Pedro de Valdivia is not thought of as a writer, yet his letters deserve recognition, whether regarded as stories of great adventure or as sources of the early history of Chile. Warriors are less often given to writing than priests, but when they undertake the task their productions sometimes have a quality not attained by the literary efforts of ecclesiastics. Valdivia wrote as a warrior might be expected to write: he discussed his tasks of military organization, the extreme want he had to face in effecting his settlement and domination in Chile, his labours in the service of the king, and the exasperating conduct of his enemies. His superior spirit as a man appears in the clearness of his language, in his lack of pretension, in his energy, and in an unwearying consciousness of his own high purpose. In writing he evidently set down the word that came first to his mind, that seemed to him to be the word for the idea, and made little or no effort to polish his phrases after the manner of the schools. His _Cartas_, therefore, constitute a work that, of its kind, as Medina has observed, has not been surpassed in Chile.[49] VI Two other writers of this southern province were Marmolejo and Lovera. They had little literary training, and were apparently not moved by ambition for literary distinction, but simply by the thought that they ought to communicate to their countrymen their first-hand knowledge of strange natural phenomena and unfamiliar social movements, as well as their experience as soldiers. [Sidenote: Góngora Marmolejo] [Sidenote: Marmolejo’s _Historia_] Alonso de Góngora Marmolejo’s _Historia del reino de Chile_ is an important early narrative of Chilean warfare and adventure. The author went from Peru in a body of auxiliaries, taken by Pedro de Valdivia for service in his campaign for the conquest of Chile, where, for a period of forty years, after 1547, he accumulated honours, but saw his wealth gradually decrease. Then, under the affliction of poverty and disappointment, he undertook to set down and leave to posterity an account of the events, in which he had had part, and of the actors who had been his companions. Halted in the performance of this task by discouragement and the fear of criticism, he nevertheless worked on to the last sentence, which announced the fact that his work was completed in the city of Santiago, in the kingdom of Chile, on the 16th of December, 1575. During the brief period of his life that remained after this date, little is known of him, except that he was charged by Rodrigo de Quiroga, noted for his superstition, fanaticism, and intolerance, to traverse the country occupied by the Indians, and to find out and punish severely those guilty of the crime of witchcraft. But as Quiroga appointed Pedro de Lisperguer to the same office on January 23, 1576, it is inferred that Marmolejo’s incumbency was short.