Being extremely independent in their notions, their ulmens or caciques had no power to impose contributions on the people they governed, and were merely sages or warriors who guided the tribes in council or in the field. No temples were erected in Chili, the Great Being and his subordinate agents were invoked in times of need, and on occasions of great distress sacrifices of animals and offerings of fruits were made. As well as their neighbours, the Peruvians, they had a tradition of a great deluge, in which only a few persons were saved. They had words to express units, tens, hundreds, and a thousand, with all the intermediate numbers, and preserved the memory of transactions by the Pron, a bunch of threads of several colours, resembling the Peruvian quippus. In treating of the Araucanians, we shall give some further account of a people, who, though they had not attained the degree of civilization acquired by their northern neighbours, were, nevertheless, very far from being in a state of barbarism, and who are probably the only American nation, surrounded by European colonies, who have hitherto retained the same customs, manners, language and independence which they possessed before the conquest of the New World, as the Spaniards have scarcely made more progress in subduing them than their predecessor, the Inca Yupanqui, did. From the determination of Almagro to conquer the country possessed by the Peruvians south of Cuzco, in consequence of the reports constantly received by himself and Pizarro, of the riches it contained, may be dated the discovery of Chili by Europeans. Don Diego de Almagro de Malagon having collected a force of 570 Spaniards, and 15,000 Peruvians, set out from Cuzco, in the year 1535, attended by Paullu Inca, and choosing the road of the mountains, reached the province of Copiapo in Chili, after a march in which they had to contend with the Indians at every step; this, together with the inclemencies of the weather, the rugged nature of the road, and the winter overtaking them on the summit of the Andes, caused the death of 150 of the Spaniards and 10,000 of the Peruvians. On the arrival of the army in Copiapo, Paullu Inca obliged the natives to deliver up all the gold in their possession, which amounting to the value of 500,000 ducats, he presented to Almagro. The natives every where received the Spaniards with respect, amounting almost to adoration, as they imagined the new comers were a divine race sent by their gods to govern them, till after the arrival of Rodrigo Orgonez, with a reinforcement from Peru, when two of the soldiers committing acts of violence near the river Huasco, were slain by the people.