The Chileans resemble very much the Irish in some of their characteristics. One of these is their love of fighting, and the Chileans have made about the best soldiers of any of the South American people. They have an intense spirit and patriotism, which has shown itself in their wars and revolutions. In addition to the Spanish blood a large percentage have more or less of the blood of the Araucanian Indians, who were the most stubborn race to conquer of any that the Spaniards encountered in South America. As soldiers the Chileans have no sense of mercy, and this characteristic has shown itself in all of their wars. They are impetuous, impulsive, passionate and generous, but have very little self-control. Many of them fight simply for the love of fighting, just as do many of the Irish, who seem to scrap simply for the sake of scrapping. The Chileno as a rule has a fiery temper. He loves a fight. It is not a fist fight that he will indulge in, but it must be a fight with revolvers, or, better yet, with knives. The knife is an indispensable equipment with the _roto_. It used to be said that as many lives were lost in a Chilean fair as in a decent battle. It is a sad fact that murders are extremely frequent, and scarcely a day passes in Santiago or Valparaiso without some fatal affray. _Aguardiente_ may be placed at the bottom of most of these, just as rum is the primary cause of most of the murders in the United States. It inflames the naturally hot temper of the race and brings out all the passions of envy, hatred and jealousy. The death penalty is seldom inflicted, although sentence is frequently imposed. The prisoners are kept in confinement, and their sentence commuted from time to time. If the convicted one belongs to a family of prominence, he will eventually be released; if of poorer origin, he may be sent to some remote section of the country and set to work. Among the _rotos_ there is a general contempt for death, which also adds to the prevalence of murders, and sometimes of brigandage in the mountains. A little judicious weeding out of some of these criminals would not be a bad thing for the country.