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ducted them to the citadel. From thence he sallied out with the most determined of them, and attacked the enemy, whom he obliged to retire at day break. The Araucanians had become much less scrupulous than formerly in their mode of making war, for Cadeguala was not abandoned by any of his officers on this occasion, as Caupolican had been at Canete in his fraudful surprise of that city.

Although this daring enterprise had not been accompanied with the success which the Araucanian general expected, yet, far from being discouraged by it, he undertook the siege of the fortress of Puren, which from its interior situation appeared more easy to be taken. He invested it regularly with four thou sand men in four divisions, under the command of Guanalcoa, Caniotaru, Relmuantu, and Curilemu, the most valiant officers of his army. The governor, on receiving information of the danger of the place, hastened to relieve it with a strong reinforcement, but Cadeguala advanced to meet him with a hundred and fifty lances, and opposed him with such vigour, that after a long combat, in which several were killed, he compelled him to retreat.

Elated with this success, he proposed to the besieged, either to allow them to retire upon parole, or enter his service. These terms, which he pretended to consider as advantageous, were rejected with disdain. One person alone, called Juan Tapia, availed himself of the proffer, and went over to the Araucanians, by whom he was well received, and advanced in their army. This plan proving abortive, Cadeguala determined to shorten the siege by a decisive

blow. He presented himself before the walls on a superb horse which he had taken from the governor, and defied the commander of the place, Garcia Ramon, to single combat at the end of three days. The challenge being accepted, the intrepid Toqui appeared at the time appointed in the field, with a small number of attendants, whom he placed apart. The Spanish commander came out to meet him with forty men, whom he likewise ordered to remain at a distance. The two champions then putting spurs to their horses, encountered with such fury, that the first stroke decided the battle, Cadeguala falling to the ground, pierced through and through by the lance of his adversary; notwithstanding which, refusing to acknowledge himself vanquished, he endeavoured to remount his horse, but life failed him in the attempt. His soldiers ran to raise him, and carried off the body, after a sharp contest with the Spaniards. The army then retired from the place, determined to return when they had elected a new chief.

CHAPTER V.

The Toqui Guanoalca takes the Forts of Puren, Trinidad, and Spirito Santo; Exploits of the Heroine Janequeo; Battles of Mariguenu and Tucapel.

THE Araucanians soon returned to besiege the fort of Puren under their new Toqui Guanoalca, who, being informed by Tapia that the garrison was but ill supplied with provisions, and divided into two parties, had formed the most sanguine expectations of taking it. The result proved that he calculated correctly; as the besieged, cut off from all external succour, and dissatisfied with the conduct of their officers, were not long in retiring to the city of Angol; the Araucanians with their usual policy, leaving the passage free, nor endeavouring to molest them in their retreat.

Guanoalca immediately after marched against another fort which the Spaniards had a little before constructed in the vicinity of Mount Mariguenu; but a considerable reinforcement having entered it shortly before, he resolved to employ his forces in another quarter where the prospect of success appeared more flattering. With this view he proceeded against the forts of Trinidad and Spirito Santo, upon the shores of the Bio-bio. The governor, apprehensive that he should not be able to defend them, or not

considering them as of sufficient importance, evacuated them in 1589, and transferred the garrison to another fortress, which he had directed to be built upon the river Puchanqui, in order to protect the city of Angol: So that the war now became in a great measure reduced to the construction and demolition of fortifications.

The dictatorship of Guanoalca was rendered more remarkable by the military exploits of the heroine Janequeo than by his own. This woman was the wife of that valiant officer Guepotan, who for so long a time defended the post of Liben. After the loss of that important place he retired to the Andes, where he constantly endeavoured to stimulate those mountaineers to the defence of the country. Desirous of having his wife with him, he at length descended into the plains in search of her, but was surprised by the Spaniards, who were very solicitous to get him into their hands, and preferred being cut in pieces to surrendering himself prisoner. Janequeo, inflamed with an ardent desire of avenging the death of her husband, in company with her brother Guechiuntereo, placed herself at the head of an army of Puelches, with which, in 1590, she began to make inroads upon the Spanish settlements, killing all of that nation that fell into her hands. The governor, reinforced by a regiment of soldiers, which he had received from Peru, set out upon his march against her; but she, constantly occupying the highest ground, and attacking unexpectedly, sometimes the van, and at others the rear of his ar my, obliged him to retire, after having lost, to no

purpose, much time and a considerable number of men. As he was of opinion that rigorous measures were the best suited to quell the pride of the Araucanians, he gave orders, before his retreat, that all the prisoners taken in this incursion should be hung: Among these was one who requested to be hung upon the highest tree, in order that the sacrifice which he made of himself to his country, should be more conspicuous to his countrymen, and inspire them with a stronger determination to defend their liberties.

Janequeo having defended herself thus successfully against a general, who was unquestionably a good soldier, and had gained a high reputation in the wars of Italy, Germany and Flanders, pro-. ceeded against the fortress of Puchanqui, not far from which she defeated and killed Aranda, the commander, who had advanced to meet her with a part of the garrison. But not having been able to take the fort, she retired at the commencement of the rainy season to the mountains of Villarica, where she fortified herself in a place surrounded by precipices, which she deemed perfectly secure; from. whence she daily infested the environs of that city in such a manner that no one ventured to leave it.

The governor, moved by the complaints of the citizens, sent his brother Don Louis to their aid, with the greater part of two reinforcements that he had lately received from Peru, under the command of Castillejo and Penalosa. The intrepid Janequeo awaited him valiantly in her retreat, repelling with great presence of mind the various assaults of the Spaniards; until her soldiers being dispersed by