In 1560 Mendoza was abruptly ordered by King Philip II. of Spain to surrender his post as Governor to Francisco Villagran.  That fine old conquistador was now worn out in body and a wreck of his former self.  The furious combats with the Araucanians broke out afresh, and continued unabated.  A series of disasters shattered the spirit of Villagran, and sent him to his grave.  Following this came the usual succession of Governors, and the unbroken continuance of the Indian wars, victory and disaster alternately succeeding each other to an extent which would prove monotonous if an attempt at description were made.

[Illustration:  ACAPULCO, ON THE PACIFIC COAST.

One of the chief points of sailing of the great East Indian trading galleons of Spain.

From a seventeenth-century engraving.]

There is only one instance, I believe, of a white man having gained the complete confidence of the Araucanians, and this did not occur until a century after the two races had first come into contact with each other.  It is said that in 1642—­thirty-nine years after the town of Valdivia had been captured from the Spaniards and destroyed—­Colonel Alonzo de Villanueva, who had been sent to the south with the object of regaining possession of the city, effected this without bloodshed by the employment of an extraordinary amount of tact and patience.  He landed at a point a little to the south of Valdivia, and boldly made his appearance quite alone among the astonished warriors.  He remained with them for two years, when, having won their respect and confidence, he proposed that they should appoint him their Governor at Valdivia, explaining that by this move they would effect a reconciliation with the Spaniards, and, in consequence, obtain many material benefits.  The Araucanians readily fell in with the idea, and in 1645 Valdivia was rebuilt, and was again populated.  Undoubtedly in the middle of the seventeenth century time was of very little value in Chile, and in any case it would seem that to effect so brilliant a result at so little cost was worth the two years’ wait!

In 1577 Sir Francis Drake made his appearance in the Pacific, and was the pioneer of the adventurers who were to follow in the wake of his keel.  Thus new anxieties were added to the minds of the Chilean officials, although it must be said that the colonists, when they once became accustomed to the visits of these foreigners, gave them an increasingly friendly reception, notwithstanding the hostility evinced towards them by the Spaniards.  It was not long before this new and grim type of visitor increased in numbers and grew cosmopolitan.

The Dutch, always on the look out for a weapon with which to flog their enemies the Spaniards, had managed to glean intelligence of the successful warfare which the Araucanians in Southern Chile were waging against the Spanish troops.  When the news of the separation of Portugal from Spain reached Holland, the position of that country’s forces in Brazil became automatically somewhat unsettled—­at all events in theory, and finally in practice.  It was then that the idea occurred to them to establish settlements in equally fertile and less tropical climates.