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on the principle of retaliation, has dishonoured 

 all the lau.eis of Putapichion. The torture of 

 an innocent prisoner, upon whatever motive, or 

 under whatever pretext it is inflicted, is a crime 

 of the deepest dye against humanity. This cruel 

 amusement was not however pleasing to all the 

 nation. Many of the spectators, as Don Fran-r 

 cisco Bascugnau, an eye witness, asserts, com- 

 passionated the fate of the unfortunate soldier, 

 and Maulican, to whom the oflfice of dispatching 

 him was assigned as a mark of honour, declared 

 that he had consented to it with the utmost re- 

 luctance, and only to avoid quarrelling with his 

 commander. 



The governor having left to the quarter- 

 master, Fernando Sea, the charge of guarding 

 the Bio-bio, with thirteen hundred Spaniards 

 and six hundred auxiliaries, withdrew to San- 

 tiago, where he raised two companies of infantry 

 and one of cavalry. At the same time he re- 

 ceived from Peru five hundred veteran soldiers. 

 With these troops, and those whom he found 

 upon the frontier, having formed a sufficient 

 army, he proceeded immediately to the fort of 

 Arauco, which he knew was menaced by Puta- 

 pichion. That indefatigable general had indeed 

 commenced his march for that place with seven 

 thousand chosen troops whose valour he thought 

 nothing was able to resist. But intimidated by 

 some superstitious auguries of the Ex-Toqui 



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