[Footnote 92:  In the letter quoted from Garcilasso in the preceding note, Del Campo is said to have raised the siege of Osorno and to have performed other actions of happy consequence.—­E.]

[Footnote 93:  St Mary’s island is on the coast of Araucania, in lat. 37 deg.  S.—­E.]

Disgusted with a war which threatened such unfortunate consequences, Quinones solicited and obtained leave to resign the government of Chili, and was succeeded by Garcia Ramon who had long been quarter-master of the army in that kingdom.  Great expectations were formed of success in the war against the Araucanians under his direction, from his long experience and thorough acquaintance with the manner in which the enemy carried on their warlike operations.  But that experience induced him to conduct the war on prudent principles of defence, rather than to hazard the loss of that part of Chili which was subject to Spain.  Although he received a reinforcement consisting of an entire regiment of veterans, under the command of Don Francisco de Ovalle, father to the historian of that name, he confined himself almost entirely to the defence of the frontier line upon the Biobio.  Garcia Ramon was however soon superseded in the government by the appointment of Alonzo Rivera, an officer who had acquired considerable reputation in the wars in the low countries, and who now brought out a farther reinforcement of a regiment of veteran troops.  On assuming the government, he established a number of additional forts on the river Biobio, to defend the frontiers, by which he greatly encouraged the Spanish colonists, who still entertained an idea of abandoning Chili to the enemy.

The populous and opulent city of Villarica, fell into the hands of the Araucanians in 1692, after a siege or blockade of two years and eleven months; and soon afterwards Imperial, the capital of the Spanish settlements beyond the Biobio, experienced a similar fate.  The defence of this city was protracted for some months by the courage of a Spanish lady, named Donna Innes de Aguilera.  Seeing the garrison quite dispirited by the long continuance of the siege, and ready to capitulate, she encouraged them to persist in its defence, and even directed all the operations in person; until at last, on a favourable opportunity offering, she escaped by sea with the bishop and most of the inhabitants.  During this siege, she lost her husband and brothers, and her heroism was rewarded by the king with a pension of two thousand dollars.

Osorno, likewise a rich and populous city, soon followed; as the enemy, now freed from the attention they had hitherto given to Valdivia, Villarica and Imperial, were able to bring their whole force against that last possession of the Spaniards within the territories of the Araucanian confederacy.  The sufferings endured by the garrison and inhabitants of Osorno are scarcely to be exceeded by those endured in the most celebrated sieges recorded in history.  They