INTRODUCTION. 7 



place which had marked the government of each successive captain- 

 general from the time of Valdivia. 



Notwithstanding these continued disturbances in the south, the 

 quantity of the precious metals derived from Chile, the fertility of 

 the country, and the mildness of the climate, began to attract the 

 attention of other nations. The English, under Sir Thomas Caven- 

 dish, who arrived in 1586, with three ships, attempted to form a 

 settlement in the bay of Quintero, but were immediately attacked 

 and repulsed by the Spaniards, who suffered no nation to interfere 

 in their new settlements. A second expedition under Sir John 

 Narborough, in the reign of Charles II., was still more unfortunate, 

 the whole fleet being lost in the straits of Magellan. 



The Dutch also, with five ships, attempted in 1600 to make a 

 settlement in the Island of Chiloe, and began by plundering the 

 settlement and massacring the settlers ; but the crew of their 

 commodore having landed at Talca, the Indians fell upon and de- 

 stroyed them, and the enterprise was therefore abandoned. Mean- 

 time the Araucanians, under Paillamachu, had leagued themselves 

 with all the Indian tribes, as far as the Archipelago of Chiloe. 

 Every Spaniard that was found outside of the fortresses was slain, 

 and the cities of Osorno, Valdivia, Villarica, Imperial, Cahete, Angol, 

 Coya, and the smaller fortresses, were invested at once. Conception 

 and Chilian were burned, and in little more than three years all the 

 settlements of Valdivia and his successors between the Biobio and 

 Chiloe were destroyed : the inhabitants, after suffering the extremes 

 of famine, were made prisoners, and the unmarried of both sexes 

 o-iven to people of the country, but the married allowed to retain 

 their wives and families. The descendants of these prisoners are 

 among the most inveterate enemies of the Spaniards, but the Indians 

 have improved in the arts of civil life by their means. The fortunate 

 cacique died in 1603, the year after the taking of Osorno, the last 

 place that he reduced. 



To prevent a recurrence of these disasters, a body of 2,000 regular 

 troops was established on the frontier in 1608, which has at least 



