dissatisfied with the conduct of their officers, the besieged soon
determined upon evacuating the place; and the Araucanians allowed them
to march off unmolested, according to their usual policy. Guanoalca
immediately marched against another fort which the Spaniards had
recently erected in the neighbourhood of Mount Mariguenu; but finding
that it had been recently and considerably reinforced, he proceeded
against the forts of Trinidad and Spiritu Santo on the banks of the
Biobio. As the governor of Chili was apprehensive that he might not be
able to defend these forts, or perhaps considered them of too little
importance to hazard the safety of their garrisons, he evacuated them
in 1589, and transferred their garrisons to another fortress which he
directed to be constructed on the river Puchanqui as a protection for
the city of Angol, so that the operations of the war consisted mostly in
the construction and demolition of fortifications.

The toquiate of Guanoalca was more remarkable for the exploits of a
heroine named Janequeo than by his own. This famous woman was wife of
Guepotan, a valiant officer who had long defended the fortified post of
Liben near Villarica. After the loss of that important place he retired
to the Andes, where he used every effort to stimulate the Puelches
inhabiting that mountainous region to rise in defence of the country
against the Spanish invaders. Being desirous of having his wife along
with him, he descended into the plains in search of her, but was
surprised by a party of Spaniards, and preferring to be cut in pieces
rather than yield himself a prisoner, he was slain in the unequal
combat. Janequeo, inflamed by an ardent desire to revenge the death of
her husband, put herself at the head of an army of Puelches in 1590,
assisted by Guechiuntereo her brother, with which she made inroads into
the Spanish settlements, killing all of that nation who fell into her
hands. Reinforced by a regiment of veteran soldiers which had been sent
him from Peru, the governor Don Alonza Sotomayor, marched against the
heroine; but, by constantly occupying the high grounds, attacking
sometimes the van, sometimes the rear of the Spaniards, and harassing
them in every possible way, she at last obliged the governor to retire,
after having lost much time and a considerable number of men to no
purpose. As the governor was of opinion that rigorous measures were best
calculated to quell the pride of the Araucanians, h