SANTIAGO. 207 
battle take place and become desperate, the women usually take 
part in it. Should they lose it, it is not uncommon for the 
men to put to death their wives and children to prevent them 
from falling into the hands of the enemy, and indeed till now 
it was only anticipating, by a few minutes, the fate of these wretched 
creatures ; for quarter was neither given nor taken on either 
side, the Indians in the Spanish ranks continuing their own war 
customs in spite of their partial civilisation. The Director now 
gives a reward for all persons, especially women and children, saved 
on these occasions. The children are to be educated and employed 
hereafter as mediators between their nations and Chile, and, to this 
end, care is taken that they should not forget their native tongue. 
The Director was kind enough to talk to them in the Araucanian 
tongue, that I might hear the language, which is soft and sweet ; 
perhaps it owed something to the young voices of the children. One 
of them pleased me especially : she is a little Maria, the daughter of a 
Cacique, who, with his wife and all the elder part of his family, was 
killed in a late battle. Dofia Rosa takes a particular charge of the 
little female prisoners, and acts the part of a kind mother to them. 
I was charmed with the humane and generous manner in which she 
spoke of them. As to Dojia Isabella, she appears to live on her son’s 
fame and greatness, and looks at him with the eyes of maternal love, 
and gathers every compliment to him with eagerness. He is modest 
and simple, and plain in his manners, arrogating nothing to himself’; 
or, if he has done much, ascribing it to the influence of that love of 
country which, as he says, may inspire great feelings into an ordinary 
man. He conversed very freely about the state of Chile, and told 
me he doubted not but that I must be surprised at the backwardness 
of the country in many things, and particularly mentioned the want 
of religious toleration, or, rather, the very small measure of it which, 
considering the general state of things, he had yet been able to grant, 
without disturbing the public tranquillity ; and he seemed a little 
inclined to censure those Protestants who wished prematurely to force 
upon him the building a chapel, and the public institution of Pro- 
