undiscovered at day-break.  Lautaro, who had been on guard all night according to his usual custom, had just retired to rest when the alarm was given of the attack from the Spaniards.  He hastened immediately to the spot, to observe the enemy and to issue his orders for defence; but at the moment of his arrival, a dart from the hand of one of the Indian auxiliaries pierced him to the heart.  Encouraged by this fortunate event, which was soon known to the Spaniards, Villagran urged the assault of the entrenchments, and soon forced an entrance in spite of the Araucanians, who made an obstinate defence.  Finding their post carried, the Araucanians retired to an angle of their works, determined rather to allow themselves to be cut in pieces than to surrender.  In vain the Spanish commander repeatedly offered quarter; they continued fighting with the utmost obstinacy till every man of them was cut off, many of them even throwing themselves on the lances of the Spaniards, as if courting death in preference to submission.  This victory, which was not obtained without considerable loss on the part of the Spaniards and their allies, was celebrated in St Jago and the other Spanish settlements with every demonstration of joy.  The Spaniards felicitated themselves on being freed from a redoubted enemy, who at the early age of nineteen had already obtained so many victories over them, and who threatened to destroy their settlements in Chili, and even to harass them in Peru.

When the terror which this young hero had inspired was removed by his death, even his enemies extolled his valour and military talents, and compared him to the greatest generals who had figured in ancient times, calling him the Chilese Hannibal.  To use the words of the abbe Olivarez:—­“It is not just to depreciate the merit of one, who, had he been of our nation, we should have vaunted as a hero.  If we celebrate the martial prowess of the Spanish Viriatus, we ought not to obscure the fame of the American Lautaro, as both valorously contended in arms for the liberties of their country.”

For a long time the Araucanians lamented the untimely fate of the valiant Lautaro, to whom they owed all the success which their arms had hitherto atchieved, and on whose conduct and bravery they entirely relied for the preservation of their independence.  His name is still celebrated in their heroic songs, and his actions are still proposed as the most glorious model for the imitation of their youth.  Above all others, Caupolican felt and lamented the loss of his valiant associate.  Far from thinking he had got free from a rival of his fame, he considered that he had lost his chief coadjutor in the glorious cause of restoring their nation to independence.  Immediately on receiving the mournful intelligence, he quitted the siege of Imperial, though reduced to the last extremity, and returned with his army to defend the northern frontiers of Araucania, and to protect his country from the incursions of the Spaniards, as he learnt by his spies that they soon expected a large reinforcement of men and warlike stores from Peru under a new commander.