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As Villagran considered it to be impossible to defend the city under the present dismay of his small remaining force, he hastily embarked all the old men, women, and children on board two ships that happened to be then in the harbour, one of which he ordered to proceed to Imperial, and the other to Valparaiso, while he proceeded by land for St Jago with all the rest of the inhabitants who were able to carry arms.
He prided himself on having so successfully opposed all the Spanish governors of Chili, from the elder Villagran to Rivera, that the enemy had never been able to acquire a footing in his province, though near the city of Imperial.
Valdivia sailed therefore with Pastene for Peru, taking with him a great quantity of gold, and left Francisco Villagran in charge of the government of Chili during his absence. Valdivia accordingly arrived in Peru, where he offered his services to the president De la Gasca, and acted with great reputation as quarter-master-general of his army in the war against Gonzalo Pizarro.
The engagement was renewed at this place with the utmost fury, and not a man of the broken army would have escaped, had not Villagran opened the pass at the utmost hazard of his life.
Villagran, perceiving his opportunity, fell upon the demoralized native army, and defeated them utterly with great slaughter. Lautaro himself, the flower of the Araucanian warriors, perished in the ensuing struggle. Villagran had thoroughly deserved this success, which had crowned one of the most exhausting periods of the terrific struggle.
Although convinced of the inutility of this measure in the present conjuncture, Villagran, in obedience to the orders, proceeded immediately to that place with eighty-five families, whom he established there, and erected a strong fortification for their defence.
Mendoza possessed many good points; at the same time, he had to a full degree many of the faults which characterized so great a number of the Spanish noblemen of the period. Thus, he was unduly arrogant and autocratic towards his comrades of inferior rank, flinging Villagran into prison on his first arrival in the country as the result of little beyond a whim.
It may be here mentioned that the province of Maquegua was partitioned anew among the conquerors after the death of Villagran; the principal part of it being assigned to Juan de Ocampo, and another large share to Andreas Matencio. But, in consequence of its recapture by the Araucanians, they reaped very little advantage from their commanderies.
Villagran, who was at this time unable to take the field in consequence of illness, sent his son Pedro against Lautaro with such troops as could be procured, and immediately proceeded to fortify all the approaches to the city of St Jago with strong entrenchments. In the mean time, young Villagran attacked the Araucanians in their fortified post.
After the death of Valdivia on the field of battle, Francisco Villagran was elected as chief of the new colony. At the period when he assumed command there had come about one of the most severe of the many crises through which the young colony was destined to pass.
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