When the father learned of the son’s act, he used every means to induce Alonso to withdraw from the order, and to persuade the provincial, Pedro de Oñate, to surrender him, but all without any result that was satisfactory to the family. The Jesuit authorities, moreover, in order to avoid any attempt that might be made to rescue the novice, determined to send him to Córdoba, in the province of Tucumán. This project came to the knowledge of Alonso’s relatives, who proposed to kidnap him on the journey over the Andes. But the Jesuits and their charges completely eluded the armed men sent to the mountain pass to intercept them. At Córdoba Alonso continued his studies, and at the end of his novitiate he was ordered to return to Santiago. Soon after his arrival in Chile he was ordained priest, and entered with zeal upon the work of his ministry. He undertook the moral and religious instruction of the negroes, and on Sundays preached in the public square of the town. He also went as a missionary to the Indians in various parts of Chile, and had unrealized projects of more extensive work, when the authorities of his order directed him to take up the duties of a professor of philosophy. A little later he was appointed rector of the Seminario at Santiago. [Sidenote: Ovalle in Rome] [Sidenote: _Relación de las paces_] [Sidenote: _Histórica relación_] His reputation for learning and religious devotion increased, and when a few years later it became necessary to treat with the general of the Society concerning questions relating to the vice-province of Chile, the members of the order in Chile resolved unanimously to send Alonso de Ovalle to Rome. He undertook the journey by way of Lima and Panama. At Lima he found that his reputation as a preacher and an orator had preceded him, and the people pressed with gratification to hear him. His presence later in Rome awakened a desire, even in the higher classes, to see him and to listen to his preaching. Towards the propositions of the Chilean Jesuits the general assumed a favourable attitude, and the business of the mission was accomplished without opposition. From Italy Ovalle went to Madrid, where he was received by the monarch. While in Spain he published two minor productions. One of these was called _Relación de las paces_, which was later embodied in his history of Chile. Another was _Memorial y carta_, designed to attract priests to the missionary field of Chile. A serious difficulty encountered in this enterprise was the profound ignorance that prevailed in all classes in Spain concerning Chile. At this time, eighty or ninety years after the settlement of the colony, Chile occupied an insignificant place in Spanish affairs; there were great patches of the population where even the name of Chile was unknown. It may, perhaps, be assumed that the _Histórica relación_ was written to abate this ignorance. The manuscript was submitted for publication on the occasion of Ovalle’s second visit to Rome.