reach of the musketry, they were not able to advance further, or resist the fire which was well kept up by the veteran troops of Peru. After many ineffectual attempts, they began to give way and fall into confusion from the vacancies caused in their ranks, by the loss of their most determined soldiers. The cavalry at length completely routed them, making a great slaughter of them in their flight to the woods.

sures.

Don Garcia, either from disposition or policy, was strongly inclined to pursue rigorous meaHe was the first in this war who introduced, contrary to the opinion of a majority of his officers, the barbarous practice of mutilating, or of putting to death the prisoners; a system that may serve to awe and restrain a base

* Don Garcia permitted his allies to be as cruel as himself. They did cut off from certain Indians, being prisoners, the calves of their legs to eat them, and they roasted them for that purpose; and that which is of more admiration, they applied unto the place where they were cut, leaves of certain herbs, and there came not out a drop of blood-and many did see it. And this was done in the city of Santiago, in the presence of D. Garcia de Mendoza, which was a thing that made all men marvel at it."

Pedro de Osma y Xara y Zeio mentions this in a letter to Monardes the physician, written from Lima in 1568. I know not whether it is possible that so powerful a styptic can exist They who would not believe that the Abyssinians eat food with the blood therein, which is the life, must have been ignorant of the live cannibalism of some of the American savages.-E. E.

VOL. II.

people, or one accustomed to servitude, but a generous nation detests cruelty, and it only serves to exasperate and render them irreconcileable. Among the prisoners taken upon this occasion was one more daring than any of the others, called Galverino, whose hands Don Garcia ordered to be cut off. He returned to his countrymen, and showing his bloody mutilated stumps, inflamed them with such fury against the Spaniards, that they all swore never to make peace with them, and to put to death any one who should have the baseness to propose such a meaEven the very women, excited by a desire of revenge, offered to take arms and to fight by the side of their husbands, as they did in the subsequent battles. From hence originated the fable of the Chilian Amazons, placed by some authors in the southern districts of that country.

sure.

The victorious army penetrated into the province of Arauco, constantly harassed by the flying camps of the Araucanians, who left them not a moment's rest. Don Garcia, when he arrived at Melipuru, put to the torture several of the natives whom his soldiers had taken, in order to obtain information of Caupolican, but notwithstanding the severity of their torments, none of them would ever discover the place of his retreat. The Araucanian general, on being informed of this barbarous conduct, sent word to him by a messenger, that he was but a short

distance, and would come to meet him the following day. The Spaniards, who could not conceive the motive of the message, were alarmed, and passed the whole night under arms.

At day-break Caupolican appeared with his army arranged in three lines. The Spanish cavalry charged with fury the first line, commanded by Caupolican in person, who gave orders to his pikemen to sustain with levelled spears the attack of the horse, and the mace bearers with their heavy clubs to strike at their heads. The cavalry by this unexpected reception being thrown into confusion, the Araucanian general, followed by his men, broke into the centre of the Spanish infantry with great slaughter, killing five enemies with his own hand. Tucapel, advancing in another quarter with his division, at the first attack broke his lance in the body of a Spaniard, and instantly drawing his sword, slew seven others. In these various encounters he received several severe wounds, but perceiving the valiant Rencu surrounded by a crowd of enemies, he fell with such fury upon them, that after killing a considerable number, he rescued his former rival, and conducted him safely out of danger.

Victory, for a long time undecided, was at length on the point of declaring for the Araucanians, when Don Garcia perceiving his men ready to give way, gave orders to a body of re

serve to attack the division of the enemy, commanded by Lincoyan and Ongolmo. This order, which was promptly executed, preserved the Spanish army from total ruin. This line of the Araucanians being broken, fell back upon their victorious countrymen, who were thrown into such confusion, that Caupolican, after several ineffectual efforts, despairing of being able to restore order, sounded a retreat, and yielded to his enemies a victory that he deemed secure. The Araucanian army would have been cut in pieces, had not Rencu, by posting himself in a neighbouring wood with a squadron of valiant youth, called thither the attention of the victors, who pursued the fugitives with that deadly fury, that characterized the soldiers of that age. That chief, after having sustained the violence of their attack, for a time sufficient in his opinion to ensure the safety of his countrymen, retired with his companions by a secret path, scoffing at his enemies.

CHAP. VI.

Don Garcia orders twelve Ulmenes to be hanged; He founds the city of Canete; Caupolican, attempting to surprise it, is defeated, and his army entirely dispersed.

THE Spanish general, before he quitted Melirupu, caused twelve Ulmenes whom he found among the prisoners, to be hung to the trees that surrounded the field of battle. Galvarino was also condemned to the same punishment. This unfortunate youth, notwithstanding the loss of his hands, had accompanied the Araucanian army, had never ceased during the battle to incite his countrymen to fight vigorously, showing his mutilated arms, while he attempted with his teeth and feet to do all the injury he could to his enemies. One of the Ulmenes, overcome with terror, petitioned for his life, but Galvarino reproached him so severely for his cowardice, and inspired him with such contempt for death, that he refused the pardon which was granted him, and demanded to die the first, as an atonement for his weakness, and the scandal he had brought upon the Araucanian name.

After this fruitless execution, Don Garcia pro