a similar fate. Meanwhile Tucapel, who commanded the left wing of the Araucanians, began the attack upon his side with his usual impetuosity. The action now became general; the Spaniards, furnished with superior arms, and animated by the example of their valiant leader,, who performed the duty of a soldier as well as that of a general, overthrew and destroyed whole ranks of their enemies. But the Araucanians, notwithstanding the slaughter made among them by the cannon and musketry, continued constantly to supply with fresh troops the places of those that were slain. Three times they retired in good order beyond the reach of the musketry, and as often, resuming new vigour, returned to the attack. At length, after the loss of a great number of their men, they were thrown into disorder and began to give way. Caupolican, Tucapel, and the intrepid Colocolo, who was present in the action, in vain attempted to prevent their flight and reanimate their courage. The Spaniards shouted victory, and furiously pressed upon the fugitives.

At this momentous crisis, a young Araucanian off but sixteen years of age, called Lautaro, whom Valdivia in one of his incursions had taken prisoner, baptized, and made his page, quitted the victorious party, began loudly to reproach his countrymen with their cowardice, and exhorted them to continue the contest, as the

Spaniards, wounded and spent with fatigue, were no longer able to resist them. At the same time grasping a lance, he turned against his late master, crying out, "Follow me, my countrymen, victory courts us with open arms." The Araucanians ashamed at being surpassed by a boy, turned with such fury upon their enemies, that at the first shock they put them to rout, cutting in pieces the Spaniards and their allies, so that of the whole of this army, only two Promaucians had the fortune to escape, by fleeing to a neighbouring wood.

The Spanish general having lost all hope, had retired in the beginning of the massacre with his chaplain, to prepare himself for death; but being pursued and taken by the victors, he was brought before Caupolican, of whom, in an humble manner, he implored his life, soliciting the good offices of Lautaro, and most solemnly promising to quit Chili with all his people.

The Araucanian general, naturally compassionate, and desirous of obliging Lautaro, who joined in soliciting him, was disposed to grant the request. But while he was deliberating, an old Ulmen of great authority in the country, enraged to hear them talk of sparing his life, dispatched the unfortunate prisoner with a blow of his club; saying, that they must be mad to trust to the promises of an ambitious enemy, who, as soon as he had escaped from this danger, would make a

mock of them, and laugh at his oaths. Caupolican was highly exasperated at this conduct and would have punished it with severity had not the greater part of his officers opposed themselves to his just resentment.

Such was the tragic fate of the conqueror, Pedro de Valdivia, a man unquestionably possessed of a superior mind, and great political and military talents, but who, seduced by the romantic spirit of his age, knew not how to employ them to the best advantage. His undertakings would have proved fortunate, had he properly estimated his own strength, and, without being deceived by the example of the Peruvians, despised the Chilians less. History does not impute to him any of those cruelties with which his contemporaries, the other conquerors, are accused. It is true, that in the records of the Franciscans, two of those monks are mentioned with applause for having, by their humane remonstrances, dissuaded him from the commission of those cruelties that were at first exercised towards the natives of the country; but this severity does not appear to have been so great as to have obtained the notice of any historian. He has been by some accused of avarice, and they pretend that, in punishment of this vice, the Araucanians put him to death by pouring melted gold into his throat; but this is a fiction copied from a similar story of antiquity.

This victory, which was gained in the evening, was celebrated the day following with all kind of games and diversions, in a meadow surrounded with large trees, to which were suspended as trophies the heads of their enemies. An immense crowd of people from the neighbouring country flocked thither to witness with their own eyes the destruction of an army which they had till then considered as invincible, and to join in the diversions of the festival. The officers, in token of victory, wore the clothes of their slain enemies, and Caupolican himself put on the armour and surcoat of Valdivia, which was embroidered with gold.

CHAP. III.

The Spaniards abandon Puren, Angol, and Villarica; Caupolican lays siege to Imperial and Valdivia; Lautaro defeats the Spanish army in Mariguenu, and destroys Conception.

WHEN the rejoicings were over, Caupolican, taking the young Lautaro by the hand, presented him to the national assembly, which had met to concert measures for the further prosecution of the war, and after having spoken highly in his praise, attributing to him the whole success of the preceding day, he appointed him his lieutenant-general extraordinary, with the privilege of commanding in chief another army, which he intended to raise to protect the frontiers from the invasion of the Spaniards. This appointment was approved and applauded by all present, as Lautaro, besides the inappreciable service he had rendered his country, and the nobleness of his origin, being one of the order of Ulmenes, was endowed with singular beauty and affability, and possessed talents far surpassing his years. Their sentiments upon the operations of the next campaign were various. Colocolo, with a great part of the Ulmenes, was of opinion that in the first