The tract of country which may be properly called Araucania extends from the river Bio-bio in 36° 44´ south latitude, to Valdivia in 39° 38´, the province of Conception bounding it on the north, and the _Llanos_ or plains of Valdivia on the south. The Cordillera forms the eastern limit, and the Pacific the western. It is divided into four governments, or tetrachates, called _uthal mapus_:--1. _lauguen mapu_, the maritime country; 2, _lelbun mapu_, the plain country; 3, _mapire mapu_, the foot of the Cordilleras; 4, _pire mapu_, the Andes. Each tetrachate is again divided into nine _allaregues_, or provinces, and these are subdivided into nine _regues_, or districts. This division existed prior to the arrival of the Spaniards, but the date of its establishment is unknown. It evinces, however, more wisdom than civilized countries are willing to allow to what they term barbarous tribes, who no doubt return this compliment, by adjudging those nations to be barbarous who observe any rules or laws different from their own. Such is the common characteristic of civilization and uncivilization! But can that country be called barbarous which, although its code of laws is not written on vellum, or bound in calf, has an established mode of government for the administration of justice and the protection of property? The Araucanians have ever been a warlike race, and yet their government is aristocratical. They are prompt to resent an insult, but they possess virtues of a private and public nature, which deny to civilization its exclusive pretensions to patriotism, friendship or hospitality. The four _uthalmapus_ are governed by four _Toquis_, or tetrachs, who are independent of each other in the civil administration of their respective territories, but confederated for the general good of the whole country. The Apo-ulmenes are subordinate governors of provinces, under the respective Toquis; and the Ulmenes, the prefects of the counties, or districts, are dependent on the Apo-ulmenes. All these dignities are hereditary in the male line, attending to primogeniture, but when there is no lineal male descendant of the person reigning, the vassals enjoy the privilege of electing a new governor from among themselves, and on reporting their choice to the Toquis, they immediately order it to be acknowledged. The badge of a Toqui is a battle-axe; that of an Apo-ulmen a staff, or baton, with a ball of silver on the top, and a ring of the same metal round the middle: the Ulmen has the baton without the ring. To the hypothetical historian this aristocracy in the most southern limits of the new, so similar to the military aristocracy of the dukes, the counts, and the marquises in the northern parts of the old world, would prove that the latter was peopled by migrations from the former, at a time beyond the reach of record, or even of oral tradition.