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Molina most properly denominates the whole aborigines of Chili on both sides of the Andes, Chilese, as speaking one language, the Chili-dugu; names the tribes of Arauco and those in the same republican confederacy Araucanians; and gives distinct names like Falkner to the allied tribes: the Puelches, Cunchese, Huilliches, Pehuenches, and others.
It would appear that Paillamachu had formed confident hopes in the successful issue of this bold enterprise, and that it had been long concerted: as, in consequence of his instructions, the whole provinces of the Araucanian confederacy, and their allies the Cunches and Huilliches, were in arms in less than forty-eight hours after the slaughter of Loyola.
Their defensive armour consists of a helmet of double bulls hide shaped like a broad-brimmed hat; a tunic or bodice of hardened skin three or four fold, which is very heavy, but effectually resists the arrow and spear, and is even said to be musquet proof. When on foot, they have likewise a large unwieldy shield of bulls hide. The Tehuelhets and Huilliches sometimes poison their arrows.
Between the latitudes of 24° and 33° south, the Andes are entirely desert and uninhabited; but the remainder as far as 45° S. is inhabited by various tribes or colonies of the Chilese, called Chiquillanes, Pehuenches, Puelches, and Huilliches, which are commonly known under the general appellation of Patagonians. Chili Proper.
The country beyond them, all the way to the Straits of Magellan, is possessed by the last of the Tehuel tribes, called Yacana-Kunnees or foot-people, as they have no horses. These are an inoffensive race, who are very swift runners, and subsist mostly on fish. The other Tehuelhets and the Huilliches sometimes attack this tribe for the purpose of making slaves of the prisoners.
Satisfied with this discovery of the archipelago of Chiloe, Don Garcia returned towards the north, having one of the islanders as a guide, who conducted him safely to Imperial through the inland country of the Huilliches, which is for the most part level and abounds in provisions.
It is observable that all the Chilese tribes which inhabit the elevated valleys of the Andes, both Pehuenches, Puelches, Huilliches, and Chiquillanians, are much redder than those of their countrymen who dwell in the lower country to the west of these mountains.
The small-pox has nearly completed the work of war and drunkenness, and when Falkner left the country they could hardly muster four thousand men among them all. The Huilliches possess the country from Valdivia to the Straits of Magellan. They are divided into four tribes, who are improperly classed together as one nation, since three of them are evidently of a different race from the fourth.
Falkner appears to have chosen to denominate the whole from the tribe whose dialect he first became acquainted with; and some others seem to select the Moluches as the parent tribe. The Moluches or warlike people, are divided into the Picunches, or people of the north, the Pehuenches or people of the fine country, and Huilliches or people of the south.
Besides these, the country of the Cunches, who are in alliance with the Araucanians, extends along the coast between Valdivia and the archipelago of Chiloe; and the Huilliches, likewise allies of the Araucanians, occupy all the plains to the eastward, between the Cunches and the main ridge of the Andes.