[Footnote 97:  Falkner, Ch. iv. p. 112.]

SECTION X.

Farther Narrative of the War, to the Conclusion of Peace with the Araucanians.

While Alonzo Rivera applied himself with every possible energy to check the progress of the Araucanians and to guard the frontier of the Biobio, he was removed, from the government of Chili to that of Tucuman, as a punishment for having presumed to marry the daughter of the celebrated heroine Innes Aguilera, without having obtained the royal permission.  On this occasion Garcia Ramon was reinstated in the government, and received at the same time with his commission a reinforcement of a thousand men from Europe and two hundred and fifty from Mexico.  Being now at the head of three thousand regular troops, besides a considerable auxiliary force, he invaded Araucania and penetrated without opposition into the province of Boroa[98] where he erected a fort, which he furnished with a considerable number of cannon, and in which he left a garrison of three hundred men under the command of Lisperger, a German officer formerly mentioned.

[Footnote 98:  The province of Boroa, formerly mentioned as the residence of a tribe much whiter in their colour than the other natives of South America, lies at the foot of the Andes between the heads of the rivers Hueco and Tolten, to the eastward of the ruins of Villarica.—­E.]

Immediately after the return of the invading army into Spanish Chili, the new toqui Huenecura proceeded to attack this new establishment.  While on his march he fell in with Lisperger, who had gone out from the fort at the head of an hundred and sixty of his men to protect a convoy; and immediately attacked the Spaniards with such fury that he cut the whole detachment in pieces, and the commander among the rest.  After this first successful essay of his arms, he proceeded without delay against the fort, which he made three several attempts to take by storm; but was repelled with so much skill and valour by Gil Negrete who had succeeded Lisperger in the command, that after an obstinate combat of two hours he was obliged to desist from the attempt to storm, and established a close blockade.  This was continued till the governor Ramon sent orders for the garrison to evacuate the place.  The Spanish army was now divided into two separate bodies, one under the command of Alvaro Pineda the quarter-master of Chili, and the other under the orders of Don Diego Saravia, who proceeded to lay waste the Araucanian territory without mercy.  Watching his opportunity however, Huenecura attacked and defeated them in succession, and with such complete success that not even a single person of either detachment escaped death or captivity.  By these unexpected misfortunes, that fine army on which such flattering hopes of security at least, if not conquest, had been founded, was entirely annihilated.  In consequence of these repeated and heavy disasters, orders were