1306 



upon the march hiraself with a much greater 

 force. 



The first skirmishes between the armies were bj 

 Hr no means favourable to Antiguenu, and his siege 

 of Canete was attended with no better success. 

 As hcj however^ attributed his failure to the in- 

 experience of his men, he sought on every oc- 

 casion to accustom them to the use of arms. At 

 length, upon the hills of Millapoa, he had the 

 satisfaction of showing them that they could 

 conquer, by defeating a body of Spaniards com- 

 manded by Arias Pardo. 



To keep up and increase the ardour which this 

 success had excited in the minds of his soldiers, 

 Antiguenu stationed himself upon the top of 

 Mount Mariguenu, a place of fortunate omen for 

 his country. Villagran, whowas either too much 

 indisposed with the gout to assume the command 

 himself, or was averse to hazard the attack of a 

 place that had proved so unfortunate to him, gave 

 in charge to one of his sons to dislodge the enemy 

 from that dangerous post. This rash and en- 

 terprising young man attacked the Araucanian 

 entrenchments with so little precaution, that al- 

 most all his army, consisting of the flower of the 

 Spanish troops, and a great number of auxiliaries, 

 were cut in pieces, and he himself was killed at 

 the entrance of the enemy's encampment. 



After this signal victory, Antiguenu marched 

 against Canete, rightly judging that in the pre- 



