They pulled, however,
very well and cheerfully. The stroke-oarsman gabbled Indian, and
uttered strange cries, much after the fashion of a pig-driver
driving his pigs. We started with a light breeze against us, but
yet reached the Capella de Cucao before it was late. The country on
each side of the lake was one unbroken forest. In the same periagua
with us a cow was embarked. To get so large an animal into a small
boat appears at first a difficulty, but the Indians managed it in a
minute. They brought the cow alongside the boat, which was heeled
towards her; then placing two oars under her belly, with their ends
resting on the gunwale, by the aid of these levers they fairly
tumbled the poor beast heels over head into the bottom of the boat,
and then lashed her down with ropes. At Cucao we found an
uninhabited hovel (which is the residence of the padre when he pays
this Capella a visit), where, lighting a fire, we cooked our
supper, and were very comfortable.
The district of Cucao is the only inhabited part on the whole west
coast of Chiloe. It contains about thirty or forty Indian families,
who are scattered along four or five miles of the shore. They are
very much secluded from the rest of Chiloe, and have scarcely any
sort of commerce, except sometimes in a little oil, which they get
from seal-blubber.
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