 15,000 fighting men, but whose fidelity is not much to be depended upon.