[Footnote 77: No such name occurs in the modern maps of Chili, but a town called Millaqui is situated about 20 miles to the north of Angol.—E.]
Solicitous to maintain the reputation of his arms, Antiguenu marched in person at the head of two thousand men to resume the attack upon Angol. Before proceeding to attack that place, he encamped at the confluence of the river Vergosa with the Biobio, where he was attacked by a Spanish army under the command of Bernal. In this engagement the Araucanians made use of some Spanish musquets which they had taken at their late victory of Mariguenu, which they employed with much skill, and bravely sustained the assault for three hours. At length, when four hundred of the auxiliaries and a considerable number of Spaniards had fallen, the infantry began to give way, upon which Bernal gave orders to his cavalry to put to death every one who attempted flight. This severe order brought back the Spanish infantry to their duty, and they attacked the entrenchments of the enemy with so much vigour that at length they forced their way into the camp of the Araucanians. Antiguenu exerted his utmost efforts to oppose the assailants; but he was at length forced along by the crowd of his soldiers, who were thrown into irretrievable confusion and fled. During the flight, he fell from a high bank into the river and was drowned. The Araucanians were defeated with prodigious slaughter, many of them perishing in the river in their attempt to escape by swimming. In this battle, which was fought in the year 1564, almost the whole of the victorious army was wounded, and a considerable number slain; but they recovered forty-one musquets, twenty-one cuirasses, fifteen helmets, and a great number of lances and other weapons which the Araucanians had obtained in their late victories, and had used against their former proprietors.
While these events were passing on the banks of the Biobio, an Araucanian officer named Lillemu, who had been detached by Antiguenu to lay waste the provinces of Chillan and Itata, defeated a Spanish detachment of eighty men commanded by Pedro Balsa. To repress these ravages, the governor of Conception marched against Lillemu with an hundred and fifty men, and cut off a party of Araucanians who were desolating the province of Chillan. Lillemu hastened to their succour, but finding them defeated and dispersed, he was only able to save the remainder of his troops by making a gallant stand in a narrow pass with a small select band, by which he checked the advance of the enemy, and gave time to his army to effect their escape; but he and his brave companions sacrificed their lives in this gallant effort of patriotism.