726 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. I02 



leading a horse by the bridle stopped on hearing some noises and 

 both the horse and he were frozen stiff. Many more would have 

 perished had they not been succored by the Indians of the Copiapo 

 Valley ; with food and the cheering view of the valley they recovered. 



1917. The same thing happened to the part of the army which 

 Rodrigo Ordoiiez had under his charge ; climbing up the terrible 

 snow-covered Cordillera they met a very cold wind, which grew 

 so much worse at night that most of the Negroes and Indians were 

 frozen to death ; many had fingers and toes frostbitten and the nails 

 fell off. Some Spaniards under a canvas were caught in such a 

 blizzard that they were buried alive there with their Negroes and 

 Indians ; 26 horses were frozen stiff, saddles and all ; and almost 

 all the baggage was abandoned on that mountain ridge, in order to 

 save their lives. Those dead bodies remain there, suffering no corrup- 

 tion or putrefaction. There was a boy among those who crossed the 

 mountains with the Commander ; they stayed in some shanties, going 

 out only to cut flesh off the dead horses but without enough energy 

 to make their way out from that spot ; the wind finally carried them 

 all off, and only the boy came out alive. 



1918. After all these trials the Commander and his army reached 

 the Kingdom of Chile late in the year 1536; but having got word 

 that Juan de Rada had received the commission advancing him to 

 the command of the New Kingdom of Toledo, in whose district lay 

 the imperial city of Cuzco, he enjoyed no fruit of his labors ; his 

 only achievement was to restore to a young gentleman of the Copiapo 

 Valley his estate and seigniory, wrongfully appropriated by a relative 

 who had administered them as his guardian. He might have explored 

 and subdued that great Kingdom, and that would have been of 

 greater avail to him ; but he returned with his men to Peru to take 

 up his governorship, and that was the cause of dissensions, ruin, and 

 the death of himself, of the Marquis, and of many friends of each 

 of them. 



Chap. Continuing the Theme Broached in the First Chapter, 

 and How Pedro de \^aldivia Subdued the Kingdom of Chile. 



1919. The second Spaniard who entered the Kingdom of Chile 

 was Gov. Pedro de Valdivia in the year 1540, 4 years later than 

 Commander Diego de Almagro. The Kingdom of Chile begins on the 

 N. with the fertile Copiapo Valley, which is at 27° S. This is the 

 boundary with the Province and deserts of Atacama along the coast, 

 the last province in Peru, in the district of the Circuit Court and 

 Archdiocese of the Charcas. Although this is a small valley it is very 



