was broken and put to flight, and obliged to take shelter in the rear of the infantry.  Upon this event, the Araucanian infantry made so violent a charge upon the Spanish foot as to throw them into confusion, insomuch that the governor gave up all for lost.  At this critical moment Putapichion was slain; and the governor availed himself so effectually of the confusion which this circumstance produced among the Araucanians, that he was able to rally his troops, and led them up anew to the charge, while the Araucanians were solely intent upon carrying off the dead body of their toqui.  They even effected this, but were completely defeated and driven in disorder from the field.  Quepuantu, the vice-toqui, exerted himself in vain to restore order and to bring back his troops to the charge, even killing several of the fugitives with his own hand; but all his efforts were fruitless, and the Araucanians suffered prodigiously in their flight, being pursued for more than six miles in all directions.  Many of the Spaniards fell in this battle, the most decisive that had been fought for a long time against the Araucanians.

From the death of Putapichion to the termination of the government of Lasso, the successive toquis of the Araucanians continued the war with more rashness than skill; none of them, like Antiguenu and Paillamachu, having sufficient judgment to repair the losses sustained by the nation, and to counterbalance the power and arms of the Spaniards by skill and conduct.  Quepuantu, who was advanced to the rank of toqui after the defeat at Alvarrada, retired to a sequestered vale under the covert of thick woods, where he built a house with four opposite doors, to facilitate his escape in case of being attacked.  The place of his retirement having been discovered to the governor, he sent the quarter-master to surprise him with four hundred light armed troops.  As these came upon him by surprise, Quepuantu took refuge in the wood; but soon returned at the head of fifty men who had come to his assistance, and attacked the Spaniards with great courage.  After a desperate engagement of half an hour, in which the toqui lost almost all his men, he accepted a challenge from Loncomallu, chief of the auxiliaries attached to the Spaniards, and was slain after a long combat.  In 1634, a similar fate befel his successor Loncamilla, in an engagement with a small number of Araucanian troops against a strong detachment of Spaniards.  Guenucalquin, his successor, after making some successful inroads into the Spanish provinces, lost his life in an engagement with six hundred Spaniards in the province of Ilicura.  Curanteo, who was created toqui in the heat of this action, had the glory of terminating it by the rout of the enemy; but was killed soon afterwards in another conflict.  Curimilla, the next toqui, more daring than several of his predecessors, repeatedly ravaged the provinces to the north of the Biobio, and undertook the siege of Arauco and the other forts on the frontiers; but was slain at length by Sea in Calcoimo.