iv 



many and the Netherlands. A few years after his 

 return, he attended his master to London, on occa- 

 sion of the marriage of that monarch with Queen 

 Mary of England in the year 1754. While there, 

 Philip having received information from America of 

 the revolt of the Araucanians, Ercilla adopted the 

 profession of arms, and embarked for Chili under 

 Alderete, an experienced officer, who was appointed 

 to command the expedition. Alderete died on the 

 passage, and Ercilla proceeded to Lima, from whence 

 he marched against the Araucanians under the com* 

 mand of Don Garcia, son to the viceroy of Peru, 

 and greatly signalized himself in the battles that en- 

 sued. At this time he formed the design of render- 

 ing the war, in which he was himself an actor, the 

 subjct of an epic poem; and, in the short intervals 

 of his military leisure, applied himself to the execu- 

 tion of this plan with unremitting industry. At 

 length, inconsequence of being committed to prison 

 on a charge of mutiny in a quarrel with another young 

 Spanish officer, he quitted the army in disgust, >«nd 

 returned to Spain. 



Ercilla wrote many other poems; but the work 

 that has immortalized his name is the Araucana, 

 styled by Cervantes, in his Don Quixote, one of the 

 choicest treasures of the Castilian Muse. 



