^ 34 



This officer having determined to establish a per- 

 manent settlement in the country, set out on his 

 march in the year 1540, with 200 Spaniards, and 

 a numerous body of Peruvian auxiliaries, accompa- 

 nied by some monks, several women, and a great 

 number of European quadrupeds, with every thing 

 requisite for a new colony. He pursued the same 

 route as Almagro, but instructed by the misfortunes 

 of his predecessor, he did not attempt to pass the 

 Andes until midsummer. He entered Chili with- 

 out incurring any loss, but very different was the 

 reception he experienced from the inhabitants of the 

 northern provinces from that which Almagro had 

 met with. Those people, informed of the fate of 

 Peru, and freed from the submission they professed 

 to owe the Inca, did not consider themselves obli- 

 ged to respect their invaders. 



They, of course, began to attack them upon all 

 sides, with more valour than conduct. Like barba- 

 rians in general, incapable of making a common 

 cause with each other, and for a long time accus- 

 tomed to the yoke of servitude, they attacked them 

 by hordes, or tribes, as they advanced, without that 

 steady firmness that characterizes the valour of a 

 free people. The Spaniards, however, notwith- 

 standing the ill -combined opposition of the natives,, 

 traversed the provinces of Copiapo, Coquimbo, 

 Quillota, and Melipilla, and arrived much harrassed, 

 but with little loss, at that of Mapocho, now called St. 

 Jago. This province, which is more than six hun- 

 dred miles distant from the confines of Peru, is one 

 of the most fertile and pleasant in the kingdom. Its 



