United States or Indonesia ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Valdivia went on founding cities until he had seven in all, and gave himself the proud title of the Marquis of Arauco, fancying that he was lord and master of the Araucanians. He was too hasty; Arauco was not yet his. A new state of affairs began when the Araucanians, disgusted with the timid policy of their leader, chose a bolder man, named Caupolican, as their toqui, or head chief.
A priest, who had been employed to converse with Caupolican, pretending to have converted him to the Christian faith, hastily administered the sacrament of baptism; after which the prisoner was conducted to the scaffold erected for his public execution.
Lantaro, the boy hero, had the blood of chiefs in his veins, and was endowed by nature with beauty of person, nobleness of character, and intrepidity of soul. His people honored him highly in the festival with which they celebrated their victory, and Caupolican appointed him his special lieutenant, raising him to a rank in the army nearly equal to his own. There was fighting still to be done.
The same uncertainty is to be found respecting the number of the enemy, some estimating them at nine and others at ten thousand men . On approaching the encampment of Caupolican, Valdivia sent forwards a detachment of ten horsemen under Diego del Oro to reconnoitre, all of whom were slain by the enemy, and their heads cut off and hung upon trees by the way in which the Spanish army had to advance.
After many fierce battles, in the course of which fortune ebbed either way, Mendoza succeeded in capturing Caupolicán, who was tortured to death, an episode which caused a short lull in the fevered activities of the Spanish forces. In 1560 Mendoza was abruptly ordered by King Philip II. of Spain to surrender his post as Governor to Francisco Villagran.
Naturally of a compassionate disposition, and desirous of obliging Lautaro to whom he owed this important victory, and who now interceded for Valdivia, Caupolican was disposed to have shewn mercy to his vanquished foe; but while deliberating on the subject, an old ulmen of great authority among the Araucanians, indignant at the idea of sparing the life of their most dangerous enemy, dispatched the prisoner with a blow of his war club, saying that it would be madness to trust the promises of an ambitious enemy, who would laugh at his oaths when once he escaped the present danger.
Continuation of the Araucanian War, after the Death of Caupolican, to the Reduction of the Archipelago of Chiloé by the Spaniards. The prediction of the great and unfortunate Caupolican was soon fulfilled, by the succession of new heroes to defend the liberties of the Araucanians against the Spaniards.
The detachment returned to Canete with their prisoner, amidst the rejoicings of the inhabitants, and Reynoso immediately ordered the redoubted toqui to be impaled and shot to death with arrows. On hearing his sentence, Caupolican addressed Reynoso as follows, without the smallest change of countenance, and preserving all his wonted dignity.
At length, after losing a vast number of their men, the Araucanians were thrown into disorder and began to give way; and in spite of every effort of Caupolican, Tucapel, and even of the aged and intrepid Colocolo, to reanimate their courage and rally their disordered ranks, they took to flight.
But Valdivia insisted on advancing, and on the 3d of December, 1553, the two armies came in sight of each other at Tucapel. Valdivia soon found that he had no ordinary Indians to deal with. These were not of the kind that could be dispersed by a squadron of cavalry. A fierce charge was made on his left wing, which was cut to pieces by the daring warriors of Caupolican.
Word Of The Day