Though Don Garcia had already been mistaken in supposing that the spirit of the Araucanians was entirely broken after their terrible overthrow at Canete, he now again thought he had good reason to believe the war wholly at an end.  This victory of Quipeo seemed to him completely decisive, as the nation was now left without chiefs or troops, all their principal officers, and those who chiefly supported the courage of the Araucanians, having perished, with the flower of their soldiers, so that he believed the nation would henceforwards be entirely submissive to the will of the conquerors.  Impressed with these hopes, he now devoted his whole attention to repair the losses occasioned by the war, rebuilding the fortifications which had been destroyed, particularly Arauco, Angol, and Villarica, all of which he repeopled and provided with competent garrisons.  He caused all the mines which had been abandoned to be reopened, and others to be explored:  And obtained the establishment of a bishopric in the capital of Chili, to which place he went in person to receive the first bishop, Fernando Barrionuevo, a Franciscan monk.  Having a considerable number of veteran troops under his command, for most of whom he believed there was no longer occasion in Chili, he sent off a part of them under Pedro Castillo to complete the conquest of Cujo, formerly commenced by Francisco de Aguirre.  Castillo subjected the Guarpes, the ancient inhabitants of that province, to the Spanish dominion, and founded two cities on the eastern skirts of the Andes, which he named San Juan and Mendoza, the latter in compliment to the family name of the governor Don Garcia.  The extensive and fertile province of Cujo remained for a considerable time dependent on the government of Chili, but has been since transferred to the vice-royalty of Buenos Ayres, to which it seems more properly to appertain from its situation and natural boundaries.

While Don Garcia thus took advantage of the apparent calm which prevailed in Chili, he received information that Francisco Villagran had arrived from Spain at Buenos Ayres, appointed to succeed him in the government of Chili, and that the king had promoted himself to the viceroyalty of Peru in reward for his services in his present government.  In consequence of this information, he confided the interim government of Chili to the care of Rodrigo de Quiroga, and withdrew into Peru, to take possession of the exalted situation of viceroy which his father had formerly occupied.

Villagran, who had been governor of Chid previous to Don Garcia, had gone to Europe when deprived of that government, and had procured his reinstatement from the court of Spain.  Believing, from the information of Don Garcia and Quiroga, that the Araucanians were in no condition to give any future trouble, Villagran turned his whole attention after his arrival in Chili, to the reaquisition of the province of Tucuman, which had been annexed by himself to the government of Chili