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Battle of Peteroa
Battle of Peteroa was a battle in the Arauco War on April 1, 1557 in the vicinity of Peteroa, on the south shore of the Mataquito River. The battle was between the Spanish forces of the Governor Francisco de Villagra, and Mapuche headed by their toqui Lautaro. Following the destruction of Concepcion and Angol in 1554 the Mapuche suffered from the effects of a famine and an epidemic for two years.
In 1556 Lautaro was able to lead a force north of the Bio Bio River hoping to instigate a rebellion there among the Promaucaes. These people had been conquered by Pedro Valdivia years before and had provided the indian auxillaries or yanacona for his invasion of the lands of the Mapuche further south. Lautaro began recruiting warriors among them, inspired to revolt by the previous successes of Lautaro. But when he arrived at the places subject to Santiago, he began to taking reprisals against the Indians who refused to join him, doing great damage and depopulating the land. The refugees went to the city for aid and protection.
Lautaro lead his force of Mapucheto the North towards Santiago. After crossing the Maule River and encamped near Peteroa, building an earthen fort. He was victorious over the first Spanish attack by Diego Cano and but later a larger force under Pedro de Villagra clashed with his army killing 500 of their number for the loss of 2 Spaniards. The losses in the battle forced Lautaro to retire towards the Itata River to recover his strength. Most of the Spanish chroniclers and eyewitness cited the Mapuche forces to 40,000 strong
, but they fail to mention the native auxiliary friendly to the Spanish, and, that the Mapuches won many battles in numerical inferiority. In addition to this, the Spanish army at this time was the best of the world.
Lautaro he was followed by Francisco de Villagra in 1557. In a clever strategic maneuver, Lautaro evaded the Spaniards, letting them pass to the south. Then discovering the city was relatively unprotected, he soon marched again on Santiago. However Lautaros ill treatment of the local Indians had created many enemies and some of his allies deserted him. As a result he was short of food and because it was late in the fall he reluctantly fell back to his fortified camp at Peteroa on the Mataquito River.
Villagra became aware of the location of his camp betrayed by local Indians abused by Lautaro. Villagra sent word to Juan Godinez near Santiago to meet him as he hurriedly returned from the south. The Spanish forces met without Lautaro being warned by the local Indians and their unified force of Francisco de Villagra, Juan Godinez, with 57 horsemen (including Pedro Marino de Lobera), 5 arcabuzeros and more than 400 yanaconas, made a surprise night march to the hills of Caune, overlooking the Mapuche camp at Peteroa, on the south shore of the Mataquito river. After a surprise dawn attack on the camp in which they killed Lautaro in the doorway of his ruca. When the Spaniards shouted Lautaro was dead the allied warriors from Itata, Nuble and Renoguelen fled any way they could, leaving only Lautaros Mapuche fighting and a five hour battle ensued with the Mapuche putting up a stubborn resistance despite the death of their leader. At the end of the battle about 700 Mapuche were killed and the Spaniards lost Juan de Villagra and over half of the yanacona were killed or wounded along with many of the Spaniards horses. Lautaro's head was then taken and displayed in the main plaza of Santiago.
Sources
de Gongora Marmolejo, Alonso, Historia de Todas las Cosas que han Acaecido en el Reino de Chile y de los que lo han gobernado (1536-1575) (History of All the Things that Have happened in the Kingdom of Chile and of they that have governed it (1536-1575)), University of Chile: Document Collections in complete texts: Cronicles (on line in Spanish)
* XXII. De como vino de el audiencia de lo reyes proveido Villagra por corregidor de todo el reino, y de lo que hizo
Marino de Lobera, Pedro, Cronica del Reino de Chile , escrita por el capitan Pedro Marino de Lobera....reducido a nuevo metodo y estilo por el Padre Bartolome de Escobar. Edicion digital a partir de Cronicas del Reino de Chile Madrid, Atlas, 1960, pp. 227-562, . Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes (on line in Spanish)
*Capitulo LIV: Como el capitan Lautaro fue sobre la ciudad de Santiago con un copioso ejercito y tuvo dos batallas con los capitanes Diego Cano y Pedro de Villagran
*Capitulo LV: De la batalla que el general Francisco de Villagran y los capitanes Alonso de Escobar y Juan Gudines dieron a Lautaro, donde perdio la vida, en el valle de Mataquito
Carvallo y Goyeneche, Vicente, Descripcion Historico Geografia del Reino de Chile (Description Historical Geography of the Kingdom of Chile), University of Chile: Document Collections in complete texts: Cronicles (on line in Spanish)
* Tomo I, Capitulo XXXIII. Se resuelve Lautaro a rendir la ciudad de Santiago - Caupolican repite el asedio de La Imperial i Valdivia - Villagra va a su socorrro - Muere Lautaro en su espedicion.
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This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article Battle of Peteroa
