In a recent post I mentioned a group of fair, blue-eyed, white-skinned natives reportedly living in the Arauco region (Boroa) in Chile, in the 1700s. Today's post will add a comment by Captain FitzRoy, who visited the region several times between 1826 and 1835 while surveying it for the Royal Navy.
Robert FitzRoy (1805-1865). English Royal Navy officer. Sailed to Patagonia (1826-30) with Captain Parker King, and again, on the “Beagle” (1831-36). His official report is included in the Surveying Voyages of His Majesty's Ships Adventure and Beagle, Between the Years 1826 and 1836. He was a member of Parliament (1841) and governor of New Zealand (1843). FitzRoy would later disagree with Darwin’s theory of evolution. He committed suicide in 1865.
Source: FitzRoy, R. 1839. Narrative of the surveying voyages of His Majesty's Ships Adventure and Beagle between the years 1826 and 1836, describing their examination of the southern shores of South America, and the Beagle's circumnavigation of the globe. Proceedings of the second expedition, 1831-36, under the command of Captain Robert Fitz-Roy, R.N. London: Henry Colburn.v2
On page 402 FitzRoy wrote about these Boroa natives:
"On the Cauten was the city called Imperial—celebrated in Araucanian story—and near its site now live the Boroa tribe, some of whom have light-coloured eyes, fair complexions, and even red hair. I saw one of these Indians at Valdivia, who had blue eyes, but dark hair. She told me that in her own country, 'Boroa,' there were many with eyes like her's; that some were 'rubios,' that is, of a red and white complexion, and that a few had red hair. Her parents had told her, she said, that those people were descended from the 'Huincas.'* How the red hair originated is rather curious; I have heard of it from good authorities at other times, while in Chile."
On page 465 he adds what he had heward "from good authorities", while visiting Valdivia:
"This hostile tribe, whose visit he was anticipating, was that called 'Boroanos,' by the Chilians ('Boroa-che,' by the Indians). I have before said that in Boroa there are fair Indians; and that I saw, when at Valdivia, one of the natives of that district. The Indian girl, whom I mentioned just now as a captive, agreed exactly in what she stated of them, with the account I had previously heard. She and the 'Boroana' at Valdivia both said, that "their fathers had told them that the 'rubios' (meaning red and white, or red-haired people) were children of the women whom their ancestors took prisoners when they destroyed the seven cities." Many of these 'rubios' had blue eyes, with rather fair complexions; and some few had red hair. If this is the true story, they must be gradually losing such striking peculiarities; and the assertion made a century ago that there were white Indians in Araucania, might well be thought erroneous now. Both of the 'Boroanos' whom I saw had dark blue or grey eyes, and a lighter complexion than other Indians; but their features were similar to those of their countrywomen, and they had long black hair."
Therefore the Mapuche people took white women captive from the Spanish cities of Arauco during the war that razed the Spanish towns of Imperial, Villarrica, Angol, Osorno, Valdivia, San Felipe de Arauco and Castro. This took place in 1598. It was a common practice for the natives to kidnap women (known as "cautivas" by the Spaniards).
So no mysterious migrations from Europe during pre-Columbian times. The explanation is simple, kidnapped white women.
The practice of taking "captives" was common across America, even in the U.S., I recall visiting Oatman in Arizona, a tiny village on Route 66 not far from Las Vegas, it was named for Olive Oatman. The Oatman family, from Illinois, was attacked in Arizona by the Tolkepayas (Western Yavapai) or Apaches in 1851. Only Olive Ann Oatman (1837-1903) and her sister Mary Ann -who later died of hunger- survived. They were sold to the Mohave Indian band of Chief Espaniol, for two horses, beans, and three blankets. He took care of them and included them in his household as domestic slaves. 16 year old Olive had her face tatooed with blue ink as was the native's custom. She was freed after five years of captivity. Olive later wrote her memoir telling her story.
My mother told the story she had heard from her uncle, Robert "Bobby" Carruthers about his uncle, an old man when she met him c.1940, who had been kidnapped as a child by the Puelche-Mapuche Indians and rescued by the Argentine Army during the "Campaña de Conquista del Desierto" (1878-1884) - Desert Conquest Campaign. He was taciturn, and lived alone in a small cabin, withdrawn from society.
A paper reckoned that during the Arauco War between Spanish and Mapuches in the early 1600s, roughly 12% of the Spanish women had been kidnapped by the Indians. This was a significant figure.
Patagonian Monsters - Cryptozoology, Myths & legends in Patagonia Copyright 2009- 2025 by Austin Whittall ©
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