It may be proper to relate what I noticed on a journey in that country, having set out from Mendoza in the province of Cujo, on the 27th of April 1783, with post horses for Buenos Ayres. We soon learnt, from some people whom we met, that the Pehuenches were out upon predatory excursions, and soon afterwards received the melancholy intelligence that they had committed horrible massacres in the Portion of Magdalena. In consequence of this, all the post-houses where we stopped were in a state of alarm, and some of them were entirely deserted. During the year before, three hundred of these Indians appeared suddenly before the post of Gutierrez, all lying back upon their horses and trailing their lances, in order to make it appear that it was only a drove of mares which is a very common sight in those Pampas or almost unlimited plains. Although they saw but one man who patroled the wall with his musquet, and was indeed the only person in the post, they were deterred from making any attack, supposing it to be strongly guarded. This man knew well that the horses were guided, by the exact order they pursued, though he could see nothing of the riders till they were very near. He had the prudence likewise to refrain from firing his musquet, which probably led them to believe there was a greater force within the place, and induced them to abandon the enterprise, venting their rage on the other unprotected inhabitants of the plains. The commander of the post of Amatrain was not so fortunate, as he was killed that same year along with a negro who accompanied him. These posts are fortified with palisades, or with a mud wall, and have a ditch and draw-bridge.
Although the Pehuenches frequently commit depredations in these eastern plains, they have many years refrained from any hostilities within the boundaries of Chili, unless in times of actual war between the nations; induced to this either from fear of the military population of Chili, or by the advantages which they derive from trading with the inhabitants of that kingdom. Their favourite weapon is the laque or leathern thong with a stone at each end, which they always carry fastened to their girdles. It is highly probable that the ten Americans in the ship commanded by Orellana, of whose amazing and desperate courage, mention is made in Ansons voyage, were of this tribe. Notwithstanding their wandering and restless mode of life, they are more addicted to industrious and even commercial habits than any of the savage natives of South America. When in their tents, they are never idle. The women weave cloths of various colours, and the men occupy themselves in making baskets, and a variety of beautiful articles of wood, leather, skins, or feathers, which are much prized by the Spaniards. Every year they assemble in large numbers on the Spanish frontiers, where they hold a kind of fair which generally lasts fifteen or twenty days. On these occasions they bring for sale, besides horses and cattle, fossil salt, gypsum, pitch, bed-coverings, ponchos, skins, wool, bridle-reins beautifully wrought of plaited leather, baskets, wooden vessels, feathers, ostrich-eggs, and a variety of other articles; and receive in return wheat, wine, and European manufactures. In the conduct of this barter they are very skilful, and can with difficulty be overreached. Lest they should be cheated or plundered by the Christian merchants, who think every thing lawful against unbelievers, they never drink all at one time; but separate themselves into several companies, some of whom keep guard while the rest indulge in wine. They are generally humane, courteous, just in their dealings, and possessed of many estimable qualities.
The Chiquillanians, whom some persons have supposed a tribe of the Pehueaches, live to the north-east of that nation, on the eastern borders, of the Andes86. These are the most savage, and consequently the least numerous of any of the tribes of the Chilese; for it is an established fact, that the ruder the state of savage life the less favourable it is to population. They go almost naked, merely wrapping the skins of the Guanaco round their bodies, and they speak a corrupted and guttural dialect of the Chili-dugu or Chilese language. It is observable that all the Chilese tribes which inhabit the elevated valleys of the Andes, both Pehuenches, Puelches, Huilliches, and Chiquillanians, are much redder than those of their countrymen who dwell in the lower country to the west of these mountains. All these mountaineers dress themselves in skins, paint their laces, subsist in a great measure by hunting, and lead a wandering and unsettled life. They are in fact the so much celebrated Patagonians, who have been occasionally seen near the Straits of Magellan, and who have sometimes been described as giants, and at other times as not much beyond the ordinary stature of mankind. Generally speaking however, they are of lofty stature and have great muscular strength.
On information being sent to Spain of the death of Quiroga, as formerly mentioned, Don Alonzo Sotomayor Marquis of Villa-hermoso was sent out as governor with six hundred regular troops. He landed at Buenos Ayres in 1583, from whence he proceeded to St Jago. On taking possession of his government, he appointed his brother Don Luis to the new office of Colonel of the Kingdom, and sent him with a military force to relieve the cities of Villarica and Valdivia, which were both besieged by the Araucanians. After twice defeating the toqui, Paynenancu, who opposed his march, he raised the sieges and supplied both places with reinforcements. The indefatigable but unfortunate toqui, after two defeats from Don Luis, turned his arms against Tiburcio Heredia and Antonio Galleguilios, who were ravaging the country with separate strong detachments of cavalry, and was successively defeated by both of these officers, yet the victors paid dear for their successes.
While these events were going on in the south, the governor had to oppose the Pehuenches who had invaded the new settlement of Chilian, and whom he defeated and constrained to retire into their mountains. He then marched into Araucania at the head of seven hundred Spaniards and a great number of auxiliaries, resolved to pursue the cruel and rigorous system of warfare which had formerly been adopted by Don Garcia, in preference to the humane procedure of his immediate predecessors. The province of Encol was the first to experience the effects of this severity, as he laid it entirely waste with fire and sword, and either hanged his prisoners, or sent them away with their hands cut off to intimidate their countrymen. The adjoining provinces of Puren, Ilicura, and Tucapel would have experienced a similar fate, if the inhabitants had not ensured their personal safety by flight, after setting their houses and crops on fire, and destroying every thing they could not carry off. Only three prisoners were taken in these provinces, who were impaled. Notwithstanding these severities, many mestees and mulatoes joined the Araucanians, and even some Spaniards, among who was Juan Sanchez, who acquired great reputation among them.
Impelled either by his natural rash valour, or by despair on finding that he had fallen in the estimation of the Araucanians by his want of success, Paynenancu gave battle to the whole Spanish army on the confines of the province of Arauco with only eight hundred men; yet such was the resolute valour with which they fought that the Spaniards were unable to break their firm array, till after a hard contested battle of several hours, in which they lost a considerable number of men. Almost the whole of the Araucanian troops engaged in this unequal contest were slain; but Paynenancu was made prisoner and immediately executed. The victorious governor encamped with his army on the banks of the Carampangui river, and caused the fortress of Arauco to be rebuilt, of which he gave the command to Garcia Ramon the quarter-master.
86
In the map accompanying the English translation of Molina, the Penuenches and Chiquillanians are placed under the same parallel between lat. 33° SO' and 36° S. The former on the western and the latter on the eastern side of the Andes.-E.