264 



the greater part of her officers had been bred in 

 that school of war, the low countries, and her sol- 

 diers, armed with those destructive weapons before 

 which the most extensive empires of that continent 

 had fallen, were considered as the best in the 

 world, yet have this people succeeded in resisting 

 them. 



This will appear more wonderful when we call to 

 mind, the decided superiority that the discipline of 

 Europe has ever given its troops, in all parts of the 

 world. The rapidity of the Spanish conquests ex- 

 cited universal astonishment. A few Portuguese 

 gained possession of an extensive territory in the 

 East, with a facility almost incredible, notwithstand- 

 ing the number and strength of the natives, who 

 were accustomed to the use of fire-arms. Their 

 general, Pacheco, with a hundred and sixty of his 

 countrymen, several times defeated the powerful 

 Zamorin, who commanded an army of fifty thousand 

 soldiers, well supplied with artillery, without the 

 loss of a single man. Brito, who was besieged in 

 Cananor, was equally successful in defeating a si- 

 milar army. Even in our days, Mons. de la 

 Touche, with three hundred French, put to flight an 

 army of eighty thousand Indians, who had invested 

 him in Pondichcrry, and ivilled twelve hundred with 

 the loss of only two of his men. Notwithstand- 

 ino- the combined efforts of force and skill, the 



o 



Araucanians have constantly kept possession of their 

 country. A free people, however inconsiderable in 

 point of numbers, can perform wonders : The page 

 of history teems with examples of this kind. 



