According to some of the older historians, it was by this method that
Valdivia's forces were overcome on the occasion when the entire Spanish
army, including its brave leader, was massacred.

The other famous chief, Lautaro, received his baptism of spears and of
fire under the leadership of Caupolican. Lautaro was probably the
greatest scourge from which the Spaniards in Chile ever suffered. Twice
he demolished the town of Concepcion, and once he pursued their
retreating forces as far as Santiago itself. In an engagement on the
outskirts of this city the victorious chief was killed, and after his
death a certain amount of the triumphant spirit of the Indians deserted
them. But only for a while. The indomitable spirit of the race awoke
afresh, and asserted itself with renewed ardour in the course of the
next series of the interminable struggles.

Compared with all this, the sun-bathed peaks of the centre and of the
north breathed dreams and soft romance. Naturally the temperament of the
inhabitants had tuned themselves to fit in with this. The few savage
customs which had intruded themselves among the quaint rites and
mysticism of these peoples had failed to inculcate a genuine warlike
ardour or lust for blood. Their dreamily brooding natures revolted
against the strain of prolonged strife. What measure of violent
resistance was to be expected from the dwellers on the shores of Lake
Guatavita?

The Lake of Guatavita had been a sacred water of the Indians of Colombia
before the advent of the Spaniards. It was on this peaceful sheet that
the cacique and his chiefs were rowed out in canoes while the people
clustered in their thousands about the mountainous sides of the lake.

When the canoes had arrived at the centre of the lake the chiefs were
accustomed to anoint the cacique, and to powder him with a great
profusion of gold-dust. Then came the moment for the supreme ceremony.
The multitude turned their backs on the lake, and the cacique dived from
the canoe and plunged into its waters; at the same time the people threw
over their shoulders their offerings of gold and precious stones, which
fell with a splash into the waters.

The lake was further enriched after the arrival of the _conquistadores_,
when the natives, tortured and ill-treated in order that gold should be
wrung from them, conceived such a hatred of the metal that they threw
all they had wholesale into the sacred waters. It is said that some
Indians, go