226 



Huenecura waited till the retreat of the army to at- 

 tack this new establishment. On his march thither 

 he fell in with the commander Lisperger, who had left 

 the fort with one hundred and sixty of his soldiers in 

 order to protect a convoy, and cut in pieces the whole 

 detachment. Ke then proceeded to the attack of the 

 fort, which he assailed three times with great fury. 

 The battle was continued with the utmost obstinacy 

 for the space of two hours, but Egidius Negrete, 

 who succeeded to the command in place of Lisper- 

 ger, manifested in the defence so much valour and 

 military skill, that the Araucanian general found 

 himself under the necessity of converting the storm 

 into a blockade, which was continued until the go- 

 vernor gave orders for the garrison to evacuate the 

 place. 



After this the Spanish army proceeded to lay 

 waste the enemy's country. For this purpose it was 

 separated into two divisions, one under the command 

 of the quarter-master, Alvaro Pineda, and the other 

 under that of Don Diego Saravia. Huenecura, how- 

 ever, watching his opportunity, attacked and defeat- 

 ed them one after the other, and so compleat was 

 the rout, that there was not a single person who es- 

 caped death or captivity. Thus in a short time 

 was that army, on v/hich such flattering hopes had 

 been founded, wholly dispersed. In consequence of 

 these disasters, in 1608, the court of Spain issued 

 orders, that hereafter there should constantly be 

 maintained on the Araucanian frontier a body of two 

 thousand regular troops, for whose support an ap- 

 propriation of 292,279 dollars annually was made in 

 the treasury of Peru. 



