Page:A history of Chile.djvu/58

 name Coquimbo, however, was too old to be replaced, and soon prevailed over that of La Serena which Valdivia gave it. This settlement was made primarily as a strategical point in the north, but it was situated in a fertile plain and soon became the center of a thriving province.

The next year (1545) was occupied in extending the Spanish authority over the territory of the warlike Promaucians. No battles are recorded, and it appears probable that the Promaucians were induced to join the Spaniards against their foes the Araucanians, whence sprang up the antipathy which has ever since existed between the former and the latter tribes. The following year Valdivia extended his conquests south to the river Itata, but there met with such reverses in a skirmish with the natives at a place called Quilacura, that he decided to halt there and make that for a while the limit of his conquered possessions ; retracing his steps, he returned to Santiago.

He had been long expecting supplies and recruits from Peru. These not arriving, the commander decided to go thither himself and raise a company of troops sufficient in size for his purpose of conquering the Araucanians. Leaving Francisco de Villagran as acting governor in his absence, and taking with him a large quantity of gold, Valdivia set sail with Pastene for Peru, where, at this time, a civil war was in progress between Gasco and Gonzalo Pizarro. Valdivia was in time to fight under Gasco's standard, in polite forgetfulness of his old-time obligations to the Pizarros, for which service he was rewarded by a confirmation of his title as governor of Chile —a confirmation he had been long seeking— and given a vast amount of military stores, with two boat loads of Peru-