The South American Republics, Part 2 of 2

by Thomas Cleland Dawson

BERNARDO O'HIGGINS.

Carrera's failure at Chillan cost him his prestige, his rivals at Santiago took advantage of his absence to expel him from the junta, his violent measures at Concepcion exasperated its people to revolt, and his own troops became mutinous. The new Santiago junta formally nominated O'Higgins to the chief command and Carrera was compelled to withdraw. The new general inspired some vigour into the patriot operations, but the arrival of reinforcements from Lima gave the royalists an overwhelming preponderance in cavalry and artillery. The junta had recalled a large part of his forces to defend Santiago, when an unexpected movement by one of the Spanish divisions resulted in the capture of the important city of Talca, half-way between the capital and Concepcion. Though O'Higgins and the troops left in the South managed to repulse an attack of the main Spanish army, an army sent from Santiago failed to retake Talca and its destruction left the capital unprotected. O'Higgins by forced marches succeeded in beating the Spaniards to the Maule, saving the city for the moment. Meanwhile, a revolution had overthrown the junta responsible for the fatal Talca expedition and the new dictator entered into negotiations with the Spanish commander. The latter, confronted by O'Higgins' army, and anticipating a desperate resistance, thought it best not to press his advantage too far. He agreed to an armistice, and Chile offered to acknowledge allegiance to Spain, send members to the Cortes shortly to assemble, and accept any Constitution which might be promulgated by that body, if the viceroy would recognise ad interim the present Santiago government and withdraw the Spanish army within two months.

One result of the armistice was the liberation of the Carreras from the Spanish prison in which they had been confined since their deposition the year before. They hastened to Santiago and started an intrigue for the overthrow of Lastra and O'Higgins. Such was their popularity with the troops in Santiago and the extent of their family influence that they got possession of the city and were preparing to dispute the supreme control of Chile with O'Higgins by force of arms when news arrived that the viceroy refused to sanction the compromise, and that an army of peninsular veterans was on its way. Though Carrera and O'Higgins pretended a reconciliation, each distrusted the other, and took the field virtually independent. Under such conditions Chilean success was impossible. O'Higgins' division was annihilated at Rancagua, Carrera abandoned the capital, and fled with a few hundred followers over the Andes, where he was joined by O'Higgins and the more determined patriots. This influx of the pick of the fighting men of Chile was a valuable reinforcement for the army which San Martin was already organising behind the shelter of the eastern foothills. Between the rival Chilean leaders, Carrera and O'Higgins, he chose the latter, gave him his confidence, and made him his chief lieutenant, while Carrera, finding no place in San Martin's entourage, went on to Buenos Aires, never again to return to his native country.

Both aristocracy and people in Chile were tired of the military misrule which they had suffered during the dominance of the patriot chiefs. A deputation of the most prominent citizens went to welcome General Osorio as he advanced to Santiago after the battle of Rancagua. Within a month the Spanish power was securely re-established throughout the country. The leading revolutionists who remained in Chile were executed or banished, more than a hundred being exiled to the desolate island of Juan Fernandez. During two years and a half—from 1814 to 1817—Osorio and his successor, Marco del Ponte, ruled Chile with a rod of iron. So far as possible everything was restored as it had been before 1810. The Spanish judges were reinstated, elective municipal councils abolished, the newspapers suppressed, and all the liberal reforms revoked.

Meanwhile San Martin, behind the screen of the Andes, and only a hundred and fifty miles from Santiago, was forging a thunderbolt destined to shatter into fragments the edifice which Abascal had been so skilfully constructing through seven laborious years. The story of how the silent Argentine gathered and equipped the "Army of the Andes" has already been told. In the chapter devoted to Argentina the reader will find a meagre description of his marvellous march over the cloud-high passes, the descent into the plain of Aconcagua made so suddenly that the Spanish forces could not hurry up to bar his way, the prompt advance over the low transverse range which forms the northern boundary of the plain where Santiago stands, and the overwhelming victory in the gorge of Chacabuco against the pick of the Spanish veterans, who confidently stood to the attack, never dreaming until San Martin was right upon them that his main body had had time to reach the spot. The Spanish authorities at Madrid and Lima had made the irretrievable mistake of underestimating the efficiency of his army. They thought the troops in Chile amply able to take care of any four thousand men the patriots could get together, but San Martin's army was differently provided and organised than the undisciplined masses which had been routed at Huaqui, Villapugio, and Rancagua. The Spanish generals were not so much surprised at his crossing the Andes as at finding the troops which reached the Chilean plains to be well furnished with artillery, cavalry, and ammunition, perfectly ready for an aggressive campaign, and a match man for man for any force that could be brought against them.

RAILROAD BRIDGE BETWEEN SANTIAGO AND VALPARAISO.

The royalists lost twelve hundred of their best men at Chacabuco; only a thousand escaped from the field to fly in disorder toward Santiago. On the way they met the Spanish cavalry riding to join them, but Captain-General Marco, instead of rallying the three thousand men who remained under his orders, hurried out of town toward Valparaiso, anxious for his personal safety. San Martin had expected to be obliged to fight another battle and kept his army together, instead of pursuing and annihilating the dismayed Spaniards. More than half the latter managed to escape to Valparaiso, where they embarked for Peru. Santiago received the conqueror with no great enthusiasm. The moneyed classes feared another prolonged civil war with its attendant confiscations, forced contributions, and general disorder; the common people cared little whether a Spaniard or an Argentine occupied the governmental palace. However, no one dreamed of resistance; the partisans of the proscribed patriots and the votaries of independence and liberalism were delighted; San Martin with his host of hardy gauchos and Chilean exiles assumed full control of the capital. He summoned an assembly of notables who promptly and unanimously elected him "Governor of Chile with plenary powers." But this was not what the far-sighted and patriotic soldier wanted. He realised that Chile could never give that unquestioning support so vital to the success of his cherished campaign against Peru so long as any stranger, even himself, governed by force. San Martin peremptorily declined the honour, but intimated that he would be glad to see his staunch friend, O'Higgins, selected dictator, and accordingly the enemy of the Carreras was placed at the head of the new Chilean government.