auquenes_ and _Peneos_ as their allies.--E.]

Although the Promaucians had sustained a heavy loss in this battle, they
courageously encamped within sight of the Spaniards, determined to renew
the fight next morning. Though the Spaniards had kept possession of the
field, and considered themselves victorious according to the customs of
Europe, they were very differently inclined from their valiant enemies.
Hitherto they had been accustomed to subdue extensive provinces with
little or no resistance, and became disgusted with an enterprise which
could not be accomplished without much fatigue and danger, and the loss
of much blood, having to contend against a bold and independent nation,
by whom they were not considered as immortal or as a superior order of
beings. It was therefore resolved by common consent to abandon the
present expedition, yet they differed materially as to the conduct of
their retreat; some being desirous to return into Peru entirely, while
others wished to form a settlement in the northern provinces of Chili,
where they had already received so much hospitality, and had acquired
considerable riches. The first opinion was supported by Almagro, now
strongly impressed by the suggestions of his friends in Peru to take
possession of Cuzco. He represented to his soldiers the dangers to which
a settlement would be exposed in so warlike a country, and persuaded
them to follow him to Cuzco, where he expected to be able to establish
his authority either by persuasion or force, pursuant to his royal
patent.

Having determined to return into Peru, and having fatally experienced
the dangers of the mountain road, Almagro resolved to march by the
desert of Atacama in the maritime plain, by which he conducted his
troops into Peru with very little loss in 1538. He took possession of
Cuzco by surprise; and, after ineffectual negociations, he fought a
battle with the brother of Pizarro, by whom he was taken prisoner, and
beheaded as a disturber of the public peace. Such was the fate of the
first expedition of the Spaniards against Chili, undertaken by the best
body of European troops that had hitherto been collected in those
distant regions. The thirst of riches was the moving spring of this
expedition, and the disappointment of their hopes the cause of its
abandonment.

SECTION V.

_Second Expedition into Chili, under Pedro de Valdivia, to the
commencement of the War between the Spaniards and Araucanians_.

Havi