The daily morning journal and courier., 1904-02-27


 This most important town of southern Chili can be reached only by water from it's seaport. Corral. and long days journey up the valdivia river. To go overland from central Chilli is im- possible. because of the yet uncon- quered Araucanian Indians. It will be remembered that many years after the spaniards had taken possession of the rest of Chili, they abandoned the hope less task of trying to subdue the Arau- canians, who are the bravest and most interesting Indians in all South Ameri- ca. and magnanimously gave them what they had always possessed-their independence-which they have ever since maintained. Their territory ex- tends from the Andes to the sea, be- tween the Bio-Bio and valdivia rivers, and comprises some of the best agrieul- tural sections of the country, as well as the heaviest forests and widest noun tains. In Spanish history it is known as the Invincihle State" Centuries ago the Araucanian Council of Wise Men" passed law which punished with death any Indian who should sell his lands to the white man. As they now exist, these Indians are divided into three distinct tribes-the Fehuen- ches, who rove the pine forests (Pe- cheun) of the Andes; the Llanistas,. who inhahit the interior llanos, or plains; and the Castinos, who live near the borders of Araucania, cultivate the soil, raise cattle and have voluntarily submitted themselves somewhat to the federal government. Not many years ago yourney into any part of the In- dian domain would have been simply out of the question. To this day it is impossible to go near the savage Pe- huenches, for the foolhardy pale-face who ventures within their dark forest and somber mountain recesses never return to tell the tale. Even to cross 1.-the open plains of the Llanistas re- quires no small amount of courage.
 The port Corral is one of the quaint est and most picturesque places it has been my good fortune to find. Upon a high bluff overlooking it's placid bay which is said to be the safest as well as the most commodious in southern Chili, are the crumbling walls of battle- mented fortress.-the fortress Of a dream, or of a picture, entirely unlike the prosaic forts of nowadays. The Notifications along the narrow channel that leads to Santiago, Cuba, are some thing like it. This was constructed about three centuries and half ago by Pedro de Valdivia, one of Pizarro's fol- lowers, the same daughty adventurer who founded Santiago de Chili and left the mark of his ironhandu pon all this section. Inside the fort are rusty can- non of queer pattern, tottering stair ways that lead to grass-grown passages and moldy vaults below, where narrow doorways open to the waters edge. Just back of the fort an odd little vil- lage struggles up and down the steepest streets. whose weather-beaten cottages, ancient church and dingy saloons look as If tired of clinging to the cliffs and about ready to let go their hold and slip quietly into the sea. The time worn battlements overlook classic grounds, which many panish poet has celebrated in epic verse. Almost with in sight of the fort, Valdivia was taken prisoner and killed, in the year 1858. Readers of history will remember how that famous Spaniard and his army, sometimes victorious and some | times defeated, gradually advanced as far south as Corral; and under pre- tense of spreading the Christian reli- zion, inflicted all manrfer of cruelties upon the aborigines; and how, for more than ninety years, those Chilian Indi- ans known as Araucanians, armed only with bows and arrows and wooden Ispears and lances, waged war with the Invaders who were well supplied with European firearms and constantly re- linforced from Peru; and that the Indi- lans were never conquered. Cappolican the greatest Aracuanian chieftain, who besieged more Spanish ortifications destroyed more Spanish cities, and drove the invaders oftenest from place to place, died within a stones throw o1 ICorral. He had been defeated in one ot I the innumerable battles between the lSpaniards and his, people, fought on the banks of the Valdevia river; and fol some months afterwards remained ir hiding, until one of the natives, being
 tortured by the soldiers beyond endur- lance, revealed his secret. It is related
 that when Cappolican was captured, af- ter trrrific struggle, his wife, who had
 exhorted the chief todi rather thar surrender, threw her baby boy at his
 feet, declaring that sehe would retain
 nothing to renain her of a coward. AS
 among all Indian nations the women o1
 the early Chilians were noted for incl ting their sons and lovers to battle. IT
 1890 Chief Guepotau, who had long de tended a pass in the Andes, came doWr
 to Corral to visit his wife, and was
 murdered by a party of Spaniards iwhereupon the wife, whose name was Janequeo, burning with desire for re. venge, placed herself with her younger
 brother at the head of small band oi
 Indians and made many inroads into the Spanish settlements, killing every hated pale-face who fell into theil
 hands. For nearly year the most ex- perienced Spanish generals were nc match for her. When the rainy seasor came on she was comnelled to retire tC
 the mountains farther up the river
 where she fortified herself in place surrounded by precipices, from whence she daily harrassed the enighborins city, so that nobody dared to leave it She was finally drived from that strong.