Lautaro, Hero of the Mapuche
The story of the young warrior Lautaro, who led a brief but highly effective resistance to Spanish colonization in Chile.
[Lautaro was a young military leader of the Mapuche people during the Spanish conquest of Chile. He spent his youth as a captured servant of the Spanish forces before returning to play a major role in indigenous resistance to their colonization. This story begins in the wake of the Battle of Tucapel, where Lautaro led the Mapuche to a decisive victory over the Spanish. The famous conquistador and royal governor of Chile, Pedro de Valdivia, was killed in the battle.]
From A History of Chile by Anson Uriel Hancock, 1893.
Lautaro, the young hero of the battle of Tucapel [in 1553], was accorded high honors in the great festival which followed the victory. Caupolican appointed him his special lieutenant, and invested him with authority in the army nearly equal to his own. By birth, the young man was of the Indian gentry, and, beside this advantage, was endowed by nature with nobleness of character, beauty and affability.
Another campaign was projected. The veteran Colocolo, the Ulysses of the Araucanians, was of the opinion that all the Spanish posts ought at once to be destroyed. Tucapel, on the other hand, argued that they should first go to Santiago and strike an effective blow while the Spaniards were in their present state of dismay. Caupolican, as usual, adopted Colocolo's advice.
The Spaniards in Ancol and Puren, as well as those of Villarica, hearing of the disaster which had befallen their hitherto invincible arms, retired to the towns of Imperial and Valdivia. In those cities Caupolican determined to besiege them. Lautaro was thereupon given in charge the defence of the country about the Biobio, and, immediately assuming the hazardous task, fortified himself on the precipitous mountain of Mariguenu, one of the strongest natural defences in the south.
About this time, Lincoyan fell upon a party of fourteen Spanish horsemen on their way from Imperial to Tucapel and so destructive was the slaughter that but seven of the cavaliers made their escape. Tidings of these reverses, reached Concepcion, as well as the two Promaucians who had escaped from the battle of Tucapel, and, as we may suppose, filled the hearts of the inhabitants with terror, stout hearted Spaniards though they were. Valdivia having been slain, the secret instructions which he had left were opened by the magistrates. He had signified that, in the event of his death, the successors in the government of Chile should be Alderete, Aguirre and Villagran. Alderete, as we have seen, was at this time in Europe; Aguirre was conquering the province of Cujo on the other side of the mountains; Villagran alone, therefore, was prepared to assume the reins of government.
Making careful preparations, Villagran crossed the Biobio with a small Spanish army and a body of Indian auxiliaries and began a march against the Araucanians. In a narrow pass at the Mariguenu mountain, a strong force of Lautaro's men fell upon him and gave him three hours of hard fighting, at the end of which time the Indians withdrew to the mountain, where Lautaro commanded in person behind a strong palisade. A body of Spanish horsemen undertook to force a passage up the side of the steep mountain, but were met near the summit with such a shower of missiles that Villagran ordered the musketeers and artillerymen to advance to their support.
Lautaro had dispatched a body of his warriors to surround the Spaniards, but Villagran advancing prevented this manoeuvre from being successfully carried out. Perceiving now that his main losses came from the cannonading, Lautaro ordered Leucoton to capture the guns, bidding him not to dare to show his face until the order was executed. Leucoton with his company thereupon fell so furiously upon the artillerymen that they were driven back and the cannon captured. Lautaro followed up this advantage by a vigorous attack in front, which threw the Spaniards into confusion and soon put them to flight. Of Spanish soldiers and auxiliaries, three thousand lay dead upon the field. Villagran himself was barely saved by the almost superhuman efforts of three of his soldiers, who picked him up wounded and put him upon his horse.
It was necessary for the Spaniards in their flight to repass the narrow defile where the battle had begun. This the cunning Lautaro had ordered obstructed by means of felled trees. There was a furious combat before the few remaining Spaniards could make their escape. The Araucanians pursued them to the river Biobio; but fatigued as the Indians were, having sustained a loss of about seven hundred men, Lautaro halted to give his troops time for rest with the intention of crossing the river the following day. The fugitives made their way to Concepcion, where Villagran hurriedly put the old men and women aboard ships and sent them to Imperial and Valparaiso.
The remaining inhabitants started by land for Santiago, leaving their property behind them, so that when Lautaro entered the deserted city he found there much rich booty. The place was razed; after which the young hero returned to Arauco to receive the plaudits of his nation.
Caupolican was in the meantime slowly besieging Imperial and Valdivia. Villagran sent forward reinforcements, whereupon the Araucanian general raised the siege and joined his forces with those of Lautaro. He afterward remained for some time in his encampment, in fact until the time when Villagran, obeying a behest of the court of the Royal Audience of Lima, undertook to rebuild Concepcion, and had proceeded thither with eighty-five families for that purpose. The surrounding tribes again called upon the Araucanians for assistance and Caupolican sent forward two thousand men under Lautaro, who met the Spaniards drawn up in battle array on an open plain, defeated them, drove them back into Concepcion and followed them precipitately into the fortress through the open gates. The inhabitants fled to the woods and to the ships in the harbor, and escaping, made their way back to Santiago. The Indians again burned the city and carried off much booty.
About this time, perhaps a little while before, small-pox broke out among the Indians and nearly depopulated several districts. Since that time the Araucanians have used the utmost vigilance in protecting themselves against this dread disease, by rigorous methods of quarantining and by stamping out the plague upon its first appearance.
About this time, too, Francisco Aguirre came over the mountains with sixty of his followers, determined to place himself at the head of the government. He and Villagran agreed to submit their claims to the Royal Audience of Lima, with the final result that Villagran was directed to take charge of the government until further orders, and to rebuild Concepcion; the latter he attempted with such result as we have already described.
Stimulated by Lautaro's success at Concepcion, Caupolican determined to begin again the sieges of Imperial and Valdivia; Lautaro, in the meantime being required to march against Santiago to create a division of the Spanish forces. The young chief thereupon selected six hundred men, traversed the provinces lying between the Biobio and Maule rivers, and then fell upon the country of the Promaucians, the Spanish allies, which he laid waste. Fortifying himself on the banks of the Rio Claro, he sent out spies and awaited information of the state of affairs at Santiago. In the latter place, preparations for defense were actively begun. Juan Godinez with a body of horsemen was sent forward into the Promaucian country to gain information of the whereabouts of the much dreaded enemy. He was attacked by a party of the Araucanians, by whom his little force was severely handled. Those escaping fled to Santiago, and the city was soon in consternation over the news.
Villagran was ill at the time, and therefore placed his son, Pedro, in command of a body of troops, with which he ordered him to march against Lautaro; the approaches to the city he directed to be hurriedly fortified. Young Lautaro had not come three hundred miles into the enemy's country to be defeated by young Pedro; being attacked by the latter in his intrenchments on the banks of the Rio Claro, he feigned a retreat and thus drew the Spaniards into the enclosure. No sooner were they inside than the Araucanians fell upon them, furiously slaughtering all of them, with the exception of the cavalrymen, who were able to effect an escape.
Pedro received reinforcements and three times attacked Lautaro, but was each time repulsed. Thereupon he withdrew his forces to a meadow. Lautaro took up a position on a neighboring mountain, and there formed the plan of turning at night the waters of a branch of the Mataquito upon Pedro's camp. The encampment might have been flooded, had the young commander not been informed by a spy in time to retire to Santiago and thus escape the disaster.
Villagran, having recovered from his sickness, marched against Lautaro with a little army consisting of 196 Spaniards and 1000 Indian auxiliaries. To effect a surprise of the Araucanian intrenchments, a secret route was taken by the seashore. At break of day Lautaro was aroused by his sentinels, and going to the side of the fortification to look at the approaching enemy, was pierced by a dart, fired by one of the Indian auxiliaries, and fell dead in the arms of his companions.
A fierce combat ensued, in which the Araucanians fought like wild beasts until all of them had been slain. The Spaniards lost heavily, but returned victorious to the capital, where for three days the fall of Lautaro was celebrated. And well they might celebrate his fall, for this young man at the age of nineteen was a veritable young Hannibal. The "Chilean Hannibal" he has been not unworthily called.
Caupolican, learning of the death of Lautaro and the defeat of the troops sent against Santiago, at once abandoned the siege of Imperial, which was opportune for the besieged, as they were reduced to extremities.
Hancock, Anson Uriel. A History of Chile. C.H. Sergel, 1893.
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