Page:A history of Chile.djvu/99

THE COLONIAL PERIOD 87 guenu, and fortified himself upon its redoubtable sum- mit. This inaccessible mountain, which had been the retreat of the Araucanians for half a century, had always enabled them to hold out against the Spaniards. The governor marched against Quintuguenu at the head of one thousand Spaniards and a large following of aux- iliary troops. To oppose these, Quintuguenu had two thousand men posted upon the mountain. Half way up the height the Spaniards were attacked with such fury that the governor with great difficulty succeeded in preventing a rout ; passing among his men, he urged them forward until they gained the lost ground on the top of the mountain. The Araucanians fought like wolves at bay, but notwithstanding their valor were cut in pieces. Quintuguenu fell, bleeding from three wounds, while those of his troops who were not killed in the engagement betook themselves to headlong flight down the precipitous sides of the mountain. Among the Spanish Indian auxiliaries the slaughter had been so terrible that the greater part of them were left dead upon the field. Of the Spaniards, about twenty were killed. This victory, the first obtained by the Spaniards at the ill-omened Mariguenu, was celebrated by general rejoicings, by discharges of artillery, and by broad- sides from the Peruvian fleet, which, sailing down the cost after the English, chanced at this time to be in the harbor. Taking advantage of the enthusiasm aroused by this victory, the governor sent to Peru by the fleet to obtain reinforcements, intending to prose- cute to a successful issue the war which had now raged so many years with only occasional periods of peace. Sotomayor next abandoned the fort of Arauco, and reestablished it upon the coast, where it could