either from humanity or a motive of self-interest, urged him not to give the enemy a pretence for retaliating by similar cruelties.  But Quinones obstinately adhered to an old maxim of endeavouring to conquer by means of terror, and was deaf to all their remonstrances.  We are ignorant of the loss sustained by the Spaniards in this battle, but it must have been considerable, as Arauco and Canete were both immediately abandoned, and their inhabitants withdrawn to the city of Conception.

Paillmachu does not seem to have been at all disconcerted by the issue of the late battle, as he continued the sieges of the Spanish cities, and was himself in constant motion; sometimes encouraging by his presence the forces that were employed in blockading the cities, and at other times ravaging the Spanish provinces to the north of the Biobio, where he did infinite mischief.  Having learnt that the siege of Valdivia had been raised by the officer whom he had entrusted with that enterprise, he hastened to that place with four thousand men, part cavalry, seventy of his infantry being armed with musquets which he had taken from the Spaniards in the late engagements.  On the night of the 14th of November[91] he crossed the broad river of Calacala by swimming, unsuspected by the garrison, stormed the city at day-break, killed a great number of the inhabitants, and burnt the houses.  He even attempted to gain possession of some vessels in the harbour, on board of which many of the inhabitants had taken refuge, but these escaped his fury by immediately setting sail.  After this notable exploit, he returned in triumph into the north of Araucania with a booty of two millions of dollars, upwards of four hundred prisoners, and a considerable number of cannon; and rejoined Millacalquin, an officer to whom he had entrusted the defence of the Biobio during his absence.

[Footnote 91:  According to Garcilasso, Valdivia was taken on the 24th of November 1599.  In a letter from St Jago in Chili, dated in March 1600, and inserted in the Royal Commentaries of Peru, P.I.B. vii.  Ch. xxv. the Araucanian army on this occasion is said to have amounted to 5000 men, 3000 of whom were horse.  Of the foot, 200 were armed with coats of mail, and 70 with fire-arms, as was said.  They surprised the city at daybreak without the smallest alarm, there being only four men on guard, two of whom went the rounds, the Spaniards being lulled into security by some recent successes in two different incursions they had lately made into the country, which they had laid waste for eight leagues all around during twenty days.—­E.]

Ten days after the destruction of Valdivia, Francisco del Campo arrived there by sea from Peru with a reinforcement of three hundred men; and finding it in ashes, he ineffectually endeavoured to introduce these succours into Osorno, Villarica, and Imperial[92].  Amid so many misfortunes, an expedition of five ships from Holland arrived on the coast of Chili in 1660, which plundered the island of Chiloe and put the Spanish garrison to the sword.  But on a part of their people landing in the island of Talca or Santa Maria[93], inhabited by the Araucanians, they were repulsed with the loss of twenty-three men, being probably mistaken for Spaniards.