Immediately on receiving the investiture of the toquiate, he crossed the river Biobio, probably intending to have attacked Conception; but, before reaching that place, he was attacked and defeated by the quarter-master, notwithstanding the great valour with which he defended himself for a long time.  Among the prisoners taken by the Spaniards on this occasion were several Araucanian women, all of whom killed themselves the same night.  Paynenancu, having escaped from the carnage, raised a new army and marched against Villarica, but was again defeated by Rodrigo Bastidas, the military commandant of that city.

While the war continued to rage in 1575, the licentiate Calderon arrived in Chili from Spain, with a commission to examine and regulate the government of that kingdom.  His first step was to suppress the court of audience, on the sole principle of economy, and instead of the president Melchior Bravo, Rodrigo Quiroga, who had been formerly appointed governor by the audience of Lima, was reinstated in that office.  Having assembled all the troops he could raise, the new governor proceeded in 1576 to the frontiers, to oppose the ravages of Paynenancu, who, though twice defeated, continued to harass the Spanish settlements by frequent inroads.  But, as the toqui carefully avoided any rencounter, the governor contented himself with ravaging the Araucanian territories in revenge.  Having afterwards received a reinforcement of two thousand men from Spain, he gave directions to his father-in-law[82] Gamboa to found a new city at the foot of the Cordellieras[83], between the cities of St Jago and Conception, which has since received the appellation of Chillan from the river on which it stands, and has become the capital of the fertile province of the same name.  Shortly after the foundation of this new city, the governor died in 1580 at a very advanced age, having previously nominated Gamboa to succeed him in the government of the kingdom.  Gamboa continued three years in the command, continually occupied in opposing the Araucanians in the south under their toqui Paynenancu, and in defending the kingdom on the east against the Pehuenches and Chiquillanians, who now began to molest the Spaniards at the instigation of the Araucanians.

[Footnote 82:  Thus in the original, though probably his son-in-law, as Quiroga died soon after at an advanced age.—­E.]

[Footnote 83:  The city of Chillan, instead of being at the foot of the Andes, is in the plain country more than half way between that great chain and the sea.—­E.]

The Pehuenches are a numerous tribe who inhabit that portion of the Andes of Chili which lies between the latitudes of 34 deg. and 37 deg.  S. to the eastwards of the Spanish provinces of Calchagua, Maule, Chillan, and Huilquilemu.  Their dress resembles that of the Araucanians, except that they wear a piece of cloth like the Japenese round the waist which hangs down to the knees[84], instead of drawers or breeches.