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disregarded the advice of his older officers, but 

 piqued by the haughty boasts of the young, who, 

 notwithstanding the mournful evidence before them, 

 declared that ten of them were sufficient to put to 

 flight the Araucanian army, he continued his march, 

 and on the 3d of December, 1553, came in sight of 

 the enemy's camp. The ruins of Tucapel, the well 

 regulated array of the hostile army, the insulting 

 scoifs of their enemies, who in a loud voice called 

 them robbers and impostors, filled the minds of the 

 soldiers, accustomed to command and to be treated 

 with respect, with mingled sentiments of indigna- 

 tion and terror. 



The two armies continued a long time observing 

 each other; at length Mariantu, who commanded 

 the right wing of the Araucanians, commenced the 

 combat by moving against the left of the Spaniards 

 under the command of Bovadilla, who marched to 

 attack him with a detachment, which was immedi- 

 ately surrounded, and all of them cut in pieces. 

 The Serjeant- major, who was dispatched by Valdivia 

 to his assistance with another detachment, experi- 

 enced a similar fate. Meanwhile Tucapel, who 

 coniij.aided the left wing of the Araucanians, began 

 the attack upon his side with his usual impetu- 

 osity. The action now became general ; the Spa- 

 niards-, furnished with superior arms, and animated 

 by the example of their valiant leader, who perform- 

 ed the duty of a soldier as well as that of a general, 

 overthrew and destroyed \vhole ranks of their ene- 

 mies. But the Araucanians, notwithstanding the 

 slaughter made among them by the cannon and mus- 



