Transcribed Prologue, editing and notes by Dr. Rudolf Lenz Full title: “Vida y costumbres de los indígenas araucanos de la segunda mitad del Siglo XIX” Background The text is the autobiography of Chief (Lonco) Pascual Coña, as related to the Capuchin priest Ernst Wilhelm Moesbach. By the time these memories were compiled (mid-1920s), Coña was an older man, in his 70s or 80s, so much of the content relates to the second half of the 19th century.

Preliminary transcription by Benjamin Molineaux. PDF Text (Image Scans) TXT Text (Mapudungun)

Transcribed This was the most widely used early work on Mapudungun. So much so that the HMS Beagle, in its famous travels with Captiain Fitz Roy and young Charles Darwin, carried a copy of it in 1831-6. Its author was the Catalan Jesuit Andrés Febrés (1732-1790), who arrived to the Mapuche-speaking territories in 1759 at the age of 27. He appears to have learnt the language and written his grammar less than five years after his arrival in Chile.

Transcribed This set of early seventeenth-century sermons was composed by Fr. Luis de Valdiva (1560–1621) , one of the first Spanish Jesuits assigned to Chile. Valdivia played a cruical role in the development of Spanish Crown’s ‘defensive war’ policy towards the Mapuche, which suspended direct attacks on native groups and emphasised acculturation. The sermons are intended as a programatic introduction to Christian faith, with the express intent of converting the Mapuche and having them renounce their traditional beliefs and religious practices.