The Araucanian war presented no leader on either side whose prominence entitled him to be treated as the prominent hero of the conflict. For this reason Ercilla is obliged to allow one figure after another to occupy the centre of the stage. Although his purpose was to glorify Spanish arms, the heroes who have appealed most strongly even to the inhabitants of Chile are the Araucanian chiefs. In the struggle for emancipation from Spain the Chileans were especially incited to action by the heroism of Caupolicán, Lautaro, Tucapel, Colocolo, and Galvarino. Parents named their children after these heroes, and the name of Lautaro was applied to the patriotic association of the early advocates of Spanish-American independence. Thus the inspiring figures in the narrative of the war are not the Spanish but the Indian leaders. It is quite possible that Ercilla’s resentment at the treatment he received at the hands of García de Mendoza prevented the commander’s figure from assuming greater importance in the poem. [Illustration: Statue of Caupolicán in Santiago de Chile] [Sidenote: The magnified chiefs] Lautaro is described as a young man of medium height, solidly formed, with strong limbs and strong shoulders, and endowed with moral qualities not less advantageous than his physical qualities; audacious and unafraid, prompt to act, resourceful and heroic under critical circumstances; when the circumstances allowed him leisure, he knew how to prepare slowly and carefully for a difficult enterprise, to take as his soldiers even the most reckless and villainous of the Araucanians, to subject them to an iron discipline, and to inspire in them love and admiration for a chief who punished implacably with death the slightest infraction of his orders; yet in the story of the love that existed between him and the beautiful Guacolda the poet has revealed the gentler traits of his hero’s character.[61] [Sidenote: Caupolicán] In the list of Araucanian heroes an especially prominent place is accorded to Caupolicán, as typifying the strength and pride of his people, their contempt of pain and even of death. Ercilla gives the following description of him in the forty-seventh octave of the second canto: Era este noble mozo de alto hecho, Varón de autoridad, grave y severo, Amigo de guardar todo derecho, Áspero y riguroso justiciero, De cuerpo grande y relevado pecho, Hábil, diestro, fortísimo y ligero, Sabio, astuto, sagaz, determinado, Y en casos de repente reportado.[62] [Sidenote: Tucapel]