m 



general to prevail upon Reynoso, wliose name U 

 held in detestation not only by the Araucanians^ 

 but by the Spaniards themselves, who have ever 

 reprobated his conduct, as contrary to those 

 principles of generosity on which they pride 

 themselves as a nation. He ordered the sentence 

 to be immediately executed ; and a priest, who 

 had been sent for to converse with the prisoner, 

 pretending that he had converted him, hastily 

 administered the sacrament of baptism. ^ 



After this mock ceremony, he was conducted, 

 amidst a crowd of people, to a scaffold that had 

 been erected for his execution : But when he saw 

 the instrument of punishment, which until then 

 he did not clearly comprehend, and a negro pre- 

 pared to execute him, he was so exasperated, 

 that, with a furious kick, he hurled the execu- 

 tioner from the scaffold, exclaiming, '' Is there 

 no sword, and some less unworthy hand to be 

 found to put to death a man like myself? This 

 has nothing in it of justice it is base revenge." 

 He w^as, however, seized by numbers, and com- 

 elled to undergo the cruel and ignominious 

 4eath to v^hich he had been condemned. 



VL. II, O 



