It cannot then be contested but that Baldivia must have surrendered on the appearance of our squadron: after which, it may be presumed, that the Arraucos, the Pulches, and Penguinches, inhabiting the banks of the river Imperial, about twenty-five leagues to the northward of this place, would have immediately taken up arms, being disposed thereto, as hath been already related, and encouraged by the arrival of so considerable a force in their neighbourhood. As these Indians can bring into the field near thirty thousand men, the greatest part of them horse, their first step would have been the invading the province of Chili, which they would have found totally unprovided both of ammunition and weapons; and as its inhabitants are a luxurious and effeminate race, they would have been incapable, on such an emergency, of giving any opposition to this rugged enemy: so that it is no strained conjecture to imagine that the Indians would have been soon masters of the whole country. Moreover, the other Indians, on the frontiers of Peru, being equally disposed with the Arraucos to shake off the Spanish yoke, it is highly probable that they likewise would have embraced this favourable occasion, and that a general insurrection would have taken place through all the Spanish territories of South America; in which case, the only resource left to the Creolians (dissatisfied as they were with the Spanish government) would have been to have made the best terms they could with their Indian neighbours, and to have withdrawn themselves from the obedience of a master who had shown so little regard to their security. This last supposition may perhaps appear chimerical to those who measure the possibility of all events by the scanty standard of their own experience; but the temper of the times, and the strong dislike of the natives to the measures then pursued by the Spanish court, sufficiently evince at least its possibility. However, not to insist on the presumption of a general revolt, it is sufficient for our purpose to conclude that the Arraucos would scarcely have failed of taking arms on our appearance: since this alone would so far have terrified the enemy that they would no longer have employed their thoughts on the means of opposing us, but {263} would have turned all their care to the Indian affairs; as they still remember, with the utmost horror, the sacking of their cities, the rifling of their convents, the captivity of their wives and daughters, and the desolation of their country by these resolute savages in the last war between the two nations. For it must be observed that the Chilian Indians have been frequently successful against the Spaniards, and possess at this time a large tract of country which was formerly full of Spanish towns and villages, whose inhabitants were all either destroyed or carried into captivity by the Arraucos and the other neighbouring Indians, who in a war against the Spaniards never fail to join their forces.