70 



THE TOWN OF ARAUCO SACKED AND BURNED. 



On entering the Da}', I had the mortification to 

 perceive, by various symptoms, that we were too 

 late ; for, on the bar of the river Toobool, which 

 passes near the town, one of the prizes was in 

 flames ; behind the high grounds forming the 

 harbour, rose a great column of smoke from another 

 burning ship ; and the town of Arauco itself was 

 also on fire. All this showed that an attack had 

 been made, and that the Indians had fled ; since 

 it is their invariable practice to burn their towns 

 and everything they cannot carry with them, 

 whenever they are obliged to retreat. I anchored 

 off the flaming town late in the evening; and, 

 having communicated with the Chilian ships lying 

 there, learned that the Araucanians, under one of 

 Benavides' officers, had been attacked on that 

 morning, but had speedily given way, and fled to 

 the woods, after setting fire to the town and all 

 the ships. 



On the morning of the 19th of October, I landed 

 at Arauco, to make, if possible, some arrangement 

 with the commander of the Chilian expedition, in 

 the event of any of the prisoners effecting their 

 escape, and reaching his camp. We found the 

 head-quarters established in the centre of the 

 capital, which had consisted of fifty-six houses, 

 arranged in rows : nothing now remained but a 

 number of black, square marks, except where a 

 few houses had been more substantially built than 

 the rest. Part of the walls of Benavides' own 

 house were still standing, but the rafters and the 

 door-posts were burning on the floor when we 

 visited it. On the walls we could see the names 

 of some of the captives who had been confined 

 there, traced with charcoal, or scratched with a 

 knife. Captain Sheffield of the Herselia, who had 

 accompanied us from Valparaiso, carried us through 

 the town, where he had been so long a prisoner, 

 and over the smoking ashes of which he looked 

 with malicious satisfaction. This diminutive 

 capital was about three hundred yards square, 

 enclosed by a wall twelve feet high, and guarded 

 by towers at two of the angles, with one of its sides 

 resting against a small steep hill, about a hundred and 

 fifty feet in height. Though insignificant in size, it 

 is nevertheless a classical city, and well known in 

 Spanish song and history. It was from this place 

 that the celebrated Valdivia made his last march, 

 and it was afterwards the principal station of the 

 great savage general, Lautaro. Arauco was often 

 taken and retaken by the Spaniards and Indians 

 in old times ; and, by a curious anomaly in the 

 history of this country, these very Araucanians, 

 who fpr three centuries have been fighting despe- 

 rately, and not unsuccessfully, against the Spaniards 

 in Chili, now when the common enemy is driven 

 out, and liberty proclaimed, take up arms under a 

 renegade Spanish officer, and fight against the 

 liberated Chilians. 



On going to the top of the hill, we commanded 

 a view of a country fully as rich in fine woods, 

 lawns, and rivers, as that near Conception ; and 

 could not help lamenting, that the profuse gifts of 

 nature should be thus utterly wasted. The Chilian 

 camp presented a very curious scene : the soldiers, 

 on entering the town, had found, in the half-burnt 

 store-houses, and in tbe cellars cut in the rocks, 

 various articles taken out of the prizes : some of 

 them were Loaded with plates, dishes, and cooking- 

 utensils j others with books and charts. One man 



had got hold of a broken quadrant, which puzzled 

 him exceedingly ; another was stirring up his fire 

 with a long whale harpoon ; and one poor fellow 

 came running up to us with a bundle of the Tract 

 Society's publications, which he had just found; 

 but was greatly disappointed when we declined 

 becoming purchasers. 



Before I returned on board, the commander of 

 the Chilian forces told me, that a party of Indian 

 auxiliaries under his orders had that morning 

 taken three Araucanian prisoners, two of whom 

 they had deliberately put to death, and had sold 

 the third to himself for four dollars. We expressed 

 great horror at this anecdote ; but he said it was 

 absolutely out of his power to control these Indians, 

 who made it a condition of their service, that they 

 should never be denied the privilege of cutting 

 the throats of their prisoners. Besides these 

 three prisoners, it appeared that there had been a 

 fourth, a young woman, the wife of one of the men 

 butchered in the morning. The commandant, 

 however, had accidentally omitted to tell me this 

 circumstance, which I did not learn till late in the 

 evening, after I had gone on board. He had in 

 vain tried to prevail upon Peneleo, the Indian in 

 command of the auxiliaries, to release her ; but 

 this savage, after putting her husband to death 

 before the poor woman's face, refused to give her 

 up for a less ransom than thirty dollars — a sum 

 which no one in the camp was willing to advance. 

 It was provoking not to have heard of the circum- 

 stance during the morning, since, had she been 

 liberated, she might have been employed to carry 

 a letter to the captives I was in quest of, who, I 

 had now no doubt, were removed into the interior 

 by the Araucanians, when they fled to the woods. 

 On the 20th, I went on shore as soon it was 

 day-light ; but my vexation and disappointment 

 were extreme, on learning that Peneleo, with his 

 troop of Indians, had set out on their return to 

 Conception two hours before, taking the poor 

 widow along with them. While we were speaking 

 on the subject, a soldier, who had met the Indians, 

 rode into the camp. On being interrogated about 

 the woman, in whose fate we began to take great 

 interest, he said, she would probably never reach 

 Conception alive, as he had heard Peneleo threaten, 

 that, unless she left off crying, he would certainly 

 kill her, as he had killed her husband the day 

 before. 



As Conception lay directly in our way to Val- 

 paraiso, I determined to call there, not only to 

 concert some measures respecting the captive 

 seamen, should they make their appearance, but 

 also, if possible, to rescue this poor woman from 

 the Indians. Accordingly, after waiting another 

 day at Arauco, and seeing no hope of gaining in- 

 telligence of the prisoners, we sailed for Port St. 

 Vincent, a small secure hai'bour, not far from the 

 bay, and rather nearer than Talcuhuana to the 

 town of Conception. I lost no time in riding to 

 the city, along with one of the officers ; but our 

 haste was needless, for we were stopped at the 

 gate of the government-house by a domestic, who, 

 by closing his eyes, and reclining his head on one 

 hand, intended us to understand that his excellency 

 was taking his siesta, and could not be disturbed. 

 Nothing, as all the world knows, puts a Spaniard 

 more out of humour than interrupting his siesta ; 

 and, as we wished to solicit his favour for our 



