2 INTRODUCTION. 



on the part of the natives which still lays waste some of the best 

 provinces of the state. On reaching the southern side of the Cacha- 

 poal the Spanish army met several of the Indian tribes, and par- 

 ticularly the Promaucians, ready to oppose their further progress; 

 and though Almagro was on the whole victorious, he considered the 

 worth of the conquest as insufficient to reward the toils of the 

 conquerors, and in the year 1538 returned with his army to Peru, 

 where, after having possessed Cuzco for a short time, he was put 

 to death by order of Francisco Pizarro, in the seventy-fifth year of 

 his age. 



Pedro de Valdivia was the next Spanish leader deputed by 

 Pizarro to conduct an army into Chile : he accordingly entered it in 

 1540 with 200 Spaniards and a large body of Peruvians, taking the 

 same road as Almagro ; but as it was the summer time, the soldiers 

 had nothing to fear from the cold, which had proved so fatal to 

 Almagro. The reception of Valdivia was very different from that 

 o-iven to his predecessor. The Chilenos had learned to hate as well 

 as to fear the invaders. Every step was won by force of arms ; and 

 the settlements or colonies established by Valdivia were repeatedly 

 destroyed. Even Santiago, which he founded in 1541, did not find 

 sufficient defence in its citadel of Santa Lucia, but was burnt by the 

 people of the valley of Mapocho while Valdivia was advancing to 

 the banks of the Cachapoal to repel the Promaucians. On his 

 return from that expedition, he sent Alonzo Monroy and Pedro 

 Miranda, with six companions, towards the frontiers of Peru in order 

 to obtain succours ; and that they might the more readily entice 

 the European soldiers to join them, their bits and stirrups and spurs 

 were made of gold. This little company was however attacked by 

 the people of Copiapo, and Monroy and Miranda only escaped. 

 They were carried to the ulman or governor of the valley, who had 

 condemned them to death ; but the intercession of his wife saved 

 them ; a benefit which they repaid with the basest ingratitude. She 

 requested them to teach her son to ride, several of the Spanish 

 horses having been taken and brought to her. They made use of 



