[Sidenote: The early cantos] Some part of _La Araucana_ was written amid the scenes, and in connexion with the events, described. In his _Prólogo_ Ercilla has stated that he wrote at hours stolen from the occupations of war in Chile, and sometimes on pieces of leather or of hides for want of paper, or on fragments of letters often only large enough to hold six lines; and it often required much effort and trouble to arrange these fragments in their proper order. This method of writing, as the author confesses, gave to his poem in some respects the quality of a journal in verse. This was especially true of those parts that were written during the campaign against the Araucanians, dealing with what he saw or with the events in which he participated; and these parts may be accepted as having the historical authority of a contemporary chronicle. This quality may be more particularly ascribed to the first fifteen cantos, the first published after the author’s return to Spain. And these cantos, during the seven years between the author’s arrival in Europe and their publication, underwent extensive modification and elaboration. It does not, however, appear probable that much if any of the second part was written in America, but that the author undertook it, “having promised to continue this history.” In the preface to the second part he affirms that he has continued it with no little difficulty and ennui, on account of the severity and monotony of the material, “since from the beginning to the end it contains only one and the same subject.” The composition of _La Araucana_ was interrupted many times by the author’s journeys and his diplomatic services. After Ercilla’s return to Spain the events of the Indian wars and the spirit of the contending parties gradually became indistinct in his mind. He departed from his original purpose “not to sing of love and the gallantry of enamoured knights,” and, under the influence of Italian models, introduced invented tales of romantic adventure, leaving the poem, in some sense, a mechanical mixture of historical narrative and romantic episodes. [Sidenote: Ercilla wanted a hero]