24 



The Chief, with generous indignation wârm, 

 Against the ruthless deed began to storm ; 

 And vow'd revenge; and to the host appeal'd ; 

 The general vote his rising rage withheld : 

 ' And all agree, that none of hostile name 



Should 'scape, the genei^al danger to proclaim : 

 The cruel senior thus from peril freed, 

 Exulted in his unrelenting deed. 



Two friendly Indians, when their comrades fell, 

 By fate were spar'd the deadly news to tell. 

 Those fled the field of death, and gain'd a wood 

 From which the direful scene of strife they view'd. 

 Till Phœbus in the west, with setting ray, 

 Clos'd the dire triumphs of that dreadful day j 

 And when clear Hesper led the train of night. 

 The friendly hour conceal'd their homeward flight.* 

 Now climbing up the vast Olympian steep, 

 The car ©f night, involv'd in darkness deep, 

 Reach'd to the point of noon, and far displayed 

 Over the face of things her peaceful shade. 

 ' , Not peaceful was the camp, where clamorous joy 

 Broke thro' the gloom, and struck the vaulted sky. 

 Now fearless of alarm, and eas'd from toil. 

 Their blôod-stain'd arms around the Warriors pile j 

 The youths prepare to dance, the timbrels sound, 

 And jocund measures beat the groaning ground ; 

 The joyful tidings, ere the blush of morn, 

 To all the Araucanian tribes v/ere borne. 



In an assembly of the Araucanians a general confederacy of all 

 the southern tribes is proposed, in order to attack the Spaniards in 

 every quarter at once, and extirpate the whole race. This pro- 

 posal is overruled by Caupolican, the General, who recommends 

 defensive war as the more eíFectual means of establishing their in- 

 dependence. 

 He thus proceeds : — 



*' Valdivia*s doom, yon castle's mighty fall, 

 A feebler foe than Spain would much appal ; 



* This accounts for the particulars of the battle being so distinctly 

 known to the Spaniards, from whom ErciUa had probably learned them. 



