234. A VOYAGE TO Book VIII. 



CHAR V. 



T>€scr'iption of the City of Conception, in the King- 

 dom of Chili ; with an account of its' Commerce^ 

 and the Fertility of the Country. 



/CONCEPTION, otherwise called Penco, was first 

 ^^^ founded by captain Pedro de Valdivia, in the 

 year 1550. But tiie powerful revolts of the Indians 

 of Arauco and Tucapei, obliged its inhabitants to re- 

 move to Santiago. They cannot, however, be charged 

 with having quitted their settlementtill they had been 

 defeated several times by the Indians, in one of which 

 they lost the abovementioned Pedro de Valdivia, who 

 as governor of that kingdom, was commander-in-chief 

 of the forces employed in the conquest of it. The 

 same unhappy fate also attended Francisco dcVillagra, 

 ■who as A^aldivia's lieutenant-general had succecdeil in 

 the command. These misfortunes, and the superiority 

 of the allied Indians, obliged the Spaniards to abandon 

 Conception, The inhabitants however being desirous 

 of possessing again their plantations in the ncighbour- 

 3iood of thai city, and of which they used to make 

 such large profits, petitioned the audience of Lima for 

 leave to return to their original city; but had soon 

 sufficient cause to repent of not having exerted their 

 industry in improving the place whither they had re- 

 tired; thelndians, on the firstnotice that the Spaniards 

 •were returned to the city, forming a powerful alliance 

 under a daring leader, called Lautaro, took by storm 

 a small fort, which was the whole defence of the city, 

 and put all to the sword, except a small number who 

 liad fortunately escaped to Santiago. Some time after 

 Don Gracia de Mendoza, hon to the Viceroy de 

 Mendoza, Marquis of Cañete, arriving as governor 

 of Chili, with a body offerees sufficient for making 

 iicid against the Indians^ restored the iidiabitants of 



Con- 



