Santiago, the metropolis of Chili, is equidistant from the frontiers of Upper Peru and Patagonia, about 50 miles from the coast of the Pacific Ocean, and nearly as far from the foot of the great Cordillera: it stands on the banks of the little R. Mapocho, which runs into the Maipo. Its situation is happily chosen ; the streets are regular, the houses well-built, and some of the public edifices very magnificent. The port of Santiago is Valparaiso, which stands on an elevated and rugged promontory running out into the Pacific: it has an excellent harbour, every where free from rocks and shoals, and is touched at by all ships from Peru, as well as by many of those which are bound from Europe to the South Seas. It contains about 8,000 inhabitants. About 400 miles to the W. of Valparaiso, in the open sea, are the two islands of Masafuera and Juan Fernandez; the latter is remarkable for the adventures of Alexander Selkirk, a Scotch sailor, who having been left behind by his captain, lived there in solitude for four years, a circumstance which gave rise to the well-known romance of Robinson Crusoe.

PATAGONIA.

65. Patagonia is the name given to the Southern extremity of America. It is bounded on the N. by the United Provinces of the Rio de la Plata, and on all other sides by the ocean, Cape Horn, its Southernmost point, being usually considered as the common limit between the Atlantic on the East, and the Pacific on the West: it contains about 257,700 square miles, and 500,000 inhabitants. Patagonia is sometimes. called the Land of Magellan, or Magalhaens, from its having been discovered at the commencement of the 16th century by the famous Portuguese navigator of that name, after whom the narrow and dangerous passage, which separates the Terra del Fuego from the mainland of America, has been called the Strait of Magellan. The Terra del Fuego, or Land of Fire, is an island, or a group of islands, so named by Magellan, because during the night he perceived many fires there, which he supposed were volcanoes: Cape Horn is the Southernmost point of a small island below Terra del Fuego, and is remarkable for the tempestuous seas which roll off it, as well as for an extensive sandbank which is thought to surround it like the bank of the Cape of Good Hope. Very little is known concerning the inhabitants of Patagonia; they are divided into many nations or tribes, and are of larger stature than the neighbouring Indians, though by no means so tall as some accounts have represented them to be. They are sunk in the most deplorable state of barbarism and ignorance, and pay superstitious adoration to the sun and moon: the republic of La Plata claims dominion over them, but they have never yet been subdued.