CHAPTER VII. COMPRISES A PERIOD OF FOURTEEN YEARS, Daring Enterprises of the Toquis Lientur and Putapichion. · LONCOTHEGUA having resigned, the chief command of the Araucanian armies was conferred He upon Lientur. The military expeditions of this Toqui were always so rapid and unexpected, that the Spaniards gave him the appellation of the wizard. appointed Levipillan his lieutenant-general, by whom he was perfectly seconded in the execution of all his designs. Notwithstanding the Bio-bio was lined with centinels and fortresses, he always contrived some means of passing and repassing it without experiencing any loss. His first enterprise was the capture of four hundred horses intended to remount the Spanish cavalry. He next ravaged the province of Chillan, and the Corregidor having marched to meet him, he entirely defeated and slew him, together with two of his sons, and several of the magistrates of the city. Five days after this action he proceeded towards St. Philip of Austria, or Yumbel, with six hundred infantry and four hundred horse, whom he sent out in several divisions to ravage the country in the vicinity, leaving only two hundred to guard the narrow pass of the Congrejeras. Rebolledo, the commander of the place, provoked at his temerity, dispatched seventy horse to take possession of the above mentioned defile and cut off his retreat, but they were received with such bravery by the troops of Lientur, that they were compelled to retire for security to a hill, after having lost eighteen of their number, with their captain. Rebolledo sent to their assistance three companies of infantry, and the remainder of the cavalry. Lientur, who by this time had arrived with all his army, immediately formed his troops in battle array, fell upon the Spaniards, notwithstanding the continual fire of their musketry, and at the first encounter put the cavalry to flight. The infantry, being thus left exposed, were almost all cut in pieces; but thirty-six prisoners were taken by the victors, who were distributed in the several provinces of the country. Had Lientur at that time invested the place, it must inevitably have fallen into his hands: but, for some reason which does not appear, he deferred the siege until the following year, when his attempts to take it were rendered ineffectual by the valiant defence of Ximenes, the commander. This failurewas, however, recompensed by the capture of Neculguenu, the garrison of which he put to the sword, and made prisoners of all the auxiliaries who dwelt in the neighbourhood. These successes were followed by many others equally favourable, whence, according to contemporary writers, who are satisfied with mentioning them in general terms, he was considered as the darling child of fortune.. Ulloa, more a victim to the mortification and anxiety caused by the successes of Lientur than to sickness, died on the 20th of November, 1620, and was, according to the established custom, succeeded by the eldest of the auditors, Christopher de la Cerda, a native of Mexico. For the better defence of the shores of the Bio-bio, he built there the fort which still goes by his name; he had also a number of encounters with Lientur, and during the short period of his government, which continued but a year, was constantly occupied in protecting the Spanish settlements. His successor, Pedro Sores Ulloa, continued the war with similar fortune, until his death, which happened on the 11th of September, 1624. He was succeeded by his brother-in-law, Francisco Alava, who retained the office only six months. Lientur at length advanced in years, and fatigued with his continual exertions, resigned, in 1625, the chief command to Putapichion, a young man, of a character for courage and conduct very similar to his own, who had passed the early part of his youth among the Spaniards, as a slave to one Diego Truxillo. The Spaniards also possessed at the same time a commander of uncommon valour and military skill this was Don Louis de Cordova, lord of Carpio, and nephew to the viceroy of Peru, by whom he was abundantly supplied with warlike stores and soldiers, and ordered, in the name of the court, not to confine himself to defensive war, but to attack directly the Araucanian territory in various quarters. . His first care on his arrival at Conception was to introduce a reform of the military, and to pay the soldiers the arrearages that were due them. Those offices that were vacant he conferred on the Creoles, or descendants of the conquerors, who had been for the most part neglected; and by this measure, not only obtained their esteem, but that of all the inhabi tants. After having established order in the government, he directed his cousin Alonzo Cordova, whom he had appointed quarter-master, to make an incursion with six hundred men into the provinces of Arauco and Tucapel. But he was not able to take more than a hundred and fifteen prisoners of both sexes, and a small number of cattle, the inhabitants having taken refuge with their families and effects in the mountains. Eight only attempted to oppose his march, who paid with their lives for their temerity. In the mean time, Putapichion endeavoured to signalize the commencement of his command, by the capture of one of the strongest places belonging to the Spaniards on the Bio-bio. This was the fort of Nativity, situated on the top of a high and steep mountain, well furnished with soldiers and artillery, and both from its natural and artificial strength considered as impregnable. These considerations did not at all discourage the ardent temper of the young general. He came upon the fort unexpectedly; in a moment scaled the difficult ascent, possessed him. self of the ditch, and set on fire with burning arrows the palisades and houses of its defenders. But the latter collecting themselves in the only bastion that the flames had spared, kept up from thence so severe a fire upon the enemy, that Putapichion, despairing after some time of being able to maintain himself in the fort, retreated, taking with him twelve prisoners and several horses. From thence he crossed the Bio-bio, and attacked the post of Quinel, which was defended by a garrison of six hundred men; but failing also in this attempt, he turned against the devoted province of Chillan, from whence he brought off a great number of peasants and of cattle, notwithstanding the exertions of the sergeant-major to stop his rapid march. In the following year, 1628, the governor, eager for retaliation, determined to invade the Auraucanian provinces in three directions; to the quarter-master he assigned the maritime country, and to the sergeantmajor that of the Andes, reserving the intermediate. for himself. In pursuance of this plan, at the head of twelve hundred regular troops, and a correspondent number of auxiliaries, he traversed the provinces of Encol and Puren, captured a great number of men and cattle, and having passed the river Cauten, ravaged in a similar manner the rich district of Maquegua. Whilst he was returning, well pleased with the success of his expedition, Putapichion presented himself with three thousand men in order of battle. The first encounter was so violent that many of the Spaniards having fallen, the rest were compleatly broken; but being at lengh rallied by the exertions of their valiant officers, they maintained their ground, |