As to the Araucanians
themselves, their indomitable nature absolutely forbade an existence
under such conditions.
It was not only with the aborigines of their new country that the
Spanish settlers in Chile had to contend. Nature had in store for them a
species of catastrophe which was admirably adapted to test their
fortitude to an even greater degree. Thus in 1570 the newly-founded city
of Concepcion was brought to the ground by an earthquake, and some
eighty years later the larger centre of Santiago became a heap of
smoking ruins from the same cause. Indeed, throughout the history of
both the colonial and independent eras Chile has been from time to time
visited by such terrible calamities as these. In every instance,
however, the disaster has left the inhabitants undismayed, and new and
larger towns have risen upon the sites of the old.
Chile, probably owing to the comparatively limited area of its soil, was
never raised to the rank of a Viceroyalty; nevertheless the Governorship
of the province was, of course, one of the most important on the
Continent. 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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