PART I. THE ARAUCANIANS OF CHILE ^ 



INTRODUCTION 



The recorded history of the Araucanians of Chile begins with the 

 Inca invasion of their territory, probably about 1448-1482. Their first 

 recorded contact with Spaniards was with a Spanish army that pene- 

 trated their country in 1536. From then on, until the last half of the 

 past century, Araucanians and, at first Spanish, then Chileans, 

 fought each other. Old Araucanians today remember the last days 

 of the struggle. An Alepue man gave the following account : 



In i860 when Joaquin Perez was President of Chile, the Araucanians were 

 still fighting the Chileans. This type of fighting was called malon — malon is a 

 Spanish word [a surprise attack, as by American Indians]. The Mapuche did 

 great damage to Chileans : they stole animals from them, even oxen ; they cap- 

 tured girls and women, especially girls whom they admired, and then forced 

 these to marry them; they stole land; they destroyed small villages — they 

 set fire to the village of Imperial twice and completely destroyed Cafiete and 

 other similar small villages. To put an end to these malones President Perez 

 ordered Colonel Bochef into our country. When Andres Lienlaf, the chief cacique 

 in our area, heard this, he set out for Valdivia [Chilean military headquarters] 

 to speak with the Colonel. He took Jose Martin with him as an interpreter. 

 These two went along the coast [Pacific] on foot, as far as Los Molinos. Here 

 they made two rafts from saplings and on them got as far as the island of Teja. 

 From there they again went on foot until they reached the river Valdivia, across 

 from Valdivia. They again made themselves rafts here and crossed the river 

 to the town of Valdivia. The river is very wide here. As they were leaving the 

 rafts, they were taken prisoner and brought before the Colonel. The Colonel 

 treated them as traitors. Jose Martin defended Andres and said that they had 

 come to negotiate for peace and not for war. The Colonel had received orders 

 to exterminate all Araucanians from Valdivia northward to the province of 

 Arauco. To convince the Colonel of his good will, Andres got on his knees and 

 took an oath that he would tell all Mapuche under him that they must put an end 

 to these malones. The Colonel then gave him three months of grace. Andres 

 was to return to the Mapuche and tell them to end their attacks. Andres re- 

 turned. He talked to the caciques. Some would not agree with him; they said 

 that he had turned traitor to his people and land. In Imperial the Mapuche beat 

 him to the extent that even his head had three gashes ; they, too, called him a 

 traitor. He stayed there until he could go to his relatives in Queule, and later 

 back to Alepue. After some days he was well enough to return to Valdivia. Here 



^ Unless otherwise stated, the history of the Araucanians as herein given is 

 based on Cooper (1946, pp. 687-705). 



SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS, VOL. 133 (WHOLE VOLUME) 



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