South America

by W. H. Koebel

Villagran had thoroughly deserved this success, which had crowned one of the most exhausting periods of the terrific struggle. He possessed, in the first place, many fine qualities as a leader, and was one of the toughest, bravest, and most honest of the conquistadores. Unfortunately for himself, these qualities did not appear to suffice in the eyes of the highest Spanish official in South America. Shortly after his victory Villagran was superseded by Garcia Hurtado de Mendoza, son of the Viceroy of Peru. Mendoza possessed many good points; at the same time, he had to a full degree many of the faults which characterized so great a number of the Spanish noblemen of the period. Thus, he was unduly arrogant and autocratic towards his comrades of inferior rank, flinging Villagran into prison on his first arrival in the country as the result of little beyond a whim. On the other hand, it must be admitted that Mendoza spared no endeavours to conciliate and treat with kindness the Araucanian Indians.

Garcia Hurtado de Mendoza had some reason for his arrogance. At twenty years of age, when sent by his father to Chile at the head of his force, he had already distinguished himself by his bravery, and, according to one biographer, had already fought in Corsica, Tuscany, Flanders, and in France. Even in that age there were not many who could boast of having effected all this when still in their teens. It was little wonder that he was high-spirited, wilful, and impetuous. Ercilla represents him as very ardent in battle, sometimes fighting himself, sometimes urging on his soldiers, always in movement. At the time of the Araucanian invasion he addressed his troops in the most humane terms. One of his sayings was to the effect that—"An enemy who surrenders is a friend whom we ought to protect; it is a greater thing to give life than to destroy it." Sentiments of this kind were doubly commendable when, judging from their rarity, they could scarcely have been popular.

Notwithstanding his good intentions towards the Araucanians, Mendoza soon found himself involved in a struggle to the death with the now hereditary foes of his race, for the southern Indians—maintaining their reputation—proved themselves implacable, and would hear nothing of compromise. After many fierce battles, in the course of which fortune ebbed either way, Mendoza succeeded in capturing Caupolicán, who was tortured to death, an episode which caused a short lull in the fevered activities of the Spanish forces.

In 1560 Mendoza was abruptly ordered by King Philip II. of Spain to surrender his post as Governor to Francisco Villagran. That fine old conquistador was now worn out in body and a wreck of his former self. The furious combats with the Araucanians broke out afresh, and continued unabated. A series of disasters shattered the spirit of Villagran, and sent him to his grave. Following this came the usual succession of Governors, and the unbroken continuance of the Indian wars, victory and disaster alternately succeeding each other to an extent which would prove monotonous if an attempt at description were made.

There is only one instance, I believe, of a white man having gained the complete confidence of the Araucanians, and this did not occur until a century after the two races had first come into contact with each other. It is said that in 1642—thirty-nine years after the town of Valdivia had been captured from the Spaniards and destroyed—Colonel Alonzo de Villanueva, who had been sent to the south with the object of regaining possession of the city, effected this without bloodshed by the employment of an extraordinary amount of tact and patience. He landed at a point a little to the south of Valdivia, and boldly made his appearance quite alone among the astonished warriors. He remained with them for two years, when, having won their respect and confidence, he proposed that they should appoint him their Governor at Valdivia, explaining that by this move they would effect a reconciliation with the Spaniards, and, in consequence, obtain many material benefits. The Araucanians readily fell in with the idea, and in 1645 Valdivia was rebuilt, and was again populated. Undoubtedly in the middle of the seventeenth century time was of very little value in Chile, and in any case it would seem that to effect so brilliant a result at so little cost was worth the two years' wait!

In 1577 Sir Francis Drake made his appearance in the Pacific, and was the pioneer of the adventurers who were to follow in the wake of his keel. Thus new anxieties were added to the minds of the Chilean officials, although it must be said that the colonists, when they once became accustomed to the visits of these foreigners, gave them an increasingly friendly reception, notwithstanding the hostility evinced towards them by the Spaniards. It was not long before this new and grim type of visitor increased in numbers and grew cosmopolitan.

The Dutch, always on the look out for a weapon with which to flog their enemies the Spaniards, had managed to glean intelligence of the successful warfare which the Araucanians in Southern Chile were waging against the Spanish troops. When the news of the separation of Portugal from Spain reached Holland, the position of that country's forces in Brazil became automatically somewhat unsettled—at all events in theory, and finally in practice. It was then that the idea occurred to them to establish settlements in equally fertile and less tropical climates.

A squadron was fitted out by the Dutch navigator, Brouwer, and in 1642 it sailed into the Pacific Ocean, and the troops effected a landing on the Island of Chiloe. Here they succeeded in inflicting a defeat upon the Spanish forces. It was now the policy of the invader to establish friendly relations with the Araucanians. Before long they persuaded a number of the chiefs to enter into an alliance with them; this brought about, they prepared to establish themselves permanently in the south of Chile.

First of all they erected a fort at Valdivia without encountering any opposition on the part of the natives. After this they began to trade; but they permitted their lust of gain to outweigh their discretion. So eager did they show themselves to obtain gold in exchange for weapons and other objects coveted by the dusky races, that the Araucanians became suspicious, and in the end awoke to the fact that the presence of the Dutch in their country was due to precisely the same causes as had attracted the Spanish. Disillusioned, they withdrew their hastily extended friendship, and retired to their own haunts, lending a passive rather than an active resistance to those strangers with whom they still remained on outward terms of friendship. The relations, however, became more strained when, on the rare occasions when the two races came into contact, the Indians refused to supply the Dutch with provisions. This policy of the Araucanians won them their object, for in the end the Dutch, unable to subsist without the supplies for which they depended on the Indians, were forced to relinquish their settlements and to abandon the country.