II
Thus was accomplished one of the most heroic military feats in history. “The passage of the Andes by the Army of San Martin,” says Lord Bryce, “has been pronounced by military historians of authority to have been one of the most remarkable operations ever accomplished in mountain warfare. The forces which he led were no doubt small compared ... to those which Hannibal and Napoleon carried across the Alps. But ... the passes to be crossed were much higher.”
Lord Bryce also says that San Martin comes nearer than any one else to being “the George Washington of Spanish America.”
And San Martin has been called, “the Hannibal of the Andes.”
NOT FOR HIMSELF
Honours were showered on San Martin after the battle of Chacabuco. News of his successful crossing of the Andes and of his victory, reached Buenos Aires. All day long shouts sounded through the streets. Cannon roared from the fort and from the squadron in the roadstead. San Martin’s portrait was hung where all could see it, draped in flags captured from the enemy.
The Argentine Government decreed a sword and badge for San Martin, and struck medals for his soldiers. They voted a pension of six hundred dollars a year for his little daughter, Maria Mercedes. They also sent him a commission as Brigadier-General, the highest rank in the Argentine service.
San Martin accepted the pension for his little daughter, and laid the money aside for her education. But he refused the commission, asking only for more arms, money, and men, to carry on the campaign.
Meanwhile, the grateful Chilean Government offered to make him ruler of all Chile. But this honour, too, he declined. So his friend and companion-at-arms, Bernardo O’Higgins, in his stead, was elected Supreme Ruler of the country.