Lieutenant Nun

After sailing for 20 days, Erauso arrived in Concepción, where she was ordered to disembark by Miguel de Erauso, the governor’s secretary and Erauso’s brother. They had never met before because he left San Sebastian when she was two. She told him that she had come from San Sebastian (without revealing the rest of her identity), which overjoyed him. They then ate dinner together, and upon learning that her unit was to go to Paicabí, Miguel convinced the governor to reassign her to his command, as Paicabí had a reputation as especially dangerous.

For the next three years, she stayed under her brother’s command, often dining with him. However, this ended when Miguel and Erauso got into a fight over a mistress in town that both had been visiting. When the fight was broken up, Erauso took refuge in a church until she learned that her brother had stopped her from being punished. She was, instead, sent to Paicabí.

For “three years of misery” (20), Erauso fought in Paicabí, often battling against the Indigenous tribes. She recounts one particularly notable occasion on which an Indigenous army sacked the city of Valdivia and were confronted by the Spanish forces.