420

420

CHILE.

[in case of a siege. Modern geographers speak of
it as a city not only existing in the present time,
but as very stongly fortified, and the seat of a
bishopric, when it has been buried in ruins for
more than 200 years.

4. Villarua founded. — About the same time he
dispatched Alderete, one of liis officers, with 60
men, to form a settlement on the shore of the great
lake J^auquaiy to which he gave the name of Vil-
larica, from the great quantity of gold that he
found in its environs. In the mean time, having
received fresh reinforcements, he commenced his
inarch towards the s. still kept in view by
liincoyan, whom timid caution constantly pre-
vented from offering himself to his enemy.

5. The Clinches. — In this manner the Spanish
commander traversed, with little loss, the Avhole
of Araucania from n. to s. ; but at his arrival
at the Calacalla, which separates the Arau-
canians from the Cunches, he found the latter in
arms determined to oppose his passage. While
he was deliberaling what measures to pursue, a
wiiman of the country, called Recloma, had the
address to jiersuade the Cunchese general to fa-
vour the strangers ; and without foreseeing the
consequences, he permitted them to pass unmo-
lested. The Cunches form one of the most valiant
nations of Chile : they inhabit that tract of country
which lies upon the sea, between the river Cala-
ealla, at present called Valdivia, and the Archi-
pelago of Chiloe. They are the allies of the
Araiicanians, and mortal enemies to the Spaniards,
and are divided into several tribes, which, like
those in the other parts of Chile, are governed by
their respective uhnenes.

6. Valdivia founded. — The Spanish com-
mander having passed the river with his troops,
founded upon the southern shore the sixth
city, called Valdivia, being the first of the
American conquerors who sought in this man-
ner to perpetuate his family name. This set-
tlement, of which at present only the fortress re-
mains, in a few years attained a considerable de-
gree of celebrity, not only from the superior fine-
ness of the golcl dug in its mines, which obtained
it the privilege of a mint, but from the excellence
of its harbour, one of the most secure and plea-
sant in the S. sea. The river is very^ broad,
and so deep, that ships of the line may anchor
within a few feet of the shore ; it also forms seve-
ral other harbours in the vicinity.

7. For tresses of Puren, Tucapel, and Arauco
built. — Valdivia, satisfied with the conquests, or
rather incursions, that he had made, turned back,
and in repassing the provinces of I\iren, Tucapel,

and Arauco, built in each of them, in 1553, a for-
tress, to secure the possession of tire others ; as he
well knew that from these provinces alone he had
to apprehend any attempt that might prove fatal
to his settlements. Ercilla says, that in this expe-
dition the Spaniards had to sustain many battles
with the natives ; which is highly probable, as the
continuance of Lincoyan in command can on no
other principle be accounted for. Without re-
flecting upon the imprudence of occupying so
large an extent of country with so small a force,
Vahlivia had the farther rashness, on his return to
Santiago, to dispatch P'rancis de Aguirre, with
200 men, to conquer the provinces of Cujo and
Tucuman, situated to the e. of the Andes.

8. Cilj/ of the Frontiers founded. — The Spanish
general, indefatigable in his plans of conquest, re-
turned also himself to Araircania; and in the
province of Encol founded the seventh and last
city, in a country fertile in vines, and gave it the
name of the City of the Frontiers. This name,
from events which could not possibly have been in
the calculation of Valdivia, has become strictly
applicable to its present state, as its ruins are, in
reality, situated upon the confines of the Spanish
settlement in that part of Chile. It was a rich
and commercial city, and its wines were trans-
ported to Buenos Ayres by a road over the cor-
dilleras.

9. Three principal military offices instituted at
Concepcion . — After having made suitable provi-
sions for this colony, Valdivia returned to his fa-
vourite city of Concepcion, where he instituted
the three principal military offices ; that of quar-
ter-master-general, of serjeant-major, and of com-
missary ; a regulation which has, till within a few
years, prevailed in the royal army of Chile. At
present only two of these offices exist ; that of the
quarter-master-general, who is also called the in-
tendant, and resides in the city of Concepcion,
and that of the serjeant-major.

10. The Toqui Caupolican. — The next toqui
who distinguished himself in the Araucanian
wars, and who succeeded Lincoyan in command,
was Caupolican ; he evinced a spirit of much en-
terprise and cunning, and succeeded in driving
the S])aniards from the forts of Arauco and Tuca-
pel, which Avereby his orders completely destroyed.
In a succeeding battle we find this commander,
from the loss of a number of his men, flying in
confusion before the Spanish artillery, and suffer-
ing all the horror and disgrace attendant upon an
apparent defeat, when, in a momentous crisis, a
young Araucanian, called Lautaro, whom Valdi-
via in one of his incursions had taken prisoner,]