Pizarro soon took measures to extend the Spanish conquests to all parts of the Inca empire, and for Chile he selected his quartermaster, Pedro de Valdivia, an active and experienced soldier. Late in 1540--the summer season in those latitudes--Valdivia, with two hundred Spaniards and a large number of Indian auxiliaries, crossed the Andes and arrived at Copiapo, the northernmost inhabited valley. Like Almagro he met no opposition as he pushed his way south for four hundred and fifty miles. Arriving at the great valley of Chile, in that favoured region he founded the city of Santiago, which has ever since remained the capital and most important place in the country. The people of the neighbourhood attacked the settlement and burned half the houses, but they were soon decisively defeated. Nevertheless, the invaders position was critical; many of them wished to return; a mutiny was on the point of breaking out; but at this juncture the fortunate discovery of valuable gold mines near Santiago hushed all talk of abandoning the country. Firmly established at Santiago, Valdivia next turned his attention to the northern provinces, and founded a city at Coquimbo, about two hundred and fifty miles north of the capital, which became the centre of Spanish power in that region. In 1545 he advanced into the country south of Santiago, where the Promaucians welcomed him as an ally against their hereditary foes, the Araucanians, a fierce and powerful confederacy dwelling beyond the river Biobio, which flows into the Pacific in latitude 37 deg. By the following year Spanish influence was dominant north of that river. Valdivia, with many of his men, temporarily returned to Peru to aid in the suppression of Gonzalo's revolt, but as soon as civil war was over he came back to Chile with his title of governor confirmed by viceregal authority. He had found Lima swarming with hungry adventurers who eagerly followed him, hoping for grants of lands and Indian slaves, or to make their fortunes in mining. With their help the conquest and settlement of all Chile as far south as the Maule was effectually completed. The land was apportioned among the cavaliers, each becoming a sort of feudal baron, and in effect creating a landed aristocracy which has continued to rule the country to the present day.