Note 233 — Chapter LXII

The name Chile did not belong to the whole country included in the present Republic of Chile, nor even to any large part of it. The north part of modern Chile was known to the Yncas as Copayapu (Copiapo); further south was the province of Coquimpu (Coquimbo); and the central part of modern Chile was called Canconicagua, and also Chilli, the latter name being probably that of a chief. Valdivia adopted the name of Canconicagua, while Almagro called it the valley of Chilli. The followers of Almagro and assassins of Pizarro were always known as “los de Chile”. The name of Chile was long applied only to the valley of Aconcagua, including Quillota; and that was no doubt the sense in which it was used by the natives and by their Ynca conquerors. Afterwards, the Spaniards gave the name of Chile to the whole country on the Pacific coast, from Copiapo to Valdivia. The native form of the word was Chilli, which the Spaniards softened into Chile. In the north of Peru, in the provinces of Chachapoyas and Pataz, there are three villages called Chilia; and the word occurs in several names of places in southern Peru, such as Pacon-chile, Chilihua, and the river Chile at Arequipa. The word Chiri means cold in Quichua. But Vicuña Mackenna maintains (Relaciones Historicas: art. “Origen del Nombre de Chile”, p. 92) that the name is indigenous to the country, and was used before the Ynca conquest; that originally it was local, and was applied only to the valley of Aconcagua, but that it had no special meaning.