Abstract

Chilean Jesuits Alonso de Ovalle (17th century) and Juan Ignacio Molina (18th century) described in their books the Chilean nature to the European readers. In their works both Jesuits highlighted the presence of the Mapuche healers known as machis, who hid their great knowledge of herbs from the Spaniards. In this case, the existence of a secret and powerful knowledge that did not want to be shared by the machis contributes to keep the distance between Europeans and the ‘Others’: the Mapuche people. However, both Jesuits tried to reveal those secrets concerning curative herbs and brought this knowledge closer to the comprehension of the Europeans. In this paper I will briefly analyse the main references made by Alonso de Ovalle and Juan Ignacio Molina in each of their Natural histories concerning to the machis’ secret knowledge of herbs and plants, as well as analyse the resources both Jesuits used to describe the Mapuche people from the perspective of the Classical tradition.