the Spaniards invariably endeavoured to insert was to the effect
that the Indians were to oppose to the utmost of their power by force of
arms the founding of any foreign colony in the territories occupied by
them. Thus the attitude of the Araucanians towards foreigners was apt to
depend to some extent on whether they happened to be at peace or at war
with their Spanish neighbours. It was owing to this, moreover, that the
European adventurers found themselves attacked when they had very little
reason to fear an onslaught. One of these instances occurred in 1638,
when the natives murdered the survivors of a shipwrecked Dutch crew.
There were times, on the other hand, when the enmity between the Indians
and the Spaniards induced the former to render every assistance to the
rovers who came, whether by accident or design, to their coasts. It is
certain that the accounts of these foreigners retailed by the Spaniards
to the natives were not of a nature to render the intruders popular in
the eyes of the dusky southern dwellers.

During the chief part of the colonial era the town of Valdivia, in
Southern Chile, was employed as a sort of convict station for the white
criminals of Peru and Chile, and incidentally for a number of persons
whose sole crimes were of a political order. These prisoners were
employed in the erection of the fortifications of the spot, and the
ruins which still exist attest the solidarity and the extent of the
buildings. A large annual sum was wont to be allotted for the
maintenance of these fortifications, and for other objects connected
with the sustenance of both the prisoners and the garrison. It seems to
have been necessary to expend only a very small proportion of this sum
on the objects for which the allowance was originally intended, and from
its enormous financial opportunities the post of Governor of Valdivia
was one of the most sought after of any on the west coast of South
America.

The later colonial era of Chile, like that of Peru, is very little
concerned with dramatic episode, with the exception, of course, of the
raids on the part of foreigners which took place from time to time along
the coast. Yet it is curious to remark that in Chile, at the same time
as these buccaneers were burning, plundering, and fighting, other
vessels, more especially those of the French, were carrying on a trade
in peace with the various ports of the state. This commerce, moreover,
continued growing steadily,