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 ago[71], 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.”

[Footnote 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.]