little opposition and hardly any loss.  But on his arrival at the river Callacalla, which separates the Araucanians from the Cunches, he found that nation in arms on the opposite bank of the river, ready to dispute the passage.  The Cunches are one of the most valiant of the tribes inhabiting Chili, and possess the maritime country from the river Callacalla, called Valdivia by the Spaniards, to the gulf of Chiloe.  They are divided into several subordinate tribes or clans, each of which, as in the other parts of Chili, are governed by their respective ulmens.  They are in strict alliance with the Araucanians, and have ever continued bitter enemies to the Spaniards.

While Valdivia was deliberating upon the adoption of proper measures for crossing this river, a woman of the country, named Recloma, addressed the general of the Cunches with so much eloquence in behalf of the strangers, that he withdrew his army and allowed them to pass the river unmolested.  Immediately after this unexpected event, the Spanish general founded a sixth city on the southern shore of the Callacalla, near its junction with the sea, giving it his own name of Valdivia; being the first of the conquerors in America who sought in this manner to perpetuate his name.  This settlement, of which the fortress only now remains, attained in a few years a considerable degree of prosperity; owing to the superior fineness of the gold procured from its neighbouring mines, which obtained it the privilege of a mint, and because its harbour is one of the most convenient and secure of any on the shore of the Pacific Ocean.  The river is here very broad, and so deep that ships of the line may be moored in safety within a few feet of the shore; and it has several other safe harbours and creeks in the vicinity.

Satisfied with the extent of the conquests he had made, or rather with the incursions he had been able to make in the Araucanian territory, Valdivia now retraced his steps towards the north; and in his progress during the year 1553, he built fortresses in each of the three Araucanian provinces of Paren Tucapel and Arauco.  From the warlike inhabitants of these provinces especially, he apprehended any attempt that might prove fatal to his more southerly settlements of Imperial Villarica and Valdivia, and he left garrisons in these more northern fortresses to preserve the communication, and to be in readiness to afford succours to the others in the south.  According to the poet Breilla, the Spaniards had to sustain many battles and encounters with the natives in the course of this expedition in Araucania, but the particulars of none of these are recorded.  This is however very probable; as it is not easy to account for the continuance of Lincoyan in the command on any other principles.  It may be concluded, however, that, owing to the caution, or cowardice rather of the Araucanian toqui, these actions were so ill conducted and so inconclusive, as to give very little interruption to Valdivia in his triumphant progress through these provinces, between the Biobio and Callacalla, or from Conception to Valdivia.