ntinued till the governor Ramon sent orders for the
garrison to evacuate the place. The Spanish army was now divided into
two separate bodies, one under the command of Alvaro Pineda the
quarter-master of Chili, and the other under the orders of Don Diego
Saravia, who proceeded to lay waste the Araucanian territory without
mercy. Watching his opportunity however, Huenecura attacked and defeated
them in succession, and with such complete success that not even a
single person of either detachment escaped death or captivity. By these
unexpected misfortunes, that fine army on which such flattering hopes of
security at least, if not conquest, had been founded, was entirely
annihilated. In consequence of these repeated and heavy disasters,
orders were given by the court of Spain, that a body of two thousand
regular troops should be continually maintained on the Araucanian
frontier; for the support of which force, an annual appropriation of
292,279 dollars was made from the royal treasury of Peru. At the same
time the court of royal audience was re-established in the city of St
Jago on the 8th of September 1609, after having been thirty-four years
suppressed. This measure gave universal satisfaction to the inhabitants,
and the court has continued there ever since with high reputation for
justice and integrity.

By this new regulation, Ramon added the title of president to those of
governor and captain-general of Chili. Having received considerable
reinforcements, to replace the army so lately destroyed, Ramon ventured
to recross the Biobio at the head of about two thousand men. Huenecura
advanced to meet him, and a sanguinary and obstinate battle took place
in the defiles of the marshes of Lumaco. The Spaniards were for some
time in imminent danger of being completely defeated; but the valiant
governor, taking his station in the front line, so animated his soldiers
by his presence and example that they at length succeeded in breaking
and defeating the enemy. Shortly after this victory, Ramon died in the
city of Conception, on the 10th of August 1610, universally regretted by
the Spanish inhabitants of Chili, to whom he was much endeared by his
excellent qualities and his long residence among them. He was even
highly esteemed by the Araucanians, whom he had always treated, when
prisoners, with a humane attention which did him much honour. According
to the royal decree for establishing the court of audience, the
government of Chi