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The whole bay affords safe anchorage, and a port at its south-east extremity called Talcaguano is chiefly frequented by shipping, as being not far from the new city of Conception. Huilquilemu, commonly called Estanzia del Rei, or the royal possession, has Chillan on the north, the Andes on the east, the river Biobio on the south, and Puchacay on the west.
The toqui then crossed the Biobio and made an attempt upon the fort of Quinel, which was occupied by six hundred men; but failing also in this enterprise, he made an inroad into the province of Chillan, whence he brought off a great number of peasants and cattle, in spite of the exertions of the serjeant-major to stop his rapid march.
While these events were passing on the banks of the Biobio, an Araucanian officer named Lillemu, who had been detached by Antiguenu to lay waste the provinces of Chillan and Itata, defeated a Spanish detachment of eighty men commanded by Pedro Balsa.
Maule, the next province to the south, is bounded on the east by the Andes, on the south-east by Chillan, on the south-west by Itata, and on the west by the Pacific.
Its chief town named Coulemu, or Nombre de Jesus, stands on the Rio Jesus, in lat. 35° 58' S. long. 72° 38' W. and was founded in 1743.. Chillan, bounded on the north, by Maule, by the Andes on the east, on the south by Huilquilemu, and by Itata on the west, is entirety an inland province, about the same size with Itata. Its rivers are the Nuble, Cato, Chillan, Diguillin, and Dannicalquin.
In order to attack the Araucanians in several places at once, the governor formed an alliance with the Pehuenches, who inhabit the western slopes of the Andes between the latitudes of 33° 30' and 36° S. and between the heads of the rivers Maypo and Chillan.
This victory was followed by the capture of the fortresses of Arauco, Colcura, San Pedro, Talcamavida, and San Rosendo. In 1656, the toqui crossed the Biobio, completely defeated the governor Acugna in the plains of Yumbel, destroyed the forts of San Christoval and Estancia del Rey, and burned the city of Chillan.
Paillamachu had even the boldness to cross the Biobio, burned the cities of Conception and Chillan, laid waste the provinces under their dependence, and returned into Araucania loaded with spoil.
Valdivia, encouraged by this success to new enterprises, ordered a carrack or ship of some considerable size to be built at the mouth of the river Chillan, which traverses the valley of Quillota, for the purpose of more readily obtaining succours from Peru, without which he was fully sensible he could not possibly succeed in the vast enterprise he had in view, which was no less than to accomplish the entire reduction of Chili.
The most frequented of these roads is that which leads from the province of Aconcagua in Chili to Cujo, running along the deep ravines of the rivers Chillan and Mendoza, bordered on one side by deep precipices overhanging these rivers, and on the other by lofty and almost perpendicular mountains.
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