Page:A history of Chile.djvu/125

 THE COLONIAL PERIOD 113 ing the rule of Cano had done much damage to Santi- ago and other places. Some years later, during the time that the Marquis of Aviles was governor, an earth- quake caused considerable damage in the cities of Copi- apo, Huasco and Coquimbo. Other less severe shocks were felt frequently but the damage done was compar- atively trifling. The captain-general succeeding Rosas, Don Manuel Amat, continued the policy of founding cities, and established Santa Barbara, Talcamavida and Hualqui. Don Manuel de Amat y Junient was a military ge- nius of considerable repute. The robbers and other criminals of the country had' reasons for fearing and hating him. He persecuted them, as it were, with a rod of iron, and filled the jails with them. He organ- ized patrols of dragoons and vigilance committees, and created a militia to defend the coasts against the ravages of pirates. He also organized civilians into military bodies and these afterward, in the war of the revolution, did much good service. When Amat was promoted to the viceroyalty of Peru, the corregidor in Santiago, Luis de Zanartu, continued to prosecute these rigorous measures against criminals, and, having filled the jails, put them to work constructing a stone bridge over the Mapocho. The next captain-general, Don Antonio de Guill y Gonzaga (Berroeta having acted a short time provision- ally), undertook to gather the Araucanian Indians into cities. The outcome of this chimerical scheme Was a renewal of the war, as the Indians proceeded to elect a toqui and prepare for hostilities in case the Spaniards should persist in their course. Curignancu was elected toqui: two or three cities were begun, but the Indians demanded tools with which to work, offered all manner of excuses for the purpose of delaying the enterprise, 8