conqueror of Chili; a man of superior
genius and of great political and military talents, but who, seduced by
the romantic spirit of his age and country, had not sufficient prudence
to employ them to the best advantage. His undertakings had been more
fortunate, if he had properly estimated his own strength, and had less
despised the courage and skill of the Araucanians, presuming on the
dastardly example of the Peruvians, and the want of concert in the more
northern tribes of Chili, against whom he had hitherto been accustomed
to contend. Historians do not impute to him any of those cruelties with
which the contemporary conquerors of America have been accused. It is
true that, in the records of the Franciscans, two monks of that order
are mentioned with applause, as having dissuaded him from exercising
those cruelties which had been usual with other conquerors upon the
natives of America. By some he has been accused of avarice, and they
pretend that the Araucanians put him to death by pouring melted gold
down his throat, in punishment of his inordinate search for that metal:
But this is a mere fiction, copied from a similar story in ancient
authors.

* * * * *

Garcilasso de la Vega, Part I. Book vii. Chap. xxi. gives the following
account of the battle in which Valdivia was defeated by the Araucanians.

"In many skirmishes Valdivia always defeated the Araucanians and put
them to flight, as they were in such dread of the Spanish horse that
they never dared to adventure into the open plains, where ten Spaniards
were able to beat a thousand Indians, for which reason they always kept
lurking in the woods and mountains, where the Spanish cavalry could not
get at them; whence they often sallied out, doing all the injury they
were able against the Spaniards. The war continued in this manner for a
long time; till at length an old captain of the Araucanians, who had
been long famous in their wars, began to consider the reason why so
small a number as only 150 Spaniards should be able to subdue and
enslave twelve or thirteen thousand Araucanian warriors. After mature
deliberation, he divided the Araucanian force into thirteen battalions
each of a thousand men, which he drew up in successive lines at some
distance, so as to act as a series of reserves one after the other, and
marched in this new order of battle against the Spaniards one morning at
day-break, ordering them to give louder shouts tha