The elusive reign of Orelie Antoine.

• Author: Gil-Montero, Martha
• Position: Orelie-Antoine de Tounens - The pretender king of Araucania and Patagonia areas of Chile and Argentina

ON JANUARY 10, 1862, in the town of Los Angeles in the Republic of Chile, after having sworn to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, the prisoner in the dock declared that his name was Prince Orelie-Antoine de Tounens; that he had been born in France, in the Department of Dordogne; that he was 36 years old; that he had been a resident of Chile or Araucania since August 22, 1858; and that he was single and had no occupation. He called himself the "King of Araucania." Five days before, in the early afternoon the Prince was resting against the trunk of a pear tree in an idyllic spot in the territory of Araucania. Suddenly, a detachment of police appeared, took his belongings, tied his wrists and legs, unceremoniously secured him on his horse and took him to a military headquarters on the Chilean side.

The judge holding the perfunctory hearing knew little of the details of the remarkable adventure that had brought Orelie-Antoine de Tounens before him. The intrepid Frenchman, as would later be revealed, had crossed the ocean alone with very little money and no weapons; he had entered a land forbidden to whites; he had established contact with wild Indian tribes whose language he could not speak; and he had succeeded in having them proclaim him their king.

A war tribunal later held a second hearing in his case. The principal witness for the prosecution was Rosales, the servant who had been with him at the time of his apprehension--and who had set him up. Either because he had suspected that His Highness' quest was senseless or seditious, or because he expected a reward, the cunning Rosales denounced him. By sheer luck, some witnesses favorable to Orelie-Antoine's cause happened to be present--a group of Chilean merchants, who had been selling their wares in the Indian territory and who had from a distance followed the Prince's last journey--and saved him from being shot then and there.

During the proceedings Orelie-Antoine maintained that he was a free citizen of Araucania and protested that he was being wrongfully deprived of his freedom. He also reaffirmed that his mission was to establish peace between the Chilean government and the peoples of Arauca. Thus began a legal proceeding that was to last nine months and three days.

After the prisoner underwent interrogation by the judge in Los Angeles, he was sent to a jail of dismal repute. There, Orelie-Antoine de Tounens became very ill. For a whole month he was semiconscious. In the next four months, as the fevers gradually gave way, he lost weight and became, in his own words, a "skeleton." He also lost his long, black, beautiful hair. He could barely continue with his defense, with the writing of his diary (which he did with perfect calligraphy), and with the sending of the letters that kept him in contact with the outside world.

To the dismay of the judges in charge of doing justice in his case--and of the physicians who had to rule on his mental capacity--Orelie-Antoine carried out his defense with no professional help. He displayed unbelievable sagacity and judicial shrewdness. In the end, after giving lengthy explanations for his presence in Araucania--and after effectively rebutting all the arguments used by the authorities to justify sentencing him to the most severe punishment available under the law--Orelie-Antoine accepted the disposition that the Chilean judges offered to him in order to avoid an international uproar. He was found not guilty, but he was interned in a sanitarium for the insance. From there he was rescued by the French Charge' d'Affairs, who put him aboard a ship sailing for France.

In a certain way, Orelie-Antoine was emulating Cortes and Pizarro, who--with the help of the Spanish crown--had crossed the ocean to become white emperors in the New World. However, Orelie-Antoine's era was a different one. In 1860, the Monroe Doctrine discouraged incursions into Latin America by foreign powers. Chile and Argentina had become militarily and institutionally so strong that they could defend their territories. Orelie-Antoine's timing was unfortunate. With his strong civilizing mission, he had arrived too late in the land of his dreams.

The Making of a King

However, in the collective memory of the Araucanians, Orelie-Antoine I would remain as the foretold and hoped-for king who had vanished. The machis, Araucanian sorceresses, had predicted that a white man would come to unite the peoples of Arauca--peerless warriors who lacked a unified government and a...