Francisco Núñez de Pineda y Bascuñán (1607–1682) was a Chilean writer and soldier. He was born in Chillán Viejo,

Biobío Region The Biobío Region ( ) is one of Chile's sixteen regions (first-order administrative divisions). With a population of 1.5 million, thus being the third most populated region in Chile, it is divided into three provinces: Arauco, Biobío and C ...

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in western South America. It is the southernmost country in the world and the closest to Antarctica, stretching along a narrow strip of land between the Andes, Andes Mountains and the Paci ...

. In 1629 he participated in an expedition to defeat the

Mapuche The Mapuche ( , ) also known as Araucanians are a group of Indigenous peoples of the Americas, Indigenous inhabitants of south-central Chile and southwestern Argentina, including parts of Patagonia. The collective term refers to a wide-ranging e ...

, but, during the Battle of Las Cangrejeras, he was taken prisoner by the

cacique A cacique, sometimes spelled as cazique (; ; feminine form: ), was a tribal chieftain of the Taíno people, who were the Indigenous inhabitants of the Bahamas, the Greater Antilles, and the northern Lesser Antilles at the time of European cont ...

Maulicán, who kept him captive for seven months. After being released, he rose through the ranks to become commander of the fort of Boroa in 1654, and he was eventually appointed '' maestre de campo'' in 1656 by

Governor of Chile The royal governor of Chile ruled over the Spanish colonization of the Americas, Spanish colonial administrative district called the Captaincy General of Chile, and as a result the royal governor also held the title of a captain general. There w ...

Pedro Porter Casanate Pedro Porter y Casanate (April 30, 1611 – February 27, 1662) was a Spanish Navy officer, explorer and colonial administrator who served as the Royal Governor of Chile from 1656 to 1662. Early life Porter was born in Zaragoza, the second son of ...

and had an important role in the Spanish victory in Conuco and the relief of the fort of Boroa. From his experiences among the Mapuches, he wrote in 1673, the chronicle '' Cautiverio feliz y razón individual de las guerras dilatadas del reino de Chile'' (''Happy Captivity and Reason for the Prolonged Wars of the Kingdom of Chile''), which constitutes one of the most important and realistic descriptions of the customs of the Mapuche people, as well as containing a defense of their rights. This helped later when

Spaniards Spaniards, or Spanish people, are a Romance-speaking ethnic group native to the Iberian Peninsula, primarily associated with the modern nation-state of Spain. Genetically and ethnolinguistically, Spaniards belong to the broader Southern a ...

tried to get along with

Sources

* José Toribio Medina
Diccionario biográfico colonial de Chile, Impr. Elziviriana, Santiago, 1906
Pg. 577–586. * Francisco Núñez de Pineda y Bascuñán
Cautiverio feliz, y autiverio feliz, y razón de las guerras dilatadas de Chile, Coleccíon de historiadores de Chile y documentos relativos a la historia nacional, Tomo III, Sociedad Chilena de Historia y Geografía, Instituto Chileno de Cultura Hispánica, Academia Chilena de la Historia, Imprenta del Ferrocarril, Santiago, 1863. Original from Harvard University, Digitized May 19, 2007
1607 births 1682 deaths People from Chillán 17th-century Chilean writers Spanish generals 17th-century Spanish writers Writers of captivity narratives {{Chile-mil-bio-stub