In 1612 he was elected an alcalde in the municipal council of Santiago, and later, enjoying the confidence of Governor Ribera, he was entrusted with various public commissions. In March of the same year, 1612, a new policy respecting the Indians was proclaimed. It provided that the government should adopt a plan of defence, instead of continuing campaigns for invading Araucanian territory, and the river Biobio should be the boundary line between the territory of the Spaniards and that of the Indians. The Spaniards were to maintain their forces armed and equipped, but they were to be used only for defensive operations. Águila, now an encomendero at Santiago, was the most vigorous opponent of this policy; and the Jesuit Valdivia, the most prominent advocate of it, complained of Águila’s opposition in his memorial to the king. In the years subsequent to his military activity there is little known of the events of Águila’s life, but, after forty years in Chile, he published in 1630 at Lima his _Compendio historial del descubrimiento, conquista y guerra del reino de Chile_. V [Sidenote: Alonso de Ovalle] [Sidenote: Ovalle becomes a Jesuit] Alonso de Ovalle became more widely known than most of the early colonial historians, partly from the fact that his _Histórica relación del reino de Chile_ was one of the first Chilean books of which translations were published in Europe. The author was a son of Francisco Rodríguez del Manzano de Ovalle, who was the holder of an entailed estate in Salamanca, and who went to Chile in command of certain troops that had been equipped at Lisbon. On this expedition he was accompanied by his cousin, Diego Valdez de la Vanda, who had been appointed governor of Buenos Aires. In Santiago Rodríguez del Manzano de Ovalle married María Pastene, a daughter of Juan Bautista Pastene, recognized for his services under Valdivia. Two sons of this marriage, Alonso and Jerónimo, born in the beginning of the seventeenth century, received instruction in the Jesuits’ school. By reason of their wealth as compared with the majority of Santiago’s primitive society they were conspicuous figures in the town. They were noteworthy for their fine horses with rich trappings, their ostentatious dress and the richness of their jewelry. The gentleness and docility of Alonso, his inclination to religious reflection and his wealth naturally suggested to his Jesuit instructors the desirability of attracting him to enter the order. Their zeal in this matter was stimulated by the knowledge that Alonso’s father was making arrangements to send him to Spain to take possession of the estate in Salamanca. The necessary steps for his initiation were hastily taken, and without the knowledge of his parents he took the vows and assumed the obligations of the Jesuits. [Sidenote: Ovalle as missionary and professor]