149 



mock of them, and laugh at his oaths. Caupo- 

 lican was highly exasperated at this conduct* 

 and would have punished it with severity had not 

 the greater part of his officers opposed themselveg 

 to his just resentment. 



Such was the tragic fate of the conqueror, 

 Pedro de Valdivia, a man unquestionably pos- 

 sessed of a superior mind, and great political and 

 military talents, but who, seduced by the ro- 

 mantic spirit of his age, knew not how to employ 

 them to the best advantage. His undertakings 

 would have proved fortunate, had he properly es- 

 timated his own strength, and, without being de- 

 ceived by the example of the Peruvians, despised 

 the Chilians less. History does not impute io 

 him any of those cruelties with which his con- 

 temporaries, the other conquerors, are accused. 

 It is true, that in the records of the Franciscans, 

 two of those monks are mentioned with applause 

 for having, by their humane remonstrances, dis- 

 suaded him from the commission of those cruelties 

 that were at first exercised towards the natives 

 of the country ; but this severity does not appear 

 to have been so great as to have obtained the 

 notice of any historian. He has been by some 

 accused of avarice, and they pretend that, in 

 punishment of this vice, the Araucanians put him 

 to death by pouring melted gold into his throat ; 

 but this is a fiction copied from a similar story 

 gf antiquity. 



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