On the arrival of the few Spaniards at Conception who had been able to escape from the slaughter at Mariguenu, the city of Conception was filled with indescribable grief and dismay, not a family but had to deplore the loss of some near relation; and the alarm was greatly increased by learning that Lautaro was fast approaching with his victorious army. As Villagran considered it to be impossible to defend the city under the present dismay of his small remaining force, he hastily embarked all the old men, women, and children on board two ships that happened to be then in the harbour, one of which he ordered to proceed to Imperial, and the other to Valparaiso, while he proceeded by land for St Jago with all the rest of the inhabitants who were able to carry arms. Lautaro entered the city next day without opposition, which he found entirely deserted of its inhabitants, but filled with much valuable booty, as by its mines and commerce it had already attained considerable opulence, and the inhabitants were in such haste to escape with their lives, that they only took what provisions they could procure along with them, and abandoned their riches. After removing every thing that was valuable, Lautaro burnt all the houses, and razed the citadel and other fortifications; after which he returned with his army to Arauco, to celebrate his triumph after the manner usual in his country.
While Lautaro thus bravely asserted the independence of his country on the frontiers, Caupolican marched into the south, as has been already mentioned, to invest the cities of Imperial and Valdivia, both of which he held closely blockaded. In this emergency, the governors of these two cities demanded succours from Villagran; who, notwithstanding his late terrible defeat, sent a sufficient number of troops for their defence with all possible speed; and both places being accessible by sea, these succours were able to arrive in time to prevent Caupolican from gaining possession of either.
"When the army of Caupolican drew near to the city of Imperial, the air was suddenly enveloped in black clouds, whence arose a mighty storm of hail and rain. In the midst of the tempest the epumanon or war god of the Araucanians, made his appearance in form of a terrible dragon, casting out fire at his mouth and nostrils, and desired them to hasten their march as he would deliver the city into their hands, on which occasion he enjoined them to put all the Christians to the sword. The epumanon then disappeared, and they pursued their way joyfully, being animated by this oracle. On a sudden the heavens cleared up, and a most beautiful woman was seen, seated on a bright cloud, and having a charming yet severe and majestic countenance, which much abated the pride and haughtiness inspired by the former vision. This was the queen of heaven, who commanded them to return to their own homes, for God was resolved to favour the Christians; and they immediately obeyed70."
On abandoning the sieges of Imperial and Valdivia, Caupolican went to join Lautaro at Conception, in order to attempt some enterprise against the Spaniards more practicable than the attack of fortifications, for the assault of which the Araucanians possessed no sufficient arts or arms. Availing himself of the absence of his redoubted enemy; Villagran, who appears to have gone along with the succours to Imperial, ravaged the whole Araucanian territory around that city, burning and destroying the houses and crops, and carrying off all the provisions that were not destroyed to the town. Though of a humane and generous disposition, averse from the exercise of violence, Villagran endeavoured to vindicate the employment of these rigorous measures by the necessity of circumstances, and the pretended rights of war: But on this occasion they were of no real service to the Spanish cause, which they contributed to render more odious to the Araucanians; and in general the only effect which such barbarous conduct produces, is to heap distress on the weak and helpless. To the other terrible calamities inseparable from war, especially when carried on in this barbarous manner, a pestilential disease was superadded which committed dreadful ravages in Chili, especially among the natives. During the incursions of Villagran into the Araucanian territory, some Spanish soldiers, who were either infected at the time or had recently recovered from the small pox, communicated that fatal disease for the first time to the Araucanians, among whom it spread with the more direful and rapid destruction, as they were utterly unacquainted with its nature. So universal and dreadful was the mortality on this occasion in several provinces, that, in one district containing a population of twelve thousand persons, not more than a hundred escaped with life. This pestilential disorder, which has been more destructive than any other to the human race, had been introduced a few years before into the northern parts of Chili, where it then occasioned great mortality among the natives, and where it has since frequently reappeared at uncertain intervals, and has greatly diminished the aboriginal population. For more than a century, counting from the present times, 1787, the southern provinces of Chili forming the Araucanian confederacy, have been exempted from the ravages of this cruel disease, in consequence of the most rigorous precautions being employed by the inhabitants to prevent all communication with the infected countries, similar to those used in Europe to prevent the introduction of the plague.
"The following anecdote will shew what horror the small-pox has inspired into the natives of Araucania. Some considerable time ago71, the viceroy of Peru sent as a present to the governor of Chili, several jars of honey, wine, olives, and different seeds. One of these jars happened to break while landing, and some Indians who were employed as labourers on this occasion, imagined that the contents of the jar were the purulent matter of the small-pox, imported by the governor for the purpose of being disseminated among the Araucanian provinces, to exterminate their inhabitants. They immediately gave notice to their countrymen, who stopped all intercourse with the Spanish provinces and flew to arms, killing above forty Spaniards who were then among them in the full security of peace. To revenge this outrage, the governor marched with an army into the Araucanian territory, and a new war was excited which continued for some time to the great injury of both nations."
While Villagran was using every possible exertion to maintain the Spanish power in the south of Chili, by combating the brave and victorious Araucanians, he found himself on the point of being compelled to turn his arms against his own countrymen. It has been already mentioned that Valdivia, in the instructions he left with the magistrates of Conception before his fatal expedition into Araucania, had nominated Francisco Aguirre in the second place as his own successor in the government, and that Villagran, only third in nomination, had succeeded to the command in consequence of the absence of the other two who were prior to himself. When Aguirre, who was then in Cujo, where he does not appear to have effected any thing of importance, was informed of the death of Valdivia, and his own destination to the government of Chili, he considered the assumption of the vacant command by Villagran as prejudicial to his own just rights, and immediately returned into Chili with sixty men who remained of his detachment, determined to acquire possession of the government by force or favour. His pretensions and those of Villagran must infallibly have kindled a civil war among the Spaniards in Chili, to the ruin or vast detriment of the Spanish interest, had not the competitors agreed to submit the decision of their respective claims to the royal audience at Lima, which at that time, 1555, held the supreme legal jurisdiction over all the Spanish dominions in South America. On this appeal, the court of audience thought proper to set aside the pretensions of both competitors, and issued an edict authorizing the corregidors of the different cities to command each in their respective districts, till farther orders. Perceiving the extreme inconvenience that must have necessarily resulted to the interests of the colony, from this divided government, especially during so important a war, the principal inhabitants remonstrated against the impolicy of this decree. The royal audience listened to the representations of the colonists, and appointed Villagran to resume the command, but only granted him the title of corregidor, and gave him orders to rebuild the city of Conception. Although convinced of the inutility of this measure in the present conjuncture, Villagran, in obedience to the orders, proceeded immediately to that place with eighty-five families, whom he established there, and erected a strong fortification for their defence.
70
This paragraph, within inverted commas, is literally copied from Ovalle, as an instance of the puerile conceits indulged in by the true Catholic writers of the seventeenth century. The brave and faithful Bernal Diaz at the beginning of the sixteenth century saw no miracles during the conquest of Mexico, and the judicious Molina at the close of the eighteenth, modestly refrains from copying any such incredible absurdities into his history of Chili.-E.
71
The passage within commas is a note in the original English publication of Molina; and from subsequent parts of the history, the event here related appears to have occurred about the commencement of the seventeenth century, or more than two hundred years ago.-E.