fort at Santa Cruz de Óñez in May 1594, near the confluence of the Bio-Bio and Laja Rivers in Catiray, where gold mines were located on the Rele River. The fort was elevated to the rank of city in 1595 giving it the name of Santa Cruz de Coya. Three years later a group of 140 reinforcements arrived, but they were not enough. The lack of reinforcements was not the fault of the viceroy — who offered generous inducements to join the army — but rather the name of Chile, which had become so stained by the interminable conflict that no one wanted to risk their lives going to such a hell. Death The governor was in La Imperial when news arrived that the Mapuches had renewed their attacks against Angol. In order to reinforce this point, he set out with 50 men on December 21, 1598. On the second day of the march they arrived at a place called Curallaba or Curalava (the broken rock), on the banks of the Lumaco River, where they rested without taking any precautions against attack. On the nights of the 23rd and 24th the natives approached the camp, and with shouts and the sounds of horns they attacked the Spanish. Óñez de Loyola and a pair of soldiers at his side fought very valiantly, but finally succumbed to the spears of the natives. In the melee almost all the Spaniards died, save a cleric named Bartolomé Pérez, who was taken prisoner, and a soldier named Bernardo de Pereda, who received 23 wounds on his body and was left for dead but improbably survived. The Mapuches then initiated a general uprising which destroyed all the cities in their homeland south of the Biobío River. They kept the head of Óñez de Loyola, giving it back years later to the governor Alonso García de Ramón. See also Arauco War Mapuche people Disaster of Curalaba Destruction of Seven Cities References Sources Royal Governors of Chile Spanish city founders People of the Arauco War People killed in the Arauco War Spanish generals Spanish military personnel killed in action People from Azpeitia 16th-century Spanish people 1549 births 1598 deaths