Ercilla’s apparent determination to belittle the achievements of the Governor of Chile called forth the _Hechos de Don García Hurtado de Mendoza, el Marqués de Cañete_, by Suárez de Figueroa, who, although not a Chilean, was induced to write on a Chilean topic. His work was an attempt to overtake and smother an advanced damaging report. Don García, when in command of the expedition against the Araucanians, as already suggested, condemned Ercilla to death, a sentence later modified under the protests of persons who comprehended its injustice. After this incident Don García did not find either his leadership or his character glorified in _La Araucana_. This was a source of regret not only to himself but also to his family. He died in obscurity, and after this event his relatives sought to rehabilitate his memory for posterity. They approached Dr. Cristóbal Suárez de Figueroa, proposing that he should undertake the task, should become the eulogist of a person on whom an unfavourable verdict had already been pronounced. He accepted the proposal, and of the seven books into which his work was divided the first three treat of Don García’s campaigns in Chile; the others deal with his government as viceroy of Peru, Mendaña’s expedition to the Solomon Islands, and the inglorious years of disgrace. In view of the judgments of history, Figueroa’s extravagant panegyric appears absurd. It may be said in favour of the book that it presents papers or documents given to the author by the Mendoza family, which furnish details of the viceroy’s life not otherwise known. But, on the other hand, it deals with a country which Figueroa had not visited, and with conditions of which he was almost entirely ignorant, thus making inevitable an abnormal perspective and false emphasis. The book is, however, written in “flowing and elegant language that is only rarely found in the historians of America; and in order to add interest to the work the author introduced rhetorical descriptions of a country he had not seen and of battles that were scarcely referred to in the documents.”[69] CHAPTER VI ERCILLA’S IMITATORS I. _Pedro de Oña._ II. _Juan de Mendoza Monteagudo._ III. _Álvarez de Toledo._ IV. _Diego de Santistevan Osorio._ I [Sidenote: Oña and Ercilla] [Sidenote: Oña in Chile and in Lima] [Sidenote: University of San Marcos]