History of the Indians, of North and South America

by Samuel G. Goodrich

The garrison, however, were at last compelled by famine to abandon the place, the houses were burned, and the walls demolished. In attempting the conquest of another place, called Angol, Antiguenu, after the most brilliant feats of valor and courage, was forced along with a crowd of retreating soldiers, and falling from a high bank into the river, was drowned.

His successor was Paillataru, the brother or cousin of Lautaro. In the year 1665, the fort of Arauco and the city of Canete were rebuilt by the Spanish commander. The history of this remarkable people is henceforward a series of battles; and, though they fought with various success, they never lost their indomitable spirit, or their determination not to be brought into subjection to the Europeans. Observing the advantage obtained by cavalry, they early organized a body of horsemen, and in seventeen years after their first encounters with the Spaniards, were able to oppose them with cavalry on the field of battle.

In 1589, while Guanoalca was toqui, the Spanish governor, believing that it would be impossible for him to defend the forts of Purea, Trinidad, and Espiritu Santo, which had been established, evacuated them; and the war is said to have been reduced to the construction and demolition of fortifications.

During the toquiate of Guanoalca, and his successors, Quintuguenu and Paillaeco, the Araucanians suffered a number of severe defeats. After the one last mentioned, the Araucanians, unsubdued in courage, appointed to the chief command a man named Paillamachu, the hereditary toqui of the second district; who, though advanced in years, is said to have been a person of wonderful activity. The tide of fortune seemed to turn at once in his favor, and his success was so great, that he is declared to have surpassed all his predecessors in military glory, and was enabled to restore his country again to her full independence.

In 1598, owing to his victories, not only the Araucanian provinces, but those of the Cunches and the Huilliches, were in arms, comprising the whole country to the Archipelago of Chiloe. Every Spaniard found without the garrisons was put to death, and the cities of Osorno, Valdivia, Villarica, Imperial, Arauco, Canete, Angol, and Caya, were all closely besieged at one and the same time. Paillamachu also crossed the Biobio, burned Concepcion and Chillan, laid waste the provinces dependent on them, and returned laden with spoils. He also forced the Spaniards to evacuate the fort and city of Arauco, and obliged the inhabitants to retire to Concepcion.

In the month of November, 1599, he caused his army to cross the broad river Valdivia, by swimming, stormed the city, burned the houses, and killed a great number of inhabitants. He attacked the vessels that lay at anchor, which only escaped by immediately setting sail, and then returned in triumph to the guard he had stationed on the Biobio, with a spoil of 2,000,000 of dollars, all the cannon, and upwards of 400 prisoners.

Villarica also, after a siege of two years and eleven months, fell into the hands of the Araucanians in the year 1602, and the city of Imperial shared the same fate. Indeed, all the Spanish settlements in the country were destroyed, which Valdivia and his successors had established, and preserved at the expense of so much toil and blood, and they remained unbuilt, scarcely a vestige of their ruins being left.

The prisoners were numerous; the unmarried females were taken into the seraglios of their conquerors, while the unmarried men were allowed to espouse the women of the country. From these mixed marriages, it is said, have proceeded the Mestizos, who became, in subsequent wars, the most terrible enemies of the Spanish name. Some of the prisoners were ransomed by their friends or exchanged; though many were induced, from love to their children, to remain with their captors.

Paillamachu died soon after, at the close of the year 1603, and was succeeded by Hunecura. The disasters experienced by the Spaniards were severely felt, and the court of Spain gave orders that there should be constantly maintained a body of 2,000 regular troops on the Araucanian frontier, for whose support the sum of 292,279 dollars was annually drawn from the treasury of Peru.