were long obliged to subsist on the most loathsome food, having no other sustenance than the carcasses of dead horses; and when these failed on cats and dogs and the skins of beasts.  Thus in little more than three years, all the settlements which had been established by Valdivia and his successors, between the river Biobio and the archipelago of Chiloe, and preserved at the expence of so much blood, were destroyed, and so effectually that hardly any vestiges of them now remain.  None of them have been since rebuilt, as what is at present called Valdivia is nothing more than a garrison or fortified post.  Though great numbers of the inhabitants of these cities perished in the defence of their walls, by famine or by the sword of the enemy, yet Spanish prisoners of all ranks were so numerous among the Araucanians, that almost every family had at least one to its share.  The married Spaniards were mostly allowed to retain their wives, and the unmarried men were supplied with wives from among the women of the country; but the unmarried Spanish women were distributed among the chiefs of the Araucanians, who by their customs were permitted a plurality of wives.  It is not a little remarkable that the mestees, or offspring of these marriages, became in the subsequent wars the most inveterate enemies of the Spaniards.

On this occasion likewise, the ransom and exchange of prisoners were permitted, by which means many of the Spaniards escaped from captivity.  Yet some were induced, by love for the children they had by the native women, to remain captives during their lives.  Some even of the Spaniards acquired the confidence and affection of the natives, by their pleasing manners, or by their skill in useful arts, and acquired advantageous establishments in the country.  Among these, Don Basilio Roxas and Don Antonio Bascugnano, both of noble birth, acquired high reputation with the Araucanians, and both of them left interesting memoirs of the transactions of their times.  Such of the Spaniards as happened to fall to the share of brutal masters, had much to suffer.

Paillamachu did not long continue to enjoy the applause of his countrymen, for having so successfully expelled the Spaniards from Araucania:  He died about the end of the year 1603, and was succeeded by Huenecura, who had been bred to arms under his direction and example in the celebrated military school of Lumaco.

* * * * *

“Modern as is the History of America, it has had its full share of fable, and the city of Osorno has furnished the subject of one not less extraordinary than any of the rest, which is thus related in the twentieth volume of the Seminario Erudito[94].”

[Footnote 94:  This fabulous story of the new Osorno is contained in a note to Molina by the English Editor.—­E.]