“At the end of the year 1575, while the city of Valdivia was enjoying the greatest prosperity it had ever known, and the inhabitants were living in peace and happiness, our Lord did not wish that this state of comfort should remain to them, adding new misfortunes to those of the past. It happened then on Friday, the sixteenth of December, at four o’clock in the afternoon, entirely without warning of such a disaster, that the earth began to tremble, with a great rumbling noise, the earthquake continuing and always increasing, without interruption causing great damage, demolishing roofs and walls, with such fright of the people, that they were terrified and beside themselves at seeing an event so extraordinary. It is not possible to paint or describe the manner of the furious tempest, which seemed to be the end of the world. Its onrush was such that it gave no opportunity to many persons to leave their houses, and, therefore, they perished buried alive, the wreckage of the buildings falling upon them. It was an event to make one’s hair stand on end, and make men grow pale to see the earth in such convulsions and moving with such fury that not only edifices fell, but persons also were unable to stand, and some lay down in order to clutch the ground. After this, while the earth continued to quake for the space of a quarter of an hour, there was seen in the great river, where ships were accustomed to ride in safety, a very remarkable happening, which was that in a certain place in the river the water was divided, one part of it running towards the sea, and the other part up the river, revealing the bottom at that place in such a way that the stones might be seen as Don Pedro de Lovera saw them, from whom I got this account, and who affirms that he saw it with his own eyes. After this the sea left its limits and bounds, running with as great velocity upon the land as the swiftest river in the world. And so great was the fury and force of the water that it extended three leagues inland, where it left a great quantity of fishes dead, among which there were kinds never before seen in this kingdom.”[55] CHAPTER V LA ARAUCANA [Sidenote: Change of scene, Peru to Chile] [Sidenote: Contest for governor of Chile]