OVALLE*S HISTORICAL RELATION OP CHILE. 59 



tliat they fubmitted to her reafons, and promifed to accept of what terms fhould be 

 given them. With this the famous Recloma returned to the Spaniards, finging viftory, 

 laying at their feet the richeft prize they could wifh ; and fuch a one, as after much 

 time, expence, and bloodfhed in the conqueft of it, they would have thought them- 

 felves well paid to be mafters of fuch a country, whofe golden mines they prefently 

 began to work : by which means the city increafed fo faft, that if the devil had not 

 troubled the peace, and caufed the rebellion of the Indians, which ruined it, it had 

 been one of the firft and beft cities of the Indies. 



The Hollanders, our enemies, are well informed of the nature of the country, and 

 the excellency of the port, and do all they can to get poffeflion of it ; but our Saviour, 

 who, by his grace, has hitherto preferved thofe countries free from herefy and its cor- 

 ruption, will not permit that this Hydra of hell fhall infed: that air with its venomous 

 breath, nor bread a contagion in the purity of its faith, which is propagated fo fmcere 

 and true in the hearts of thofe new Chriftians. 



This has been proved by the fuccefs of a fleet of theirs in the year 1 643, when thefe 

 rebellious pirates pafled the ftraights of Magellan, with a defign to fettle at Valdivia ; 

 for though in effedt they did people the place, having firfl pafled by the iflands of 

 Chiloe, where our company has fo many glorious miflions, in which they threw down 

 ' the altars and the crofles, and committed other enormities proper to their impiety and 

 obftinacy, yet at laft they came off no laughers, but had reafon to lament rather. The 

 fame befell another of their generals, called Antonio Sivaftro, many of his fleet being 

 taken prifoners, and thirty of them hung up by the feet, as is related by their own 

 authors, John and Theodore de Brye. 



But in this fecond occafion, they paid yet more feverely for their attempt ; for in 

 the very fame ifland where they had committed all thefe diforders, God took the life 

 of the general, punifliing his unhappy foul with the due chafl;ifement of fuch an un- 

 dertaking. They loft the fliip which carried their provifions, their ammunition, thirty 

 pieces of artillery, all the brick and lime, and other materials for building three forts, 

 which they had orders to raife in the river of Valdivia, and on the ifland of Conftan- 

 tine in that river ; and having afterwards got to Valdivia, and begun to people, their 

 new general, whofe name was Elvis Aramans, was forced to fliut up all his people in 

 the ifland of Conftantine, becaufe they run from him continually, and forfook him ; 

 befides the prifoners made in the iflands of Chiloe, and others defl:royed by us, and 

 the warlike Indians. • 



In fliort, God having efpoufed this caufe as his own, they were tormented with 

 hunger ; and before the Spaniards, who were on their way, could come up to them, 

 their own difeafes and lofles obliged them to weigh anchor, and be gone. This was 

 their wifeft courfe ; for if they had ftaid till the fleet from Peru had come up to them, 

 and the land forces from Chile had attacked them, they had not got off" fo well ; for 

 the Marquis of Manfera being fo good a foldier himfelf, and fo zealous for God and 

 his king, immediately, upon the firft news of their arrival, had fet out ten fail, which 

 he provided with powder and ammunition, and difpatched them to give advice along 

 the coaft ; then he prepared a navy, which was to be of 16 galloons and fliips, and 

 4000 Spaniards, refolving to go in perfon, or at leaft to fend his fon. 



The governor of Chile, the Marquis of Baydes, with his accuftomed vigilancy and 

 readinefs in things, where the fervice of God and the king are concerned, and as a 

 captain of that valour and experience, which he fliewed in Flanders, was ready to 

 enter by land, after having provided all the ports of the kingdom with the army kept 

 on foot by His Majefty ; fo that if the Hollander had had yet more force than he had, 



12 . beinq 



