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, Caiiete, Angol, 
Coya, and the smaller fortresses, were invested at once. Conception 
and Chillan 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 
given 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 
