“I know what passes in the most secret corner of your houses. Tremble, if you abuse my indulgence. Let this be the last time that I have to remind you that your destiny is irrevocable and you must submit to it.”
Public safety in no way justified such rigour, which was a violation of promises given. But there was more in this decree than excessive severity and intemperance of language, it formed part of a financial plan. War is war, and the independence of South America was in great part paid for by Spanish fortunes, wrested from their owners by forced loans and by confiscations. It was now the turn of the Spaniards of Peru to contribute their share. San Martin had made use of this system in Mendoza, he had recommended it in Chile. Sentimental characters do not lead great causes to victory in the struggle of life. All the same, the measure was unjustifiable in the absence of any overt act on the part of the Spaniards.
One result of this new system of persecution, was the banishment of the Archbishop of Lima, a man of eminent piety and eighty years of age, who, though a Royalist, had aided San Martin in quieting the city on his arrival; he had authorized with his presence the municipal council which had declared the country independent; he had assisted at the Te Deum which celebrated the declaration. Most of the Peruvian clergy were ardent Patriots, but not so the high dignitaries of the church. San Martin took advantage of a mere pretext to send him his passport and an order to leave the country in twenty-four hours.
On the 4th September, 1821, when San Martin was, as Protector of Peru, in the apogee of his power, his old enemy José Miguel Carrera, died cursing him in Mendoza. Associated with Artigas, Ramirez, Bustos, and others of the Gaucho chieftains of the Argentine Provinces, Carrera had distinguished himself among them for rancorous hatred of Buenos Ayres. Unfortunate in all his enterprises, he was at length captured, and shot as a bandit, upon the same bench where his brothers had perished before him.
CHAPTER XXXIII.
THE PROTECTORATE OF PERU.
1821—1822.
PERU was independent, but she had not achieved independence for herself; neither did she know how to organize a Government when she had one of her own; for everything she was indebted to outside help—principally to San Martin, who was now Protector of Peru, but whose power depended upon the help of Peru, and upon the support of the two armies he had brought with him. But in Peru the national spirit which he had awakened had a latent tendency to turn against him as a stranger, and in the armies the spirit of discipline was relaxed in direct consequence of that act of disobedience of his own which had placed him at their head. The bond of union which still gave strength to these discordant elements was the Lautaro Lodge, over which his influence was still supreme.
As Arenales had foreseen, Lima became the Capua of the liberating army; everything appeared to be left to the slow action of time. The military officers murmured and conspired, while Cochrane strove in every way he could to preserve the fleet from the enervation which was Peruvianising the army.
Far otherwise passed their time the Royalist leaders in the Highlands. Masters of a healthy country abounding in resources, a reaction had set in in their favour, when the people found themselves deserted and bethought them of the sacrifices they had made. In fifty days La Serna was ready to assume the offensive. At Callao there was great provision of arms much needed in the Highlands; the garrison, if left alone, must soon succumb to hunger. A carefully selected division of 2,500 infantry and 900 horse, with seven guns, was put under command of Canterac, with Valdés as chief of the staff, and sent to the relief of the beleaguered stronghold, while La Serna remained with the rest of the army at Jauja.
Canterac marched on the 25th August, crossed the Cordillera, and descended by the pass of San Mateo towards Lima without meeting a single foe. At Santiago de Tuna, fifty miles from the capital, he divided his force into two columns, with orders to concentrate at Cienaguilla, eighteen miles to the south of Lima. Loriga, with the left column and nearly all the cavalry, went by the defile of Espiritu Santo, cutting to pieces a small Patriot force on his way.
The main column, under Canterac himself, kept straight on for the valley of Rimac, to give the Patriots the idea that he was marching straight on the capital; but during the following night he turned off to the left, seeking the other road by Espiritu Santo. The way was across the slopes of the mountains, over an unknown country where there was no water, and which was so cut up by abrupt descents that horsemen and infantry alike lost their footing and fell over precipices. The unpopularity of the Spaniards was so great that they could not find one guide in all the transit. On the 4th September they reached a barren stretch of sand over which, dying of thirst under a tropical sun, they plodded wearily along; two companies could have destroyed them all. The soldiers threw themselves on the ground utterly prostrate; immediate promotion was offered to the first who should find water; not a man stirred. Yet they were little more than a mile from the river Lurin. At last Canterac himself found water; and those who were strong enough to move filled flasks and carried the precious liquid to their dying comrades, only just in time to save the life of Valdés, who commanded the rear-guard. On the 5th they rejoined Loriga’s column at Cienaguilla.