¿Quien hay, Señora, que valerse quiera De vuestro santo nombre, que no alcance Con lágrimas orando al primer lance Lo que imposible al tiempo pareciera? ¿Quién hay que en vuestras manos se pusiera, Virgen sagrada, en peligroso trance, Que en el mayor trabajo no descanse, Y su esperanza fin dichoso adquiera? Bien manifiesto está en mi larga suerte, Pues que entre tantos bárbaros contrastes Quisistéis libertarme de la muerte. Gracias os doy ya fuera de debates, Estimando el favor, y si se advierte, Jamás imaginado entre rescates. LAUS DEO. III [Sidenote: Torres on Sotomayor] [Sidenote: Torres’ career] [Sidenote: Soldiers from Lima to Chile] When Caro de Torres undertook to write his _Relación de los servicios de Don Alonso de Sotomayor_, he had the advantage of a full knowledge of his subject. He had long stood in intimate friendly relations with the governor, and their similarity of inclinations and tastes had established between them bonds of respect and sympathy. Torres was born in Seville about the middle of the sixteenth century. His early studies were made in his native city, whence he passed to the University of Salamanca. From the university, which he left prematurely owing to a quarrel with other students, he entered the army, served in Italy under the Marqués de Santa Cruz, and in 1583 under the same leader played a gallant part in the campaign of the Azores. Two years later he was in Seville, where Viceroy Torres was preparing to depart to assume the duties of his office in Peru. Caro de Torres’ adventurous spirit induced him to join the expedition. He arrived at Lima on the 30th of November, 1586. During the period of his military service he found time to acquire knowledge of Spain’s colonial enterprise in the Indies. The next year Thomas Cavendish appeared in the Pacific, and Caro de Torres was a member of the expedition that was sent against him. A few months later commissioners from Alonso de Sotomayor, the governor of Chile, arrived in Lima, requesting reinforcements for the defence of the Chilean coast and for proposed campaigns against the Araucanians. Responding to this request, the viceroy sent two companies of five hundred soldiers each, under Luis de Carvajal and Fernando de Córdova. Caro de Torres, with the rank of captain, was the second in command of one of these companies, and during this campaign began the long continued friendship between him and the governor Sotomayor. But shortly after this the soldier of many adventures entered the order of St. Augustine. The success of Sotomayor’s military enterprises secured his appointment to the post of governor, captain-general, and president of the royal audiencia of Panama, where he was associated with Caro de Torres, and this association was maintained after Sotomayor returned to Spain. When Sotomayor was about to die he charged his friend with the duty of watching over the interests