completely routed; Quepuantu in vain endeavouring to stop, and bring them back to the charge, killing several of them with his own hand. Great was the slaughter of the fugitives who were pursued to the distance of six miles; of the Spaniards many also were killed; but from the different accounts given by writers the number cannot be ascertained. CHAPTER IX. COMPRISING A PERIOD OF EIGHTY-SEVEN YEARS, Continuation of the War; New Expedition of the Dutch against Chili; Peace concluded with the Araucanians; Its short Duration; Exploits of the Toqui Clentaru; Series-of Spanish Governors to the Year 1720. FROM the death of Putapichion to the termination of the government of Don Francisco Laso, the Toquis elected by the Araucanians continued the war with more rashness than good conduct. None of them, like Antiguenu or Paillamachu, possessed that coolness requisite to repair their losses, and counterbalance the power of the Spaniards. Quepuantu, who from the rank of a subaltern had been raised to the chief command, after the battle of Alvarrada, retired to a valley covered with thick woods, where he erected a house with four opposite doors, in order to escape in case of being attacked. The governor, having discovered the place of his retreat, sent the quarter-master Sea to surprise him with four hundred light armed troops. These arriving unexpectedly, Quepuantu took refuge, as he had planned, in the wood, but ashamed of his flight, he returned with about fifty men, who had come to his assistance, and furiously attacked the assailants. He continued fighting desperately for half an hour, but having lost almost all his men, accepted a challenge from Loncomallu, chief of the auxiliaries, by whom, after a long combat, he was slain. A similar fate, in 1634, befel his successor and relation Loncomilla, in fighting with a small number of troops against a strong division of the Spanish army. Guenucalquin, who succeeded him, after having made some fortunate incursions into the Spanish provinces, lost his life in an engagement with six hundred Spaniards, in the province of IliCuranteo, who was created Toqui in the heat of the action, had the glory of terminating it by the rout of the enemy, but was shortly after killed in another conflict. Curimilla, more daring than his predecessors, repeatedly ravaged the provinces to the north of the Bio-bio, and undertook the siege of Arauco, and of the other fortifications on the frontier, but was finally killed by Sea in Calcoimo. cura. During the government of this Toqui, the Dutch attempted a second time to form an alliance with the Araucanians, in order to obtain possession of Chili; but this expedition was not more fortunate than the first. The squadron, which consisted of four ships, was dispersed by a storm on its arrival on the coast in 1638. A boat, well manned and armed, being afterwards dispatched to the island of Mocha, belonging to the Araucanians, the inhabitants, supposing that they came to attack them, fell upon the crew, put the whole to death, and took possession of the boat. Another experienced a similar misfortune in the little island of Talca, or Santa Maria. The Araucanians, as has been already observed, were equally jealous, and not, as may be readily imagined, without reason, of all the European nations. Notwithstanding the ill success of the Dutch, Sir John Narborough, an English naval commander, undertook some years after a similar enterprise, by order of his sovereign Charles the Second; but in passing the streights of Magellan, he lost his whole fieet, which was much better equipped than that of the Dutch. In the mean time the governor, taking advantage of the imprudence of the Araucanian commanders, continued constantly to lay waste their provinces. By a proclamation he had at first directed that every prisoner taken in these incursions, capable of bearing arms, should be put to death; but afterwards, actuated by more humane sentiments, he ordered that they should be sent to Peru. This sentence was, howe ver, more bitter to them than death. Whenever they came in sight of land, which is very common during that navigation, they hesitated not to throw themselves overboard, in the hope of escaping by swimming and returning to their country. Many had the good fortune to save themselves in this manner; but those who were not able to elude the vigilance of the sailors, as soon as they were landed on the island, or at the port of Callao, exposed themselves to every peril to effect their escape and return to their much loved country, coasting with incredible fatigue the immense space of ocean between that port and the river Bio-bio. Even their relations, more solicitous to deliver them from the miseries of exile than from death itself, when they were condemned to that punishment, frequently sent embassies to the governor to negotiate their ransom, but he always refused to consent to it, until they had laid down their arms and submitted to his orders. Laso had greatly at heart the performance of the promise, which, like several of his predecessors, he had made the king, of putting an end to the war. He of course put in operation, every means possible of attaining that end. Indeed, no one was more capable of succeeding; but he had to contend with an invincible people. Nevertheless, he employed every measure that military science suggested to him, to effect their subjugation; now endeavouring by his victories to humble their pride, now ravaging their country with fire and sword, and now restraining them by the construction of fortresses in different places in their territory. He also founded a city not far from the ruins of Angol, to which he gave the name of St. Francis de la Vega. This settlement, which was protected by a garrison of four companies of horse and two of foot, was taken and destroyed by the Toqui Curimilla the very year of its foundation. A war so obstinate must necessarily have caused the destruction of a great number of men. The Spanish army had become more than one half diminished, notwithstanding the numerous recruits with which it was annually supplied from Peru. On this account the governor sent Don Francisco Avendano to Spain to solicit new reinforcements, promising to bring the war to a termination in the course of two years. But the court judging from the past that there was little reason to expect so successful an issue, appointed him a successor in the person of Don Francisco Zuniga Marquis de Baydes, who had given unquestionable proofs of his political and military talents, both in Italy and Flanders, where he had sustained the office of quarter-master-general. On his arrival in Chili in 1740, this nobleman, either in consequence of private instructions from the minister, or of his own accord had a personal conference with Lincopichion, to whom the Araucanians, upon the death of Curimilla, had confided the command of their armies. Fortunately, both the commanders were of the same disposition, and being equally averse to so destructive a war, readily agreed upon the most difficult articles of peace. The 6th of January of the following year was the day fixed for its ratification, and the place |