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The Californian (Chapman) was not the only one to be taken with the Chinchilla. Natives cherished the animal's fur and had been making warm, lightweight garments from it. This took place long before the first Spanish Explorers arrived in South America in the 1500's. Once the explorers spotted the garments, they had insisted on adding these pelts to their cargoes for taking on their return trips. They introduced the chinchillla pelts to Europe, where they became known as the fur of the princes and princesses. They used to trim royal robes and gowns.
Sir Richard Hawkins, an Englishman, also had an admiration for the chinchillas. He described them in the following terms in a book he wrote in 1953:
(I)"They (South Americans) have little beasts like unto a squirrell, but that he is gray; his skinne is the most delicate, soft, and curious furre that I have seene...They call this beast chinchilla, and of them they have great abundance."