sters shattered the spirit of Villagran, and
sent him to his grave. Following this came the usual succession of
Governors, and the unbroken continuance of the Indian wars, victory
and disaster alternately succeeding each other to an extent which would
prove monotonous if an attempt at description were made.

[Illustration: ACAPULCO, ON THE PACIFIC COAST.

One of the chief points of sailing of the great East Indian trading
galleons of Spain.

_From a seventeenth-century engraving._]

There is only one instance, I believe, of a white man having gained the
complete confidence of the Araucanians, and this did not occur until a
century after the two races had first come into contact with each other.
It is said that in 1642--thirty-nine years after the town of Valdivia
had been captured from the Spaniards and destroyed--Colonel Alonzo de
Villanueva, who had been sent to the south with the object of regaining
possession of the city, effected this without bloodshed by the
employment of an extraordinary amount of tact and patience. He landed at
a point a little to the south of Valdivia, and boldly made his
appearance quite alone among the astonished warriors. He remained with
them for two years, when, having won their respect and confidence, he
proposed that they should appoint him their Governor at Valdivia,
explaining that by this move they would effect a reconciliation with the
Spaniards, and, in consequence, obtain many material benefits. The
Araucanians readily fell in with the idea, and in 1645 Valdivia was
rebuilt, and was again populated. Undoubtedly in the middle of the
seventeenth century time was of very little value in Chile, and in any
case it would seem that to effect so brilliant a result at so little
cost was worth the two years' wait!

In 1577 Sir Francis Drake made his appearance in the Pacific, and was
the pioneer of the adventurers who were to follow in the wake of his
keel. Thus new anxieties were added to the minds of the Chilean
officials, although it must be said that the colonists, when they once
became accustomed to the visits of these foreigners, gave them an
increasingly friendly reception, notwithstanding the hostility evinced
towards them by the Spaniards. It was not long before this new and grim
type of visitor increased in numbers and grew cosmopolitan.

The Dutch, always on the look out for a weapon with which to flog their
enemies the Spaniards, had managed to glean intelligence of the
su