mitted a
plurality of wives. It is not a little remarkable that the mestees, or
offspring of these marriages, became in the subsequent wars the most
inveterate enemies of the Spaniards.

On this occasion likewise, the ransom and exchange of prisoners were
permitted, by which means many of the Spaniards escaped from captivity.
Yet some were induced, by love for the children they had by the native
women, to remain captives during their lives. Some even of the Spaniards
acquired the confidence and affection of the natives, by their pleasing
manners, or by their skill in useful arts, and acquired advantageous
establishments in the country. Among these, Don Basilio Roxas and Don
Antonio Bascugnano, both of noble birth, acquired high reputation with
the Araucanians, and both of them left interesting memoirs of the
transactions of their times. Such of the Spaniards as happened to fall
to the share of brutal masters, had much to suffer.

Paillamachu did not long continue to enjoy the applause of his
countrymen, for having so successfully expelled the Spaniards from
Araucania: He died about the end of the year 1603, and was succeeded by
Huenecura, who had been bred to arms under his direction and example in
the celebrated military school of Lumaco.

* * * * *

"Modern as is the History of America, it has had its full share of
fable, and the city of Osorno has furnished the subject of one not less
extraordinary than any of the rest, which is thus related in the
twentieth volume of the _Seminario Erudito_[94]."

[Footnote 94: This fabulous story of the new Osorno is contained in a
note to Molina by the English Editor.--E.]

"During the great effort of the Araucanians to recover their country
from the Spaniards, Osorno resisted their arms with extraordinary vigour
for six months. At the end of this period, the Spaniards repelled a
general assault of the besiegers, and compelled them to abandon the
blockade. Being afraid of another attack, the Spaniards retired about
three or four leagues, to a peninsula at the foot of the Andes, formed
by the lake from which the river Bueno issues. They there built a new
city on the isthmus, which they secured with walls, bulwarks, moats and
draw-bridges; and multiplied in process of time so as to be obliged to
build another city on the opposite side of the lake, and their
descendents still continue to occupy the same place. This people, called
_Alcahuncas_ b