261 



venging private injuries. Such was the attention 

 paid to the security of these characters that not a 

 Spaniard was slain who was able to avail himself of 

 their protection. 



In the mean time the governor entered into an al- 

 liance with the Pehuenches, in order to attack the 

 Araucanians in several places at the same time. Cu^ 

 rignancu, being informed of their approacli, fell 

 upon them unexpectedly on their leaving the Andes, 

 took prisoners their general, Coiigura, with his son, 

 whom he put to death, and completely routed them. 

 This disgrace, which appeared calculated to embitter 

 that nation forever towards the Araucanians, on the 

 contrary reconciled them so completely, that they 

 have ever since aided them iu their expeditions, and 

 have become the most implacable enemies of the 

 Spaniards. Curignancu availed himself of the as- 

 sistance of these mountaineers during the war to 

 harass the provinces in the vicinity of the capital. 

 Since that time they have made a practice of fre-^ 

 quently attacking the Spanish caravans from Buenos 

 Ayres to Chih, and every year furnishes «orne me- 

 lancholy information of that kind. 



Gonzaga, whose sanguine expectations had led 

 him to be too hasty in giving information to the 

 court of the success of his grand project, could not 

 endure the mortification of seeing it wholly des- 

 troyed. A chronic complaint to which he was 

 subject, was so much increased by this disapix)int- 

 ment that it deprived him of life in the second year 

 of the war, to the great regret of the inhabitants to 

 whom he was much endeared by his estimable quali- 

 tics. Don Francisco Xavier de Morales, succeeded 



