At Valparaiso They Intercepted Some Letters Giving An Account Of The
Wars In Chili Between The Spaniards And The Indians, Who It Seems Were
In Rebellion, Had Sacked The Town Of Valdivia, Putting Vast Numbers Of
Spaniards To The Sword, And Carrying Off Many Captives.
They burnt the
houses and churches, knocking off the heads of the popish images,
crying, "Down go the gods
Of the Spaniards." They then crammed the
mouths of these images with gold, bidding them satisfy themselves with
that, for the sake of which their votaries had committed so many
barbarous massacres of their nation. They afterwards laid close siege to
the city of Imperial, and had almost starved the Spanish garrison into a
surrender. The valiant Indians who undertook this enterprise were about
5000, of whom 5000 were cavalry, 100 were armed with muskets, and 70 had
corslets, all of which were plunder they had taken from the Spaniards.
They so mortally hate the Spaniards, that they rip up the breasts of all
they overcome, tearing out their hearts with their teeth, and they
delight to drink their favourite liquor from a cup made of a Spaniard's
skull.
These Indians [the Araucans] are for the most part very stout, and
skilful soldiers, and commit the management of all their military
affairs to the direction of one supreme general, whose orders are
implicitly obeyed. Their method of election to this high dignity is very
singular; for he who carries a certain log of wood on his shoulders the
longest, and with the smallest appearance of weariness, is saluted
general by the army. In this trial several carried the log four, five,
and six hours; but at length one carried it twenty-four hours on end,
and this person was now general. The whole of Chili, from St Jago to
Valdivia, is one of the most fertile and most delightful countries in
the world. It abounds in all kinds of cattle and fruit, has many rich
gold mines, and its climate is so sweet and salubrious as to exclude the
use of medicine, being health and life in itself.
They entered the bay of Guasco[77] on the 1st April, where they remained
till the 7th. The 11th they came into a large bay, named Moro Gorch,
in lat. 18 deg. 30' S. ten miles from which is Moro Moreno, from which the
shore runs to Arica, and all this coast, up to the hill of St Francis,
is very much subject to south winds, though the adjoining seas have the
winds variable and uncertain. On the 20th the whole air was darkened by
an Arenal which is a cloud of dust, and so thick that one cannot see a
stone's throw. These are raised by the wind from the adjoining shore,
and are very common in these parts. The 25th they were within view of
the famous city of Lima in Peru. At this time they learnt the value of
the treasure of which the Spaniards had deprived them, in the ships they
took on the coast of Chili.
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