After the campaign of García Hurtado de Mendoza that culminated in the Battle of Quiapo, many of the Mapuche warriors were dead or wounded and the population had been decimated by the effects of war, starvation and epidemic disease.
Elected to by the remaining leaders shortly after the battle of Quiapo, Illangulién decided to let the nation offer apparent submission to the Spanish while he and a few warriors secretly retreated into the marshes of Lumaco.
[citation needed] The murder of the hated encomendero Pedro de Avendaño in July 1561 triggered a new general rising of the Mapuche greater than the previous ones.
Illangulién after several years of hiding his activities in the swamps began to lead his forces out on raids on Spanish territory to season his newly trained warriors and live off the lands of their enemy.
His forces clashed with those of the Spanish Governor Francisco de Villagra and defeated them several times in the next few years.