That fine old
_conquistador_ was now worn out in body and a wreck of his former self.
The furious combats with the Araucanians broke out afresh, and continued
unabated. A series of disasters shattered the spirit of Villagran, and
sent him to his grave. Following this came the usual succession of
Governors, and the unbroken continuance of the Indian wars, victory
and disaster alternately succeeding each other to an extent which would
prove monotonous if an attempt at description were made.
[Illustration: ACAPULCO, ON THE PACIFIC COAST.
One of the chief points of sailing of the great East Indian trading
galleons of Spain.
_From a seventeenth-century engraving._]
There is only one instance, I believe, of a white man having gained the
complete confidence of the Araucanians, and this did not occur until a
century after the two races had first come into contact with each other.
It is said that in 1642--thirty-nine years after the town of Valdivia
had been captured from the Spaniards and destroyed--Colonel Alonzo de
Villanueva, who had been sent to the south with the object of regaining
possession of the city, effected this without bloodshed by the
employment of an extraordinary amount of tact and patience.
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