Robert Kerr

“ This is the custom of the Molnuches and Pampas, but the Serranos place the bones on a high frame-work of canes or twigs to bleach in the sun and rain. While the dissector is at work on the skeleton, the Indians walk incessantly round the tent, having their faces blackened with soot, dressed in long skin mantles, singing in a mournful voice, and striking the ground with their long spears, to drive away the evil spirits. Some go to condole with the widow and relations of the dead, if these are wealthy enough to reward them for their mourning with bells, beads, and other trinkets ”

“ Thus fell Pedro de Valdivia, the 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. ”

“ But, though less patient under the fatigues and hardships of service, they were ready to face danger and death with as much intrepidity as ever; and, animated by the hope of new rewards, they never failed, on the day of battle, to display all their ancient valour."
"Together with their courage, they retained all the ferocity by which they were originally distinguished. Civil discord never raged with a more fell spirit than among the Spaniards in Peru. To all the passions which usually envenom contests among countrymen, avarice was added, and rendered their enmity more rancorous. ”

“ He was an excellent soldier, and managed his weapons with much dexterity both on foot and on horseback; skilful and experienced in all military affairs; always brave and cool in action, and the foremost in every enterprise of danger: severe in punishing when necessary, yet easy to forgive, and always inclined to please his soldiers when that might be done without lessening his authority. At his death he was only forty-two years of age, and had expended his whole fortune, exceeding 100,000 ducats on this romantic and fruitless expedition. ”

“ Thus forty-eight Spaniards perished, only four escaping of all that were in the canoes. The Indians held on their pursuit of the brigantines all that day making continual rejoicings for their victory. On the seventeenth day at sun-rise, when the Indians had paid their adorations to the sun with hideous cries, and a prodigious noise of drums, horns, and trumpets, they ceased the pursuit of the Spaniards and retired, having continued the chase about four hundred leagues. ”

“ Soto led the van in person, consisting of an hundred horse and an hundred and fifty foot. He was accompanied by Tascaluza, and as he marched with diligence, he arrived at Mavila at eight in the morning, the main body not coming up for a considerable time after. The town of Mavila was seated in a plain, enclosed by a double row of piles with timbers laid athwart, and the interstices rammed full of straw and earth, so that it looked like a wall smoothed by a masons trowel. At every eighty paces distance, there was a tower or platform where eight men could stand to fight, having many loop holes. ”

“ Impressed with the opinion that to die in battle for their country is the greatest honour that can be acquired, whenever the signal for battle is given, they advance with the utmost rapidity, despising the slaughter produced by the cannon and musquetry, yet preserving the strictest order and discipline, and often succeed in bearing down the firmest array of the Spaniards. ”

“ After the defeat and death of Paillaeco, the Araucanians elected Paillamachu to the supreme command, who was hereditary toqui or prince of the second Uthulmapu. This military dictator was already much advanced in years, yet a man of wonderful activity and resources, and was so fortunate in his enterprises that he far surpassed all his predecessors in military glory, and had the singular felicity of restoring his country to its ancient independence by the entire expulsion of the Spaniards from its territories. ”

“ They believe the soul retains its original attachments and dislikes, and that the spirits of their departed countrymen frequently return and fight furiously with those of their former enemies, when they meet in the air; and to these combats they attribute the origin of tempests and of thunder and lightning. When a storm happens on the Andes or the ocean, they ascribe it to a battle between the spirits of their departed countrymen and those of the Spaniards. If the storm take its course towards the Spanish territory, they exclaim triumphantly, Inavimen, inavimen, puen, laguvimen! ”

“ In the present eventful period, while Spain, once the terror of Europe, seems in danger of sinking under the tyrannical grasp of the usurper of France, a vast revolution appears about to elevate the Spanish American colonies into extensive independent states; if the jealous collision of rights, interests, and pretensions between the various races of their inhabitants do not plunge them into all the horrors of civil war and anarchy. ”

“ It was to their sword, not to pre-eminence in office or nobility of birth that most of the leaders whom they followed were indebted for their elevation; and each of their adherents hoped, by the same means, to open a way for himself to the possession of power and wealth."
"But though the troops in Peru served without, any regular pay, they were raised at an immense expence. Among men accustomed to divide the spoil of an opulent country, the desire of obtaining wealth acquired incredible force. The ardour of pursuit augmented in proportion to the hope of success. ”

“ In summer, when the vessels arrive from Callao, San Carlos is like a fair, as this is the only opportunity enjoyed by the Chilotans to get supplied with any thing which is not the produce of their own country, or to dispose of any portion of their surplus produce. As they have no money or circulating medium of commerce, the whole trade is carried on by means of barter, which would leave the islanders at the mercy of the merchants from Lima, but for the interference of the government. ”

“ On coming to the entrance of the narrow pass, where they expected to have been in safety, the Spaniards found it already occupied by the enemy, and began to despair of being able to escape. At this time, perceiving that both the Spanish men and horses were completely tired, the Araucanians broke in among them, fifteen or twenty of them seizing upon one horse, some catching him by the legs, others by the tail, and others by the mane; while others knocked down both men and horses with their great war-clubs, killing them with the greatest rage and fury. ”

“ Eagerness to seize the valuable forfeitures expected upon the death of every opponent, shut the door against mercy. To be wealthy was, of itself, sufficient to expose a man to accusation, or to subject him to punishment. On the slightest suspicions, Pizarro condemned many of the most opulent inhabitants of Peru to death. Carvajal, without searching for any pretext to justify his cruelty, cut off many more. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Instances of such general and avowed contempt of the principles and obligations which attach man to man, and bind them in social union, rarely occur in history. It is only where men are far removed from the seat of government, where the restraints of law and order are little felt, where the prospect of gain is unbounded, and where immense wealth may cover the crimes by which it is acquired, that we can find any parallel to the levity, the rapaciousness, the perfidy, and corruption prevalent among the Spaniards in Peru. ”

“ The fire which had been put to the houses burned fiercely, as the houses were all of wood and covered with thatch, by which great numbers of the Indians perished. About four in the afternoon, being sensible of their own weakness and that they were likely to be worsted, the Indian women began to join in the battle, armed with the spears, swords, and partizans which the Spaniards had lost, some even with bows and arrows, which they managed as dexterously as their husbands, and some armed only with stones exposed themselves courageously in the heat of the action. ”

“ One of the first measures of the national council, when war is resolved upon, is to dispatch messengers to the confederate tribes, and even to the Indians who live under the Spanish government, to summon them to make common cause with their countrymen. The credentials of these messengers are some small arrows tied together by a red string, the symbol of blood. But if hostilities have been already commenced, the finger of a slain enemy accompanies the arrows. ”

“ The hereditary chiefs, named yas, elmens, or ulmens, have no power to take any thing from their vassals, neither can they oblige them to perform any work without payment. On the contrary they must treat them kindly and relieve their wants, or their vassals will put themselves under the protection of a more generous chief. Many of them therefore wave the privilege of their birth, and decline having any vassals, because they are expensive appendages, which yield little profit. But every-one must attach themselves to some chief, or they would undoubtedly be put to death or reduced to slavery. ”

“ Colocolo, an aged Ulmen of the province of Arauco, animated by love for his country, quitted the retirement in which he had long indulged, and traversed the provinces of the Araucanian confederacy, exciting with indefatigable zeal the dormant spirit of his countrymen, which had sunk after their late disasters, and eagerly solicited them to make choice of a new supreme toqui capable of directing their arms for the recovery of those parts of their country which had been subjugated by the Spaniards, through the timid conduct of Lincoyan. ”

“ According to Don Francisco Bascagnan, who was an eye witness, many of the spectators compassionated the fate of the unfortunate soldier; and Maulican, to whom the office of dispatching him was assigned as a mark of honour, is said to have declared that he accepted of it with extreme reluctance, and merely to avoid offending his commander the toqui. The torture of an innocent prisoner, upon whatever motive or pretence, is certainly a crime against humanity of the deepest dye, and can never be justified on any principle whatever. ”

“ In the Spanish provinces of Chili, no other language than Spanish is spoken, except upon the frontiers, where the peasants speak both Araucanian and Spanish. The men dress in the fashion of Spain, and the women in that of Peru; only that the women in Chili wear their garments longer than is usual in Peru. Lima prescribes the fashions for Chili, as is done by Paris for the rest of Europe; and the inhabitants of Chili and Peru are equally luxurious, as in both countries the wealthy make a splendid display in their dress, titles, coaches, and servants. ”

“ The manner in which Valdivia was afterwards put to death has been differently related. Some say that Lautaro, finding him tied to a tree, killed him after reviling and reproaching him as a robber and a tyrant. The most certain intelligence is, that an old captain beat out his brains with a club. Others again say that the Araucanians passed the night after their victory in dances and mirth; and that at the end of every dance, they cut off a piece of flesh from Valdivia and another from the priest, both yet alive, which they broiled and eat before their faces. ”

“ 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. ”

“ On being informed of this unfortunate accident, calculated to weaken the exalted notion which he wished to inspire into the natives of the character of his soldiers, Almagro hastened his march for Coquimbo, where he immediately ordered Marcando the head ulmen of the province, his brother, and twenty others of the principal inhabitants to be brought before him; all of whom he committed to the flames; This act of cruelty appeared extraordinary and unjust to every one; for even among these adventurers, inured to rapine and bloodshed, there still were some men of humanity and justice. ”

“ While the cavalry gave a loose to their fury on the Araucanians without the walls, the infantry were employed within the fort in putting to death all that had got through the gate; who, finding all chance of escape utterly hopeless, chose rather to be cut in pieces than surrender. Pran, discovering his error when too late, rushed among the thickest of the foe, and escaped by an honourable death from the well merited reproaches of his imprudent and fatal credulity. Among a few prisoners taken on this occasion were three ulmens, who were all blown from the mouths of cannon. ”

“ Even the heaviest losses, so far from filling them with dejection and dismay, served to inspire them with increased valour. Their heroic constancy under repeated defeats is perfectly wonderful, and the successful and determined perseverance with which they have ever defended their liberties and independence against the superior arms and power of the Spaniards, is without parallel in the history of the world. The scanty remains of the ulmens or Araucanian chiefs who had escaped from the late sanguinary conflicts against Don Garcia, were more resolved than ever to continue the war. ”