354 



CHTLI. 



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 Span- 

 iards and Indians in old times ; and by a curious 

 anomaly in the history of this country, these very 

 Araucanians, who, for three centuries, have been 

 fighting desperately, and not unsuccessfully, a- 

 gainst the Spaniards in Chili; now, when the 

 common enemy is driven out, and liberty pro- 

 claimed, 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 the cellars cut in 



