The marquis had also resolved to renew the attempt to conquer Chili, which had been abandoned by Almagro. A cavalier had actually been sent out from Spain, named Pedro Sanchez de Hoz, to undertake this service. The marquis associated with him a commander on whose judgment, resolution, and fidelity he could better rely. Pedro de Valdivia was a native of Serena in Estremadura. He had seen much service in Italy; was at the taking of Milan and at the battle of Pavia. He had arrived in Peru in 1535, having been sent from Mexico by Hernando Cortés when the governor of Peru appealed for help to resist the Ynca revolt. He did important service for the Pizarros at the battle of Salinas.
Having collected one hundred and fifty soldiers at Cusco, Valdivia began his march for Chili in March, 1540. His camp-master was Pedro Gomez; his standard-bearer, Pedro de Mayor; his chief of the staff, Alonso Monroy. Francisco de Aguirre and Jeronimo de Alderete were his captains of cavalry; Francisco de Villagran led the arquebusiers, and Rodrigo de Quiroga the pikemen. Two priests, named Bartolomé Rodrigo and Gonzalo Marmolejo, accompanied the expedition. Before starting, Valdivia went to the cathedral of Cusco, and swore, in presence of Bishop Valverde, that the first church he built should be dedicated to Our Lady of the Assumption, the patroness of Cusco, and that the first city he founded should be named Santiago, after the patron of Spain. Valdivia marched by way of the desert of Atacama, and at the very outset he made an agreement with Sanchez de Hoz that the sole command should rest with himself.
Valdivia had for a guide the friar Antonio Rondon, who had accompanied Almagro’s expedition; and with his aid he overcame all the difficulties of the march, and safely reached Copiapo in Chili. Advancing by Huasco and Coquimbo, he defeated a large army of natives in the valley of Chili or Aconcagua, and eventually selected a site for the foundation of a new city on the banks of the river Mapocho, in the territory of the Cacique Huelen-Guala. The foundation of the church, dedicated to the Assumption, in accordance with the vow made at Cusco, was laid on the 12th of February, 1541. The plan of the city was laid out, and it received the name of Santiago. The officers of the municipality were elected on the 7th of March, to remain in office for one year.
PEDRO DE VALDIVIA.
[From Herrera (1728), iv. 200.—Ed.]
It was not long before the natives of Chili took up arms to oppose the intruders. Valdivia marched against a large body, leaving Monroy in command at Santiago. But another force of Indians attacked the city itself, with desperate valor, during fifteen days, killing four Spaniards and twenty-three horses, and setting fire to the houses. Valdivia hastily returned; and although the whole country was in insurrection, Monroy nobly volunteered to make his way to Peru and return with reinforcements and supplies. He set out Jan. 28, 1542. Valdivia began to cultivate the land near Santiago, and to sow wheat, in the hope of raising crops; and on the hill of Santa Lucia he constructed a fort where provisions and valuables could be stored. But the little colony continued to suffer much from scarcity of provisions. Monroy, hiding in the woods during the day and travelling at night, escaped from Chili and reached Cusco in safety. He succeeded in getting a small vessel sent from the port of Arequipa to Valparaiso, while he himself returned by the desert of Atacama, reaching Santiago in December, 1543. Valdivia was now able to assume the offensive, and the armed Indians retired to a distance from Santiago.
VALDIVIA.
[Fac-simile of a part of a copperplate, which appears in Ovalle’s Historica Relacion de Chile, Rome, 1648.—Ed.]