Page:A history of Chile.djvu/451

CHILE OF TO-DAY 405 neath the towering on-rushing waves, before which even mountains may not stand. The Island of Juan Fernandez, rendered famous by the imagination of De Foe, belongs to Chile, together with its outlying companions, several in number. These islands were first discovered by Juan Fernandez in 1563, and colonized, but the colonists soon aban- doned them. They became a favorite resort for the South Sea pirates, a headquarters for buccaneers. Ulloa visited them in 1741, Lord Anson remained there three months with a scurv5'-afflicted crew ; about the middle of the last century Don Domingo Rozas, of Chile, sent colonists to settle there. Political exiles were fre- quently banished there during the early part of this century ; later, several well organized efforts have been made by the Chilean government to colonize these islands with a better class of citizens. Chile also claims Easter Island. Chile is singularly free from ferocious animals and poisonous reptiles. There are eleven species of rep- tiles, five saurians, four ophidians, one frog and one toad. The serpents are perfectly harmless. In the timbered districts of the south there is plenty of game for the sportsman, but not of the savage kind. Pumas (Chile lions) are occasionally met with in the Andes and on the heights the huanaco is found. A small sil- ver fox abounds in the south. But there are no tigers (or jaguars), no wolves, such as infest other neighbor- ing states. The plateaux and plains stretching from the Andes to the Cordillera are almost destitute of game. Perhaps the towering Andes on one side and the Atacama desert on the other, have prevented the passage of animals into this favored land, or, it may be that the Indians, whom the Spaniards found settled