The policy of the European inhabitants of Chile respecting the Indians, before the end of the sixteenth century, was simply to subdue them. With the beginning of the seventeenth century it became necessary to review this policy. The Indians had not been conquered; in fact, many of the towns and military posts established by the Spaniards had been swept away; the settlers had either fled or been destroyed; and whatever property they had accumulated had been lost. Two main questions had to be considered: should the Spaniards persist in the war for conquest? and what should be the treatment of the Indians captured or under Spanish domination? The encomenderos were in favour of holding them as slaves, but another party advocated a more humane policy and the adoption of an attitude of military defence. Opinions and discussions on these questions determined the political atmosphere of Chile in the first half of the seventeenth century. There were formed certain definite propositions: that the Indians should be released from personal servitude, or slavery, but that the existing relation should be maintained for two years, a period to be used in collecting voluntary labourers; that during this period all work in the mines should be suspended, and there should be paid to the Indians elsewhere engaged a daily wage, fixed beforehand, for their labour; that a new rule respecting tribute should be published; that the Indian prisoners held as slaves should be liberated, but that the three hundred held in Lima should remain there until the end of the war; and that negotiations should be undertaken with the view of introducing negroes to replace the Indians.[106] [Sidenote: Opposing views] Although these recommendations received the enthusiastic approval of the viceroy, it was found to be impossible to carry them out in Chile. Many of the Indians, if left free, were averse to labour of any kind under any conditions; the encomenderos resisted every attempt to liberate them; still the audiencia of Chile, when it was established in 1609, was instructed to abolish the personal service of the Indians. This order, however, brought a reaction against the movement for emancipation, and this reaction found a vigorous supporter in Francisco Lazo de la Vega, when he became governor of Chile in 1629. He was an old soldier, who saw a remedy for the unfortunate condition of affairs only in the exercise of a sufficient amount of force to bring the Indians into subjection, and consequently repudiated the plan of a defensive war.[107] [Sidenote: Proposed state of troops]