| Catalina De Erauso |
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Catalina de Erauso was a Basque woman, daughter and sister of soldiers from the city of San Sebastian , 1592 . Although she declared her birth year to be 1585 , this was probably an attempt to appear older. She was expected to become a nun but abandoned the monastery at the age of fifteen, Dressed Herself As A Man , and started a long travel from San Sebastian to Valladolid . From there she visited Bilbao , where she enrolled in a ship, always through contacts with other Basques, reaching America's Colonies and enlisting as a soldier under several captains, including her own brother, who she inadvertedly killed along with many others. She participated in the Arauco war against the natives in South America (what is now Chile , Argentina and Peru ). She also participated in commerce, always for Basque businessmen. She killed many men in different walks of life, some of them soldiers, bureaucrats, or officers of the Spanish crown. To escape she took refuge many times in churches, taking Sanctuary , which by that time was sacred; soldiers couldn't enter into ''sanctuary'' in persecution of anyone. Furthermore, her Basque heritage kept her employed, even with such a lengthy criminal record. She wrote an autobiography, the 1838 edition of which is available on-line {Link without Title} . |