191 



and give importance to their conquests, erected, in 

 1570, another bishopric in the city of Imperial, to 

 which they assigned as a diocese the vast extent of 

 country lying between the river Maule and the 

 southern confines of Chili. 



About this time the Musttes, or descendants of 

 the Spaniards and Indians, having multiplied great- 

 ly, the Araucanians, perceiving the advantages 

 which they might derive from their assistance, re- 

 solved to attach them to their cause, by letting them 

 see that they considered them as their countrymen. 

 With this view, on the death of Paillataru in 1574» 

 they conferred the office of Toqui on one of these 

 men, called Alonzo Diaz, who had taken the Chi- 

 lian name of Payncnancu, and had for ten years 

 fought in their armies, where he had distinguished 

 himself by his valour and abiliiies. If his pre- 

 decessor h^d the fault of being too cautious, the v ' 

 new Toqui, on the contrary, to avoid that imputa- 

 tion, was so rash and daring that he almost always 

 attacked the Spaniards with troops inferior in num- 

 ber, whence all his enterprises had that result which 

 might naturally have been expected. 



As soon as he was invested with the command he 

 crossed the Bio- bio, probably with an intention of 

 attacking Conception, but before he reached it he 

 was attacked and defeated in his entrenchments by 

 the quarter master Bernai, notwithstanding the great 

 valour with which he defended himself for a long 

 time. Among the prisoners taken upon this occa- 

 sion were several women who were found in arms, 

 the greater part of whom killed themselves the same 



