After his arrival in Chile Toledo’s time was so distributed that war, agriculture, and poetry each claimed a share. He became an alcalde of Chillán, acquired extensive lands stocked with sheep and cattle, and at least on one occasion he suffered the not uncommon experience of having his estate plundered, his cattle driven off, and his herdsmen and shepherds captured. This loss naturally inflamed his desire to see the campaigns against the Indians carried on with energy, and added zeal to his own participation. In one attack he was felled by a blow on the head that caused him to be unconscious for an hour, and to remain for a period without any recollection of the events of the conflict. Later he was engaged in the battle of Yumbel, a detailed account of which he has given in his writings. [Sidenote: Cavendish rescues Fernando] [Sidenote: Cavendish’s men betrayed by Fernando] Holding the rank of captain, Álvarez de Toledo had part in numerous encounters with the Indians. He appeared also in the conflict between Cavendish’s men and the Spaniards on the coast of Chile. In passing through the strait of Magellan Cavendish discovered the moribund remnant of the colony Sarmiento had left in that inhospitable region, and took on board one of the colonists named Fernando in order that he might serve as a guide. Fernando finally betrayed the English, in spite of “all his deepe and damnable othes which he had made continually to our general and all his company never to forsake him, to die on his side before he would be false;”[77] for when Cavendish landed fifty or sixty men on the coast of Chile, at the bay of Quintero, in search of wood, Fernando led them into a position where they were surprised and attacked by two hundred Spaniards. Before Cavendish’s men were able to regain their ships, twelve of them were killed by the Spaniards. That Fernando was held as a prisoner by heretics has been advanced as a justification of his deception, in spite of the fact that his removal from the settlement by the strait saved his life. Toledo, who was one of the two hundred members of the attacking party, has celebrated the event in his _Araucana_.[78] [Sidenote: Toledo and the Indians] Governor Alonso de Sotomayor appointed Toledo high constable in 1590. In this period the tranquility of the Spanish settlers was greatly disturbed by renewed hostilities on the part of the Araucanians, whose raids were extended into regions that had been occupied by towns and villages of Europeans. Toledo was alcalde of Chillán when that city was plundered and destroyed by the cacique Quilacán in 1599. On this occasion Toledo was absent, and to this fact is probably due the preservation of his life.