220 



ed with incredible fury for more than two hours, 

 till night parted the combatants, and Paillamachu, 

 availing himself of the obscurity, repassed the Bio- 

 bio. The accounts from whence our information is 

 deri\'ed merely state in general terms that a great 

 number of the Araucanians were slain, and not a 

 few of the Spaniards. The governor upon this oc- 

 casion made a úseles display of severity, by order- 

 ing the prisoners to be quartered and hung upon the 

 trees ; a proceeding highly disapproved by the most 

 prudent of his officers, who, from motives of human- 

 ity or self-interest, advised him not to furnish the 

 enemy with a pretext for retaliation. But his ad- 

 lierence to the old maxim, of conquering by means 

 of terror, rendered him deaf to their remonstrances. 

 The consequence of this engagement was the eva- 

 cuation of the fort of Arauco and the city of Cañete, 

 the inhabitants of which retired to Conception. 



In the mean time Paillamachu was in constant 

 motion ; sometimes encouraging by his presence 

 the forces that besieged the cities, at others rav- 

 ciging the Spanish provinces beyond the Bio-bio, 

 to the great injury of the inhabitants. Having 

 learned, that the siege of Valdivia had been raised, 

 he secretly hastened thither with a body of four thou- 

 sand men, consisting of infantry and horse, among 

 whom were seventy armed with arquebuses, taken 

 in the last engagements from the Spaniards. On 

 the night of the 14th of November he passed the 

 broad river Calacalla or Valdivia by swimming, 

 stormed the city, at day break, burned the houses, 

 killed a great number of the inhabitants, and attacked 



