THE REPASSAGE OF THE ANDES.
1818--1819.
While in the years 1818 and 1819 the independence of Chile became firmly
established, and in the north of the continent the revolution crossed
the Andes and invaded New Granada, the prospects of the United Provinces
clouded over; civil war blazed on the coasts of La Plata, and public
opinion in Chile turned against the American policy of San Martin, while
a fresh expedition of 20,000 men was assembling at Cadiz, destined for
the River Plate.
In the South of Chile Chillán and Talcahuano were the strongholds of the
Royalists. Concepcion was the centre of the reaction, while Valdivia and
Chiloe gave them access to the sea. San Martin saw that no expedition to
Peru was possible while this enemy remained in his rear. In September,
1818, Zapiola was strongly reinforced and was instructed to commence
operations, but his force was still unequal to the task. In November
Balcarce was sent south with an army of 3,400 men and eight light
field-pieces. In order to avoid useless bloodshed, San Martin proposed
an arrangement to Sanchez for the evacuation of the territory. Sanchez
referred him to the Viceroy of Peru.
In December Freyre crossed the Nuble with the vanguard and occupied
Chillán, which was evacuated on his approach. In January Balcarce
arrived with the bulk of the army, but Sanchez had already retreated
from Concepcion and Talcahuano, and in spite of an active pursuit by
Escalada and Alvarado crossed the Bio-Bio with small loss, and shut
himself up in the fortress of Valdivia. This is spoken of as the last
campaign in Chile, but bands of Indians and banditti still for three
years infested the southern provinces.
José Miguel Carrera, still in Monte Video, fulminating vows of vengeance
against Pueyrredon, San Martin, and O’Higgins, there met some French
adventurers whom he succeeded in interesting in his cause. They went on
to Buenos Ayres, and, after many secret consultations at the house of
Doña Javiera, three of them left for Chile in November with a troop of
bullock carts. Pueyrredon received secret information that another
conspiracy was on foot, and sent a party after them to arrest them. One
of them, named Young, attempting to resist, was shot. The other two,
with some of their accomplices who had remained in Buenos Ayres, were
tried by court-martial on a charge of conspiracy to assassinate. Three
were acquitted, the other two, Robert and Lagresse, were shot on the
Plaza del Retiro on the 3rd April, 1819, protesting their innocence to
the last.
San Martin, on his return to Chile, found that the successes of the
Chilian fleet had greatly relaxed the eagerness of the Government for
the projected expedition. Now that they had command of the sea they were
safe from invasion, and the treasury was so exhausted that the pay of
his soldiers was very irregular. The people also murmured against a
Government which relied for support upon Argentine bayonets.
Nevertheless, he and O’Higgins both issued proclamations to the Peruvian
people, announcing an expedition for the purpose of giving liberty to
Peru: “So that they would become a nation with a Government established
by themselves, in accordance with their own customs, with their
situation, and with their inclinations.”
Further, the Chilian envoy Irizarri, passing through Buenos Ayres on his
way to England, there signed a treaty of alliance with the Argentine
Government:--“To put an end to Spanish domination in Peru by means of a
combined expedition.”
In June, 1818, Bolívar stretched out the right hand of fellowship to the
Argentine people by an official letter to the Government, and by a
proclamation to “the inhabitants of the River Plate,” in which he sets
forth his favourite policy of a union of all the peoples of South
America. Some months later on O’Higgins wrote to Bolívar, proposing to
him an alliance based upon the continental ideas of San Martin.
San Martin had written from Mendoza to the Government of Chile and to
Balcarce, informing them of his plans for the expedition to Peru, giving
three months for collecting the necessary supplies. When he reached
Santiago nothing had been done, and the revenues were mortgaged for
months to come. He then wrote to the Argentine Government, giving a most
miserable account of the financial state of Chile, and the consequent
inefficiency of the Army of the Andes, which he suggested should be
withdrawn from Chile as the projected expedition was for the time
impossible. He also wrote to the Government of Chile, expressing his
fears of the speedy dissolution of the united army, and proposed that a
part of it should be employed in desultory attacks on the coasts of
Peru, while he himself resigned the command.
On receiving no satisfactory reply, he concentrated the Army of the
Andes at the upper part of the valley of Aconcagua, crossed over himself
with a small detachment to Mendoza, and was soon after followed by a
division of 1,200 men, by which operation he brought pressure to bear on
the Chilian Government by leaving them to their own resources, while he
recruited his cavalry in their own country, and preserved Cuyo from
being drawn into the vortex of anarchy which at that time desolated the
United Provinces. In this internecine strife he took no part whatever,
but the presence of a portion of his army in Mendoza strengthened the
hands of Government and aided greatly in bringing about a truce.
The first news which San Martin heard on his arrival in Mendoza was an
account of a terrible tragedy which had just occurred in San Luis. This
city was the prison of the principal captives of Maipó and Chacabuco.
They were well treated by Dupuy, the Deputy-Governor, who had only a
picket of militia under his orders, and who trusted more to the wide
Pampa which surrounded them than to prison walls for their security. The
officers were not confined in the public prison, but lived in houses and
mixed freely with the people. They were so many that they thought they
would have no difficulty in overpowering the small garrison. A plan of
escape had been for months discussed among them, when, on the 1st
February, 1819, Dupuy, on account of the disturbed state of the country
round, issued an order that they were not to leave their houses after
sundown. Captain Carretero of the Burgos regiment was the head of the
conspirators. On the evening of the 7th he invited a number of his
comrades to breakfast with him the next morning, proposing to spend the
day killing vermin in his orchard. At six o’clock next morning twenty
officers met at his house; he led them into the orchard and gave them a
light breakfast of bread and cheese washed down with brandy; then,
drawing a poniard, he told them that in an hour they would all be free
or dead, and distributed ten knives among them, telling the rest to arm
themselves with sticks. Captain La Madrid was sent with ten men to seize
the barracks, Captain Salvador, with six, to capture the prison and set
the prisoners at liberty; while he went off to join Ordoñez, Primo de
Rivera, and Morla, who, with their orderlies, would make sure of the
Deputy-Governor.
The first party reached the barracks, disarmed the sentry, and
overpowered the guard. In an inner yard were a number of Gaucho rebels
under arrest, among them being one who afterwards acquired terrible
notoriety as a Gaucho chieftain--Juan Facundo Quiroga. Quiroga led his
fellow-prisoners to the assistance of the soldiers, and, armed only with
the broken shaft of a lance, fought so fiercely that all the assailants
except one were killed, and he was badly wounded.
The party sent against the prison on crossing the great square were met
by the officer in command of the militia, who was galloping about with
his sabre drawn, calling the people to arms. Armed men poured out of the
houses upon them; only one escaped, the rest being killed.
Meantime Carretero, Morgado, and Morla had gone to Dupuy’s house and
asked to see him. Being admitted, they set upon him, and after a short
struggle threw him down, when Ordoñez and Primo de Rivera entered with
their orderlies, bringing the sentry with them, after shutting the outer
door. But a militia captain and a doctor who were with Dupuy, had
escaped and gave the alarm. A number of the townspeople, headed by a
young officer named Pringles, surrounded the house with shouts of “Death
to the Goths.” Dupuy rushed to the door and opened it, the crowd poured
in. Ordoñez, Morla, Carretero, and Morgado were killed. Primo de Rivera,
finding a loaded carbine in an ante-room, shot himself through the head.
Of forty conspirators twenty-four were killed, the rest were tried by a
court-martial, of which Dr. Monteagudo was President. Eight were
acquitted, seven were shot, but young Ordoñez, a nephew of the General,
was spared, partly on account of his youth, and partly because he was
engaged to a young lady of the city, whose relatives interfered on his
behalf. He was afterwards set at liberty by San Martin, who also gave
Quiroga his freedom as a reward for his bravery, a favour which Quiroga
never forgot.
Marcó del Pont, ex-Governor of Chile, was also at that time a prisoner
in San Luis, but took no part in the conspiracy and was not molested.
The repassage of the Andes by a portion of the army had the effect San
Martin expected upon the Government of Chile. On his return from San
Luis to Mendoza he found despatches awaiting him from Guido, from
O’Higgins, and from the Lautaro Lodge, informing him that all were
convinced that the safety of the country depended upon the despatch of
the expedition to Peru. At the end of March Major Borgoño arrived as the
representative of the Lodge, fully authorised to arrange all the details
with him.
San Martin required an army of from 4,000 to 6,000 men, and a supply of
500,000 dols., of which he would provide 200,000 dols., furnished by the
Argentine Government. He also accepted the rank of Brigadier-General in
the Chilian army, which was again offered to him.
By return of post he received the ratification by the Lodge of the
arrangement made with Borgoño, and an order to proceed at once to Chile
to superintend the preparations.
It was in these circumstances, when he gave himself up entirely to the
great work of his life, that he separated from his wife for the last
time. She returned to Buenos Ayres never to see him again in this world.
When he again saw his native land she was dead, leaving him one only
daughter, who went with him into exile.
On the 19th June, 1819, Pueyrredon retired from public life into that
obscurity which is the fate of great men when their appointed task is
accomplished.