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attack and endeavour to force them from that post. 

 Nor were these merely idle rumours. That inde^ 

 fatigable general, whom misfortune seemed to in- 

 spire with greater courage, a few" days afterwards 

 made a furious assault upon the place, in which his 

 vahant troops, with arms so far inferior to their ene- 

 mies, supported a continual fire for five hours, 

 now scaling the rampart, now pulling up or bur- 

 ning the palisades. But perceiving that valour alone 

 could not avail him in this difficult enterprise, he 

 resolved to suspend the attack, and seek some 

 more certain means of attaining his end. 



With this view he persuaded one of his officers, 

 named Pran, who had the reputation of being very 

 cunning and artful, to introduce himself into the 

 garrison as a deserter, in order to find means to de- 

 liver it up. Pran accordingly obtained admission 

 under that character, and conducted himself with the 

 profoundest dissimulation. He soon formed a friend- 

 ship with one of the Chilians who served under the 

 Spaniards, called Andrew, and who appeared to him 

 a proper instrument of his designs. One day, either 

 artfully to sound him, or to flatter him, Andrew pre- 

 tended to sympathize with his friend on the misfor- 

 tunes of his country. Pran, who had as yet given 

 no intimation of his design, seized with much readi- 

 ness this occasion, and discovered to him the motive 

 of his pretended desertion, earnestly entreating him 

 to aid in the execution of his scheme ; this was to 

 introduce some Araucanian soldiers into the place, at 

 the time when the Spaniards, wearied with their niglitly 



