Diego de Rosales, a Jesuit missionary and historian, wrote a history of Chile (Historia general del reino de Chile. Flandes Indiano) in 1674 (online here). In it he mentions bearded white Natives:
"In the part of Chile that has cold land, three are white Indians and in the Chonos I have seen them so white that they look like Spaniards. And, additionally next to the Strait of Magellan, there are with beards, and white, that if they dressed with Spanish clothes, they would all be judged [unintelligible] and of Europe [unintelligible] men so dark, that compared with these Indians, they look like Indians, and the Indians, Spaniards."
Could the white bearded men have lived here? Source
De Ovalle also mentions an expedition along the southern coast of Chile, that took place in 1640 when Diego de Vera advanced by sea towards the Strait of Magellan (source) in search of the City of Caesars.
"They caught a naked bearded indian, tall... they assured him that they wouldn't hurt him, that they wanted to know where were the Spaniards that they heard lived in the region of the Strait [of Magellan], to which sometimes he answered that there, were the Viracochas, called so becaus that was how they named the Spaniards in that region, taking from the Indians of Pery the name that they gave to the Spaniards, calling them Viracochas after their God Viracocha; and on other times he said they were already dead... and they found an Indian woman, who told them that the Spaniards they had seen were whiter and had fairer hair then them. And that the Viracochas that they knew were those of the territory of that indian. That like him, and those of his territory, they were bearded, so they looked like Spaniards, they called them with the same name they gave the Spaniards: Viracochas."
Viracocha is a Quechua word, and it was used by the Inca people of Peru to designate their creator god. Viracocha was the creator of earth, humans, and animals. The Inca spread their religion into Chile when they occupied North Central Chile up to the Bio-Bio River in the late 1400s. defeating the Mapuche.
City of Caesars
The “City of Caesars” was an “El Dorado” located in Patagonia. We can be summarize it as follows: The legend of the City of Caesars began in the mid 16th century. When a Spaniard named César reported finding a city of incredible wealth in South-Central Argentina.
The myth revolved around an incredibly rich city that some believed was set in the hidden mountains of western Patagonia. Its roads were paved with gold, and the kitchenware was silver.
It was inhabited by people of European origin who led secluded lives there. In some variants they were Spaniards, survivors of shipwrecked expeditions on the Strait of Magellan, who allied with the Tehuelches built their city on an island in a Patagonian lake around 46° South. In others they were Inca princes who had escaped the Spanish conquest and built their new empire in Patagonia.
Several expeditions were sent to find it, and it was not until the late 18th century that it lost credibility and searches were discontinued.
Patagonian Monsters - Cryptozoology, Myths & legends in Patagonia Copyright 2009-2025by Austin Whittall ©
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