Pedro de Oña was the first native Chilean to achieve distinction in the literature of his country. He was born in the town of Valdivia, when it was merely a frontier post, garrisoned by about forty soldiers. He was the eldest son of Captain Gregorio de Oña, who was a member of the garrison. The exact date of his birth is not known, but it belongs to the decade between 1560 and 1570. There appears to be no record stating the place where his childhood and youth were passed, or what were the circumstances of his early education. But on August 8, 1590, he was matriculated in the university of San Marcos in Lima. He must have had elsewhere preparatory instruction, for the entry in the university books is that he was matriculated for the “Primer de Artes,” took the oath of obedience to the rector, and presented certificates of examination. The next year he matriculated for the second course, and in 1592 for the third course. In the absence of any later matriculation in the arts it is presumed that he left the university with the degree of bachelor. He then appears among the troops sent to put down an insurrection that had broken out in Quito. After his return from this expedition he was matriculated in 1593 for the first course in theology, but it is not known how far he pursued his theological studies. Three years later, in 1596, he published in Lima the _Primera parte del Arauco domado_, and on the title page he sets himself down as “Licenciado.” This was two years after Ercilla’s death. [Sidenote: _Arauco domado_] The writer of _Arauco domado_, like Ercilla, not only narrated real events in the history of the conquest, but also introduced episodes that were the products of his imagination, and all were presented with a noteworthy facility of versification. But the real events of which Oña was able to treat did not in his time justify the term “domado” in his title. The historian Olivares affirms that Arauco may be said to be _domado_ only in desire, since neither in Oña’s time, nor for two hundred years later had all the power of Spain been able to effect the subjugation.[71] And Oña’s treatment of the events in the process of this war of subjugation was cut short at the close of the first part of his poem, for the announced second part never appeared.[72] [Sidenote: Mental attitude of Oña]