8 INTRODUCTION. 
served the purpose of preventing the Indians from any serious in- 
vasion of the northern districts; but their predatory inroads have 
never been wholly repressed, and Araucana continued free. 
In 1609, the court of audience, which had been suppressed at 
Conception, was re-established at Santiago, a city far enough from 
the Indian frontier not to dread the incursions of the natives, but 
too distant from the sea, being ninety miles from Valparaiso, its 
nearest port. This situation, however, had at that period its con- 
venience, as it was out of the reach of the French, Dutch, and 
English adventurers, who then disturbed the tranquillity and 
endangered the possessions of the Spanish settlements on the 
shores of the Pacific. 
In 1638, the Dutch made an attempt to form an alliance with the 
Araucanians, and thus obtain possession of Chile; but that nation 
refused all intercourse with Europeans, and destroyed the parties the 
Dutch had landed both in the islands of Mocha and Talca. Not 
disheartened, however, that enterprising people returned in 1643 
with a numerous fleet, troops, and artillery, took possession of the 
deserted Valdivia, and began to build three strong forts at the en- 
trance of the harbour. But the Indians not only refused to assist 
them in arms, but denied them provisions ; and they were compelled 
to abandon the place three months after their landing. The 
Spaniards availed themselves of the labour of the Dutch; finished 
their forts, and strengthened the island of Mancura. So that the 
settlement remained undisturbed from without till the late revolution. 
While the provinces of southern Chile were thus desolated and 
depopulated by a continual warfare, the same causes that threw back 
the other Spanish provinces operated also upon this small state. 
The unnatural aggrandisement of Spain during the reign of Charles V. 
involved it in all the wars of the continent of Iurope ; and as it had 
lost the advantages it had derived from the arts and agriculture of 
the Moors, which were never replaced by any corresponding industry, 
the sole resources whence the long and expensive contests of that 
prince could be supplied, lay in the quantity of the precious metals im- 
