THE ABDICAT OF O'HIGGINS THE INDEPENDENCE OF CHILE BY A. STUART M. CHISHOLM BOSTON SHERMAN, FRENCH 6- COMPANY 1911 COPYRIGHT, 1911 SHERMAN, FRENCH & COMPANY CONTENTS PAGE PART I THE SPANISH COLONY 1 PART II THE SPANISH JUNTA 71 PART III THE BEGINNING OF INDEPENDENCE ... 93 PART IV THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE .... 179 TO RANCAGIL^-- PART V THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE ... TO MAIPO CHILE UNDER O'HiGGiNS 22761.4 PART I THE SPANISH COLONY "Mientras la tengamos, hagamos uso de lo que nos pueda ayudar, para que tomemos sustancia, pues en llegandola a perder, nos faltaria ese pedazo de tocino para el caldo gordo." ARANDA to FLORIDABLANCA. July 21, 1785. "While we hold it (America) let us make use of it as far as possible to strengthen us, for when we lose it we shall miss the piece of pork that makes our soup rich." "No he de dejar a los Chilenos ni lagri- mas que llorar." MARCO DEL PONT. "I shall not leave the Chileans even tears to shed." THE SPANISH COLONY The history of human progress cannot furnish a more interesting spectacle than to see arise, from the decay and degeneration of despotism and self- ishness, the white flower of freedom ; to see justice issue from corruption, equality from degradation, contentment and prosperity from oppression and neglect. Nowhere in the chronicle of nations is this contrast more strikingly represented than in the story of Chile, the roots of whose independence are to be sought in the conditions that Spain im- posed upon the colony during the period of her supremacy. These formed a comprehensive code of enactments whose only purpose was to augment the ever-increasing torrent of revenue that poured its golden flood of opulence into the royal coffers of Spain. These statutes were not infrequently suggested by Spanish Colonial officers, eager for the reward of royal commendation, and were there- fore often prompted by local and particular re- quirements which modified, without superseding, previous decrees. None indeed, or very few, was ever rescinded, but new were added to old until af- ter two centuries, Colonial law was become a maze and an enigma. In 1680 the Summary or Corpus called the "Recopilacion de Leyes de los Reinos de . 3 4 THE INDEPENDENCE OF CHILE las Indias," was completed under Charles II, after many years of labor in which some of the greatest lawyers and statesmen of Spain shared. This summary was divided on the plan of the Pandects, into eleven Books, each book into several Titles, and under each Title were arranged the laws per- taining to the subject under which they were grouped; but while this revision and summary re- stored a degree of order to the previous confusion, yet it is even to-day extremely difficult, at any stage of Colonial history, to ascertain the exact relation which the law sustained toward that which it sought to regulate ; and especially is this true when one wishes to trace the chronological devel- opment of particular subjects of legislation. Still, such as it is, the Recopilacion is the author- itative and ultimate voice of the King of Spain and of the Council of the Indies, and must serve as the basis of any broad and impartial review of Spain's method as well as of Spain's purpose in the scheme of Colonial government which is there elab- orated with such scrupulous minutiosity of detail. The immediate cause, which both manifested the necessity, and furnished the occasion, of the revolu- tion, was the occupation of the Spanish peninsula by Napoleon in 1808, and the gradual extirpation of any central authority which might reasonably assume to represent the Spanish monarch. The anxieties of suspense, the fluctuations of fear, and the final consummation of the apparently hopeless extinction of Spanish authority, plunged the Col- THE SPANISH COLONY 5 onies into an abyss of despair, from which, partly we must acknowledge, against their wish, they were led gradually into a twilight of loyalty, which eventually brought on the full day of independ- ence. It is this early dawn of freedom that Chile cele- brates as the birthdate of her emancipation. Sim- ilar movements occurred simultaneously in Buenos Ayres, Mexico, and Venezuela, and rounded out the full circle of revolution, so that when Ferdinand returned to Spain in 1813 and remounted the throne, he faced an apparently concerted revolt of the greater number of his colonial dependencies. Even at this time, by the use of prudence and lenity, he might have conciliated all disaffection among his Colonies. A little relaxation of the commercial laws, a few abuses amended, even a promise of amendment, however vague, would have confirmed the wavering loyalty of the greater part of his subjects and have perpetuated indefinitely his dominion over his Colonies, who wanted only a pretext to resume their ancient allegiance; but perhaps there was never a sovereign less fitted for a work requiring patience and a generous placa- bility. After the "family party" at Bayonne, he wrote to Napoleon to thank him for seating Joseph on the Spanish throne and to Joseph himself to con- gratulate him on his accession. At 'the same time he sent a despatch to the Asturians, calling on them to assert their loyalty to himself and their 6 THE INDEPENDENCE OF CHILE hatred of the "perfidious Frenchman" who had de- posed him. Then, four days later, he issued a proclamation to the Spanish nation, in which he required them to submit to the "beneficent pur- poses" of Napoleon. The truth was never in him, nor dignity, nor justice, nor human sympathy. Intrigue without sagacity, duplicity without tact, and selfish cruelty abounded in him, and trans- formed his early title, "El Deseado" into a later and more accurate one "El Despota." On his re- turn to power in 1813, he proclaimed his purpose to establish absolute government, and persecuted the members of the Cortes, who had saved his throne. Like all the Bourbons, he had "rien ap- pris, rien oublie." So the movement of 1810, which was not in any general sense directed against Fer- dinand but against Napoleon, which was not the outcome of resentment but of sympathy, was forced to proceed along the path on which it had un- consciously and with trepidation entered. The Colonial possessions of Spain in Amer- ica in 1810, comprised the Viceroy alties of Mex- ico, New Granada, Peru and Buenos Ayres and extended from Alaska to Cape Horn. The vari- ous provinces of Guatemala, Panama, Venezuela, Ecuador and Chile, were subordinate, and in some matters of civil and military government, subject, to the Viceroy within whose jurisdiction the prov- ince in question was included. The governor of a Province was appointed di- THE SPANISH COLONY 7 rectly by the King, although the Viceroy or the Royal Audience has for two hundred years the right of appointment in commendam. As Chief Civil Magistrate he was entitled Governor, and he was the President of the Royal Audience and Cap- tain-General of the military forces of his prov- ince. The Royal Audience, or Supreme Court of Law and Justice, adjudged all civil causes, as a Court of ultimate jurisdiction, as well as all important criminal causes. It was composed of the President the Governor and Judges called Oidores, whose number varied from three to eight in differ- ent provinces. Seniority of service regulated precedence in the Royal Audience ; the oldest Judge was Regent, the next oldest, Dean. In addition to the Judges, the Court included a Fiscal or At- torney General, an Asesor, a Protector of Indians and a Secretary. Of these none below the rank of Judge had a vote. The title Asesor is not unknown to those famil- iar with the jurisprudence of Scotland, where it has nearly the same value as in Spain, the Asesor being the legal advisor of the civil magistrate. It is an office similar to that of Corporation Counsel in some parts of the United States, except that in the dominions of Spain the Asesor exercised also judicial functions, and at times even acted by dele- gated authority as the representative of the Gov- ernor. The Alguacil Mayor, or Chief of Police, was an 8 THE INDEPENDENCE OF CHILE officer of the Royal Audience. The composition of this body varied slightly in different provinces and at different times. The Audience was, how- ever, more than a Supreme Court of Law. It pos- sessed advisory and at times executive func^ns, and formed a Cabinet or Council which was often at variance with the Governor and occasionally even hostile to him. The rmun'fripal grnwrnrnpnt.. called the Cabildo or Ayuntamiento, consisted of a Corregidor, or Mayor, as presiding officer, ten Regidores or Al- dermen, a Fiscal, an Asesor and several subordi- nate officers. Some towns, instead of a Correg- idor, elected two Alcaldes, who presided alternately. The Governor had no power of appointment or removal in either the Royal Audience or the Ca- bildo ; though subordinate to him they were in a way independent of him. The Judges and the Regidores were named by the King or by the Council of the Indies acting in his name. Occa- sion will arise later to examine the manner in which these royal appointments were conferred. ISOLATION The complete isolation of her American Col- onies was the first and most important means by which for several centuries Spain kept them in complete submission. This policy was inaugu- rated long before the magnitude of the project could be even foreshadowed, for in the letter in which Columbus imparted to Ferdinand and Isa- THE SPANISH COLONY 9 bella the news of his discovery of a new world, are these remarkable words. "And I say that your Highnesses ought not to permit any stranger to set foot here but only Catholic Christians, for the beginning and the end of this adventure was the growth and glory of the Christian religion." (Navarrete "Coleccion de Viajes i Descubrimientos" tomo I., paj. 71.) Columbus having thus pro- vided for the interests of religion, the Pope pro- ceeded to protect the political interests of Spain, and in a bull dated May 4, 1493, Alexander VI threatened with greater excommunication any one who should come to the new world to trade without a special license of the King of Spain. Relying on this double counsel, Spain endeavored to keep the Pacific Ocean a private and closed sea, a Spanish lake, and maintained her purpose in spite of the incursions of the great Elizabethan captains, Francis Drake, Thomas Cavendish and Richard Hawkins, and, in the following century, of Oliver de Noort and the Dutch. Lope de Vega himself sang of the exploits of the English in the Pacific. But this was merely an episode, as was also the license given to the French, after the succession to the Spanish throne of Louis XIV's grandson, to engage in trade with the Colonies of Spain. This license was speedily revoked and never renewed. To such an extent had the advice of Columbus and the authority of the Pope, coinciding with and supporting the manifest interests of the crown, succeeded in establishing and perpetuating the iso- 10 THE INDEPENDENCE OF CHILE lation of the Pacific Colonies. At the close of the Colonial period, on the very threshold of free- dom, in 1808, a careful census of the Kingdom of Chile showed, in a population of four hundred thousand, the scanty number of seventy-nine for- eigners, who represented thirteen different nations. Nearly all of them were employed in offices and stores as clerks, and among them all there were only three individuals who were not communicants of the Roman church. The wonder is that these three were permitted to remain undisturbed in the country, and in fact, on the 9th of January, 1810, orders were issued by Governor Carrasco to expel them also from the territories of the province. No accusation then could have been more absurd than the charge, made by Melchor Martinez, that the great cause of the revolution of her Colonies was due to Spain's neglect of the restriction orig- inally suggested by Columbus and which was in fact carried out with such pertinacity during the whole Colonial period. This is the one offense of which, in the conduct of her transmarine affairs, Spain was not guilty, and is amply refuted by a review of the royal decrees that instituted and en- forced the prohibition. By the first law of Title 26, Book IX of the Recopilacion, "no stranger shall leave Cadiz for the Colonies without royal license, under the penalty of the loss of his goods." The next law provides that "no stranger shall be allowed to embark for the Colonies without first being naturalized in Spain." Further laws under THE SPANISH COLONY 11 the same Title decree that "if any stranger shall be found in the Colonies without the royal license he shall be sent back to Spain by the first return- ing vessel under sufficient guard"; that "even those strangers who have royal license to remain in the Colonies shall not be permitted to reside in any port or in any place near the sea, but shall be obliged to live apart in the interior under the sur- veillance of the civil magistrates, who are required to keep them under strict and constant watch even to the examination of their correspondence." Such barriers as these, it seems, should have been ade- quate to prevent immigration or travel to the Spanish Colonies ; still, a few might surmount them. But these decrees were supplemented, these obstacles buttressed, by another law whose fre- quent repetition shows the importance that was attached to it by the King. December 15, 1558, Philip II decreed the following: "We order and command that all persons who shall trade and traffic in the Indies, its provinces and har- bors, with foreigners, of whatsoever nation, who shall buy or barter gold, silver, pearls, precious stones, fruit or any other kind of merchandise; or shall buy or barter the spoils of battle or shall sell supplies, ammunition, arms or warlike stores and shall be found guilty of such sale, trade, barter or pur- chase, shall be punished with death and the confisca- tion of their property ; and we command the governors and captains general of our provinces, islands, and harbors to proceed against such persons with all the 12 THE INDEPENDENCE OF CHILE rigor of the law and to punish them without fail and without remission. And we withhold from our Royal Audiences all power of dispensation or remission in the execution of the aforesaid penalties,, since our royal will is that the provisions of this act be enforced and fulfilled without change or favor. If any one shall disobey this law, whatsoever his state or condition, his life is forfeit and his goods shall be divided into three parts, of which one shall go to our royal treas- ury, one to the Judge, and one to the informer." Lib. IX, Tit. xxvii, Lei vii. This law was reenacted November 5, 1570, March 24, 1596; by Philip III March 2, 1602, October 18, 1614, and was enforced until July 14, 1799, when the penalty was reduced to six years at hard labor for those of ignoble birth and for the same term without labor for gentlemen. Moreover the viceroys and governors of the Span- ish Colonies were instructed to "regard any vessel, that entered the Pacific without the King's license, as an enemy ; even if it were a vessel belonging to a nation in alliance with Spain." Amunategui quotes a colonial adage. "Cada estranjero debe ser considerado por enemigo." Judge whether Spain seemed remiss as to the admission of for- eigners to her Colonies. Everything favored Spam's purpose to maintain the seclusion of her Colonies. More important than all else was of course their actual remoteness, which was greatly increased by the uncertainties of navigation, and by the timidity which length- THE SPANISH COLONY 13 ened the effective distance between peninsular and colonial ports in quite a remarkable degree. When Don Francisco Ibanez de Peralta, in 1700, came out from Spain, being appointed "Governor and Captain General of the Kingdom of Chile and President of the Royal Audience," he was two years in reaching the seat of his government. During the next century the time had been appre- ciably reduced, for when Don Bernardo O'Higgins reached Valparaiso in the summer of 1802, he had spent only a year in the voyage from Cadiz. Sixty years later, the introduction of steam again shortened the distance, for the Resolution, leav- ing Cadiz on the 10th of August, arrived at Val- paraiso the 5th of the following May. Six months was the usual duration of a voyage from Callao to Valparaiso. For two centuries ves- sels hugged the Peruvian coast and breasted the Current of Humboldt. Juan and Ulloa, who were sent out by Philip V on a voyage of inspection to South America, said in their report, "Formerly, and even until a few years, the voyage to and from Callao and Chile was rarely performed in less than a twelve-month, but a European pilot, mak- ing his first voyage in the usual manner, and ob- serving the direction of the currents, concluded that favorable winds might be found further out at sea. So in his second voyage, he stood out to sea and found that his conclusion was correct. He reached Chile in about a month, but this was con- sidered so short a time for such a long voyage, 14 THE INDEPENDENCE OF CHILE that he was suspected of sorcery and accused be- fore the Inquisition. He was arrested and ex- amined, but on showing his log and explaining his course, he was discharged; ever afterward, how- ever, he was known by the name of "El Brujo the Sorcerer." Between Payta and Callao is less than five hun- dred miles, much less than the distance from New York to Charleston. The same observers report that the usual time consumed in the passage be- tween these ports, "if very fortunate, may be from forty to fifty days." They heard a story in Lima which they thought well enough authenticated to quote at length in their memorial to the King, that "the master of a merchant-ship, who had just been married in Payta, took his wife on board with him for a trip to Callao. In the vessel, she gave birth to a son, who, when the ship reached Callao, could read distinctly; for after running to windward two or three months, the provisions failed and the master put into port, where several months were spent in procuring a fresh supply, and misfortune pursuing him, he spent some four or five years in tacking and victualling. Moreover, his ship was slow and ill-constructed, "so that the transaction," the authors conclude, "has nothing very wonderful in it." And really the most wonderful thing is the conclusion of two officers of the Spanish navy, who were so accustomed to the system of naviga- tion then in vogue among their countrymen as to see "nothing wonderful in it." THE SPANISH COLONY 15 RESTRICTIONS The conventual isolation of the provinces being thus established, the Spanish monarch determined to forestall the possibility of political discontent arising among their inhabitants. ,The restriction of education seemed the most efficacious means to accomplish this end, and the method which had so fully succeeded and with such disastrous intellec- tual consequences in the Peninsula was carried out more easily and more completely in the new world. The time had long since passed when Spain was the university of Europe ; but its decadence was in no way to be ascribed to the Spanish people, nor indeed can the church be held guilty in the full measure of blame that it has pleased many modern authors to attribute to her. It is to Isabella that Spain owed the revival of the Holy Office of the In- quisition, which had existed in Europe from the time of Justinian, but had never attained eminence until it became informed with the intolerant gen- ius of the Queen of Castile, from whose time it was sustained with a cruel energy of terror that finally drew a protest from the Pope himself. Similarly, the Indgxi Expurgatorius did not origi- nate with the Council of Trent but with the King of Spain, who, six years before the Tridentine Council was convened, drew up a list of prohibited books, which was sanctioned by the Pope and served as a model for later interdictions. But the Holy Office and the Index were but the beginning of the 16 THE INDEPENDENCE OF CHILE restrictions which were imposed upon the inhab- itants of the Colonies. Universities were founded in Lima, Mexico, Quito, Santiago de Chile and Guatemala, where canon and colonial law was taught and the the- ology of the Roman See. These institutions were under strict monastic discipline. A royal decree commanded that all the youth who should distin- guish themselves in study be compelled to take holy orders ; thus the university became the vesti- bule of the Church. The result of this decree was naturally to rank the matriculants in theology above those of the other faculties. It was a favored study. The students in the college of San Martin in Lima for many years pursued no course but theology, and therefore earned the unqualified approbation of Philip IV in 1626. Still even such universities as these occasioned uneasiness to the King, who per- haps realized the difficulty and uncertain issue of prescribing definite limits to the discursive activity of healthy young minds. This uneasiness is re- flected in many of the laws that were issued for the conduct of education in the Colonies. Before a student could receive a degree of any kind he must first swear allegiance to the King of Spain. Lib. iii, Title xxii, L. xv provides that "no one shall be permitted to receive the degree of Licen- tiate, Master or Doctor, in any faculty, nor that of Bachelor in Theology, who shall not first, in the presence of the officer who confers the degree and THE SPANISH COLONY 17 of the others who are present, swear upon the mis- sal that he will always sustain, believe and teach, that the Blessed Ever- Virgin Mary, the Mother of God, and our Lady, was conceived without original sin in the first instant of her natural existence. And if it should happen, which may God forbid, that anyone shall refuse to take this oath, then the degree shall be denied him." Charles IV re- plied to a petition that a University be founded in Merida, by refusing the request, saying that "he did not consider it expedient that education should become general in the Colonies." On the 21st of August, 1812, the Chilean Junta recorded the fact that until that day there had never been a school in Santiago de Chile where girls were instructed. This city at the time contained about fifty thou- sand inhabitants ; it was nearly the size of New York, and held more people than Philadelphia and very many more than Boston. On the 18th of June, 1813, the Junta recorded that until then, in the whole kingdom of Chile, there had never been more than four common schools for children, and those at different periods and for a short time ; and the population of Chile was over four hundred thousand, a much larger population than that of Vermont in 1910. The ecclesiastical censorship of books had been established in the reign of the Emperor Charles V, in the hope of excluding from Spain the heret- ical doctrines of Luther. Charles had adopted it, with added measures of severity, as a political 18 THE INDEPENDENCE OF CHILE weapon against the Protestants of Germany and the Netherlands, who embodied all the hostility with which the Emperor's favorite projects were threatened. In this two-fold form, ecclesiastical and political, it was introduced into the Spanish Colonies. Having passed the scrutiny of the In- quisition, the books that were destined for Amer- ica were also obliged to pass the inspection of the board of Censors appointed by the Council of the Indies. This was not a perfunctory service. The Censors of the Council received, to 'be sure, no books that had not already been accepted by the Censors of the Inquisition, but they were obliged to read thoroughly and to report minutely upon all the books that were to be sent to the Colonies. This second inspection must then have been required for political purposes, since no subordinate board would be suffered to revise the judgment of such Censors as the Presidents of the Royal Audiences of Valladolid and Granada, the Archbishops of Toledo, Seville, Granada and Burgos and the Bishop of Salamanca, who constituted the General Board of Censors. The Censors of the Council were enjoined not to permit the printing, sale, in- troduction or possession, of books treating of sec- ular or mythical matters, or fictitious stories, in the Colonies. They were obliged to examine every copy, "We command our President and official judges of the Casa de Contratacion of Seville, when books, approved by the Censors, are offered for transport to the Colonies, that they examine THE SPANISH COLONY 19 carefully each copy, reporting to the Council the subject of which it treats, and accept them not until after such examination." Agents of the Council renewed this strict scrutiny at every Colonial port of entry, but lest any undesirable volume, through some oversight or casualty, should happen to pass undetected through this multiplied inquisition, Philip II, in 1556, charged the Bishops of the Church to "exhaust every possible means to ascertain whether in your diocese any such books are to be found and to seize them and send them to the Holy Office in Spain and by no means con- sent that any of them remain in your province." In the improbable case that books might be printed in the Colonies or introduced there surrep- titiously for sale which, not having passed the various official Censors, might contain matter which the King would not approve, it was further decreed, that "Every person who shall print a book in the Colony or bring for sale books pub- lished elsewhere, without having received the royal license and the Inquisitorial sanction, shall be pun- ished with death and the confiscation of his goods." The Colonists were not absolutely forbidden to print books, but they were required to send twenty copies to Spain for the requisite examination and sanction before offering them for sale or other- wise disposing of them. The Rector of the Uni- versity in Lima, which was practically, as we have just seen, a school of theology, having claimed the 20 THE INDEPENDENCE OF CHILE right to print the theses of the students, was for- bidden to do so as being "very irregular." 1 These laws show the attention with which Spain regarded the education of her Colonists, but she / was never satisfied that her decrees were being v obeyed. A suspicion haunted the royal mind which found utterance in many letters on this sub- ject to the officials of his several Colonies. In 1686, Charles II, prompted by this vague mis- trust, issued an order to the then Governor of Chile, Don Jose Garro, "Inasmuch as my coun- cil has understood that, notwithstanding the well- known enactments of myself and of my ancestors, now in glory, many books have been published in the provinces of Chile, without my having received particular and especial knowledge thereof, thus failing to conform to the said laws, I have thought best to order and command you, as I now do, to remit to my Council, twenty copies of every book or pamphlet of any kind, even if scientific or his- torical, that may have been printed in the said provinces of Chile; omitting none, nor failing to obey scrupulously under any pretext. And I com- mand that for the future you observe this order with punctual minuteness," etc. This order was issued on the 8th of August, 1686, and in Novem- ber, 1811, one hundred and twenty-five years i "La universidad de Lima pretendid tener derecho para hacer imprimir los libros que escriben sus matriculados ; y esto se calific6 en real orden de 10 de agosto de 1785 por muy irregular." Libro I., Tit. xxiv. Ley xv. (Note.) THE SPANISH COLONY 21 later, the good ship Galloway from New York ar- rived in the harbor of Valparaiso, bringing the first printing press that Chile ever saw. A curious illustration of the prurient distrust with which Spain regarded her Colonies. THE ROYAL CULT With the yellow flag of Spain flying at every port and establishing a permanent quarantine of her provinces ; and with their intellectual arrest secured by the utmost detail of repression, the King of Spain, partly by accident, partly by in- tention, developed a third potent and effectual source of power. He offered himself as the object of a kind of reverence that had in it a violent strain of fanaticism. How this was achieved, how a sentiment was fostered into a passion, how the King came to dispute with the Almighty for the worship of his people, I will attempt to make mani- fest. As the language of love finds its loftiest ex- pression in terms of worship, so the high spirit of loyalty takes for its ultimate utterance the lan- guage of devotion. When Virgil says of Au- gustus, "I will always regard as a God him who has endowed us with these blessings of peace," and when Horace writes to Augustus himself, "To you, while still living, we award divine honor and rear altars where vows may be registered in your i"Deus nobis hace otia fecit, Namque erit ille mihi semper deus." 22 THE INDEPENDENCE OF CHILE name; confessing that as the past has beheld, so the future will disclose, nothing equal to you," l their language was not that of adulation, of which they were incapable, and which would have been offensive alike to them and to their Emperor, but of that spirit of sincere devotion that marks the culmination of loyalty. So when Lope de Vega inserts the King's name in the creed and says, "Despues de Dios, creemos en el rei," 2 the same spirit moves him, the spirit not of flattery but of devotion. They all uttered forth the sentiment of their generation, and as in Rome this spirit added a new god, Divus Augustus, to the Roman Pantheon, so in Spain it added in effect another person to the Trinity. Spanish poetry is so full of this spirit that Lupercio Leon- ardo de Arjensola seemed almost to transcribe the lofty strain of Horace, when he proposed that Philip II, then living, should be canonized, "in order that you might give advice to the Celestial Council concerning the government of the human race, of which your own reign would be the best example; in order that the storm-beaten sailor, hopelessly struggling in a hostile sea, might be saved by making a vow to visit your temple and make his thank-offerings there; in order that the ploughman, covering his seed in the earth, might i "Present! tibi matures largimur honores, Jurandasque tuum per nomen ponimus aras, Nil oriturum alias, nil ortum tale fatentes." 2 "After God, we believe in the King." THE SPANISH COLONY 23 beseech you, by your intercession with God, to bless and multiply it." This note runs through Span- ish literature for three centuries. Don Francisco Nunez de Pineda y Bascunan addressed Charles II, whom later writers called "El Imbecil," "Thou art the sun that doth enlighten us, the up- right judge that doth direct us, the pious father that doth nourish us." Philip II was the Muse whom Ercilla invoked in his Araucana. The Jesuit Ovalle believed that America had been cre- ated to add lustre to the Spanish crown. In the American dependencies of Spain this sen- timent was intensified and extended. To the Colo- nists there was only one ruler of the earth. Their knowledge of the world can be compared with that of a child brought up from birth in a nunnery, and even such a child might at times hear a whisper from the outer world which could never reach the Colonists of Talca, Mendoza or Tucu- man. They knew vaguely that, for some inscru- table reason, other nations were suffered to exist, nations like the English, who lived in the bleak north, subsisted on piracy, and were hateful to God, who had cast them out of His Church as here- tics. Outside of these wicked people, who were given over utterly to the Devil, the earth was the King's and the fulness thereof. There was scarcely any distinction in their minds between the Divine Majesty and the Royal Majesty; one was the title applied to the King of Heaven and the other to the King of the earth. 24 THE INDEPENDENCE OF CHILE We cannot properly regard the Spanish Colo- nists in the same light with their European con- temporaries ; they knew less of England and France than the Romans in the days of the Republic knew of the Picts and the Parthians. Their seclusion was absolute and their ignorance of the world, beyond the narrow limits of their little parish, was complete. The Spanish-Americans believed, then, that God, having reserved to himself the government of heaven, had entrusted to the King of Spain the temporal government of the earth. This be- lief was enhanced by the action of the Holy See, which delivered into the King's hands the spirit- ual supervision and control of his transmarine sub- jects, so that Philip and Charles held the peculiar relation toward their Colonies which resulted from the union in the same royal person, of the su- preme control of both the temporal and the spirit- ual interests of their transmarine subjects. This concession, which established the depend- ence of the Church on the King, was destined later to become a source of much regret and sorrow to the Church, when, in the fulness of time, the State, having succeeded to the King and inherited his rights, brought into perilous question the supreme authority of the Pope. The devotion of the Colonists to their King was fostered carefully by His Catholic Majesty. Nothing that would stimulate their admiring awe was neglected. No sailor was allowed to embark THE SPANISH COLONY 25 in the fleet for the Colonies without first renewing his oath of allegiance to the King and without having confessed and partaken of the Holy Eu- charist. (Lib. ix. Tit. xxx. L. liv.) The "Procession of the Royal Standard" was made the great annual festival of the Colony. The mem- bers of the Cabildo, in ceremonial dress, on horse- back and attended by a troop of cavalry, pro- ceeded to the house of the Royal Standard Bearer (Alferez Real), and escorted him to the Gover- nor's palace. Here that functionary was waiting with the Judges of the Royal Audience, and on the arrival of the procession they came forth and took their places in it. The Alferez rode at the Governor's left and the Regent of the Royal Audi- ence at his right. The procession passed through the streets, crowded with spectators, and entered the plaza, wkmf salutes were fired and the bands played. Thence they took their way to the Ca- thedral, where Mass was sung, the Standard was blessed and a sermon was preached, while the Alferez with the Standard sat in the seat of honor with a cushion at his feet. Afterwards there were feasting and rejoicing throughout the city, races were held, a bullfight took place in the plaza, and at night the whole country was illuminated with bonfires and rockets. The Royal Seal was venerated with the same devotion as if it were a piece of the true cross. When a royal decree was received, the Royal Audi- ence must be summoned, and while all stood un- 26 THE INDEPENDENCE OF CHILE covered before the King's message, they swore in unison, as if they were chanting the Creed, to obey it as if it were the command of God. This formula was prescribed by the King himself, who forbade the Governor to open a royal letter ex- cept in the presence of the Royal Audience and with the formalities which I have in part described. The royal officials were so far above the colonists that they were regarded as beings of a superior order ; how immeasurably above the ordinary at- tributes of humanity must His Catholic Majesty have appeared to the simple minds of the Ameri- cans, when such lofty personages as the Governor and the Judges of the Royal Audience prostrated themselves before a letter from the throne! This sentiment did not wane as century followed century. It was inculcated in infancy, it was fos- tered by habitual obedience, it was increased by transmission from generation to generation. His supreme and unquestioned authority in all mat- ters civil and ecclesiastical, his powerful han4 that weighed so heavily upon them at the immense dis- tance of seven thousand miles, their belief that they were born into the world expressly to become his subjects and slaves, combined with their ignorance of the world to invest the King with a divine sanc- tity and awe. Amunategui has found a good ex- pression for this sentiment. He calls it the "Dogma of the Royal Majesty." It culminated in a passionate loyalty which bor- rowed the livery of heaven for the worship of the THE SPANISH COLONY 27 King of Spain. On July 11, 1809, the Intendente of the Province of Coquimbo, having procured from some private and personal source the copy of a portrait of Ferdinand, issued a proclamation in which he informed the people of his province in glowing terms of its arrival, and appointed the 13th of July for a day of feasting and rejoicing. "Receive it as if it were the King himself; offer it anew your vows and faithful service; hasten to throw yourselves before its royal feet, full of the profound- est reverence; that it may recognize in you the devo- tion that you profess, and that you may show your- selves worthy of the incomparable honor of being the slaves of the greatest and most beloved of monarchs, the peerless Ferdinand. Cover the walls of your houses with decorations and fill the streets with flow- ers that the idol of our hearts may be honored. "JOAQUIN PEREZ DE URIONDO." The path that led from Coquimbo, the port, to La Serena, the Capital of the Province, was not properly speaking a road, it was rather a pass- age or a way, but during the two days before the fete, hundreds of citizens carried sand and stones in bags and baskets and filled up the holes, and covered the runlets with wooden bridges, and prepared the path to the city, that it might meet the royal approval. "When the day arrived," the Notary, Pedro Nolasco de las Penas, wrote to the Junta Central under date of July 22nd, "the portrait, surrounded by cushions, was placed 28 THE INDEPENDENCE OF CHILE in a carriage, which was festooned with gilded ribbons and filled with flowers, and drawn by eight men, to whom, after much dispute, the honor had been finally awarded, along the new road to the city. Incense was burned, the devout people kneeled as the car passed, the priests in gown and vestment met the sacred image on its passage," really, if Clio were not insensitive to shame, she would blush to record the tale of Pedro Nolasco de las Penas. However, the portrait at length reached the Cathedral, where the Dean and Canons received it and "with the utmost conceivable solem- nity and splendor of ceremony," it was placed, with many prayers and prostrations, upon the high altar. Then a Te Deum was sung, while salvos of artillery shook the church and the people shouted aloud their joy and filled the plaza with Vivas. For three days and nights the celebration continued. With no greater reverence could they have received a holy fragment of the True Cross, or a finger of the Blessed Bartholomew. This was the apotheosis of loyalty and devotion. To such a people the thought of independence would have seemed profanation. To withdraw themselves from the King's favor and protection would have seemed as horrible as to withdraw themselves voluntarily from the favor and protec- tion of God. It would have been more than a sacrilege it would have been a punishment too great for any crime. Liberty was the last thing they desired, if liberty meant for them to be THE SPANISH COLONY 29 thrust from the service of the King, and to be cut off, like the heretic and piratical English, from the service of God. So Spain's extremity excited bitter grief and sympathy among her Colonists, but no one entertained any open purpose of sep- aration. Men there were in the Colonies from whose eyes the scales had fallen ; men like Miranda, Rozas, Hidalgo, Fretes and O'Higgins, who fell in love with Equality, Justice and Freedom when those three ladies wore the mask of treason and hid for fear from the eyes of men ; but as yet their hope was faint and their purpose silent. REVENUE Simultaneously with this development of Power through the three channels of Isolation, Repression and King Worship, the real purpose and aim of the Spanish Court was being systematically and completely pursued. This purpose was Revenue, that exploitation of the Colonies, which the Conde de Aranda, in his letter to the Conde de Floridablanca, described without unnecessary cir- cumlocution in the picturesque style that marks all his State-papers. A hundred passages could be cited where the same purpose is stated less frankly indeed but not less convincingly. I have neglected to allude, in the consideration of this matter, to the spoils of the initial conquest. The histories of Robertson and Prescott at least are universally known, and reproduce, more or less accurately, the earlier annals and narratives of the 30 THE INDEPENDENCE OF CHILE Spanish historians. My purpose is to unfold in part the organized system of exploitation through which for some centuries the King of Spain di- verted to his royal purse the enormous sums which impoverished and ruined his country, and heaped up for himself in his Colonies, wrath against a day of wrath. The history of Spanish Colonial commerce is largely a history of the Casa de Contratacion de lasMtndias, the Agency of Colonial Commerce, which for two hundred and seventy-five years possessed a monopoly of Colonial trade. The Casa de Contratacion was founded by a royal decree issued by Ferdinand and Isabella, at Alcala on January 20, 150& In 1717, Patino, who has been called the Colbert of Spain, caused it to be re- moved to Cadiz, where its operations could be more satisfactorily controlled and more economi- cally administered. In 1778, King Charles III, among many important reforms in Spain's trans- marine service, withdrew this monopoly and ex- tended the privilege to other Spanish ports. On the 18th of June, 1790, the Casa de Contratacion was by a royal decree, abolished, or as the Span- iards say, "extinguished." With this prelimin- ary synopsis of the changes that the Casa under- went in the course of many years, I will explain the methods which it followed in its purpose to regu- late commerce. Every nation has a direct interest in monopoliz- ing, if possible, its Colonial trade. In order to THE SPANISH COLONY 31 simplify this attempt in Spain and to protect it perfectly, it was enacted that no vessels could clear for the Colonies but from Seville only. Barcelona, Malaga, Valencia and Cartagena could not legiti- mately engage in Colonial commerce. The edict of the King amounted to an effective blockade of these ports. It was a ]3ort-bill that was not re- ^ sented by the Spaniards oftposelii'ties, who, with- out a protest, saw their maritime trade with the Colonies rated by the law with smuggling. In Seville, the houses that could engage in transmarine commerce formed a close body or Exchange. They alone possessed the coveted privilege. This was not the only instance of the erection of a trading monopoly. In England, the East India Company possessed similar privileges under a royal charter, whose date ran back to the reign of Elizabeth, and which maintained its monopoly practically intact until 1680. But the Spanish Company continued to control Colonial commerce beyond the harbor of Cadiz. The merchandise was sent only to those merchants in the Colonies who were matriculated in tlje Casa, and, as the Company selected these and appointed them, they became simply the agents of the Casa. No Colo- nial resident could send an order for merchandise to Spain, even if he included the money with his order, except through one of these agents of the Casa; not until June 15, 1780, was the disabil- ity removed. Thus the Casa not only controlled v* the trade, but the Colonists were compelled to buy 32 THE INDEPENDENCE OF CHILE what the Casa saw fit to send to them, at the price that the Casa elected to exact. The importance of this unrestricted monopoly, which gave the Casa the same power over the commerce of the Colonies that the Council possessed over their laws, ;would seem to have been immeasurably greater than that of the English Company, and should, in hands as unscrupulous as those of the members of the Casa, have rolled up fortunes compared with which that of Sir Josiah Child would have seemed penury. To establish beyond controversy the authority of the Casa, Charles I on November 17, 1553, issued a decree that "in the Indies the regulations pro- mulgated by the Casa de Contratacion shall be observed and obeyed equally with other laws." In reality the Casa was but the Commercial branch of the Council of the Indies, which super- vised and controlled all matters pertaining to the Colonies ; and, while seeming to have a free hand, it was wholly under the control of the Council. Membership in the Casa was subject to the ap- proval of the Council and was indeed obtained by purchase from them; the purchase price of mem- bership being calculated, after a careful examina- tion of the books of the Casa, in such a way as to transfer the profits to the Council in advance. The supervision over the affairs of the Casa was constant and minute, so tkat the Casa became the mercantile agency of the Council, its trade name. Thus at the center of the web sat the Coun- cil, and in the middle of the Council, the King. THE SPANISH COLONY 33 Seville was the Custom House of America. It had its clerks in every port of entry of the Colo- nies, but they had no independent authority, and scarcely any discretionary power. The Council decreed an export duty of five per cent, on all goods shipped to the Colonies and an import duty of ten per cent, on the same goods when they reached their destination. This tax was the Almo- jarifazgo. "Between Spain and the Colonies, be- tween any two Colonies, between any two ports in the same province, whether by sea or land, every- thing that was carried for sale, use or consump- tion, even to the ship's provisions that carried it," paid the Almo j arif azgo to the royal treasury. Moreover, after the Almo j arif azgo of five per cent, had been paid according to the valuation in Cadiz, the merchandise was again valued according to the price that the Casa de Contratacion had established in the Colonial port to which it was sent, and again paid its dues of ten per cent, on this new and arbi- trary valuation. Under this system not only was all foreign competition eliminated but there was no rivalry among the merchants of Seville them- selves, who proceeded under a fixed mutual agree- ment, and profited equally under the law, like a syndicate. Thus while an increase of three hun- dred to four hundred per cent, in valuation between Cadiz and Callao was usual, it was not uncommon for the value of merchandise to be increased nine hundred per cent, between the two points, which would make the import duty at Callao nearly equal 34 THE INDEPENDENCE OF CHILE to the original valuation of the merchandise at Cadiz. Some kinds of merchandise paid even much higher duties than this. Cheap table knives, for instance, which sold for four reals the dozen in the English market, brought a price of thirty-two dollars the dozen in the Colonies or sixty-four times the original cost. A jar of Olive Oil brought twenty dollars in America and a jug of rum fifty dollars. When the Casa could exact such pay- ments as these, it is no wonder that they prohibited, under severe penalties, the planting of the vine and olive in America. To protect this monstrous monopoly by prohibiting competition with other nations the law was enacted on December 15, 1558, which I have already cited on page 11. The effect of these measures was to enhance in- credibly the value of commodities to the Colonists. Articles of wearing apparel became heirlooms to be handed down by will from father to son. In 1620, "Francisco de Riberos bequeathed to his son Hernando, his trousers of black velvet which he declared in his will had cost him six hundred dollars, a sum equal to at least fifteen hundred dollars to-day, and they were without any expen- sive ornaments ! A century later in Mexico a plain coat of European cloth cost a hundred dollars." But the Casa de Contratacion did not forget that buying is as much a part of commerce as selling, and having sold their wares at the extor- tionate prices that their monopoly empowered them THE SPANISH COLONY 35 to exact, they had no scruple in buying the Colo- nial products at a price so low as to discourage effort. Agriculture was abandoned and Chile be- came a pasture merely. Immense herds of cattle roamed wild through the upland valleys and evaded taxes by claiming no owners. They were hunted like wild beasts and for many years the only articles that Chile offered for export were their hides and fat, which were carried over the mountains on muleback and brought to Lima through Tucuman, which before the erection of Buenos Ayres into a Viceroyalty, was a part of Chile. HE FLOTILLA As Seville was the Peninsular seat of Colonial trade, so Vera^Cruz was established as the port of Mexico, (then called New Spain), and Portobello as the port of entry for South America. In each of the American ports a close supervision was maintained over all merchandise brought from Spain or offered for carriage to the Peninsula. Two fleets were sent yearly from Cadiz to the Colonies. In 1561 a royal decree was issued by Philip II. (Lib. ix. Tit. xiii. L. i.) "In order to further the development and security of Colonial commerce and navigation, we hereby establish and command that every year an Armada and two fleets, be fitted out in the River of Seville and Cadiz ; one fleet for New Spain and one for South America, to be attended by the Armada in going 36 THE INDEPENDENCE OF CHILE and returning." Another law fixed the date of sailing for the Colonial fleets in the month of March. The total amount of merchandise that the King's decree permitted these fleets to carry was twenty-seven thousand five hundred tons, but it appears from a memorial addressed to Charles II by Ossorio, that only one year during the whole seventeenth century witnessed the departure of a fleet from Cadiz with this maximum burden. But not every fleet that left Cadiz reached its destination, as the records of the British Marine show (although the British vessels preferred to attack the fleet on its return to Spain bearing home the spoils from its Colonies) ; while not every year saw a fleet leave Cadiz for the new world. From 1590 to 1595, Spain was visited by the * plague, which interrupted its commerce, and many ^ a year during the sixteenth and seventeenth cen- turies saw the Colonial fleet detained in Cadiz by the English cruisers ; so that in the period from 1580 to 1700 there were forty-seven years when no fleet sailed for Mexico and forty-ni^e when none cleared for South America. These trading fleets consisted of ten or fifteen vessels, averaging two hundred to three hundred tons capacity, and each fleet was attended by four or five vessels of war. The largest cargo that during the seventeenth century was carried by the two fleets in a single year was twenty-seven thou- sand five hundred tons, of which, according to Ossorio's memorial, twenty-six thousand tons rep- THE SPANISH COLONY 37 resented merchandise that had been imported into Spain from France and England. Mignet says that "of eleven millions dollars' worth of merchandise sent from Cadiz to the Span- ish Colonies, at least ten millions represented goods of foreign manufacture; while of every seventeen millions, that came into Cadiz, which was about the usual annual amount of gold, silver, precious stones and merchandise which the Colonies sent back to Spain, more than fifteen millions a year came into the hands of the traders and manufac- turers of Genoa, Paris, London and Hamburg." Meanwhile, in anticipation of the coming of the Colonial fleet, Portobello became the centre of great activity. Vessels from all the Pacific Coast filled theTiarbor of Panama, and the road to Portobello was choked with mules and wagons bearing the wealth of the new world, their annual tribute to the King of Spain. In Portobello the exchange and transfer of commodities lasted forty days, a period also fixed by royal decree. There seems to be only one instance recorded when this term of forty days was exceeded and Admiral Chacon ac- ceded to the urgent requests of the traders to prolong the fair for a few days at a cost to them of two thousand dollars a day, which sum went to the royal treasury. The only fair of recent times that can be compared with the fair of Portobello is that at Nijni-Novgorod which occurs annually and continues for the same period of time. It is estimated that trading to the amount of ninety 38 THE INDEPENDENCE OF CHILE million dollars is done at the Russian fair, but Alvarez de Ossorio, whom I have previously quoted, says that at Portobello "The years of least concurrence saw two hundred million dollars in gold, silver, pearls, emeralds and other prod- ucts of the Indies brought to Portobello." l Not all of this sum went to the royal treas- ury. It represented the annual trade of South America and Spain, but the sums that went to the royal purse were still enormous. In 1556, the royal exchequer received "seven millions dollars in gold and one million dollars' worth of to- bacco, cochineal, vanilla, cacao and other American fruits." In 1625, Philip the IV received sixteen million dollars as his immediate share of the receipts of the Colonial trade for that year. During the time of the fair, the King's officers busied themselves with their invoices and receipts, with their buying or exchange of merchandise and with levying the charges of transportation, freights, duties and taxes of various kinds. It was their custom to accept the simple verbal state- ment of the persons who offered merchandise for sale or shipment, in bales, boxes, or packages. No examination was made, no box or case was opened, no oath was required. And yet, in a period of time covering two centuries, and in the course of an annual trade amounting to many millions, there is only one recorded instance of i "el ano que menos vienen, son doscientos millones de pesos en pastos de oro i plata, perlas, esmeraldas i demas frutos de las Indias." THE SPANISH COLONY 39 fraud. If mistakes were afterwards discovered, restitution was faithfully made, even if the error were not detected for years. The tax that was next imposed on Commerce was the Averia or insurance against loss, damage, shrinkage or other deterioration ; and which varied from year to year from two per cent, to twenty-one per cent. This was a tribute to English prowess, and rose or fell as war or peace with England happened to obtain. In 1689, the Duke de la Pilata embodied in a memorial to the King, a calculation which was intended to support an argument in favor of creating a crown monopoly of paper. The invoice which served as a basis for calculation was a package containing twenty- four reams of paper. Vicuna-Mackenna, in his "Historia de Valpa- raiso," copies the Duke's calculation as follows : - Original cost $21.13 Export duties, Seville 1.25 Loading and other duties 6-50 Averia 2.75 Carriage Cadiz-Portobello ... '13.25 License and duties, Portobello 9-75 Carriage to Panama 20.87 Carriage to Callao 12.00 Duties Callao 5.50 Carriage Valparaiso 12.00 Duties Valparaiso 5.00 Carriage to Santiago 3.00 $113.00 40 THE INDEPENDENCE OF CHILE Original cost $21.13 Duties, etc 30.75 Carriage 61.12 $113.00 These are merely the commercial impositions. An excise tax, the Alcabala, 1 was levied on all in- heritances or transfers of property, on all sales and business transactions whether public or pri- vate, and on the barter or exchange of commodi- ties between any two individuals. Fixed at first, June 7, 1576, at two per cent., it was afterwards established at four per cent., and there remained until July, 1776, when it was increased to six per cent. Even at the rate of six per cent, this impost, while excessive, does not seem prohibitive, but it continued to be imposed on each transfer of the article taxed, until according to the Viceroy of Peru, Don Jose de Manso, it often amounted, on successive sales, before reaching its ultimate owner, to a tax of fifty or sixty per cent. It has been estimated that the Alcabala averaged thirty- five per cent, on all merchandise imported. Next in importance to the Almojarifazgo and the Alcabala came the Diezmos, or tithes. ^ Selden traces the origin of tithes back to Melchizedec, but from the time of the Mosaic law it has always i The Alcabala (gabelle) was not unknown to France, where, however, it was confined to a tax on salt, which produced during the administration of Mazarin a revenue to the state of twenty-seven million livres yearly. THE SPANISH COLONY 41 been levied for the support of the clergy. By the bull of Alexander VI (who was himself a Span- iard, of the House of Borgia,), dated March 17, 1501, the ecclesiastical authority over America was vested in the King of Spain and continued to be exercised by him until the fall of the royal power in South America. The King filled the vacant Bishoprics as well as the inferior offices of the hierarchy, and collected the dues of the Church, the tithes. "Inasmuch as the ecclesiastical tithes collected in the Colonies belong to us by apostolic conces- sion of the Holy See," begins the chapter on "Diezmos" in the "Recopilacion de las Indias," (Lib. I. Title xvi. law I.), "we command the officers of our royal Hacienda of said provinces to collect and receive all such tithes as are due and payable from those inhabitants engaged in hus- bandry or the raising of stock." "Of ten meas- ures, one, and of those things that cannot be measured, of every ten, one ; and this must be paid without taking out what may be required for seed and without allowing for rent or other expense whatever. Moreover, the said tithes must be paid of lambs, goats, pigs, ducks, geese, chickens and pigeons, even of such as are eaten in the families of those raising them, and must be paid at the time when such animals may subsist without their parents. Swarms of bees, milk, butter, cheese and wool, all fruits, all live stock, of ten measures, one, or of every ten, one, or of every five, one-half." 42 THE INDEPENDENCE OF CHILE In this and the following laws everything is specif- ically enumerated that could produce its kind or grow from seed. The annual value of the tithes in the diocese of Santiago alone, was estimated at two hundred and forty thousand dollars, notwith- standing the fact that the agents of the Casa de Contratacion had reduced the profits of agricul- ture to a point where the lands lay fallow and wheat was imported from Peru. A portion of the avails from this tax was used in paying the sala- ries of the priests and in the repairs and mainte- nance of the churches, and the rest went to the King's purse. The profits arising from tithes were so impor- tant that a decree was issued by the King "that no resident of any city, town or village shall leave his place of abode without a certificate from the magistrate that he has paid what tithes are due from him and that none remains unpaid." (Don Carlos, October 20, 1521. Lib. I. Tit. xvi. 1. xv). The royal fifths, quintos reales, had always been due the King from ransom and the spoils of suc- cessful warfare. In America the tax was extended to the proceeds of all mining operations. Many of the most valuable mines and mining districts were royal property and poured their undiminished flood of gold into the royal exchequer; but of all other properties the fifth of the gross output be- longed to the King. "Of all gold and silver ex- tracted from mines or from placers, the fifth shall THE SPANISH COLONY 43 be first taken out for the royal treasury; of gold, silver, pearls, or precious stones, taken in battle, siege or ransom, the fifth must be similarly given without any discount for the King's use; any pre- cious metal will be confiscated that is not marked in such a way as to show that the Royal Fifth has been paid. Of amber, lead, tin, copper, iron and all other metals, the Royal Fifth must be paid into the Royal Treasury." The only method of extracting ores was by amalgamation, and mer- cury was a branch of the Royal monopoly, the price of which was fixed (Lib. viii. Tit. xxiii. 1. viii.) at sixty ducats per quintal in Mexico, which would be the equivalent perhaps to-day of about thirty dollars the pound. This price was fixed by Philip III., October 17, 1617, and by Philip IV., July 13, 16&7. Other monopolies were playing cards, tobacco, salt, pepper and spices, stamped paper and the postal revenues. In the summer, ice was a royal monopoly and the officers of the Royal Treasury sold, for the King's account, the snow that was brought from the Cor- dillera to refresh the residents of Lima during the hot weather. The profits from the bull-ring went always to His Catholic Majesty. A volume might be written on the taxes of var- ious kinds that were imposed upon the Spanish Colonists. Miguel Cruchaga enumerates ninety- one distinct taxes that were collected by the King from the Chilean Colonists, and even in his list there are several omissions, for example, 44 THE INDEPENDENCE OF CHILE Primicias, or first-fruits. Escusado, a tax "for the war against the Infidels." Pulperfas, tavern licenses. Los Toros, bull-fights a royal monopoly. The "Bull of the Crusade" was one of the least of these taxes. This was an indulgence that every one was obliged to buy, every two years, pena del in- fierno. It cost one or two dollars for each inhabi- tant (Solorzano, "De Jure Indiarum," Vol. II. No. 3), according to his ability to pay, and was so productive that the Holy Crusade formed a tribu- nal only second in importance to the Holy Office of the Inquisition, and the post of treasurer, which as we shall see was the case with the majority of Royal offices, was put up for public sale, and brought the sum of twenty thousand dollars. This is at least the price that was paid for nomination to the office of treasurer of the Holy Crusade about the middle of the seventeenth century by Don Pedro Machado de Torres. The Crusades drew their last gasp before the walls of Tunis in 1270, when St. Louis turned his despairing gaze for the last time upon the unconquered city and fell dead in the arms of Joinville, but the business continued for centuries to be too profitable to be discontinued. In 1820, Lord Cochrane, then an Admiral in the Chilean Navy, having captured a Spanish vessel, discovered in the cargo "sixty enormous bales" of these indulgences, through the sale of which, the Indian slaves starving in the THE SPANISH COLONY 45 mines of the Bolivian uplands were to be choused out of their scanty rations to contribute to the success of the expedition of St. Louis against the Saracens, in the middle of the thirteenth century. Even the enumeration of the multitudinous taxes and exactions imposed upon the Spanish Colonies would be wearisome and unnecessary. "The Spanish Kings" (says Vicuna-Mackenna in his History of Valparaiso) "persisted in their ef- forts to turn everything possible into tributary gold by taxing the very vices of the Colonists, their remorse, even their crimes. Did they lan- guish in the choking heat of the tropics, a tax was laid upon the snow from the mountains. Did they smoke the tobacco of their own fields, tobacco was made a crown monopoly, and the Chilean farmer must buy from the King of Spain the fruit of his own labor. The only luxury in which the old and the poor could indulge was mate drinking, mate was made a crown monopoly. So was the pepper of the Chilean fields." In a word all that Spaing could furnish the Colonists was loaded down with more than its value of taxes, while the indigenous products of Chile itself were monopolized by the Crown. The grjy^aji<^^ well as^in. the most favorable districts of Spain. The grapes of Huasco are to-day made into raisins that are unequaled in the markets of the world and are regarded a worthy present to the King of England on his birthday ; while the wine of Huasco 46 THE INDEPENDENCE OF CHILE is finer than the old Madeira that our grandfathers en j oyed ; but inasmuch as their cultivation would interfere with Spanish trade, they were not in- deed taxed or monopolized but prohibited. The olive yards and the vineyards of America were forbidden by the King of Spain to bear fruit, and the laws of nature were annulled that the laws of the Recopilacion might pour gold into the cof- fers of His Majesty, the King. In Chile, however, owing to its distance from Spain and to the consequent difficulties of Com- merce, a certain laxity was permitted as to the planting of the vine and the olive. In the valley of the Mapocho near San Cristobal are some very old olive trees still standing. SALE OF OFFICES Mention was made earlier of Machado de Torres' purchase of the Secretaryship of the Cruzada for twenty thousand dollars. This was not an isolated instance of the sale of an office of profit. It was the rule in the Spanish Colonies. As early as the 15th of October, 1522, (Lib. viii. Tit. xx. 1.1), a royal decree issued, ordering the public sale of forty-nine distinct offices in each of the provinces or colonies of America. This, law, promulgated by Dona Juan a, was re-enacted by Charles I' in 1557; by. Philip II. in 1587 and 1591; by Philip III. in 1610 and by Philip IV. in 1615. It was never an- nulled but remained in force until the Revolution. THE SPANISH COLONY 47 It provided for the sale, to the highest bidder, of certain specified offices of public trust and author- ity throughout all of the colonial possessions of Spain, and was followed by a series of enactments, providing, with exquisite minuteness, for all the de- tails of its application. These offices were to be legally filled only by this process of public auction, and the Governor or Viceroy was directed to remit the proceeds to the Royal Treasury. Merit alone was a disqualification. The measure was found to be so profitable that the number was constantly increased of offices thus openly sold, until all were become venal, from the highest to the lowest. The control of this method rested securely in the hands of the Council in Madrid, since all offices from Viceroy to Corporation At- torney or Clerk of the Cabildo, were filled by ap- pointment of the King. In 1709, Don Andres de Ustariz bought the Governorship of Chile for twenty-four thousand dollars, and while Jose An- tonio Rojas was in Spain, his family bought for him at auction, the position of Regidor in the Cabildo of Santiago. In 1715, Juan Bautista Tobar paid twenty-eight thousand dollars to be named Military Governor of Valparaiso, which port took on a feverish activity during the early years after the accession of the House of Bourbon to the throne of Spain in the person of Philip V. The hope of speedy gain was the natural inccn- ^ tive to this mercenary competition, but often the emoluments of office would not immediately reim- 48 THE INDEPENDENCE OF CHILE burse the successful bidder, while many of the sub- ordinate offices were found to produce a sum less than the actual purchase money. This gave rise to complaints and claims which were carried from the colonial authorities and laid before the King, who on September 29, 1602, issued a decree pro- viding that "after the sale of public offices the plea of deception or misrepresentation be not allowed and that this be stipulated as a condition previous to such sale." At any rate one would always have the resource of resigning from an unprofitable office? This was in some cases done, and gave oc- casion to a new decree which issued just two years later, September 25, 1604, and which closed this door also by providing "that all venal offices may be resigned by the payment in each instance of the sum fixed by the present law," that is, by the re- newed payment of one-third to one-half of the cost of the original appointment. When the of- fice thus became vacant, it was again put up for sale to the highest bidder, and the proceeds went as before to the Royal Treasury. In its effect upon the people of Chile, the sale of offices produced even worse results than the in- genious system of multiplied imposts, that were levied wherever there was any chance of profit to the King; for this added the irregular extortion of individuals to the legal exactions of the crown, and reproduced all the ancient evils of the Roman pro-consular government. o o THE SPANISH COLONY 49 The Colonies were regarded as a field where needy adventurers, who had squandered their possessions at home, could speedily enrich themselves, and re- sume their prodigal career in Madrid. Residence in the Colonies was an exile, to be shortened in every way consistent with the necessary accumulation of wealth. It was possible in three or four years to amass a fortune in Peru and Mexico, and the offi- cials in Chile endeavored to force from that colder and less favored land equal wealth with their broth- ers in those countries. The result was the hope- less degradation of the class whose industry fur-* nished thlTonljr wealth of the Colony, for the farm- ers finding themselves deprived of even a meagre share of the profits of their own labor, gave over their fertile fields to neglect, and yielded themselves as vassal-tenants to their more powerful neighbors, who might be able to resist the injustice of the Crown officers, and who would at least afford them protection, shelter and food in return for service. In comparison with the financial returns from this system of awarding public offices, the revenue derived from the sal of titles of nobility was not very large, and yet it was large enough not to be neglected. In Lima there were sixty-three pro- vincial Barons, Counts and Marquises, whose orig- inal title had cost each of them ten thousand dol- lars, besides an annual fine, in some instances, of five hundred or one thousand dollars for entail. These titles, delightful to colonial pride, were re- 50 THE INDEPENDENCE OF CHILE stricted to local recognition., and were a subject for the exercise of ridicule in the Peninsula by the very Court that received the fees for their grant. INDIVIDUAL EXTORTION One of the governors who carried this system of spoliation to its extreme was, Don Francisco Ibanez de Peralta, who left Spain a bankrupt, and reached Chile after a passage of two years, with new debts following him from every port where he had landed. The salary then accorded by Spain to the Chilean governor was eight thousand dol- lars per annum. Ibanez was friends with the Coun- cil of the Indies, who had promised him a free hand in Chile. They were perhaps among his Peninsu- lar creditors and desired to get their accounts settled. On his arrival in Chile his activities be- gan. He launched out into traffic of every kind ; raising cattle, buying crops, selling justice. He opened a market in Santiago, he started grist- mills, the Governor's palace in the Plaza del Rei became a store where all kinds of merchandise were to be purchased. He sold everything that was salable, but the other side of his ledger was a paradigm of lavish economy. He paid for noth- ing, overbearing his creditors with the most insolent threats. Among the accounts thus rendered fa- mous during his Chilean service, was a bill for stable-rent that neither entreaties nor menaces could prevail on him to liquidate. He sent agents throughout the province THE SPANISH COLONY 51 among the Indians, who compelled them to buy goods that he could not sell in the city, silk stockings, laces, eyeglasses, things they had no use for, but which were forced upon them at ex- orbitant prices razors, doorkeys, Spanish come- dies, buttons. Among the northern Indians this was a profitable trade, but to compel the Araucans to purchase such things was as if General Custer had tried to compel Sitting Bull to buy "Hollo on the Rhine," or as if General Crooke had forced upon Geronimo, "Dotty Dimple at Play," for four dollars the copy. Still, undeterred by occasional failure, the trade went briskly on. His mania for traffic led him to neglect the ac- counts of the Government, although the rumor ran that this seeming neglect only served to conceal his peculations. He caused several military tumults by withholding the pay of the soldiers on the frontier. The Council of the Indies answered the repeated petitions for relief that poured on them from Chile by imposing heavy fines upon the Governor-trader and keeping him in office. But these fines went not to the outraged and oppressed Chileans but to the purse of His Majesty, who thus acknowledged himself Ibanez' accomplice. How much money Ibanez accumulated during his term of office, I have not found recorded, but his successor, Andres de Ustariz, thought it a good speculation to pay twenty-four thousand dollars, a three years' purchase, for the opportunity to work the same field, and in the case of Ustariz we 52 THE INDEPENDENCE OF CHILE have the curious testimony of a letter written to King Philip V. on December 29, 1712, by the Bishop of Concepcion, Don Diego Montero del Aguila, in which he says that "the president hav- ing paid twenty-four thousand dollars for his office is now ready to return to Spain with five hundred thousand dollars and found a family es- tate." The most remarkable thing about this letter is that its date is less than four years after Ustariz obtained the office in February, 1709. Having said so much of Ustariz, it may not be amiss to record that he was eventually disgraced, fined fifty-four thousand dollars and superseded by Don Gabriel Cano de Aponte, who ruled Chile for sixteen years of prosperity and honor. Many estimates and many conjectures have been made as to the amount of revenue that the Colonies paid to Spain during the Colonial period. The con- sideration of this subject is not essential to the present purpose, but I may say that from Peru alone, between 1748 and 1754, the gold and silver carried to Spain amounted to one hundred and fif- ty-three million, eight hundred and forty-four thou- sand, four hundred and thirty-three dollars, or about twenty-five millions a year. The year 1749 contributed over thirty millions to this sum, while some earlier periods furnished much greater sums even than this ; to which of course must be added the amounts forwarded from Mexico and the other Colonial governments. Don Jorge Juan and Don Antonio de Ulloa, who in 1735 made a tour of in- THE SPANISH COLONY 53 spection through America and whose report was published in Madrid in 1749, narrate, among other curious and interesting facts, the discovery of the silver mines of Potosi which, they affirm, produced yearly over forty-one million dollars' worth of silver for ninety-eight consecutive years. It was not strange that the Conde de Aranda wished to keep the pedazo de tocino para el caldo gordo (the price of pork that makes the soup rich), and he was long since in his grave when Joseph Bonaparte seized the Spanish Throne, yet in the three years that followed the imprisonment of Ferdinand, the American Colonies, in addition to the enormous sums that the annual taxes wrung from them, sent to Spain the sum of one hundred million dollars as a voluntary offering to aid the jJunta Central and the cause of the King. It could hardly be expected that Spain, having expelled from her own soil the most industrious and intelligent portion of her population, who bore home with them to Morocco all the mechan- ical skill, all the manufacturing ability and all the agricultural information that existed in the Peninsula, would take any steps to encourage the establishment of factories or similar industrial ventures in her colonies ; but one reads with sur- prise the reason that Philip II. openly gave to Luis de Velasco when he sent him out as Viceroy of Peru. He directed him, "by no means permit the manufacture of cloth or any similar industries, 54 THE INDEPENDENCE OF CHILE for the reason that if it were permitted, the trade of those regions with Spain would be lessened." l CONTEMPT OF AMERICANS The European Spaniards looked upon the Spanish Americans with the most undisguised con- tempt, and when a Chilean, a Mexican or a Peru- vian had the temerity to seek anything from the Peninsular government, however humble might be his aspirations, and however great the services that he had rendered to the crown, his plea was uniformly disregarded and his supplication en- countered silence and disdain. If he sought in person the slightest favor from the Government he was allowed to wait in Madrid for years before an answer was vouchsafed him. True, it was not the American Spaniards alone who suffered the "torture of suspense in awaiting the result of their petitions in the anterooms of Lerma and Garro. Gil Bias knew in Madrid the Captain, Don Anibal Chinchilla, during an earlier reign. Chinchilla had lost an eye in Naples, in the service of the King, an arm in Lombardy and a leg in the Neth- erlands. "I wondered," said Gil Bias, "that, in his narrative of battles and sieges, not a boast escaped him, though he might easily be pardoned a word of praise for the half of his body that re- mained in honor of the other half that he had lost." Chinchilla lingered in Madrid until his i"para que no se enflaqueciese el trato comercial con Espafia." (Ano. X. I. pg. 82.) THE SPANISH COLONY 55 money was gone and he dined once a day on onions and garlic, until by a ruse he succeeded in termi- nating his affair to his own satisfaction. Jose Antonio Rojas was a Chilean who waited in vain for seven years for a response to a simple petition in behalf of his friend and future father- in-law, Don Jose Perfecto Salas, a gentleman who had all his life served the King of Spain as Judge and Attorney General (Oidor and Fiscal) in Peru and Chile, and who now only requested the royal permission to resign with honor on account of his old age. Rojas waited until Senor Salas was dead, but he never succeeded in getting a hearing on the case in Madrid. Don Manuel Salas, the son of the gentleman just named, having come from Chile to aid Rojas in his effort, himself spent several years in the same hopeless endeavor. Ro- jas wrote to his mother under date of August 7, 1777, "The condition of being a native of Chile is here regarded as something worse than a con- dition of original sin, for baptism will free us from this but from that there is no escape." Salas, howe,ver, was fortunate enough to achieve a success that touched with envy every admiring friend in Chile; he had the extreme felicity, as Amunategui narrates, on May 30, 1778, to be "admitted to kiss the august hands of the royal persons" and on the 5th of December of the same auspicious year, "he saw the King eat." Other- wise his mission was without effect. 56 THE INDEPENDENCE OF CHILE OFFICIAL RESTRICTIONS The panic that was caused in the Court of Ma- drid by the rebellion of Gonzalo Pizarro in Peru in 1547, and by the rumor of a conspiracy of the sons of Cortes in Mexico in 1567, never wholly faded from the official memory of the King of Spain, and was the occasion of a series of decrees which should for all time prevent the possibility of any Colonial official forming a personal following in the transmarine possessions of Spain. The ten- ure j> office, especially of high executive office, like that of Viceroy or Governor, was iliArpfnrp n. one.^ From the time of Valdivia, only one Gover- nor of Chile, Don Gabriel Cano de Aponte, was con- tinued in office for a period exceeding ten years, and during the two hundred and seventy years of Colonial history, the average term of office for the Governors of Chile was less than four years. Not only were the Governor's official duties prescribed so carefully as to permit him little latitude of con- struction or interpretation, but his personal con- duct was regulated by a rigid system that confined his relations with the colonists of his government to the barest essentials of official intercourse. The governor was forbidden to interest himself*' in any commercial business whatever, directly or indirectly ; to lend or borrow money ; to own any house, garden, farm or real estate of any kind; to be present at funerals or marriages, or to act as god father at baptisms ; to receive gifts or to THE SPANISH COLONY 57 contract friendships, either himself or his wife or children ; to make or receive visits in any other than his official capacity; to permit his children or relatives to contract a marriage within the lim- its of his government; in a word to hold him- self aloof from all the social, political and com- mercial life of the Colony which he governed. Don Alonzo ? nf TVnlp / was ruled, i^r^h^rTivedthe Governor, the Judgesx^ of the Royal Audience, the Bishop and all the im- / portant Colonial officers ; but the leading part that Santiago played in the drama of independence was rather due to the residence in that city of the aris- tocratic authority and prestige of the Colony, for the whole country relied confidently on the initiative of the representatives of the great families in the Capital. The character of the Chilean aristoc- racy was not at that time very different from what it is now. The same serious dignity, theV same courtesy, the same absence of ostentation, the same exclusiveness, the same lack of humor. Gentle in judging others and lenient toward their mistakes, they could dissemble, but never forgive, i "In Chile, he who is not a Lisperguer is a half breed." 116 THE INDEPENDENCE OF CHILE an intended affront, and looked upon the neglect of social courtesies as a serious offense to them- selves. Never petulant, never resentful but with due cause, their enmity, once aroused, was not easily appeased, and there has perhaps never ex- isted a people with greater inflexible pertinacity of purpose, with more unalterable loyalty of re- sentment, than the Chileans. Then, even more than now, the jreal power of the kingdom, outside of the royal representatives, lay wholly in the hands of these few families, whose pride, wealth,~ahd birth brought to their doors, like the clients of the old Roman houses, a multi- tude of retainers, tenants, and dependents, whose only purpose in life was to fulfill faithfully the commands of their masters. Among such families were the Larrain, Eyzaguirre, Infante, Aguirre Carrera, Vicuna and Aldunate. Intermarriage be- tween the children of these houses was an almost unbroken rule and their families were very large. Don Martin Larrain i Salas had twenty-four chil- dren, whose marriage confirmed the family ties that bound the Chilean aristocracy in a close band of sympathy, relation and fellowship. They were the large landowners, the wealthy merchants, the social leaders, and their influence was irresistible. On them depended the whole social, commercial and political fabric of Chile, and this united, patri- archal, power was openly hostile to Carrasco. Displeased with the arbitrary manner in which Carrasco vindicated his right to the supreme power BEGINNING OF INDEPENDENCE 117 in the Colony, they became progressively more hos- tile to Thim as each new measure offended them more seriously. It seemed that, if there were two paths before him, Carrasco always took the wrong one. He meddled arbitrarily in the election of a rector to the university and put himself in the wrong so violently and with such an obstinate lack of tact ; he sneered so openly at the modest little social functions of the Capital ; he preferred so shamelessly the excitement of his cock-fights to the more serious gatherings of the Chilean men of affairs, and disdained so pointedly to hold any personal intercourse with the very aristocracy of the country ; that the Chileans came to think it un- necessary to show him the consideration that his position demanded, and did not hesitate to evince their resentment and contempt of him both person- ally and officially. This in turn increased his violence. He inter- fered arbitrarily in the affairs of the mimipp^h'ty (Cabildb), which was the stronghold politically of the Chilean aristocracy, and in the affairs of the Audience, which was the centre of loyalty to the Spanish Court. He dictated the names of those who should be elected to the Cabildo and, then, by every means at his command, sought to exas- perate that body into open revolt in order that he might disband them in disgrace. In the Royal Audience, Juan Martinez de Rozas had soon per- ceived the difficulty of his position as Asesor, and had resigned the office to resume his former life in 118 THE INDEPENDENCE OF CHILE Concepcion. Don Pedro Diaz de Valdez, a lawyer who had come from Spain to practise his pro- fession, was elected Asesor in Rozas' place. The new Asesor was married to Dona Javiera Carrera, a member of one of the wealthiest and most influ- ential of the Chilean families, and, when the open rupture came between Carrasco and the aristoc- racy, the Governor, taking advantage of a sick- ness which, for the time, prevented Diaz de Valdez from performing his duties in the Audience, ex- pelled him from that body and brusquely refused to permit him, after his recovery, to resume his office. The Audience resented this interdiction of a member of their body, and formulated a protest to which the Governor paid no attention. The Governor was not long in antagonizing the Ec- clesiastical body, already embittered by his inter- ference in the election of the rector of the Uni- versity, and found the Cabildo, the Audience, the Church and the aristocracy arrayed as one body against him. Still he was not warned. IIe_JEas_determined to overawe the people of Chile and establish Tils au- thority by intimidation if possible, by force if nec- essary. He knew well that the time for concilia- tion was gone by, if indeed he had ever con- templated resorting to it. To appreciate at its apparent value from the Chilean standpoint the effect upon their minds of Carrasco's next move, it is necessary to consider BEGINNING OF INDEPENDENCE 119 an incident of prior occurrence, which increased to a remarkable degree the distrust entertained by the Chileans in respect of the intentions of their Governor. A new embarrassment had suddenly arisen to complicate the already bewildering situ- ation of Chilean politics. The royal family of Portugal had long since sought refuge in Rio Janeiro. Looking upon the cause of Spain as ir- retrievably lost, the Regent, Don Juan, after- wards himself the King of Portugal, regarded with longing eyes the fertile Viceroyalty of Buenos Ayres, and his wife, the Princess Carlota, who was the sister of Ferdinand, sought to influence the Colonists of the Plata to permit her to assume certain protectoral rights over that country. The issue of the intrigue was by no means clear, but the loyal Chileans took instant fright at what they regarded as a supersession of the rights of Ferdinand, to whose cause they clung passion- ately. Soon after this attempt was publicly known to be in process of adjustment, a courier arrived from the Princess Carlota with despatches for Carrasco. At once the Chileans became ex- cited and, being repulsed when they sought infor- mation, their curiosity reveled in the wildest con- jectures, and their imagination presented to their disturbed apprehension a whole world of calami- ties. As a matter of fact Carrasco might have pub- lished the Princess' letters in full without harm; indeed, if he had candidly disclosed their contents, he would have relieved the Chileans from much THE INDEPENDENCE OF CHILE anxiety and himself from much suspicion, but he was not inclined to take the people into his con- fidence and fatuously made a mystery of the matter. The universal belief among them came to be that the Governor, being in secret correspondence with the Princess of Portugal, would use his power, in a favorable conjuncture of events, to overthrow the Spanish authority in Chile, in favor of the Portuguese Princess. The despatch of Dona Carlota to Governor Car- rasco was as follows : "I am informed by my cabinet courier, Don Fed- erico Dowling, of the loyalty and love that all my countrymen profess for my beloved brother, Ferdi- nand VII. I am likewise certified by the same Dowl- ing of the singular zeal and energy with which you support the rights of your Sovereign. As well in his name as for myself, I thank you sincerely and I am convinced that you will give me the assurance that you will persist in so laudable a course of conduct, whose merit Ferdinand VII., the most grateful and equitable of Sovereigns, will know how to appreciate and reward. "Given in the Grand Palace of my dwelling of Rio Janeiro the 6th of May, 180Q. "CARLOTA JOAQUINA DE BORBON." This was manifestly an attempt to identify herself with Ferdinand's interests and perhaps ob- tain a reversionary claim to his possessions, but BEGINNING OF INDEPENDENCE no harm would have come from the publication of the despatch, while the injurious conjectures that its suppression caused was one of the first incen- tives to the formation in Chile of a power inde- pendent of Carrasco, which would insure the con- tinued loyalty of Chile to Ferdinand VII. in the event of Carrasco's defection. The Governor knew the people to be alarmed and confused, and now prepared a blow that he was confident would establish his authority on the basis of fear. He would intimidate them. Meanwhile, from month to month, the news from Spain became more disquieting 1 . Ferdinand, the "Desired one," (El deseado), who was endeared to his people by his misfortunes, was still "interned" at Valenai; the Junta Central, flying precipi- tately before the French armies, and shrieking aloud the story of its own incompetence in the ears of the startled and bewildered Colonies, had be- come simply tiresome and ridiculous. At this time Carrasco determined to disarm the Chileans and under pretence of devotion to the Peninsular cause, ordered all the weapons that could be col- lected to be sent to Valparaiso and shipped to Spain. Among these weapons, family relics of the Araucan wars and trophies of the early conquer- ors, were four thousand lances which had been long since hung up to adorn the walls of Chilean homes and having ceased to be weapons had become ornaments. These obsolete, these archaic, arms were, in spite of the official protests of the Cabildo, 128 THE INDEPENDENCE OF CHILE actually sent out of the country, but the Chileans rightly regarded it as not so much a reinforce- ment of Spanish antagonism to Napoleon as an injury to themselves. The Cabildo of Santiago was composed of two Alcaldes, ten Rejidores, a Procurator and an Asesor; of these the Rejidores were appointed by the King, the office (vara) being sold to the high- est bidder, but the other officers were elected by the Rejidores for the term of two years. The Cabildo was the only corporation that was composed of Chileans, and represented therefore more nearly than any other body the sentiments and aspira- tions of the Colony. The Cabildo had never been considered a body of any prominence; its offices made honorable positions for those of the city who were ambitious of social distinction, but its prin- cipal functions were to see that the city was ade- quately policed, to adorn the religious processions, and to exchange among themselves at their meet- ings the daily news that was scantily furnished by a sleepy town. Their meetings were usually so ill-attended that scarcely once or twice a year could a quorum be found to transact the necessary business. In December, 1809, there was an election of of- ficers, and Don Agustin Eyzaguirre and Don Jose Nicholas de la Cerda were chosen Alcaldes, Don Juan Antonio Ovalle, Procurator, and Don Jose Gregorio Argomedo, Asesor. In this elec- tion the hand of Juan Martinez de Rozas was BEGINNING OF INDEPENDENCE 123 plainly visible. The new Procurator, Ovalle, was a disciple of Rozas, and the others were Rozas' in- timate friends, over whom he had much influence. Suddenly the Cabildo awoke to unaccustomed ac- tivity. Daily meetings were held at which all the members were present. Soon these meetings were found to be too short, and were supplemented by nightly sessions, wherein the news from Spain was warmly discussed and the affairs of the Colony ar- dently debated. Such activity had never before been known, and the Governor was enraged to dis- cover that among other topics of discussion, he and his office and his acts were made the subject of hearty condemnation. Soon, instead of the Cabildo occupying their time in the exchange of news and anecdotes, Santiago began to take a con- suming interest in the meetings of the Cabildo, and in some way a good deal became public which had been uttered in the secrecy of the town hall. The Royal Audience went to Carrasco with .the rumored speeches of the officers of the Cabildo and required him to denounce their inflammatory proceedings to the Junta Central, which he did, and to order the Cabildo to keep their hours and to hold no ad- journed sessions, which he also did; but this tyr- anny, as the Alcaldes called it, only gave them oc- casion for renewed criticism of the Governor, and in no way abated its virulence. Matters w r ere in this rather unpleasant state between them when the Cabildo took up for discussion the matter of the shipment of the lances and voted to request 124 THE INDEPENDENCE OF CHILE the Governor to rescind his decree, promising him to redeem the lances in the sum of four thousand dollars, which could be more conveniently remitted to Spain, and would perhaps be more serviceable to the Junta Central in the form of money than in that of a large consignment of useless arms. Ovalle, the Procurator, was the member whose duty it became to take up the matter with the Governor on the part of the Cabildo, and he urged it with a pertinacity that strengthened the Gover- nor's suspicions of their designs and quickened his resolve to get the arms out of the country. The only result of the act of the Cabildo was to in- crease the resentment of Carrasco and also to single out Ovalle as one of the dangerous men whom it would be expedient to remove. It was only a very few days later that the op- portunity came. On April 16th the Viceroy of Buenos Ayres, Don Baltasar Hidalgo de Cisneros, having discovered the trail of the Gran Reunion Americana leading from Buenos Ayres to Chile, wrote to Carrasco that there existed in Chile a band of traitors to Spain who were carrying on a propaganda for emancipation and independence, and advising him to attack them at once. Cis- neros named no one and Carrasco had no better information apparently to guide him than the vague caution from the Viceroy of Buenos Ayres, but he was anxious that his loyalty be not im- peached nor his vigilance disparaged, and he was by no means destitute of a certain shrewdness of BEGINNING OF INDEPENDENCE 125 conjecture, which, with the recollection of the Pro- curator's insistence on the retention of the lances in Chile, indicated Ovalle to be one of the con- spirators. Ovalle was one of the most excellent men in Santiago. He traced his ancestry back to Don Juan Pastene, one of the companions of Valdivia in the conquest of Chile. Pastene was himself of a famous Genoa family, whose history may yet be read in the archives of that ancient city. Ovalle had spent a long and blameless life in public serv- ice. Inheriting wealth, he had captivated the esteem and admiration of his townsmen. He was now over sixty years of age, and, being in infirm health, had gone to take the waters at the baths of Cauquenes, when the Governor ordered him to be arrested and imprisoned in Santiago. Among the other aristocrats who had been fore- most ini opposing the Governor, those whom he se- lected to be Ovalle's companions, were Don Jose Antonio Rojas and Don Bernardo Vera y Pintado. Rojas was still older than Ovalle, having passed his sixty-eighth year. As a young man he fell into favor with the Governor, Amat i Junient, and followed him when, in 1761, Amat became Viceroy of Peru, and filled various offices under the Viceroy in such a manner as to win the confidence and es- teem of his superior. He then passed some years in Spain, and collected a little library of books among which were Robertson's Histories and the "Encyclopedic." He remained in Spain until 126 THE INDEPENDENCE OF CHILE 1777, when he returned to Chile and married the daughter of Don Jose Perfecto Salas, who had served as Judge in Chile and Asesor in Lima, and who was reported to have hoarded some fabulous sum amounting to many millions of dollars during his service in America. R6j as had held many sub- ordinate but honorable offices in Chile, and was in his old age respected as one of the most generous and honorable of men. I have already in an earlier part given an account of his residence in Spain. Vera was a popular young man, a lawyer, a poet, an eloquent orator, the most genial and best loved man in Chilean society. He was at this time about thirty years of age. He it was who wrote the Chilean National Hymn, the singing of which is still one of the inspiring features of the day of Chilean Independence. Vera's prominence was due to his own character and attainments, though he did not lack for social qualifications of a deriva- tive kind, for his uncle had been Viceroy of Buenos Ayres during the early years of the century, and an ancestor of his was one of the founders of the first Royal Audience in Chile in 1566. These three men were the ones chosen for Car- rasco's purpose, and their selection proved the confidence of the Governor in the success of his scheme. But intimidation is an uncertain weapon, and may prove a dangerous one for him who rashly ventures to use it. On May 25, 1810, Ovalle, Rojas and Vera, then, were arrested and confined in the prison of Santi- BEGINNING OF INDEPENDENCE ago and the excitement of the people of the Cap- ital was without bounds. They clamored tumul- tuously to know the offenses that the Governor laid to the charge of their favorites and leaders. In the intimate friendship that existed among the members of the Santiago aristocracy, every man's life was an open book to his neighbors and friends. They formed rather a large family than a society, and they resented as something close and personal to themselves the impujtatipn of crime which they well knew their friends incapable ^bf committing. Carrasco was compelled to formulate his accusa- tion. He charged them, first, with rejoicing at the misfortunes of Spain under the heel of Na-- poleon; second, with criticizing the course of the Junta Central in conducting the Spanish govern- ment ; and third, with aspiring to independence o Spanish control. Not one of these charges could endure a mo- ment's scrutiny with any other result than ridicule. Perhaps Carrasco thought that the less valid his accusations were, the more would the Chileans be impressed with the power that could dispense with the assistance of justice, and enforce unaided its austere purpose upon the most eminent of its foes. On the announcement of Carrasco's charges, there fell for a moment, as he had expected, a vast dismay on Chile. Who indeed could be safe if such offenses were to be punished, if a mere state of mind, like joy or despondency, were to be consid- ered criminal ? Moreover, if criticism of the Junta 128 THE INDEPENDENCE OF CHILE Central were treason, then treason was become wellnigh universal, for the whole Spanish world was disgusted with the shameless incompetence of the Junta and no one hesitated to condemn it roundly and openly as disgraceful and futile. And when did aspiration become a crime, or hope receive any punishment except disappointment? Quickly, dismay was followed by resentment and anger that demanded action, the Cabildo remon- strated, and the tumultuous populace besieged the Governor's palace, crying aloud, with threats and curses, for the liberation of the prisoners. In re- ply they were told that the Governor had sent the accused under the guard of a detachment of sol- diers to Valparaiso. The issue was now squarely joined; the Gov- ernor felt confident of winning and the citzens were determined not to lose. For the time being, the contest centered about Rojas, Ovalle and Vera. The citizens contrived to send a Judge of the Royal Audience to Valparaiso to examine the ac- cused men. Senor Bazo i Berri, the youngest Judge, was with difficulty persuaded to undertake this mission. From Santiago to Valparaiso was about ninety miles a good day's journey. Bazo i Berri came back from Valparaiso and reported to the Royal Audience that there was no case against the prisoners. His report is extant in the judicial archives in Santiago. Armed with this report from a Judge of the Supreme Court, the people demanded the return of the prisoners. Up to this BEGINNING OF INDEPENDENCE time the mutual positions of the Governor and the people had been curiously transposed. It was the populace that proceeded in accordance with the law, and it was the Governor who resorted to vio- lence and injustice. The strength of the people lay in the fact that they had yet the resource of vio- lence which up to this time they had not used. Carrasco began to get a glimpse of the outcome, but did not appear to flinch. He pretended to be convinced by the report of the examining judge, and told the people that he would at once send a despatch to Valparaiso to have the accused brought back to Santiago where a fair trial would be accorded them. This promise he con- firmed by the customary oath, and at once per- jured himself by sending Captain Manuel Bulnes to the Intendente of Valparaiso with absolute in- structions to send Rojas, Ovalle and Vera to Lima by the first vessel that left the port of Valparaiso for the north. Captain Bulnes left Santiago for Valparaiso on the morning of the 6th of July, 1810, with a letter of credence for the Governor of the Port, and another for a Damian Segui, who happens for the moment to be churned up to the surface of Chilean history, and a sealed packet containing instruc- tions for himself, which was to be opened in Valpar- aiso. Carrasco had invested his mission with an injunction to secrecy, and Bulnes, who as yet knew nothing of his errand, foolishly boasted of the Governor's confidence in him in entrusting him 130 THE INDEPENDENCE OF CHILE with a mission of great importance. To Captain Campino and to the Provincial of Santo Domingo, whom he met on the road, he made boast of his favor with the Governor, and they both rode into Santiago, full of curiosity as to his meaning. This excited anew the alarm of the city, and the strange tidings, as it spread from mouth to mouth, aroused a fever of suspicion and anxiety as to the Governor's purpose. He had invested his promise to* recall Rojas, Ovalle and Vera with such candor, he seemed to be so willing to yield the point of jurisdiction to the eager citzens, that for the moment they had believed him, but now their old distrust whispered to them fears of his sincerity, and doubt and care filled their minds. In Valparaiso, Bulnes delivered to the Governor of the Port a despatch which directed him to place at Bulnes' disposal the first vessel that could be got ready to take the prisoners to Peru; the de- spatch to Damian Segui was interpreted solely by Segui's subsequent movements ; and his own letter of instructions ordered him to embark at once the three captives on a vessel for Peru, to whose Vice- roy a despatch was enclosed, to be carried by the Captain of the vessel, from whom Bulnes was to get a receipt for the prisoners and bring it back to Carrasco. Bulnes lost no time in carrying out his orders. He found the old frigate Miantonomo in the port and commandeered it for the Governor's purpose. On the 10th of July he led his prisoners aboard, or at least Rojas and Ovalle, Vera being, BEGINNING OF INDEPENDENCE 131 or pretending to be, too ill to be removed and ob- tained his receipt for them. On their way to the landing, they were attended closely by Segui and some forty armed ruffians, who insulted and threat- ened the bewildered bystanders, until their resent- ment of the abuse produced a riot in the streets. There was, however, no attempt at rescue, and ex- cept by Segui and his followers, the peace of the quiet little village was undisturbed. The Gover- nor of the Port, Alos, however, being appealed to by the insulted citizens, caused Segui to be ar- rested and imprisoned. Meanwhile the quiet of the Capital remained apparently undisturbed, but in the houses of the Larrain, Vicuna, Eyzaguirre and others, meetings were held where the perfidy of the Governor was the subject of excited harangues, and rumor bore about the city the fears of the leaders. Men hur- ried through the streets, bearing from reunion to reunion and from tertulia to tertulia, the news that a general order of arrest had been made out for a large number of the principal citizens ; that the city troops had been directed by Carrasco to fire upon any street assembly; that Rojas, Vera and Ovalle were to be put to death in Valparaiso ; that the Governor was minded to seize the power of the Colony and wield it in his own name, and that a general massacre of the inhabitants and the sack- ing of the city would inaugurate the new order of government. This was, of course, the breath of unfounded THE INDEPENDENCE OF CHILE rumor, but when on Wednesday, the llth of July, at nine in the morning, the first courier from Val- paraiso brought the news that Rojas and Ovalle had actually been taken to Lima, where they were to be tried on inadequate charges before a tribunal where their accusers were not present, and that Carrasco's word of honor to bring them back to Santiago! had been violated, their fear gave way to a sudden outburst of wrath. The city boiled with excitement. The shops remained closed and the streets were filled with angry tumult; the Plaza was crowded and the palace was besieged by a turbulent populace, clamoring for speech with the Governor. Carrasco kept himself in retirement in his palace, and admittance was refused without the consigne, while the open doors of the barracks on the other side of the Plaza showed the soldiers ready at a moment's notice to march out into the city. Though Carrasco made no sign, the citi- zens knew that within the sleepy palace all was alert and prepared to silence any show of violence on their part. Their leaders, Eyzaguirre and Argomedo, circumspect and capable men, sought a way whereby the people with becoming dignity might engage in the contention with Carrasco which was now at hand. Gradually the word went around that a Cabildo Abierto, which correspoJJBs as nearly as possible to the New England Town Meeting, would be held in the Hall of the Chapter and that the doors would be open to all. Thither then the people streamed, filling the hall and chok- BEGINNING OF INDEPENDENCE 133 ing the patio and the street without. Not much time was lost in denunciation of the faithlessness of the Governor, for the purpose of the meeting was thoroughly known. The Cabildo voted that a committee composed of Eyzaguirre, one of the Al- caldes, and Argomedo, who had been elected Pro- curator on Ovalle's arrest, should wait on the Gov- ernor and request him to come to the Chapter Hall, where the people desired to make known their com- plaints. Carrasco refused to admit the commit- tee, but sent them word by a porter that he did not care to see them and advised them to go about their business. They returned with this insolent answer to the meeting. Even then there were no speeches made, but, with a settled determination to force an issue, the mass of people, led by the members of the Cabildo, withdrew quietly from the Chapter Hall, and made their way to the hall where the Royal Audience was then in session. There they found Santiago Concha, the Dean of the Audience, and the three judges, Aldunate, Irigoyen and Bazo i Berri, but the Regent, Ballesteros, was with the Governor at the palace. The two Alcaldes and the Rejidores of the Cabildo entered, and after them a multitude jest men of the city, and requested, since fter was urgent, that the Audience send fSBKPrrasco to come to them, that the Cabildo might receive satisfaction from the Governor in the matter of Rojas, Ovalle and Vera. Judge Irigoyen, went in person to the palace and re- 134 THE INDEPENDENCE OF CHILE turned after a few minutes with the Governor and Ballesteros. Then the Alcalde, Nicolas de la Cerda, stated to the Royal Audience in the presence of the Gover- nor, who took his seat with a smile of insolent mockery on his lips, all the circumstances of the arrest of the three men. He told of the petition that had been sent to Carrasco in behalf of the accused, and of the Ca- bildo having guaranteed their appearance if they were admitted to bail. He stigmatized as an act of exemplary injustice the removal of three in- nocent gentlemen, two of them advanced in years, without a trial or adequate evidence of guilt, and he demanded in the name of the Cabildo and the City of Santiago that an express should be at once forwarded to Lima, requesting the Viceroy to send them back for trial before the Audience, which had had up to this time no voice in the matter. To all this Carrasco replied by denying the truth of what the Alcalde had said, and, his anger increasing, he warned them all to take care or they would be sent to keep the conspirators company. This threat only added to the vehemence of the opposition, and the Alcalde demanded that a curb be placed at once on the power of the by enacting that no order of his should he! be obeyed which was not countersigned ago Concha, the Dean of the Royal Audience. Before this could be passed, however, Carrasco, realizing that his yielding to their demand would BEGINNING OF INDEPENDENCE 135 be a matter of little moment compared with the appointment of a guardian over his official acts at a time when he must have his hands perfectly free, gave up the point and agreed to send the required papers to Lima. So the despatch, duly made out for the Viceroy, was placed in the hands of the Alcaldes, who manifestly preferred to take the matter as far as possible out of the Governor's control. This was accomplished by half an hour after noon, on Wednesday, July 11, the express having only arrived from Valparaiso with the news of the embarkation of Rojas and Ovalle at nine o'clock. Determined to lose no time, a little troop of gen- tlemen headed by Don Diego Larrain rode out of Santiago at two o'clock, with the necessary orders from the Royal Audience to avail themselves of any vessel to bear the despatches to Lima. The hope was general among them that a Norther might even have prevented the Miantonomo from proceeding on her way, but after covering the thirty leagues between Santiago and Valparaiso in seven and a half hours of hard riding, they reached the port to find lhat their hopes were dis- appointed, that their friends were indeed gone, and that the despatches to Lima must wait for another vessel. In Valparaiso, however, they learned of the man- ner of their friends' departure and the Governor of the Port, Joaquin de Alos, showed them a letter that had come to Segui after he had been impris- 136 THE INDEPENDENCE OF CHILE oned, which was worth all the disappointment of their failure to find Rojas and Ovalle. This letter contained a sentence or two of such ominous import as to fill them with dismay and apprehension. Hurriedly they returned to the Capital, to lay this fatal missive before the Cabildo. During 1 the absence of Larrain and his asso- ciates, the quiet of the city was undisturbed. The citizens had made a move and scored a point, but they knew the game was not yet played out, and they were determined to effect the deposition of Carrasco and to do it without putting themselves in a wrong position, which would give him an ex- cuse to call out the soldiers, as they well knew he was ready to do on the least pretext. They knew that, as far as their purpose went to depose Car- rasco, the Royal Audience was with them, that the Cabildo was at their head, that the Church was on their side, and they were resolved to accomplish their purpose without delay. Still, for a time, a feeling of suspense pervaded the city which, Carrasco himself knew, would soon give place to a renewed attack on him. How it would come he did not know, but his soul was full of resentment and demanded vengeance upon those who had op- posed and humiliated him. To thwart him he was sure was beyond their power, and he recalled to mind with a grim complacency that he had carried out his purpose with the three conspirators in the face of the Royal Audience, the Cabildo and the people. To secure himself from the attack that BEGINNING OF INDEPENDENCE 137 was preparing, he sent couriers to call to the Capital the troops on the frontier, he ordered abundance of ammunition to be served out to the city troops, he caused cannon to be trained on the public square, he garrisoned and provisioned the palace and he reinforced the men and increased the supplies on Santa Lucia. Although the Governor's preparations to resist, or rather to subjugate, the people of Santiago had been carried out as secretly as possible, yet the nerves of the people were too keen and their ap- prehensions too alert for them to remain in ignor- ance of his actions, to all of which they correctly ascribed a malevolent purpose. The middle of .July is in Santiago the middle of winter, and the winter of 1810 was especially severe, but the Al- caldes, Nicolas de la Cerda and Agustin Eyza- guirre, were abroad the night of the llth, providing against any sudden attempt on the part of the Governor. Under their command were all the young men of the best families in the city, to the number of eight hundred, patrolling the streets (not very well lighted in 1810), and guarding the residences of the city officials and those of the Judges as well, who had, by showing their sympathy with the Cabildo, intensified the hatred with which the Governor already regarded them. On horseback or on foot, the improvised city guard kept armed watch on every thorough- fare within the city. To this, as a measure of city police under the supervision of the Alcaldes, the 138 THE INDEPENDENCE OF CHILE Governor could not openly object, but as he lay sleepless in the palace and heard the sound of feet and voices in the street without, and knew that the people were vigilant in the protection of their rights, some misgivings of the outcome must have entered his soul. On Thursday, the 12th of July, Larrain and his companions rode into the city from Valparaiso, and at a secret session of the Cabildo the letter to Damian Segui was read. It was dated the 9th of July, was signed with the execrated name of Ra- fael Diaz and closed with the injunction to Segui to destroy it as soon as he had read it. Among other things it said: "His Excellency directs you to remain in Valparaiso until his orders to Captain Bulnes are executed, as I wrote you in my previous letter which I sent by Bulnes, and for you to return to this city with him. If possible bring your friends with you, and see that they are well armed. We fear trouble here after Bulnes returns, and for that reason it will be well for you and your friends there to come and join us in the dance." The excitement that was caused by this letter is not to be described, and yet it was not needed to convince them that the malignant hostility of Car- rasco was capable of invoking to his aid the most depraved and brutal agents, nor, strangely enough, as one of the Cabildo pointed out, could it be made a valid instrument of attack against Car- rasco, who could simply disavow the letter or deny BEGINNING OF INDEPENDENCE 139 his responsibility for its sentiments. However, the injunction of secrecy to Segui did not deter- mine the action of the Cabildo, and before night everyone in Santiago knew of the letter and its message, and for the first time it seemed as if the fury of the citizens would surpass the limits of moderation and legality that the Cabildo had set before them. When Carrasco, this same day, July 12, learned of Segui's imprisonment, he sent an order to Alos to "set at liberty at once my agent, Damian Segui, that he may come and render an account of his commission." To this Alos replied as follows: "SENOR CAPITAN-GENERAL: Although up to the present I am in ignorance of the commission which Your Excellency is pleased to inform me that you confided to the drunken deserter, Segui, inasmuch as he presented no credentials to me from Your Excel- lency, I am compelled to believe that whatever com- mission was entrusted to him he has so far violated as to have disturbed the peace of the community and ex- cited a tumult with an armed force of forty-seven men. This offense, of which I see Your Excellency has not been apprized, and of which the said Segui is doubtless guilty, has induced me to suspend the exe- cution of Your Excellency's order until such time as the case shall be concluded and sentence imposed, no- tice of which will be at once forwarded to Your Excellency for your information. "JOAQUIN DE ALOS." The polite insolence of this reply exasperated 140 THE INDEPENDENCE OF CHILE beyond measure the Governor of Chile. He saw himself flouted by everyone, and in the antagonism of the Royal Audience, the Cabildo, the Ecclesias- tical body, and even the citizens, he detected a strain of derision, that cut deep into his vain, passionate and arbitrary soul. Perhaps above all else the equanimity of the Alcaldes and their in- fluence over the people were gall and wormwood to his proud spirit, conscious as he was, that, while the populace seemed to keep its temper, he had openly and violently given way to his own. His reply to Alos discloses fully his state of mind, but events were now hurrying to a crisis and be- fore his despatch reached Valparaiso, Carrasco's violence was no longer to be dreaded. But while the letter to Segui added no incre- ment of proof to the case against Carrasco, it cer- tainly added an impetus to it that hastened the catastrophe. No man in Chile was hated and feared like Segui. His life had been a continuous record of blood and violence, of crime and punish- ment. Centurio, the parasite of Celestina, was not a deadlier ruffian than Segui; Gilles de Laval was not regarded with greater terror and hatred in Brittany than Damian Segui in Chile. He was a deserter from the Spanish navy when he came first under the protection of Carrasco, and thence- forth the murderers of Banquo' were less confident of immunity. At the suggestion of Carrasco he organized a band of ruffians, who executed his or- ders and shared his security. The writer of the BEGINNING OF INDEPENDENCE 141 letter that the Governor of Valparaiso intercepted was Rafael Diaz, one of Segui's lieutenants in Santiago. At an earlier period this letter would have filled the Cabildo and people of the Capital with dismay; now it arrived to quicken their ac- tion and lend wings to their purpose. Day and night the Cabildo sat in constant session, day and night the city was patrolled by volunteer guards, and an incessant vigilance watched every move of the Governor. Friday, the 13th, Carrasco visited the barracks, inspected thq artillery train and had private con- ference with the individual officers. The govern- ment had at that time in Santiago two hundred infantry from Concepcion, a squadron of the Queen's Dragoons numbering fifty, and a battery of light artillery with sixty men and abundant supplies and ammunition. On the side of the Governor were also his official appointees and sub- ordinates, perhaps a hundred in all, whom he pro- vided with arms, and his household of twenty or twenty-five persons, all well armed and naturally zealous in his cause. The Spaniards of European birth were divided and ill at ease and lukewarm, leaning alternately, with the velleity of bewilder- ment, to either side. It was suspected at that time and confirmed afterward, that Carrasco's purpose in visiting the barracks was to ascertain how far the officers could answer for the obedience of their men, and to what extent they themselves could be relied THE INDEPENDENCE OF CHILE upon to carry out his orders. That no uncer- tainty might exist in this matter, he told them plainly that he should expect them to order their battalions to fire upon the thickest of the crowd if he should give the word. This intimation evoked no promise of compliance. To such a degree did the Chileans carry their intention to give Carrasco no excuse for violence, that they even permTEfecf his couriers to pass out of the city, although they knew that frequent messages were sent to hasten the arrival of the troops from the frontier. They also on their side applied to the officers of the city troops to learn how far they would carry out the Governor's orders, and were reassured when the reply was given, "Violence will not be begun by the troops, they will not fire first." Thus Segui and his Sicarii seemed all that the Governor could rely on with unquestioned confidence of support, and Segui was in prison in Valparaiso. While the Cabildo, now almost confident of the result, was engaged in discussing the form of gov- ernment that should follow the deposition of Car- rasco, the Judges of the Royal Audience were rep- resenting to the Governor the absolute impossibility of continuing in office without the support or countenance of any organized body or of any considerable number of citizens, and advising him to bend to the people's will and resign ; but he with his heart in the troops that he had ordered up to the Capital from the Araucan frontier, and BEGINNING OF INDEPENDENCE 143 in the expectation of Segui's arrival, turned a deaf ear to their representations. It cannot be denied that the Royal Audience took a secret pleasure in the Governor's prospective discom- fiture, and that this was doubtless increased by a feeling 1 of personal and official resentment at his attitude toward them at the time of his coming into power. So it was with a grim complacency that they saw that their arguments were without effect. And yet their hope was that in the im- pending change, their own authority might not be swept away also, and that their own grasp upon the government might in some way be perpetuated. In the meantime, after a continuous session of sixty hours, filled with plans practicable and im- practicable, the Cabildo had decided upon its course. Their meetings had been to a certain ex- tent public, in that other influential men of the city were in constant attendance and took part freely in the discussions, and yet those only were admitted in whose loyalty and fidelity the Cabildo had implicit confidence. And yet even among these, treason or timidity found two individuals, whose names have not come down to us, who wrecked the scheme and thwarted the purposes of s the Cabildo. On Sunday night, July 15, the conclusion was reached that, on the following day, the office of Governor, President and Captain General should be declared vacant, that the Cabildo should gov- ern the kingdom for a period of five days, during 144 THE INDEPENDENCE OF CHILE which they should summon a Cabildo Abierto who should appoint a provisional government to act until a Congress of Deputies should be elected by all the towns in the republic. Forthwith, the two unnamed individuals sought the residence of the Regent of the Royal Audience, Ballesteros, and laid before him the plan of the Cabildo. That gentleman saw in a moment the consequence of such a course to himself and his companions. He summoned them immediately and together they proceeded to the palace. The two informers dis- appeared into the darkness of unidentified per- sonalities. Their treachery was accomplished. Self-interest makes strange alliances ; and rather than lose their positions, the Judges would without doubt have entered into an alliance with Carrasco at this juncture, if he on his part had been able to offer any guarantees of assistance ; but self-interest demanded now that, in falling, Carrasco should not be permitted to drag them down also. His course was run, and they all knew it, but the service of the King of Spain must be continued, and they must be protected in their offices. Ballesteros read him the resolution of the Cabildo and with suitable courtesy requested his views on the subject. Carrasco taunted them by saying that it was the direct result of their countenancing the opposition with which the Cabildo had confronted him; that it was the due fruit of their own labor and that if he fell he was glad they were to fall also. To this Ballesteros an- BEGINNING OF INDEPENDENCE 145 swered that it was to prevent this very thing that they had urged him to resign, that the King's cause might be served, whereas the horrible word, "republic," meant the loss of the Colony to Spain, as well as their own disgrace. Cartfasco, never very careful to observe the amenities of social usage, walked up and down the sala in his agitation. Suddenly he paused and ordered one of the guards to summon the three chief officers of the Infantry, Dragoons and Artillery. When they came he demanded with a sneer whether their consciences would permit them to observe the oath of loyalty to the King of Spain, now that the purpose was known to withdraw the kingdom of Chile from the King's allegiance and set up a hated republic. Colonel Reina replied that he would never hesitate to as- sert and uphold the authority of the King of Spain, but that his men would never fire upon an unarmed body of citizens ; that not a man of the service would refuse to be killed in battle for the honor of Spain, but that purely civil matters had better be managed by the civil authorities, and the citizens had attempted no violence. Before awaiting the opinions of the others, Carrasco in- solently ordered them to leave the room, saying, that he now knew what poltroons and traitors he had to deal with, and that he would deal with them accordingly. When the officers had departed, Ballesteros, who during this stormy interview had regarded 146 THE INDEPENDENCE OF CHILE the Governor with a stare of disdain, intimated coldly that their coming to the palace was purely with the purpose of giving the Governor an op- portunity to save himself from the disgrace of deposition by a voluntary resignation, but that to them it was personally a matter of little im- portance, provided the King's cause did not suffer. "You want to save your own skins," replied the Governor violently. "No," said Santiago Concha, "we want to be in a position to tell the King that Your Excel- lency was not content with your own disgrace, but that you were determined also to destroy, as far as your power went, the Colony of Chile; that if Your Excellency must suffer, you are determined that the King's cause should suffer also." "Your Excellency has accused these brave men of being poltroons and traitors," added Irigoyen, severely, "see to it that something worse may not be reported with greater justice of Your Excel- lency." Ballesteros had continued to watch Carrasco closely and now, observing signs of yielding, he said, quietly: "While nothing but praise can be uttered for the man who forgets his own resentments in the cause of the King." At that Carrasco yielded, and after exacting a promise that the Royal Audience would represent the matter to his advantage in their report to the King, and continue his salary, he signified his BEGINNING OF INDEPENDENCE 147 willingness to resign the office of governor the next day. The Royal Audience, after a sagacious and admirably conducted campaign, had won a great victory. They had overthrown their enemy and discomfited their allies. The resignation of Car- rasco spoiled completely the plans of the Cabildo. There was to be no Congress of Deputies, no Republic. The people were so pleased with the demission of Carrasco that they seemed to de- sire nothing further. Processions were formed, guns were fired, speeches were made, holiday pre- vailed. Meantime, before the Cabildo could re- adjust themselves and their purposes to the changed conditions, the Royal Audience announced that Don Mateo Toro Zambrano i Ureta, Conde de la Conquista, as ranking Brigadier, had succeeded to the government left vacant by the resignation of Carrasco. The Cabildo had been outwitted and discredited, having taken a lesson in strategy from the Judges of the Royal Audience. There was to be no change, then, in the con- duct of affairs. The Cabildo was to sink back into its previous condition of municipal inconsequence^ The only result they had achieved was. to exchange a hated ruler for one whom the people loved as well as respected, and the dream of self-govern- ment was dispelled; the cup of freedom was snatched from their very lips. At this time there did not exist among the Colonial leaders in Santiago a condition of perfect 148 THE INDEPENDENCE OF CHILE unanimity. This had been amply shown in the debates and delays that took place in the Cabildo before the "plan" was formulated which awakened Ballesteros to successful action. Among them some, who acknowledged Don Manuel Salas as their leader, were averse from any attempt at self- government and desired reform under a continu- ance of Peninsular control and a Spanish govern- ment. They wished no innovations. They feared the consequences of even seeming to withdraw from the protection of Spain, and distrusted their ability and that of their countrymen to substi- tute a durable government in the stead of Spanish authority. These were Tories, not from self- interest but from conviction, and perhaps also from timidity. They were still dazzled by the distant^ and tarnished glamour of Spain. The second class, among whom Don Jose Miguel Infante rose quickly to the rank of leader after the fiasco of the "plan" of the Cabildo, represented at first almost the whole Colony. They came to be called the "Moderados" after the rise of the third party, and we may already, in justifiable anticipation, so denominate them. Their purpose was to nominate a "Junta Colonial," which should "preserve the rights of the King in captivity," and remain subordinate to the Junta Central, taking no further step toward emancipation. It may safely be affirmed that the term "republic," which Ballesteros so freely denounced, was rather a flourish than an essential purpose ; and the Con- BEGINNING OF INDEPENDENCE 149 gress of Deputies was a concession to the more radical members and was not intended as a move- ment toward independence. The exact origin of the Congress may be explained in a few words. The Junta Central, anxious to conciliate the good- will of the Colonies and to impress them with its paternal supervision of their interests, committed the mistake of directing their attention to the fact that they were not an inferior and accidental, but an intrinsic and integral part of the dominions of the King, whose style was "King of Spain and the Indies," and that, as such essential portion of the King's dominions, they were entitled by law to the same representation in the Cortes as the provinces of Spain; that, therefore, when the Cortes were again convened, the privilege, or rather the right, would be accorded them to elect one deputy from each of the Colonies, to sit in the Cortes. The mistake of the Junta Central lay not so much in apprizing the Colonies of their right to representation, as in their niggardly with- holding the half of that right, for each of the Peninsular provinces was entitled to elect two deputies to the Cortes, whereas the very instru- ment that acknowledged the equal rights of the Colonies curtailed their representation to one. It was probably in resentment of this injustice that the election of deputies to a Cortes or Congress of their own, was discussed and finally agreed on by the Cabildo. Afterward the Chileans learned to interpret their other restrictions in the light of 150 THE INDEPENDENCE OF CHILE this incident, and thus at length their eyes were opened and they knew that they had been always defrauded of their numerous rights of local town government, among other things, and of the levy- ing of local taxes, the expeditures of public moneys, local courts of justice and some freedom of commerce and travel. But these considerations did not so much stimulate them to seek independ- ence as confirm them in it when it was once at- tained, and when, looking 1 back, they saw the hole of the pit whence they had been digged. So though they had wandered near the line that sepa- rates submission from independence, they had at present no purpose to cross it and declare their freedom. Perhaps no revolution ever proposed to itself the exact end that it ultimately attained, or rested satisfied with the cessation of the abuse against which it was primarily directed. Yet among the Moderados, and of continually increasing influ- ence, were a few men, the full extent of whose designs was concealed under the temporary cloak of expediency, but who were resolved that one step should follow another until perfect independence was obtained. To this party subsequently known as Exaltados belonged Rozas, O'Hig- gins and a few* select spirits, members of the Gran Reunion Americana, imbued with the principles of the Encyclopedic and fearless of the future. Little did the Moderados foresee that the inex- orable logic of events would sweep them and their BEGINNING OF INDEPENDENCE 151 fragile Junta into the red road of revolution and war, but the disciples of Diderot and D'Alembert were wiser, and while working for the time in harmony with the Moderados, they gathered about them in a few months the most learned and in- fluential citizens of the Capital. Infante himself was in time won over, with Eyzaguirre, Argomedo and the rest of the Cabildo ; Salas, too, the statis- tician and reformer the son of the old Judge whose pathetic prayer to the King was never heeded, that he might die in peace and honor after a long life of devoted service came to recognize the worth and assist the efforts of the Exaltados and thus round out the complete list of Chilean patriotism; but this happy fusion was delayed until after the death of Rozas, when the Chileans were brought face to face with the threat of an invading army. During the progress of this irregular contest between the Royal Audience and the Cabildo, im- portant tidings from Buenos Ayres had from time to time come to Santiago, which influenced very greatly the outcome of the struggle in Chile. To understand this influence we must consider briefly the state of affairs in Buenos Ayres. When, in 1806, England and Spain were again at war, Pitt, who understood public feeling in the Spanish Colonies even less than he understood that in England, endeavored to foment disturbances be- tween Spain and her American possessions, by in- citing them to revolt and offering them aid. In 152 THE INDEPENDENCE OF CHILE the prosecution of this purpose General Beresford was sent with a squadron to take possession of Buenos Ayres. The results of this expedition were unexpected and momentous. Pitt had died in January, 1806, "killed at Austerlitz," as Wil- ber force said, but there was no change in his policy. Beresford landed a body of men in Buenos Ayres, terrified the inhabitants by the dis- play of military force, and took possession of the city. The Colonists, however, soon rallied, at- tacked the English and drove them to seek safety in their ships. Beresford crossed the river to Montevideo, which he captured, and in which for some months hq remained awaiting reinforcements. These finally came, Beresford was superseded by General Whitlocke, and in the year of 1807 Buenos Ayres was invested a second time. But in anticipation of a renewed attack the people had improvised breastworks of dried ox-hides and though the city was stormed on July 5, 1807, the English were repulsed and obliged to capitu- late under an agreement to leave the province and to desist from any further hostility. The news of the English defeat rang through South America and echoed over the shores of Europe. The Buenos Ayreans became veritable heroes, not only in their own eyes but in the flat- tering encomiums of the neighboring provinces. Their self-consciousness of valor, instead of abat- ing, increased to such an extent, that on May 25, 1810, when the news reached them that the whole BEGINNING OF INDEPENDENCE 153 of Spain was in the hands of the French and that the Junta Central was dissolved, they proceeded to the palace and demanded the instant resignation of the viceroy. Cisneros yielded gladly to their de- mand, and in a moment the Buenos Ayreans found to their consternation that they were free. When Touchstone stood in the Forest of Arden and looked about him, he remarked with regret that when he was at home he was in a better place. There was, however, in the Argentine mind no per- ception of the humor that really lay in the Argentine situation. They had no wish to be free. They were filled with resentment at their own success, for they felt that they could not stand alone. The system of Colonial subjugation which Spain had sustained for centuries in her American possessions, though everywhere an important obstacle to the inauguration of independence, was perhaps a less immediate cause of the anxiety and trepidation of the Buenos Ayreans than the tur- bulent and lawless character of the population throughout the surrounding country. Between the city of Buenos Ay res and the other towns and centres of population of the Argentine, there was a feeling of distrust, hatred, and fear. Disdain on one side and envy on the other have, even dur- ing a great part of their century of freedom, pro- duced constant ill-will between them. Perhaps to the administration of General Mitre may be ascribed the inception of an era of goodwill. At 154 THE INDEPENDENCE OF CHILE the period which at present interests us there was no mutual confidence between Buenos Ayres and the rest of the Argentine. So General Belgrano and Don Bernardino Rivadavia were sent to Eng- land to seek an English prince of the blood to rule them. In the event of England's refusal, they were instructed to make the same offer to France, Austria, Russia, and finally, in a frenzy of fear and impotence, they were directed to ap- proach Spain with the offer of a renewal of their subjection under certain conditions, and, pre- sumably, certain guarantees. This programme was not wholly carried out, but the attempt was an interesting one. In much the same spirit of conscious weakness an embassy was sent to Chile, after the transac- tion of May 5, to solicit aid from the Cabildo of Santiago. This constitutes a very remarkable episode, which Tocornal, in his paper on the "Primer Gobierno Nacional," has involved in ad- ditional obscurity. Into a detailed narrative of this "embassy" or "mission," we may not at present enter, but, when stripped of its unneces- sary mystery, it seems that the Buenos Ayres Junta despatched a secret agent to Chile to enter into relations with the Cabildo, to foment cau- tiously a spirit of resistance to Spain, and to pro- cure in some way a force of men to support Buenos Ayres against the towns of the Argentine which threatened revolt, and against whatever army Spain might send to restore her fallen gov- BEGINNING OF INDEPENDENCE 155 eminent. The envoy was Don Gregorio Gomez, and there is no doubt that he strengthened greatly the Cabildo of Santiago in the prosecution of their plans, while one of the first acts of the Santiago Junta was to permit a body of three hundred men to be placed at the service of the Junta of Buenos Ay res. We now resume the interrupted narrative. While the Royal Audience was congratulating itself on the success of its strategy in preserving the ancient government from innovation and the Audience itself from dissolution, the Cabildo was regaining its equilibrium, and readjusting itself. It soon discovered that the plan of July 15 was rather disordered than impaired by the finesse of the Royal Audience, whose great victory was in reality only a skirmish, in which the Cabildo had been worsted without loss, and which perhaps, if skillfully retrieved, might prove to have only post- poned the day of their ultimate success. In the continued prosecution of their labor, however, they took the precaution to exclude carefully any possi- ble informers or traitors to the cause. They then formed the magnificent and audacious purpose not of thwarting or deriding their new Governor but of adopting him. The Conde de la Conquista was an amiable gentleman of great age, for he was over eighty, of inconspicuous ability, of gentle manners, of considerable wealth and of Chilean birth, all of which qualified him admirably for the part that he was destined soon to play in the cause of in- 156 THE INDEPENDENCE OF CHILE dependence. Of his three sons, the eldest, Jose, who was to inherit the title and entailed estates, and who moreover had married a Spanish lady, naturally clung to the royalist cause; but the other two sons, Domingo Toro and Joaquin Toro, were followers and ardent admirers of Infante, Argomedo and Eyzaguirre. The first step that the Cabildo took showed the Royal Audience that the great battle was now joined, for while Bal- lesteros was dilating with complacency over his strategy, the Cabildo persuaded the Governor to appoint as his secretary, Argomedo, the Pro- curator who had taken the chief part in formulat- ing the "plan" which excited Ballesteros to ac- tion, and who had been especially bitter in his opposition to the late Governor. Jose Miguel In- fante was elected Procurator in Argomedo's place. The new Governor was himself a Chilean and the authority of the Cabildo was sympathetic to him in that it was composed of his personal friends who had his entire confidence. Persuaded by Argomedo, he began to refer to them many of the details of government, and Ballesteros saw with chagrin that the Count was become in reality an ally of the Cabildo rather than of the Royal Audience. It was at this critical time that news came from Spain that the discredited Junta Cen- tral had been driven out of Cadiz and had taken refuge in the Isla de Leon, and that the Junta had been replaced by a Supreme Council of Re- gency. Although this had taken place in Jan- BEGINNING OF INDEPENDENCE 157 uary, 1810, it was not until the latter part of July that the news reached Chile. The Governor applied to the Cabildo for their advice as to whether he should recognize the new authority, and Infante quickly resolved his doubt. He characterized the Supreme Council as irresponsible and without au- thority; "any one has the same right to assume by arrogation a similar title, but who will deem such assumption adequate and competent? If we are an integral portion of Spanish territory, we alone are able to affirm and vindicate the privi- leges that the law guarantees to us, and! constitute a government that shall conserve the authority of the King. In Spain the provinces have installed their own Juntas, and the people have delegated to them their authority, but no provincial Junta can compel the obedience of any other. Aragon cannot force Seville to submit to her, nor can any aggregation of Juntas or any Junta representing even a majority of the provinces, enforce her au- thority on the rest. We have the same rights as any other province of Spain, and may like them elect a Junta for ourselves which shall rule us in the name of Ferdinand. Let us then follow the example that the Peninsular provinces have given us." But even the Cabildo was divided on this ques- tion, and on a vote being taken, a majority, fear- ing the action of the Supreme Council and being uncertain whether that body might not derive its authority from Ferdinand, decided to recognize 158 THE INDEPENDENCE OF CHILE the new Supreme Council. The discussion had, however, taken some time, and the Royal Audi- ence, vexed at the delay, sent a note to the Gov- ernor requiring him to publish the proclamation at once. On his applying again to the Cabildo for advice, however, the astonishing response was returned that they were willing merely to pass a resolution recognizing the Supreme Council, but would not yet take an oath of allegiance to it. In this manner and after a month's delay the proclamation was finally issued on the 22nd of August, with the imperfect concurrence of the Cabildo. It would be difficult to explain the extreme in- decision of the Cabildo, if one did not remember the fact that they were still under the Shadow of Spain, still under the spell of the monarchy. Their dread was the result of centuries of fear and awe; the "Dogma of the Royal Majesty" was still a part of their religion and of their daily life; they still feared death less than the restored majesty of Spain, and were timid and as yet un- tried in the rough path of revolution. Review then for a moment the condition of af- fairs when the news came to the Colonies that the last Peninsular stronghold was in the hands of the French. The Junta Central, long since dis- credited; the object of contempt among its enemies and of suspicion among its friends ; having for- feited its prestige by its misfortunes and its authority by its indecision ; was yet more nearly BEGINNING OF INDEPENDENCE 159 representative of the sentiment of the Spanish people than Charles IV., a captive at Fontaine- bleau, or Ferdinand VII., a prisoner at Val- en9ai. Ferdinand's sister, the Princess Car- lota Joaquina, had tried to subvert the loyalty of the Colonies ; the English had seized a part of Spain's Colonial possessions and were greedy for more ; the French were false ; some of the Colonial governors, notoriously Don Juan de Casas, the governor of Venezuela, were known to favor the usurper, and all were suspected of disloyalty to Ferdinand. Had not many of the nobles and generals of Spain given in their adherence to Napoleon? Had not even Don Tomas de Morla, Captain General of Madrid, treacherously deliv- ered the Capital of Spain itself into the hated hands of the French? Don Francisco de Saavedra had sent a list of thirty-two Spanish magnates whose estates had been declared confiscated by the Junta for their adherence to King Joseph. It seemed that all the world was in league against their King and that they alone were faithful io him. The English had already attacked Buenos Ay res, and the Colonies, trained and disciplined to dependence, felt powerless to defend them- selves against similar attacks. Moreover, months passed before the events in Spain were known in the Colonies, and the whole world was to them involved in vertiginous uncertainty and impending ruin. Napoleon's efforts to induce the South American Colonies to separate from Spain were 160 THE INDEPENDENCE OF CHILE not, as is well known, limited to mere persuasion ; but, while his emissaries found little comfort to their hopes in the loyal devotion of the Colonists, yet the French intrigues added to the bewilder- ment and distrust which beset the distracted minds of the Spanish Americans. Such was their condition when it became known that the Junta Central was dissolved and dis- persed, and the last legitimate vestige of royal authority abolished. Spain was now entirely sub- jugated, and the end of all things was at last reached ; and, while the colonies seemed to them- selves impotent to withstand a hostile world, they still, in a kind of desperation, assumed the task of preserving the royal inheritance as far as pos- sible and of vindicating their loyalty to their King. By this time the relations of the various parties in the city had become definitely adjusted; on one side were the Royal Audience and the Clergy, and on the other the Cabildo, the Governor and the Capital ; but the Audience occupied the anomalous position of being opposed to their President, the Governor; the Cabildo was not yet firmly united on any consistent plan which was pleasing to In- fante, and the clergy was divided among them- selves. And now a new element was introduced into the situation, which promised the Royal Audi- ence a decisive triumph ; the news came to San- tiago that the Supreme Council had named Gen- eral Francisco Xavier Elio as Governor and Cap- tain General of Chile, and that he was on the BEGINNING OF INDEPENDENCE 161 point of setting out for his new government. Moreover, Ballesteros persuaded the clergy of the city to send to each parish throughout the diocese of Santiago, a protest against the avowed purpose of the Cabildo to elect a Junta, this protest to be circulated by the parish priests and to be signed by all the male residents in each parish. They also went in a body to the palace and laid before the Governor a vigorous protest, complaining that he assisted the Cabildo at the expense of loyalty, dignity and honor, and warning him of the proba- ble action of the newly named governor when he should on his arrival be informed of the Count's official derelictions. To this Ballesteros added that it would be a peculiarly reprehensible thing if the Count, being only Governor ad interim, should abet a party that was hostile to the King's interest, and should prepare scandal and trouble and danger for his successor. The mild old man was deeply wounded by these charges and insinua- tions, and petulently replied that he would do nothing at all in the future for either side; that General Elio when he came would find the matter where it was now and that he washed his hands of the whole subject. The Audience withdrew in triumph ; they felt that the game was won. But they reckoned without Infante, and Argo- medo and Eyzaguirre and the Regidores Er- razuriz and Juan Alcalde, who also learned of the appointment of General Elio and knew that their time was at hand. They succeeded in unit- 162 THE INDEPENDENCE OF CHILE ing the Cabildo by representing to them the necessity of immediate action and the fatal con- sequence of delaying the settlement of the ques- tion of their local government until the arrival of the new governor should substitute an enemy for an ally. Infante then addressed them and succeeded in infusing into them some of the en- thusiasm which filled him. Thenceforth there were to be no doubt and no hesitation in the action of the municipal body. The matter of the clerical protest was disre- garded for the time, until the next important de- mand was satisfactorily settled, and they decided that they would call on the Governor in a body and neutralize the action of the Royal Audience. It was characteristic of the chivalrous honor of the members of the Cabildo ? that they apprized the Royal Audience of their purpose to interview the Governor, leaving it with Ballesteros to bring his colleagues if he thought fit. Ballesteros pre- ferred intrigue to open warfare, but his courage was without question, and he brought the Royal Audience with him to the palace. At eight o'clock on September 12th, the Gov- ernor received the members of the Cabildo and those of the Royal Audience in conference. There were also present the Governor's Asesor, Marin, his secretary, Argomedo, and a few of the more im- portant representatives of Santiago society. There is no need of reproducing the arguments which both sides lavished upon the Governor, for the BEGINNING OF INDEPENDENCE 163 issue was dubious and there was no result reached which satisfied anyone. The criminations of Bal- lesteros yet rang in the Count's ears and the Cabildo withdrew discomfited. But though they had seemed at the time to have produced no effect, the Count, after passing a sleepless night, in- formed them on the following day, Friday, Sep- tember 14, that he had decided with them that a Junta should be elected and that he would ap- point the following Tuesday, the 18th instant, for a Cabildo Abierto, when the members of the Junta should be named. The joy of the Cabildo and the dismay of the Royal Audience at this announcement cannot be described. Don Jose Miguel Infante at once drew up a card of invitation to send to three hun- dred and fifty of the friends of the Cabildo, to ensure the presence of a body of adherents large enough to overawe opposition. It was conceived in the following terms : "On the 18th of the present month the very illus- trious Senor Governor with the illustrious Cabildo will receive you in the Hall of the Royal Tribunal to con- sider the best way to conserve the public safety and to discuss what system of government should be adopted to preserve this kingdom for our Senor don Ferdinand VII." * 1 "Para el dia 18 del corriente, espera a vd. el mui illustre senor presidente con el illustre ayuntamiento en la sala del real tribunal del consulado 6, tratar de los medios de seguri- dad publica, discutiendose alii que sistema de Gobierno deba adoptarse para conservar siempre estos dominios al sefior don Fernando VII." 164 THE INDEPENDENCE OF CHILE The printing press was not introduced into Chile until the following year, and a hand stamp was used to print these cards of invitation. The Royal Audience at once replied to this challenge by a note to the Governor, protesting against the innovation, and repeating their arguments against the proposed change of government. The Gov- ernor replied through Argomedo, offering them his palace for another joint interview with the Cabildo, and promising to be guided by the ma- jority vote of those present. The Royal Audi- ence answered that to decide a question of in- fringing the King's rights by the vote of an ir- regular meeting was not sanctioned by the laws of Spain ; that while the Cabildo outnumbered the Royal Audience two to one, it was not seemly to invite the latter body to a contest of numbers ; that in accepting the Governor's offer they would expose themselves to unnecessary humiliation ; and they ended by a renewed warning against his fur- thering the revolutionary purposes of the Cabildo. On the 14th the Royal Audience procured a copy of the invitation and presented another remon- strance against the discussion of the system of government by the Cabildo "or any other incom- petent body." Infante, who desired! to conciliate the Audience, if it were in any way possible, at once changed the form of invitation. A new card was issued which was as follows : "The very illustrious Governor with the illustrious BEGINNING OF INDEPENDENCE 165 Cabildo expects you at the Hall of the Royal Consul- ate at 9 A. M. on the 18th inst., to consult and decide upon the most fitting means for the defense of the kingdom and for the public tranquillity." * The clergy were then appeased by the assur- ance that no change was contemplated in the pres- ent system of Church Government, and that their interests were to be safeguarded exactly as they had always been. The guarantee of the members of the Cabildo was considered even by the sus- picious priests as above suspicion, and their guaranty continued to be observed among all the vicissitudes of war and among all the fluctuations of civil government. Many noble men has Chile given to the world, but among them all the members of the Cabildo of the city of Santiago in the year 1810 must forever occupy a distinguished place in her annals. When, during the few days that preceded the 18th the "Diez"T ocho" of September, the ac- cusation was made that the Cabildo was ambitious to extend its power and that the institution of the Junta would afford them the opportunity to gratify this ambition, Don Agustin Eyzaguirre, the Alcalde, did not hesitate to propose to his as- sociates a self-denying ordinance that vindicates 1 "Para el dia 18 del cornente, a las nueve de la manana espera a vd. el mui illustre Senor presidente con el illustre ayuntamiento en las salas del real consulado d consultar i decidir los medios mas oportunos a la defensa del reino i publica tranquilidad." 166 THE INDEPENDENCE OF CHILE his dignity and the unselfishness of his colleagues. He proposed that no member of the Cabildo should occupy a seat in the Junta, and his sug- gestion was adopted unanimously, without debate ; so anxious was the Cabildo to avert the imputa- tion of personal ambition and so eager to convince their countrymen that for the good of Chile they willingly sacrificed their private interests. This action placed upon the new movement the stamp of a high purpose. And now came on the great day the day which Chile has for a century regarded as the actual birthday of the Republic; a day which is to Chile what the Fourth of .July is to the United States. It is true that there was no declaration of inde- pendence, no political creed to incite them to revolution or to justify them in it. On the con- trary the authority of the King continued to be nominally recognized as well by the Junta as it had formerly been by the Governor; but the step was taken which proved to be the first step on the broad road of liberty they decided upon their form of government and they elected the officers who should rule them. If the significance of this step was to a great part of them obscure, yet they soon learned that from that moment they had emancipated themselves :%om Spanish authority, and could never again be content to return to their former submission. The line between sub- mission and independence was not in the history of Chile, a visible line, as a ship may cross from BEGINNING OF INDEPENDENCE 167 one hemisphere to another without for the moment being conscious of the fact. Before six o'clock in the morning, the militia and the Spanish troops had occupied the necessary city posts and were prepared to secure public order; the King's Regiment guarding the plaza; the Frontier Dragoons, the Queen's Regiment and the Regiment of the Prince being in double line on the streets debouching into the plaza. The Con- sulate entrance was guarded, and the sentinels were instructed to admit no one without the card of invitation issued by the Cabildo. At nine o'clock several hundred citizens had arrived, at eleven came the Governor attended by his Asesor and Secretary, Marin and Argo- medo, with the members of the Cabildo and the ecclesiastical and civil authorities of inferior grades. The Royal Audience, though invited, did not appear. The Governor walked at once to the dais and turning about to the assembled com- pany, he laid his baton or staff of office on the table and said simply, "I lay down my staff. Dis- pose of it, for the government is in your hands." Argomedo then made a brief address in which he enumerated the Governor's reasons for yielding up his authority to the people, and he ended by saying, "The Governor has thus ceased to ex- ercise the functions of office; the people must de- cide what form of government should be adopted and elect the officers to whom we shall confide the direction of public business." Infante followed 168 THE INDEPENDENCE OF CHILE Argomedo. 1 He explained the condition of af- fairs in Spain, sketched the institution of the various provincial Juntas which directed its iso- lated energies, described and justified the activity of the Cabildo of Santiago in taking an unac- customed lead in the general direction of political affairs, and vindicated the purposes of the as- sembly which he was addressing, by the cita- tion of enactments and decrees which had issued from the Central Spanish authority. He then spoke in some detail of the system of organized oppression under which the colony had languished for centuries, and with vehement asperity con- demned the tardy recognition by the Junta Cen- tral of their equality to the Peninsular provinces, as an act of belated justice whose only purpose was to prolong the injustice that it condemned. Still, he absolved the captive King of any com- plicity in the array of the Colony's wrongs, and loudly and sincerely proclaimed his devotion and that of the Cabildo to Ferdinand VII. Don Carlos Correa arose when Infante had fin- ished and proposed that seven men should be elected to compose a new government, to be called the Junta Provisional Gubernativa. To this there was no objection and Infante offered to the assembly, one by one, the names that the Cabildo had decided upon. They were elected iWhen Infante died, in 1844, he left among his papers some notes of his speech before the Cabildo Abierto of September 18, 1810. BEGINNING OF INDEPENDENCE 169 without opposition, and the new government was composed of Don Mateo Toro, Conde de la Con- quista, President ; the Bishop Don Jose Antonio Martinez de Aldunate, Vice-President, and Don Fernando Marquez de la Plata, Don Juan Mar- tinez de Rozas, Don Ignacio de Carrera, Don Francisco Xavier Reina and Don Juan Enrique Resales. Marin and Argomedo were named as Secretaries. The composition of the Junta is a monument to. the diplomacy of Rozas and Infante. All parties were represented with such sagacity as to secure the success of the movement while quieting every scruple and conciliating the goodwill and support of all classes. Only the Royal Audience cherished their animosities. On the 19th of September the members of that body were summoned to appear and take the necessary oath of allegiance to the government. Much to the surprise of the mem- bers of the Cabildo, they came and signified their willingness to recognize the Junta conditionally under the protests that they had already ad- dressed to the late Governor in their official com- munications, their purpose plainly being to avoid committing themselves to the recognition of the Junta as a de jure government. The Junta, however, refused such limited recognition, and directed them to say at once explicitly whether or not they chose to recognize the authority erected by the people. Reduced to this alternative, they decided to acquiesce in the will of the people and 170 THE INDEPENDENCE OF CHILE to take their unqualified oath of allegiance to the Junta, rather than risk the loss of their seats in the Royal Audience. Thus their great victory of July 15th had prepared the way for their igno- minious surrender of the 19th of September. Bishop Aldunate was one of the most eminent men in South America for his wealth, wisdom and generosity. He was living in his diocese of Hua- manga, Peru, in September, 1810, and, resigning his bishopric, he hastened to Chile, but died before he could qualify as Vice-President. He was nearly of the same age with the Conde de la Con- quista. Marquez de la Plata was also far ad- vanced in years ; as Judge of the Royal Audience of Lima and as Regent of the Audience of Quito, he was well known throughout Spanish America. A Spaniard by birth, though for some years a resident of Chile, he had received, only a short time before, the appointment to the Council of the Indies. This office he had resigned that he might serve the new Junta of Santiago. During the ensuing war with Spain and during the dark days of the Spanish occupation, he remained true to the service of his adopted state, and, after passing some years in exile, he returned to take the direc- tion of the Chilean Court of Appeals. Carrera, a Colonel of militia, belonged like Aldunate to one of the old Chilean families. True to the revo- lution, he gave three sons to the cause of liberty and saw them die, victims of expediency, under the dubious stigma of treason. His second son, Jose BEGINNING OF INDEPENDENCE 171 Miguel, was now on his return to Chile, after serv- ing with honor as an officer in the Spanish Penin- sular Army. Young, aristocratic, fascinating and successful (he has been styled the Alcibiades of Chile), Jose Miguel seemed the favorite of for- tune ; yet his name has spotted with blood the darkest pages of Chilean history, and the tragic mystery of his death on the plains of Mendoza time has hitherto refused to divulge. Reina was the Colonel of Artillery who refused at Carrasco's demand to fire upon the people of Santiago and whom Carrasco covered with oppro- brium before the Royal Audience. Carrasco was still living in Santiago and must have ground his teeth when he saw Reina's name as a member of the Junta. Resales was a wealthy Chilean gentle- man, the head of one of the great Colonial fam- ilies. He had been Alcalde of the Cabildo some years before and had interested himself in the matter of public education. Among them all Rozas was the man of greatest prestige and the real leader. Infante, Argomedo and Eyzaguirre had acted throughout the cam- paign, that had now so happily terminated, under constant instructions from Rozas in Concepcion. Letters from Rozas, still extant, prove the extent of his influence over Ovalle and Rojas. They all called him "Master"; O'Higgins revered him as he had revered Miranda. Rozas was a statesman of wide and generous views. Among the maxims of political conduct which Miranda had given to TO THE INDEPENDENCE OF CHILE O'Higgins, on his leaving England, was the advice f"to make no man a friend unless he found him to fbe well-read in the books that were prohibited in Jthe Index." This qualification for political friend- ship Rozas possessed ; his mind was unhampered by formulas or traditions. He caused the spirit ' of the Cabildo, which was also his own, to imbue the new government, for although the passage by the Cabildo of the self-denying ordinance pre- ; vented the members of that body from participat- ing openly in the management of the Junta, they did not for that reason lose any portion of their influence in the conduct of the affairs of the new nation. The pure flame of disinterested patriot- ism had burnt all selfish dross from their souls, but their very abnegation of self increased their power. They had projected and established the Junta, they had named its members, and they con- tinued to direct its energies. They worked in per- fect agreement with Rozas. They formed in fact the legislative branch of the new government. Their decisions were accepted by the Junta and being promulgated as such, were obeyed through- out the Republic without demur. The one man who by his overpowering influence controlled the Junta, was the man to whom the Cabildo had con- fided the real conduct of the State, Juan Martinez de Rozas. "The new government," says Tocornal, "repre- I sented all the interests of the country and con- cilated all opinions. The President was wisely BEGINNING OF INDEPENDENCE 173 continued in office that no intention might appear of disturbing the authority of Spain ; the clergy obtained recognition in the highest clerical func- tionary of the Colony ; the most illustrious Span- iard of peninsular birth in Chile, Marquez de la Plata, recently elected a member of the Council of the Indies, served as an additional guaranty of loyalty to Spain ; Carrera and Resales represented the wealth and pride of Santiago; Colonel Reina continued in command of the army ; Rozas, Marin and Argomedo personified the Revolution, and Rozas was expected to dominate the Junta." PART IV THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE TO RANCAGUA "No permitais que jamas se apodere de vuestro animo ni el disgusto ni la desespera- cion, pues si alguna vez dais entrada a estos sentimientos, os pondreis en la impotencia de servir a vuestra patria. "MIRANDA to O'HiGGiNs." "Let not disgust or despondency enter your soul, for they will unfit you for your country's service." . The Revolution, thus inaugurated in Chile on the 18th of September, 1810, was the work of the (t5abildo^bf Santiago alone, and, realizing the ne- / cessTEy of united action, the Junta at once pro- ceeded to send envoys to all the cities and towns throughout the country to secure their formal ad- herence to the cause. Valdivieso was sent to Santa Rosa, San Felipe and Quillota; Irarrazabal to II- lapel, Solar to Coquimbo, Errazuriz to Valparaiso and Jose Maria Rozas and Cruz to San Fernando, Talca and the other centres of population as far south as Concepcion and Valdivia. By the 9th of October every city in Chile had recognized the Junta of Santiago as the governing body of the 177 178 THE INDEPENDENCE OF CHILE country. No word was yet uttered openly of lib- erty and independence, the new Junta proposing merely, "to conserve the rights of the King dur- ing his captivity." On the 30th of October Don Juan Martinez de Rozas arrived in Santiago from Concepcion, and was enthusiastically wekjomed as the man who should direct the new government of the nation. In fact Rozas was the only member of the Junta of 1810 who thoroughly understood the signif- icance of the new movement. He alone had a definite purpose to attain, and he determined to justify to the people of Chile the necessity of a complete change in the system of government be- fore disclosing to them the fact that! such a change was contemplated. Having long considered the evils of the Spanish dominion, he decided to take the necessary steps to convince the people of the superiority of a wise and just administration of public affairs, that they might themselves make the discovery of the advantages that the new gov- ernment procured for them, and experience the benefits of the revolution. The first enactment of the Junta was to sup- press the custom of farming out the public rev- enues, taxes, excise and imposts of various kinds, by which the subdelegates had oppressed the people and enriched themselves; and to appoint the Alcaldes as Collectors of Revenue, under a fixed system, which relieved the people from arbi- trary exactions and added at once and continu- BEGINNING OF INDEPENDENCE 179 ously to the effective revenue of the state. The sale of offices was then; ordered toj^di and the~impartial administration of the Junta placet the ini^ui lu us expioitatioris"of offtce-^or dividual-enrichment: Slavery was abolished, the extension of; commerce decreed and its restrictions diminished, and schools of elementary instruction were established in every centre of population, while a powder factory was built and a military school equipped in the Capital. The system of royal monopolies was abolished and those re- strictions removed that had prevented immigra- tion and discouraged agriculture. With the inauguration, of these, reforms, a gen- eral enthusiasm for the Junta began to pervade the whole country and the admiration for the new gov- ernment was almost universal. So generally had popular favor been conciliated, that Rozas ven- tured upon a decree that might well have seemed hazardous to the point of temerity, but Rozas enforced his will upon his colleagues and the decree was issued that all residents of Chile, who were of Spanish birth and who refused to take the oath of allegiance to the Junta, should be required to leave the country within six months. If Balles- teros's sense of humor had not been defective, he would have derived much pleasure from the de- crees of a Junta that endeavored to defend the country from the very power to which it vowed allegiance, and which followed up this inconsist- ency by expelling from its tributary soil the sub- 180 THE INDEPENDENCE OF CHILE jects of the monarch from whose name it derived its own authority ; but it was not Rozas who was inconsistent. Indeed there was a grim logic in the measures that he took to prepare the country for the war that was sure to come. A league was formed with Buenos Ayres, the frontier regiments were purged of royalists and those officers who refused their allegiance to the Junta, dismissed. With admirable diplomacy, Rozas had contrived to carry his colleagues along with him until they were compromised beyond all hope of absolution, without perceiving that their steps had strayed from the narrow path of loyalty to Ferdinand. "Allegiance to the Junta" was the formula under which these changes were accomplished, and the Junta proclaimed its allegiance to the King. Moreover, its members were conscious of their own loyalty, and they thought that they consti- tuted the Junta. Meanwhile every decree of the Junta brought out in sharper relief the inequity of the Peninsular administration and educated the people in the way of progress. Rozas was care- ful not to emphasize his supremacy in the Junta, and concealed his purpose by a scrupulous defer- ence to his colleagues, while he effected an im- mense change in the popular sentiment of Chile toward Spain. The officers of the Spanish forces in Chile, having confidence in the Junta, easily for the most part took the required oath, and the sol- diers followed the example thus set for them. Moreover, as the garrisons of the south had been THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE 181 almost entirely recruited in Chile, their sympathies could be relied on to hold them firm to the cause of their country when the progress of events should disclose the actual separation of the colony from the metropolis, which Rozas was so rapidly and yet so imperceptibly effecting. New levies were also quietly made. Don Ber- nardo O'Higgins wrote to Rozas from the Laja that he had recruited and was proceeding to equip two regiments of cavalry and one of infantry, while the adherents or agents of Rozas in every section of Chile were actively engaged in prose- cuting similar activities. ColoneJMVlax^mi%-4he best artillery engineer in the Spanish service, who understood the purposes of Rozas and furthered them with admirable energy and reticence, was appointed Governor of Valparaiso, whose defenses and garrison he quickly brought into serviceable condition. Everywhere there was activity and energy ; the barracks and public squares hummed with the excitement of drilling the new levies, whose recruits worked with enthusiasm to perfect them- selves in the art. of war, while each day brought to the Capital the news of other adherents and the muster roll of additional companies and battalions. Thus there suddenly came into existence a new sentiment in the kingdom of Chile, no longer to be called by that strange title a kingdom that had never had a king, but to be henceforth known as the Republic of Chile, a new sentiment, love of country, and a passionate devotion to her interests 188 THE INDEPENDENCE OF CHILE that rivals the ancient patriotism of Aragon, Switz- erland and Scotland. Never could she return to the condition of a Colony ; never for a moment, after the first deep draught of liberty and glory on the 18th of September, could she have endured contentedly the rule of even the best of her old Colonial governors. Wisely and with a correct insight into the causes of events, does Chile look back to that day as the greatest day in her history. Sad and bitter days were in store for her, days of defeat, humiliation, reconquest; when Ossorio and Marco renewed on Chilean soil the atrocities of Abascal in Peru, and antici- pated those of Morillo in Venezuela, and of Calleja in Mexico, and when the inexperience of the Chilean generals and the interplay of their selfish ambi- tions invited disaster and encouraged treason. But Chile was rapidly learning the lesson of the 18th of September as it gradually unfolded its pur- pose of good government, and with the innate seriousness and stability of the Chilean character, was fitting herself to withstand rudely the bitter assaults of Spain. This was the work that Rozas accomplished for his country, and so great was his L adroitness that the other members of the Junta yielded to his initiative without any suspicion of the purpose that animated him and which he was with their unconscious cooperation, steadfastly pursuing. So skilfully had he concealed the pur- pose of his reforms under the proclamation of al- legiance, that on December 14, 1810, the Spanish THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE 183 Ambassador in Brazil, the Marquis de Casa Irujo, wrote to the Chilean Junta "congratulating the new government on its patriotism, prudence and wisdom." That Rozas was not a mere opportunist but a statesman of large views, is proved by his project for the formation of an International American Congress or Congress of American Republics, which, suggested by him in 1810, was embodied in the project of a Constitution unfolded by Don Juan Egana in 1811. The purpose of this Gen- eral American Congress was "to recognize the identity, promote the progress, and secure the es- tablishment of the general interest of the American Republics, thereby providing a unity of purpose and a uniformity of development among them." The Rozas Doctrine was thus enunciated thirteen years before that which John Quincy Adams wrote for President Monroe. It proposed a political concert of independent states whose united actiofc might guarantee exactly the same rights which tl^e Monroe Doctrine entrusted to the protectoral pres- tige of the United States of America. While the Rozas doctrine was less altruistic and perhaps less practicable than that of Monroe, there was omitted from it that suspicious assumption of superiority on the part of any individual nation which has un- necessarily aroused misgivings on the part of some American States as to the exact scope of Monroe's famous dictum. Fifteen years after Egana had formulated the doctrine of Rozas and three years 184 THE INDEPENDENCE OF CHILE after that of Monroe was announced, a Congress of American States met at Panama ; but even in 1826, the South American nations suspected the inten- tions of the United States and dreaded her power, to such an extent that the announcement of the appointment of Anderson and Sergeant as Rep- resentatives of the United States to that Congress, was of itself sufficient to break up the Congress before it had fully considered the manner in which the threatened pretensions of Spain might be ef- fectively resisted. To-day the danger from Spain has passed away forever, but perhaps in the near future the Doctrine of Rozas may be again re- vived to prevent the descent of the militant hordes of a new Genghis Khan upon the defenseless shores of Peru or San Salvador. Such are the claims to the gratitude of Chile which Rozas established during the purely tenta- tive and conditional government of the provincial Junta. The Cabildo at first actively seconded his efforts, and it is impossible to-day to assign to Infante, Eyzaguirre and Errazuriz their due credit in all these innovations, so profound was their per- sonal immersion in the development of the social and political regeneration of their country. Rozas' colleagues in the Junta were content with the social consideration that their positions se- cured to them and were perfectly willing to let Rozas project and establish whatever reforms he deemed essential, so long as they shared the glory of his achievements. The Vice-President, Bishop THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE 185 Aldunate, died during the early period of the Junta, but the President, the Conde de la Con- quista, came punctually to all the meetings of the Junta and slept tranquilly from the beginning to the end. When he did awake for a moment during the sessions, it was to complain that no attention was paid to his suggestions and then drop asleep again. He was old and querulous, and on the 26th of February, 1811, he passed suddenly away, with- out realizing for a moment the great changes that were taking place in the country which he thought he still governed, and in whose annals his death is recorded as an obscure incident. Early in 1811, Camilo Henriquez returned to Chile, having escaped from the dungeons of the Holy Office, where he had been immured for his liberal and revolutionary utterances, and whence he drew a profound hatred of the power that sought to enslave the consciences of men. It is probable that Rozas invited him to return, that he might become the apostle of liberty and independ- ence, and propagate as an individual those great ideas which the country was now ready to receive, but which Rozas could not himself directly incul- cate without destroying his authority with the Junta. It is difficult to conceive from reading the files of the Aurora in the National Library at San- tiago, how such utterances could have aroused the Chilean spirit to so lofty a pitch of enthusiasm, but the fact is undeniable and illustrates the power of the living word. Camilo Henriquez, unfrocked, 186 THE INDEPENDENCE OF CHILE excommunicated, disgraced, was a brilliant and beneficent power in the early history of Chilean independence. He was the pioneer of patriotism in Chile. Thus the months passed; Summer came and withered into Autumn and the 1st of April was at hand, when the Junta had proclaimed that the elec- tion should take place of members to the Con- gress. But while the Junta was submissive and the people happy and the country prosperous, there were yet many persons in Chile who resented the altered spirit of the country, and who saw with re- gret the cause of the captive King neglected. Carrasco was still living in Santiago, the recipient of a pension from the Junta, and the Royal Audi- ence still held in nominal control the supervision of justice, but they were filled with resentment and cherished the hope of vengeance for the affronts that had humiliated them. To these grew the farmers of the royal revenue and the agents of the former royal monopolies, as well as the mer- chants and ancient officials of the earlier regime who were of Spanish birth or of royalist sympa- thies, until they had become a compact body of dis- sent and disaffection, inflamed with animosity and eager for action. They tampered with Colonel Reina, a member of the Junta, they tempted the former military governor of Valparaiso, our old friend Joaquin Alos, they seduced Colonel Fig- ueroa, who commanded the Dragoons stationed in the Capital. THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE 187 In the circular for the convocation of the Na- tional Congress which issued at the end of March and appointed the 1st of April for the election, / the Junta recognized the provisional character of its authority, and announced that with the election of representatives, the functions of the Junta would immediately cease, and that the Congress must determine how the country should be ruled in the future. The election of members to the Congress seemed to the royalists a suitable occa- sion to reassert the authority of the King, and the demission of the Junta a suitable opportunity to regain the control as it fell from the hand of Rozas and before it could be seized by the Con- gress. The first of April, then, was the date set for the counter-revolution, in order to prevent the election and to put an immediate end to the revo- lutionary innovations of this irregular but power- ful Junta. Colonel Figueroa, at the suggestion of the Royal Audience, had manoeuvered to obtain for his dragoons the honor of guarding the Consulate during the election and his request had been form- ally granted. Early in the morning of the first of April, Colonel Figueroa marched his dismounted dragoons down the Calle Catedral and formed them in the Plaza, while he himself passed on to the Hall of the Royal Audience. The Court was in session when Figueroa entered, and saluting them he addressed Ballesteros, "My arms support the religion, the King and the old regime." "Hush!" said Ballesteros, "There is no need 188 THE INDEPENDENCE OF CHILE for you to come here. Your work is in the plaza. Go there immediately and do your duty, and be sure that no one sees you leave this Hall." At once on the departure of their unwelcome guest, Ballesteros wrote a note to Rozas warning him of the attempt of Figueroa, and gave the note to the messenger of the Audience with instruc- tions to deliver it the following day. But Rozas was already warned, and when Colonel Figueroa returned to the plaza, he found a de- tachment of troops under Comandante Vial drawn up opposite his own men. Vial had just finished an allocution to the dragoons as their commander came up. Fortunately for Vial, Figueroa was ignorant of the liberty that his inferior had taken, nor did he see the look of hesitation and distrust on the faces of the dragoons. He at once ad- vanced and attempted to incorporate the new men into his own troop, claiming superiority of com- mand over Vial. Vial resisted the claim, alleging the explicit direction of the Junta, and a hot dis- cussion began between the two officers, when a sergeant in Vial's company fired his pistol in the air. An irregular discharge followed, and sev- eral soldiers and one or two bystanders fell. At once confusion ensued, shouts of foul play arose, and the dragoons took the opportunity to disperse and disappear. Their Colonel, finding himself alone, exclaimed, "I am lost! They have deceived me," and ran across the plaza and disappeared. Anticipating this outcome, Rozas himself now THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE 189 appeared with a squad of soldiers in the plaza, \ and directing Vial to hold his troops in readiness, he followed swiftly on Colonel Figueroa's track and J entered the Convent of Santo Domingo a few min- utes after the fugitive had disappeared therein. Guards were stationed at the gates and a careful search of the Convent was begun under the guid- ance of Father Gonzales. All was in vain. Every corner was examined and Figueroa was not to be found, when suddenly a chance gust of wind from an opening door disarranged the priestly robe of Father Gonzalez, and, on Rozas ordering him to be stripped, Colonel Figueroa stood revealed. He was led at once to the Junta and interrogated, but he refused to throw the least light upon the motive or the extent of the conspiracy, denied the complic- ity of the Royal Audience and abjured the words he was heard to utter in the plaza. He was shot the \ next morning at four o'clock. From subsequent i revelations it was learned that the object of the conspiracy was to replace Don Francisco Antonio Garcia Carrasco in the Governor's chair, and to reinstate the Royal Audience in its former author- ity. The Royal Audience was immediately dis- solved in disgrace and Carrasco was summarily ex- pelled from Chilean soil. This fiasco was a fitting pendant to his course as Governor, and rounds out his Chilean career with a kind of romantic justice. The conspiracy of the first of April has the further interest for us in that when the news reached Curico, Don Bernardo O'Higgins, then Lieutenant 190 THE INDEPENDENCE OF CHILE Colonel of Militia, set out at once for the Capital, where he arrived on the 9th inst., and without changing his riding clothes, strode puffing before the Junta and offered them his sword. On May 6th was held the election of representa- tives in the city of Santiago which had been inter- trupted by the conspiracy of the 1st of April, and on the 4th of July the National Congress began its sessions in the Capital. During the past few months there had been a growing estrangement i between Rozas and the Cabildo of Santiago. While : his authority in the Junta was become practically absolute, the Cabildo was watching with more and more disquietude the development of his power. There had always existed in the Municipal govern- ment a feeling that the time was not yet come for the final break with Spain. The Cabildo had al- ways been a conservative body, .being composed of representatives of the aristocracy, who had their titles and their wealth and their social posi- tion to consider in any event that might befall the country. These men, led by Eyzaguirre, were anxious not to compromise their country to such a degree that the restoration of Ferdinand might ensure its utter ruin. They followed Rozas in his developing projects of social improvement, but they feared that he might lead them too far and they gradually grew to distrust him. When Camilo Henrfquez began his propaganda for lib- - erty and independence, they complained to Rozas that Henriquez was threatening the peace and the THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE 191 future of the country. They were dissatisfied with Rozas' reply and suspected that Rozas him- self sympathized with and perhaps indirectly as- sisted the campaign of the ex-priest. Rozas in turn began to neglect the Cabildo, and, in the confidence of his power, spoke slightingly of some of its members. After the incident of the 1st of April, this tension increased, and the aristocracy , of Santiago, taking part with the Cabildo, began to complain openly that this lawyer from Con- cepcion should venture to usurp all the powers of the government and to override the Cabildo which had named him. Thus came about the dis- tinct separation of the Exaltados from the Moder- ados. It is probable, nevertheless, that if the election had been held on April first, Rozas might have obtained a majority of the representatives, but during the following weeks Eyzaguirre and his followers bethought them of a scheme whereby they might assure to themselves the control of the Congress, by arbitrarily electing for the city an unlawful number of representatives. The decree of convocation had appointed to each district the number of its representatives, but now, while con- ceding the appointment for each of the other dis- tricts, the Cabildo announced that the Capital should have twelve members instead of six. They exerted their influence in the other congressional districts also, and when the Congress convened it soon appeared that among the thirty-four dele- gates, thirteen only could be relied upon to follow 192 THE INDEPENDENCE OF CHILE Rozas and his Exaltados, while among the ma- jority were several of Spanish birth and openly royalist prejudices. For some time there was no test of strength. The 9th of August was the date decided upon for the election of the new Junta, and the intervening time was pleasantly spent in making speeches, in discussing Penin- ; sular events, and in listening to impracticable pro- jects for a constitution for the country. Rozas indeed took a part in these exercises, for he had the greatest learning and the readiest wit among ,them all, but O'Higgins sat in gloomy silence. One day there suddenly burst upon this debating society a real question to decide. There had col- lected from the rents of the Crown the sum of one million six hundred thousand dollars in gold in the Royal Treasury in Santiago, and on the 5th of July, a vessel anchored in Valparaiso with cre- dentials from the Supreme Council of Regency, empowering the Captain to collect all the funds which had accumulated in the Colonial treasuries. The Congress voted to send the money down to the port at once in obedience to the ancient cus- tom. Only the thirteen radicals opposed it, and their voice was ineffectual until O'Higgins started to his feet and thundered out, "Although we are in the minority, we will know how to supply our numerical inferiority with our energy and bold- ness, and we will not lack hands to prevent the loss of this sum of money so necessary to our country at this time." Whether the Congress was intimi- THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE 193 dated by his boldness or shamed by his words, the vessel was permitted to sail without the Chilean funds, an_d O'Higgins won his first public victory. This was the only intrusion upon the somnolent sessions; of the Congress until the approach of the 9th of August. Rozas was too expert a politician to mistake his position in the Congress. It was in vain that he had expostulated against the admission of the irregularly elected delegates from the Capital, he was defeated by a compact maj ority ; it was in vain that he privately and publicly had employed the voice of reason and of wisdom to break this disheartening majority, he could not reduce the number of the opposition by the defection of a single member. In pursuance of a further ex- pedient, he had contrived the nomination of Com- andante Vial to the command of the city troops, but as soon as it became known that he was in- terested in this appointment, the Congress at -once withdrew the command from Vial and commis- sioned Colonel Reina in his place. Rozas made up his mind to do without Vial, and on the night of the 8th of August an attempt was made to oc- cupy the artillery quarters and effect a coup d'etat, which should reinstate him in his inter- rupted office, but Colonel Reina had anticipated the attempt and it was immediately frustrated by his vigilance. No hope was now left to the Exalt- ados ; they withdrew from the sessions of the Con- gress and on the 13th Rozas left Santiago to re- 194 THE INDEPENDENCE OF CHILE turn to Concepcion, abandoning the country to the divided councils and varied impulses of a vain and incompetent Junta, composed of Martin Calvo Encalada, Juan Jose Aldunate and Francisco Javier del Solar, representing the three provinces of Santiago, Coquimbo and Concepcion. There was nothing in fact that Rozas could any longer do in the Capital. The Congress had so tied the hands of the new Junta, lest any individual should assume the undisputed authority which Rozas had attained in the provisional Junta, that even the ordinary process of executive authority was withdrawn from the Junta and exercised by the Congress, which entered upon a continuous and unrestricted control of administration as well as of legislation, and reduced the Junta to a con- dition where it could not command even general respect. The withdrawal of Rozas thus involved the dis- appointment and perhaps the extinction of the general aspiration for immediate independence. There could be as yet no such thing in Santiago society as the determined expression of a consist- ent public sentiment, to which Rozas might ap- peal and which could effectively coerce the mod- erate leaders in the Congress ; neither party made the slightest attempt to influence the people as a mass. Eyzaguirre did not appeal to them for support nor Rozas for vindication. When the citizens were dressed alike and carried muskets and kept step and were called soldiers, they as- THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE 195 sumed a position of consequence in the State, but no one had the least respect for their opinion as a mere many-headed multitude ; nor was there as yet among 1 them a due estimate of their own value, for they had not learned their power. With the departure of Rozas, then, the best head in Chile was removed from the national councils and the hearts of his patriotic followers were submerged in gloom and despondency. The English vessel, the Standard, which cast anchor in the road of Valparaiso on the 25th of July, bringing from the Supreme Council of Regency the demand for the money in the King's treasury, brought also to the Chilean shores a young officer who had served with distinction in the Peninsular war under the Duke of Albuquerque among the Spanish allies of the Duke of Welling- ton; and on the next day when Don Bernardo O'Higgins was winning an unexpected victory in the Congress, Don Jose Miguel Carrera was lis- tening breathlessly to the narrative of his father, Don Ignacio de la Carrera, and was learning the history of the events which had changed Chile from submission to insurrection. Jose Miguel Carrera, after a wild and stormy youth, had been sent to Lima to escape the penalties of his mis- deeds in Chile and, after an unprofitable residence in the City of the Kings, had made his way to Spain, where he had risen to the rank of Major of Hussars in the Spanish army. He was only twenty-six years old, but he had seen more active 196 THE INDEPENDENCE OF CHILE service in war than any other Chilean. He was of t-^ an overpowering ambition and not without the illness should attend it. He possessed an engaging personality, he was elegant and affable, with the prestige of social position, family wealth, and a record of bravery and conduct in the armies of Spain. It is proba- ble that his military experiences lost nothing in his narration of them, and he immediately became the hero of the army and the lion of society. If he had tempered his ambition with true patriotism, if he had possessed political honor and personal integrity, he might have won a very high place in the history of South America. The sagacious statesmanship of Rozas was above his conception, and the modest patriotism of O'Higgins was be- yond his attainment and perhaps beyond his sym- pathy. He sowed envy and he reaped hatred, his career began in treachery and ended in destruc- tion. But Rozas did not return to Concepcion to brood over his defeat and accuse the people of Santiago of ingratitude ; his first step was to cause a Cabildo Abierto to be summoned wherein he narrated the history of the Congress. They decided at once to recall their delegates who had voted with the Moderados, and replaced them by others who could be relied on to follow Rozas. They then entered their protest against the double representation of Santiago and threatened, if this evil were not at once remedied, to erect a Junta ; THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE 197 of their own which should control the southern portion of the country and withdraw their recog- nition from the National Congress. This final action was taken on the 5th of September and the ultimatum, for such it really was, was de- spatched at once by an accredited envoy to the Capital. But the people of Concepcion were too late; before their envoy had reached the Maule, he turned and hurriedly retraced his way to Con- cepcion, bearing news that effectively changed the plans of the Exaltados of the South. The new government was upon the rocks be- / fore the new Junta was fairly on board. With no real power in their hands, they were expected to perform great deeds. The people of the Capital had become accustomed to a Junta which really accomplished something. They remembered Rozas. So when the new Junta neither accom- plished nor promised to accomplish anything, since they were manacled and fettered by Congressional restrictions and Congressional usurpation, the people of Santiago became quickly disgusted with their new government. The Congress too was inactive. There seems to be no reasonable doubt, when one considers at this distance of time the course of events in Chile, that the Moderados agreed perfectly with Rozas as to the desirability of independence, but differed from him as to its proper method and period of attainment. Where Rozas was enterprising and sagacious, the Moder- ados were timid and dubitative. \ 198 THE INDEPENDENCE OF CHILE Carrera was not slow to take advantage of this changed sentiment. He had two brothers who were officers, one of grenadiers and the other of artillery, and who were stationed in the Capital with their respective commands. He offered the services of his family to the Radicals in the city and a compact was entered into between them, as early as the 27th of August. On the morning of September 4*th, Colonel Reina was arrested and im- prisoned, every point of vantage was occupied, the grenadiers filled the Plaza, and Don Jos.e Miguel Carrera, resplendent in his uniform of Major of the Spanish Hussars, entered the Hall where the Congress was in session and imposed the will of the Exaltados upon the representatives. The Junta was dismissed, and a new Junta, com- posed of Rozas, Resales, Calvo Encalada, Mac- kenna and Gasper Marin was proclaimed; the six supernumerary representatives of Santiago were dismissed and two of the members from Con- cepcion were displaced to make room for two Exaltados. Thus the blow which Rozas had con- templated for the 8th of August was exactly ac- complished by Carrera on the 4th of September, and the Exaltados were in a moment restored to power with a majority of two in the Congress. This was the news which invalidated the mission of the Envoy-messenger from Concepcion, and sent him back to Rozas without accomplishing his now useless embassy. Rozas, thus restored to power, resumed his in- THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE 199 terrupted plan of legislation. One of the great evils that had grown into the Church system was the imposition of parochial fees, whose excessive tariff placed some of the sacraments beyond the means of many of the people. Marriage fees especially were nearly prohibitive, and the ma- jority of the community were raising families without the sanction of the Church. The first law passed by the new Junta put an end to the sale of the sacraments, and created an endowment or dotation for the support of the parochial . clergy. A Supreme Court of Justice was also es- tablished, and three of the most distinguished law- \ yers in Chile, Juan de Dios Vial del Rio, Joaquin/H Echeverria and Jose Maria Rozas were named as its members. The sessions of the Congress were made open and public to all who wished to attend them, and * on the 7th of October it was enacted that all the discussions in the Congress and all the acts of the government should be published. On the same day it was enacted that on the first of every month Treasury reports should be issued, showing the amount and source of the menstrual revenue, the amount and destination of the sums disbursed by the government, and the balance remaining in the Treasury. More than all else, the Junta urged on the Congress the necessity of formulating the national rights and establishing a Constitution. "A review of the history of other nations admon- ishes us," said Rozas in a message to the Con- 00 THE INDEPENDENCE OF CHILE gress, "that where the people fail to restrain themselves within the bounds of an enlightened liberty, their rulers will not be contented within the limits of a rational authority; the people are as naturally inclined to license as the rulers to tyranny. That government, then, which holds one to the due obedience, and the other to the im- partial exercise, of the law, and which establishes this law as a centre of a common happiness and as the guaranty of a reciprocal security, will be your ideal in formulating the organic law of your country." It was impossible that so many and so im- portant innovations could be made in the govern- ment of Chile, without exciting some interest in the mind of Spain's principal representative in America, the Viceroy of Peru. In fact, the roy- alists in Santiago kept the Viceroy, Abascal, com- pletely informed of the condition of political af- fairs in Chile, and the Junta were under no illusion whatever as to their relation toward the Viceroy. Rozas labored continually, almost with- out respite or refreshment, in his purpose to cut Chile off from any hope of reconciliation with Spain, and to establish a unity of sentiment throughout the whole country. He made no con- cealment now of his sympathy with Camilo Hen- riquez, and of his responsibility for the propa- ganda of the ex-priest, who, laying aside his breviary, preached opportune sermons from the "Contrat Social." THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE 201 The Supreme Council of Regency also had been apprized of the dangerous state of affairs in Chile, and had instructed Abascal to watch zealously over the maintenance of the royal authority in that country. Pursuant to these instructions, Abascal wrote a threatening letter to the Con- gress, demanding an explanation of their convoca- tion and a copy of the record of their transac- tions. To this the Congress returned a neutral response, but decreed the enlistment and equip- ment of a body of militia, in which should be com- pulsorily enrolled all inhabitants of the Colony between the ages of sixteen and sixty. This de- cree was published by the Congress with a copy of the letter that Abascal had sent, and so great was the resentment everywhere felt at the stric- tures and menaces of the Viceroy, that for a time the whole country was united in a spirit of re- sistance to the arbitrary authority of Spain. The message of the Viceroy had the effect of suddenly quenching the flame of hostility with which the Moderados had insisted on their man- ner of bringing about the same end for which the Exaltados were also striving; and in the face of a common danger, all distinctions of method and name were abandoned. Thus the Exaltados tri- umphed because they represented the logical progress of the revolution. Meanwhile Jose Miguel Carrera had been en- tirely forgotten by the Junta that he had re- instated in power, and by the Congress that he THE INDEPENDENCE OF CHILE had purged of its Moderado majority. After chafing under this neglect for two months, he finally saw his hopes blasted by the complete fusion of both parties into one, among whose members harmony and mutual confidence reigned. Now at last he realized that he had nothing to ex- pect from those whom he had befriended. The situation, to one of his ambitious and arrogant nature, was intolerable. Rozas's wise and judi- cious administration in no wise counterbalanced his own neglect or conciliated his own pretensions. Among the royalists in Santiago the message of Abascal to the Congress infused a sudden hope and an unwonted activity. Carrera, who had despised them, saw in this revival of royalist en- thusiasm an opening for his own ambition. His two brothers had endured the same neglect as himself, and when he proposed to them an- other revolution in favor of the royalists, they readily assented to his proposition. Then Car- rera brought together the royalist leaders and promised them to restore the ancient government, and they, knowing well the humiliation that he had suffered, looked upon him as their sure sal- vation and exulted riotously in the unexpected prospect of recovered power. Colonel Juan Mac- kenna was a member of the Junta and an ardent follower of Rozas. O'Higgins spoke of him, at a later period, as "the most accomplished soldier and the most accomplished scholar that has ap- peared on either side in the revolution." Mac- THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE 203 kenna had married into the family of Vicuna, who were a branch of the patrician house of the Lar- rain, and bad adopted the hostility that the Larrain entertained toward the Carrera. Mac- kenna had distrusted Jose Miguel Carrera from the time of their first meeting, and it was Mac- kenna who now laid before the Junta his suspicion of Carrera, for he had in some way divined the conspiracy that was being planned. The Junta unwisely forbore to take Carrera seriously, ascribed Mackenna's suspicions to personal dislike, and refused even to investigate the matter closely. But while Mackenna failed to stir the Junta into action, his accusation when made public was the means of precipitating the movement which he had predicted. On the night of November 14th Carrera's arrangements were completed, and be- fore daylight on the 15th, the grenadiers and hussars were distributed throughout the city and the artillery had occupied the Plaza and trained their guns upon the principal streets leading into it. Meanwhile the members of the Junta and of the Congress, startled from their sleep by the commotion in the streets, had betaken themselves, half dressed, to their place of meeting, and de- clared themselves in extraordinary session, but they were too bewildered to reach any decision, and knew not what had in reality taken place. A message from, Carrera was brought to them an- nouncing that every quarter of the city was oc- cupied with the troops, that every gun was loaded 204 THE INDEPENDENCE OF CHILE with ball, and that they must instantly resign and depart in order that "the reforms that the people imperiously demanded might be accomplished without delay." Messengers were sent out by the Junta to assure themselves of the truth of Car- rera's representations, and having verified his statements, the Junta, being convinced that their withdrawal alone would save the city from a mas- sacre, offered their resignations to the Congress and left the Hall. With the resignation of the Junta on Novem- ber 15th, 1811, the public career of Juan Mar- tinez de Rozas came to an end. His work was accomplished. What that work was has been briefly outlined in the preceding pages and forms a great epoch in the history of Chile. For the greater part of a year he had been a member of the governing body, but for only the past ten weeks had he enjoyed the active cooperation of his fellows. During the rule of the provisional Junta, he had dominated his colleagues by his in- tellectual superiority and his moral force, but he had also reconciled them to that domination by his kindliness, his tact and his manifest altruism, for there was no single individual in the pro- visional Junta who had the slightest sympathy with the great aim and purpose of Rozas's efforts, or who even divined the lofty and noble motive that inspired him. During that year he had turned the tide of sentiment from subserviency THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE 205 to independence. The mere enumeration of the legislative benefits that he showered upon his country would alone form the text for apprecia- tive volumes. As if with a presentiment of the limited time for action, he worked with inde- fatigable zeal and insight for the good of the nation, and in a year he succeeded, beyond all ex- ample of human activity, in correcting the abuses which had taken deep root during three centuries of oppression and despotism. Rozas was in the fifty-third year of his age, when, by a sedition as vulgar as it was violent, since it was set on foot merely to gratify an ignoble ambition, he was thrust from the office which he had dignified by the exercise of a sagacious and admirable statesman- ship. The joy of the royalists was short-lived. Carrera, having carried through his coup with their assistance, showed his contempt of them by refusing them the credit of participation in the emeute that had raised him to power. He even refused to interfere when a complaint was laid before the Congress, accusing some of the royalists, his fellow conspirators, of an "attempt to disturb the public peace and withstand the constituted au- thority of the nation," and demanding that they receive "severe and exemplary punishment." He now announced to the Congress that it was his will that a Junta of three be named, and directed them to appoint as its members Don Bernardo 206 THE INDEPENDENCE OF CHILE O'Higgins, Gaspar Marin and himself, which the Congress at once did and the new Junta entered into office immediately. It was now evident that Carrera's purpose had been, not a change in affairs, but simply a vindica- tion of his own right to direct them. Between him and O'Higgins there was never any sym- pathy, but there was as yet no actual hostility. Carrera regarded O'Higgins as a serviceable instrument, and O'Higgins felt an instinctive dis- trust of Carrera which was emphasized by the peculiar treachery of his sudden rise to authority. In fact Carrera realized the necessity of con- ciliating the good will of his associates, upon whom he had intruded his own pretensions in such a harsh and unwelcome manner, and he thought to succeed by the timely use of, suavity, by his in- gratiating speech, and by a fascination of manner which he imagined the rude Chileans could in no wise resist. O'Higgins for one was not imposed on by these superficial qualifications, and promptly resigned from the Junta together with Marin. O'Higgins's resignation was in part due to the suggestion of Rozas from Concepcion, whither he had returned, and Carrera found that the in- fluence of his predecessor outweighed all the per- sonal excellencies with which he had thought to impress the Congress. He therefore dismissed the Congress on the 2d of December, and appointed Jose Nicolas de la Cerda and Juan Jose Aldunate as his associates in the Junta. THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE 207 Meanwhile Rozas, feeling that the security of the country was threatened, actively employed himself in devising means to remove Carrera from power. If Santiago was the political and social centre of Chile, Concepcion was its military centre and Rozas was absolute in Concepcion. More- over he possessed in Santiago much greater influ- ence and resources now than were at his command three months earlier when he sent his ultimatum to the Congress which had disturbed his plans. Among those who took a strenuous part with him , now in the Capital were Mackenna, Vial, the Lar- V rains, Vicuna and Argomedo. But it was written that Rozas's authority was not to be restored. Carrera was informed through his spies of the movement in Santiago and caused all the leaders to be placed under immediate arrest, while he sent for O'Higgins requesting an interview "for the good of the country." To O'Higgins he an- nounced his entire concurrence in the movement which Rozas had imparted to the revolution, he represented the certainty of the coming war with Spain, and declared the absolute necessity of his being entrusted with the conduct of military operations, in which he must not be hampered by an unsympathetic Congress. He then ex- plained to O'Higgins the plan of defense which he had drawn up, and appealed to O'Higgins's patriotism to assist him in the conduct of the war. He then pleaded with him to undertake the mis- sion of satisfying Rozas of his sincerity and 208 THE INDEPENDENCE OF CHILE patriotism, and of diverting him from any at- tempt against him (Carrera) which would divide the country, introducing discord where the only hope of success lay in perfect harmony. More- over, if Rozas distrusted his purpose or his ca- pacity, he besought O'Higgins to bring about an interview between them, when he would satisfy Rozas or withdraw at once from the direction of affairs. O'Higgins undertook the mission to Rozas, but he had no credentials from Carrera, and while Rozas and the Concepcion Junta placed firm faith in O'Higgins, yet they had no confi- dence in Carrera's promises or protestations. This reluctance to trust Carrera was justified in the progress of the negotiations, which continued until the following April before the differences between the two provinces were finally composed. During the latter part of this period Santiago and Concepcion were more than once on the point of engaging in civil strife, and an army of five thousand men had actually taken possession of the passes of the Maule, before Carrera finally yielded to the demand of Concepcion to summon another Congress which should restrain the Junta in the exercise of its authority. Meanwhile, tak- ing advantage of the divided state of Chile, the royalists had possessed themselves of the city of Valdivia and were becoming active even in the Capital. Whether Rozas was deceived by Car- rera's representations or feared to cause a civil war in Chile, he withdrew all his pretensions to THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE 209 authority, although he might well despair of the future while it lay in the hands of such a man as Carrera. But Rozas was unfitted for so vulgar a contest. Not on the sordid field of personal ambition had his victories been won. He might well realize the value of his services to Chile and might well believe that they were too securely guaranteed by the sanction of his countrymen to fall before so inexperienced an innovator as Car- rera. But while Rozas's laws might be safe, his life was not, for Carrera could not feel secure while he lived. A few days after they had parted at the Maule, reconciled at least if not friends, Carrera suborned the royalists in Concepcion to raise a re- volt against the local Junta and promised them his assistance. How any one could still put any faith in Carrera's promises it is difficult to under- stand, but he sent them also some six thousand dollars in money, which must have persuaded them of his good faith. So they carried out his direc- tions and while the city was in the direst tumult, some of Carrera's emissaries seized upon Rozas and, aided by the confusion, carried him away and rode rapidly northward to Santiago. At the Maule an order was received from the Junta of Santiago, directing Rozas to leave Chilean soil at once, and at the same time a passport to Mendoza was given him. So Rozas departed into exile, where he died within a month. Before leaving Chile, however, he wrote a letter to Carrera. In this letter went no word of personal com- 210 THE INDEPENDENCE OF CHILE plaint or resentment, no expostulation as to the atrocious injustice of Carrera in causing him to be kidnapped and exiled like a felon, no threat of vengeance or retribution. Rozas had never had any ambition for himself, and his last word to Carrera was directed solely to the welfare of Chile. He informed him that the city of Concepcion was the point at which the Viceroy's army would land, and exhorted him to take certain measures, which he proceeded to indicate, to prepare Concepcion to resist that attempt. Rozas was always great, the last moment he became sublime. So Carrera for the present triumphed, or seemed to triumph ; and yet he had by this time alienated the friendship of the majority of the best men in Chile. The army still supported him, and every act of his as a legislator had for its motive the strengthening of his hold on his soldiers and the erection of their officers into a privileged class. To this general rule there was one exception, which brings into significant contrast with the serious statesmanship of Rozas, the jaunty inconsequence of Carrera. He chose this very time, when a great part of the clergy were uncertain which cause to espouse, and when they might be of signal service to the country if conciliated, to is- sue a decree that "for the future the word Roman should be omitted from the title of the Church in Chile." The result was decisive. The clergy no longer hesitated. The only other memorable occurrence of this THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE dreary period was the arrival in Santiago on the 24th day of February, 1812, of Mr. Joel Roberts Poinsett. He is spoken of always as the "Amer- ican Consul," but his instructions were probably more diplomatic than commercial in character, and his arrival and reception by the Junta gave, as it was intended to give, an assurance of the sympathy of the United States for Chile which wonderfully strengthened the patriots in their purpose of in- dependence. Mr. Poinsett by no means concealed his own interest in the cause of Chilean freedom, and seems indeed to have filled an honorary posi- tion on Carrera's staff. Two days after his reception, on February 26th, the Aurora an- nounced that "Mr. Poinsett had sent to the United States for six thousand muskets, one thousand pistols and some light field pieces, besides uniforms, saddles and trumpets." Mr. Poinsett was after- ward Secretary of War during Van Buren's ad- ministration from 1837 to 1841, and must have appreciated the significance of his activities in Chile. In July, 1812, the royalists had taken posses- \ sion of Valdivia. To Abascal, the Viceroy of / Peru, this seemed the turning of the tide. On the 19th of October he sent a long despatch to the Chilean Junta, in which he overwhelmed the Junta with insults, and spoke of Chile with the utmost contempt, demanding the instantaneous reinstate- ment of the royal officials under the penalty of summary punishment by the royal armies. The THE INDEPENDENCE OF CHILE Cabildo of Santiago replied with a formal declara- tion of war against the Viceroy of Peru, and the Junta "took the matter under advisement," but made no reply to the Viceroy. Benavente, who was always an admiring friend of Carrera, says that the Viceroy "commanded the Junta to swear allegi- ance to the royal standard; to proclaim Ferdi- nand VII. as absolute sovereign, the Supreme Council of Regency as his only representative, and His Excellency Jose Miguel Carrera as Captain General and President of Chile." There is no such clause in the copy of the Viceroy's message which is in my possession, but even if the Viceroy had so instructed the Junta, it seems unlikely that Carrera could be deluded into accepting a commis- sion which the temper of Chile must have assured him would have been of little value and of short duration. On March 26, 1813, Brigadier General Don An- tonio Parej a landed in the bay of Talcahuano with an army of two thousand three hundred and seventy men, sent by the Viceroy of Peru to subdue the kingdom of Chile, and summoned Concepcion to surrender. Carrera had despised Rozas' warn- ing, and timidity and treason yielded to the roy- alists the immediate possession of the city with- a gun being fired in its defense. Parej a left a suitable garrison in Concepcion and Talcahuano, and marched rapidly northward that he might surprise the country. He had expected to fill up his skeleton ranks with the royalists of Chile, and THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE 213 his hope was verified, for when he reached Chilian on the 15th of April, his immediate command had increased to fifty-five hundred men, the whole of Chile south of the Maule was come under his con- trol and every town and village was garrisoned with his soldiers. Carrera, the autocrat of Chile and commander in chief of her army, had not taken a single ef- fective step to prepare the country to resist tlj invaders. His "plan of defense" which he haid flaunted triumphantly before the eyes of Rozas was a mere hoax, and was disconcerted by the very movement of which Rozas had fully warned him. The country, too, was divided into bitter factions and would certainly have been soon rent by civil war, if the advance of Pareja had not suddenly stilled every voice in Chile but the voice of patriot- ism. When the news of the landing of Parej a reached Santiago on the 31st of March, Carrera fulmi- nated a tardy declaration of war against the Viceroy of Peru ; erected a gallows in the plaza to intimidate the royalists of Santiago, imposed an extraordinary contribution of four hundred thou- sand dollars on the Capital, and issued a proclama- tion to the inhabitants of Chile. April 1st he marched to Rancagua, accompanied by Mr. Pom- sett, Capt. Benavente and a sergeant and corporal of the Grand National Guard, with twelve soldiers. By the 5th he had advanced to Talca and estab- lished his headquarters there, and on the 9th of THE INDEPENDENCE OF CHILE April his army had increased to one hundred and eleven men; on the 12th came in the rest of the Grand National Guard amounting to two hundred and thirty men, who were armed only with their swords, for the government had taken their mus- kets to arm the militia which was collecting in the Capital. On the 14th Luis Carrera arrived with the artillery train consisting of sixteen small field pieces ill-mounted, two hundred soldiers, four hun- dred mules and seventy wagons containing sup- plies. The 18th saw his forces augmented by the battalion of grenadiers, six hundred strong, and by fifteen hundred mounted militia. Colonel O'Higgins was one of the first officers to reach headquarters, and offer his services loyally to the commander. Carrera in his "Diario Militar" says : "I could not get a moment's rest. Among the duties that filled my hands were drilling the militia, organizing the treasury, creating a com- missary department, collecting stores, purchasing horses and all kinds of supplies, ascertaining the physical character of the district that was to be the theatre of war, of which not even a sketch had been made, the necessary correspondence," etc. These were the things that were to be done in the face of an advancing enemy, by a general who had had seventeen months to prepare for this very emer- gency. Carrera is condemned as a general out of his own private diary. However, the enthusiasm and devotion of the soldiers counterbalanced for the time the incapacity of their general, and while THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE 215 still outnumbered by Pare j a, two to one, they awaited in eager expectancy the command to move against the royalists. By this time, too, Colonel Mackenna, Commander Vial, Brigadier General Juan Jose Carrera and other officers had come to headquarters in Talca full of hope and energy, and the affairs of the patriot army became daily more encouraging. Colonel O'Higgins had already stimulated them by an exploit that roused their enthusiasm to the point of impatience. General Pareja had sent Colonel Carbajal to Cauquenes to secure that important place, and Carbajal had despatched a body of eighty cavalry to Linares to collect horses and to confirm the adherence of the royalists who were resident there. Colonel O'Hig- gins had learned of the presence of the detachment of Carbajal's dragoons in Linares, and requested leave to surprise and capture them. His request granted, he set out in the evening with twenty- seven men, armed with sword and pistol, for Lin- ares. This place is somewhat over fifty miles south of Talca and it was eight o'clock the next morning when O'Higgins with his twenty-seven militia rode into the square in Linares and sur- prised Colonel Carbajal's dragoons while they were eating their breakfast. He took them all pris- oners and carried them away to Talca. Pare j a stayed but a few days in Chilian. On his way to Linares he despatched to Carrera a sum- mons to surrender, promising him personally the post of Captain General of Chile under the King, 216 THE INDEPENDENCE OF CHILE and offering amnesty' to his soldiers. Varela, one of Elorreaga's officers, was the bearer of Pareja's message. While Carrera was reading it, some shots were fired and two of the soldiers in the reg- iment of San Fernando were killed. Carrera at once put an end to the interview and ordered Varela to depart, which he was constrained to do, protesting his innocence of the affront. Carrera was deeply offended at such a flagrant violation of the usages of war and determined to read the of- fender a lesson. Elorreaga had about four hun- dred men in his detachment, which served as the advance guard of Pareja's army, which was sup- posed to be about a day's march to the south of Linares, and in the expectation that Elorreaga would quarter for the night in Yerbas Buenas, Carrera sent Colonel Puga with six hundred men from Talca to beat up his quarters. Yerbas Buenas-i? situated in an open plain ris- ing somewhat from the level of the river, and con- sisted at that time of a chapel and the adjoining house of the curate, the plaza being enclosed with a brush fence beyond which were a few thatched ranches. Riding along swiftly, Colonel Puga came unaware upon two or three sentinels whom he overwhelmed silently, and on riding confidently into the plaza in front of the chapel at three o'clock in the morning, he found that he had fallen upon Pareja's whole army. The General with his staff was sleeping in the curate's corridor, and his men were lying in the plaza and the sur- THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE 217 rounding fields. With a shout "Death to the\ King!" the Chileans fell upon them. In a mo- < ment all was confusion. Stupefied with sleep and fatigue, the royalists fell a ready prey to the pa- triots' swords or endeavored distractedly to es- cape. There was no resistance. Pareja fled naked on a horse that was brought him, and in a few minutes his whole army had dispersed. In the chapel were found his stores and military chest, and Colonel Puga and his men returned to Talca laden down with spoils. How many of Pareja's men were killed, the despatch of the General in Chief to the Junta on April 29th does not say. The result of the affair at Yerbas Buenas was very important. The enthusiastic delight of the Chileans was only equalled by the discouragement of the royalists. Mariano Torrente, the Spanish historian, says: "This action must be considered as the beginning of all our subsequent misfortunes. The troops believed that such negligence in their officers must have been the result of treason, and this distrust led to the de- sertion of whole detachments of our army, and the desertion of the disaffected caused the desperation of those who remained. Pareja, yielding to his chagrin at his disgraceful defeat and to his rage at the deser- tion of his soldiers, fell an easy victim to an attack of malignant fever/' But Carrera failed to follow up his good for- tune at Yerbas Buenas. Torrente himself con- 218 THE INDEPENDENCE OF CHILE fesses that if the Chileans had ^attacked Pareja before he had crossed the river Nuble, the ruin of the King's army would have been inevitable. He was content to receive the deserters who joined him, and to learn that Pareja's forces went melt- ing away as their retreat continued, but he threw the blame of his delay upon the Junta in Santiago. When the Junta, of which Carrera was the dominant member, appointed him to the chief com- mand of the army, he left his brother Juan Jose Carrera in his place in the Capital. Between the two brothers there had always been much ill-feel- ing. Juan Jose was the elder, and resented Jose Miguel's superiority of rank. He had no wish to remain inactive in Santiago, occupied solely in conserving his brother's place in the Junta, when he could advance his own glory in the field; so he left the Capital and came to the headquarters of the army at Talca. The two remaining members of the Junta, Agustin Eyzaguirre and Jose Miguel Infante, appointed Jose Ignacio Cien- fuegos as their colleague, and they were all rather ill-disposed to Carrera. On the eve of the affair at Yerbas Buenas, Carrera had despatched Colonel Mendiburu to the Capital to request the Junta to forward the militia reserves and he delayed the ac- tive prosecution of Parej a until these forces should come up. But after Yerbas Buenas, the Junta decided that he would not need them to annihilate the already discomfited royalists, and that it would not be wise to strip the Capital of the forces needed THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE 219 to secure internal order. So Carrera in resent- ment permitted his foe to gather up his frag- ments and reform, while he languidly followed him southward for over two weeks without seeking any occasion to molest him. On May 15, he unwarily came up with Pareja's rear guard at San Carlos, and a trifling engagement ensued which scarcely disarranged the order of Pareja's retreat, who without further loss gained Chilian, which he pro- ceeded to fortify for his winter quarters. On July 10, Carrera sat down before Chilian and declared a state of siege. The winter rains had already set in. To read without impatience the history of the early campaigns in Chile, it is necessary to put aside and forget for the while all that one has learned of the scientific conduct of war. In this series of contests, where the windfall of Yerbas Buenas and the rear guard incident of San Carlos are termed battles, and the session of Carrera be- fore Chilian is called a siege, we must not expect to discover any consecutive plan of campaign, any continuous purpose, any objective whatever, save only the alternative proposition, "kill or be killed." The engagements recorded are not battles but fights. The Maipo is the only battle of the war. There was no strategy, no reconnaisance. De- tachments stumbled on each other unexpectedly, and fell to fighting without premeditation, until one or the other gave way and ran. Pareja at Yerbas Buenas relied on a thin line of sleepy 220 THE INDEPENDENCE OF CHILE pickets to guard his whole army. At Roble, Car- rera and O'Higgins were surprised simultaneously and Carrera was ignominiously beaten. Strategy was almost unknown. There was no general at all worthy of 1 the name on either side until San Martin appeared. Pareja was a naval officer. Colonel Elorreaga, who had served his apprenticeship to war in selling ribbon by the yard over the counter of a dry-goods store in Santiago, was a better of- ficer than the Commander in Chief of the Chilean army, Brigadier General Don Jose Miguel Car- rera, who had served as an officer under the Duke of Wellington in the Peninsula. Bernardo O'Hig- gins, the incarnation of Chilean patriotism, was not a general at all, but a caballero-andante, a KJnight-errant. As Napier said of Cuesta, "To rush headlong into battle constituted in his mind all the duties of a general." O'Higgins was Sir Huon of Bordeaux revived in the nineteenth cen- tury. At Chilian the army of the royalists was comfortably housed and fed to satiety, while that of Carrera, drenched with the rain and whipped with the cold wind from the Cordillera, perished from disease and starvation. When the Chileans entered the city from time to time, they scattered at once in all directions looking for food and clothing, while the only sallies made by the be- sieged were when foraging parties set out to rav- age the country and returned unmolested with abundant supplies. This was the "Siege of Chil- ian," where the besiegers envied the besieged the THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE privilege of going where they pleased, and the enjoyment of all the comforts of life which they themselves lacked. When Pare j a entered Chilian on May 15, O'Higgins with thirty men was sent by Carrera to regain the cities of the south which had yielded to Pareja. O'Higgins's personal popularity throughout the province of Concepcion doubtless facilitated greatly his mission, for in less time than had sufficed for Pareja to subvert them, O'Higgins had received their submission. Only Los Angeles withstood his summons, but O'Hig- gins dashed into the town, repeated his exploit at Linares, and Los Angeles resumed its interrupted allegiance. During this series of operations O'Higgins had increased his little band of thirty mounted militia, until it reached the respectable figure of one thousand men, whom he had armed, mounted and paid at his own expense, and with whom he returned in triumph to the siege of Chil- ian, where Carrera from the heights of Collanco was watching the beleaguered royalists. As this burlesque siege continued, there grad- ually grew up in the minds of the two leaders of the opposite armies a sentiment which was almost akin to animosity. Each thought the other stub- born, but General Sanchez was the first to lose his patience. "On the morning of the 10th of August," writes Benavente, a staunch partisan of Carrera, "under cover of a heavy fog, the enemy sallied from Chilian, and when at seven o'clock the 222 THE INDEPENDENCE OF CHILE fog lifted, we discovered his army in battle forma- tion not far from our camp. A flag of truce ad- vanced and delivered the following communica- tion: "To the General in Chief, Don Jose Miguel Carrera: "Although without this formality I could easily de- stroy the miserable relics of the army which you com- mand, such a step would conform neither with my merciful disposition nor with the pious intentions of my predecessor in office. It is, however, indispensable that you surrender at discretion, for otherwise I shall inexorably inflict upon you the unmitigated rigor of military law within the few moments that I shall need to cover the short distance that separates us. Now is the opportunity for you to prove the humanity of your heart in evading by surrender the destruction of your- self and of all the wretches who are in your company, which will inevitably result from the superior number and bravery of my troops who await with impatience the signal to give the attack. May God preserve you many years. "The Encampment of the Royal Army in Chilian, Aug. 10, 1813. "JUAN FRANCISCO SANCHEZ." "While this communication was being answered, our troops formed in line with extraordinary en- thusiasm and decision, even refusing the rum that was served out to them, saying that their courage needed no stimulant." The General in Chief re- plied by the following letter : "The miserable relics of the National Army await THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE with the greatest impatience the formidable army un- der your command. I would that you had omitted the ceremony of your message that we might have pre- vented the delay. The death with which you threaten me is the noblest reward that I could receive for my labors, and now that you defy me by fire and blood, I accept your challenge. I only regret that you should remain personally in Chilian instead of partici- pating in the glory of your troops, but perhaps your heart is too tender to behold the destruction of my unhappy soldiers. May God preserve you many years. JOSE MIGUEL CARRERA." "After the departure of the envoy with his re- ply we were prepared for a bloody engagement and undauntedly awaited the onset of the enemy, but they at once turned and marched back into Chilian, and we began our retreat." So suddenly and so inexplicably was the siege of Chilian raised. "The Chilean poet who may seize on this episode of our revolution," continues Benavente, "will find therein the material for a sublime epic, noble flashes of patriotism, strokes of generosity, exam- ples of civic virtues. There Don Jose Miguel Car- rera will exemplify the gifts of Agamemnon and his brother Luis the indomitable valor of Ajax." Meanwhile the army was discouraged and disor- ganized, without supplies, without ammunition, al- most without arms. The soldiers had discovered that their idol, Carrera, had feet of clay; that he was merely a hero of the barracks in time of peace, and not a general to whom they could look with THE INDEPENDENCE OF CHILE confidence for wise and brilliant leadership in the day of battle. After raising the siege of Chilian, Carrera led his forces to the south, leaving the road to the Capital unobstructed save by an inadequate gar- rison at Talca, while Santiago itself relied for its defense on some raw levies, sparsely armed and with no one to drill them or even to command them. He at once proceeded to commit the further dis- astrous error of subdividing his army into small detachments to guard the places of importance throughout the province of Concepcion. As a re- sult of these fatal provisions, the strongholds of the South fell again, one after another, into the hands of the royalists, until the whole of the in- terior places of importance were lost to the pa- triots. A guerrilla warfare of surprises and in- considerable actions now took the place of con- certed opposition, and at this kind of warfare Carrera and his officers proved themselves greatly the inferiors of Elorreaga, Lantano and Urrejola. Of all these numerous affairs one only was of con- sequence, that of Roble. There, on the banks of the Itata, Carrera and O'Higgins had met to concert another attack on Chilian. At four o'clock on the afternoon of Oc- tober 16, they encamped for the night on a slope that guarded the ford which took its name from an oak tree (roble) that marked the passage. Elor- reaga with four or five hundred men, had clung close to O'Higgins's flank for three days, subject- THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE ing him to constant annoyance and some trifling losses, but without caring to engage at close quar- ters. O'Higgins's army of five hundred infantry, five pieces of artillery and a few mounted militia, were encamped at the summit of the slope or hill overlooking the Itata, and were protected by a palisade. Carrera with the mounted militia and dragoons, lay a little further down the river bank, while several squads of mounted pickets patrolled the river for a distance of a league above and a league below the camp. A portion of the Grand Guard was stationed on the road leading to the ford. At day-break Elorreaga fell upon the Grand Guard and killed them to a man, and sim- ultaneously attacked the two camps. Carrera, roused from sleep, called for his horse and at- tempted to rally his men, but a shot killed his horse and his men had scattered beyond immediate recall. Carrera saw them making their way on * foot up the slope to gain the protection of the * other camp, but his aide dissuaded him from fol- lowing them, and led him out by way of the river. He plunged in, avoiding the ford, and swam | across. The attack on O'Higgins's camp was made at the same time. The panic was inde- scribable. O'Higgins sprang from his bed and rushed half clad to the palisade. In the early mist he saw the enemy tearing down the palisade and rushing into the enclosure, while his own men were running in all directions with no purpose but to escape. He snatched a musket from a soldier 226 THE INDEPENDENCE OF CHILE who fell at his side, and brandishing it above his (head, shouted aloud, "He who is brave, follow me ! JLive with honor or die with glory ! Follow me !" Instantly the terrified soldiers rallied at his voice, and camej from all sides at their leader's call. For three hours of hand to hand fighting the struggle lasted. Some one brought O'Higgins a horse, and he rode from one place to another encouraging his men. His horse was killed, a bullet pierced his own thigh, but he continued to animate his men with his voice and with his example, until the dis- comfited remnants of the royalists gave way and fled across the ford into the forest beyond. After the victory was won, the Commander in Chief re- turned, and by; his safety completed the joy of his victorious soldiers. This was the battle of Roble, fought October 17, 181S. On October 20, the Junta left Santiago and es- tablished the seat of government at Talca, "in order that theyl might become in earlier touch with the headquarters 1 of the army," and on the 27th of November the Junta degraded Carrera from the chief command, and named O'Higgins in his place. It is probable that the Junta intended, from the time that the siege of Chilian was raised, to make a change in the general in chief, and there is no doubt that they hoped, by removing to Talca, Xto escape the hostile demonstration which they had reason to believe would be made against them if they remained in Santiago. For the people were beginning to have views and purposes, and THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE 227 to express them with the emphasis that is peculiar to public sentiment, and Carrera was still popular with the people of Santiago, because he satisfied the civilian ideal of a general. Carrera was with- out doubt willing at first and even eager to be relieved of his responsibilities, but after a while his pride awoke and he began to intrigue with and against O'Higgins. He wrote O'Higgins that he regarded the action of the Junta with much suspicion, and feared lest there might lurk in it some concealed treason. These insinuations were expressed with a candor that might have be- guiled even a shrewder politician than O'Higgins, but they could not deceive Colonel Mackenna, whose instant solicitation had great effect on O'Higgins. No one knew better than O'Higgins himself that he was not capable of conducting the multi- tudinous operations of war, even against such enemies as opposed him. Modest as to his own capabilities and unselfish in his purposes, he knew that other qualities were needed for the command than those he possessed. He dallied with the offer of the Junta for two months. He was appointed on November 27, 1813, and it was not until Janu- ary 28, 1814, that he finally overcame his inde- cision and suffered himself to be proclaimed. But this delay was fatal to the hope of Chile. Reinforcements arrived from Peru under the lead- ership of Brigadier General Gainza, and Elorreaga captured Talca, whence the Junta had recently 228 THE INDEPENDENCE OF CHILE returned to Santiago, and shut off completely all communication between the army and the Capital. The Junta realized the strategic importance of Talca, and sent the reserves from the Capital to re- cover it, but they suffered a complete defeat at the hands of Elorreaga ; Talca remained in the enemy's possession and Santiago was left an unguarded prize, to any one who chose to enter and take it. Elorreaga had under his command a force that was scarcely sufficient to garrison Talca, and feared to lose the advantage that his present position gave the royalist cause by venturing an advance upon Santiago ; so he sent a message to Gainza describing the defenseless condition of the Capital and the necessity of occupying it at once. Gainza lost no time in obeying the call, and set out immediately on his march of five hun- dred miles to Santiago. But O'Higgins was al- ready in motion, having heard the rumor of the critical condition of the Capital, and when on the Srd of April, Gainza crossed the Maule he found O'Higgins's entire army drawn up at Queche- reguas, between himself and Santiago. The march had been more disastrous to Gainza than a defeat would have been, but, furious at having been outwitted by the patriots, he attacked them fiercely, again and again throwing his enfeebled squadrons upon the impromptu fortifications which O'Higgins had hastily constructed. For two days assault followed assault, but all were repulsed and Gainza was compelled to fall back on Talca, THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE 229 which he entered on the 10th of April. O'Hig- gins' men were scarcely in better condition than those of his adversary, but with the unstinted supplies from Santiago, they soon recovered their equilibrium, and their commander moved on Talca. The expectation of the final defeat and surrender of the royal army was now universal, and the pa- triots considered themselves at last assured of vie- ^ tory. O'Higgins's successful manoeuvre had re- trieved all the errors of two campaigns. At this time the news reached Chile of the de- feat of the French at Victoria and of the dis- astrous actions at Maya and in the Pyrenees. "~ There seemed now no prospect that King Joseph I could much longer remain in Spain. Ferdinand | would then be speedily restored to his throne. This news produced a profound impression on the Chileans. The King's cause had many adherents throughout the Colony, and they were wonderfully encouraged at the prospect of his speedy restora- tion, while the patriots became suddenly, and for a time utterly, despondent. With Ferdinand's restoration and the cessation of the war in the Peninsula, there would be doubtless an army sent for the reduction of Chile, under officers who had won fame in conquering the armies of the great Napoleon. Lately, too, the defeat of the Argentine army under Belgrano at Vilcapujio and Ayohuma had occasioned a feeling of great distrust as to the outcome of the whole movement against the rule of Spain. This lack of faith in 230 THE INDEPENDENCE OF CHILE themselves and in the justice of their cause in- duced misgivings that impelled them to accede to the request of Gainza for a conference which should terminate the war under conditions which he assured them would be to their advantage. The government empowered O'Higgins and Mac- kenna to treat with General Gainza and his audi- , who represented the royal I v army. An armistice was proclaimed and the ses- sions began at Lircai. It is impossible to believe that either party acted for a moment in good faith. That is the most charitable explanation of the attitude of the Chilean envoys and of the concessions that they made without a protest. The winter was ap- proaching, and they wished to avoid a repetition of the siege of Chilian and strengthen themselves for the next Spring. Gainza had everything at an immediate stake and any result short of an ignominious surrender was a gain to him. More- over, each was openly conscious that his op- ponent knew that he was not acting in good faith, for the royal envoys made out their own cre- dentials, and the Chilean envoys were careful not to object to this irregularity. But the Chileans as yet had had as little experience in diplomacy as in war, and they had no Santa Maria or Blest Gana to conduct the negotiations for them. By the terms of this shameful pact, Chile agreed to acknowledge the sovereignty of Ferdinand and the authority of the Supreme Council of Regency ; THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE 231 the present system of government in Chile was to remain as it was now constituted until the good pleasure of the Council of Regency, to which Chile was entitled to send a procurator, should be ascer- tained ; Talca was to be given up to O'Higgins, the war was to cease, and Gainza was to with- draw his forces from Chilean soil within thirty days; finally the armistice was to be continued until the treaty was ratified by the Viceroy of ^^ Peru. The only thing that seemed to afford a superficial advantage to Chile was the withdrawal of the royalist army within thirty days, and yet this was made subject to an approval that the Chilean envoys must have known would never be given, and how could an army be withdrawn within thirty days when it would take three months for the Viceroy's approval to reach them? Such were the terms of agreement between Gainza, whose army was reduced to the necessity oT~arspeedy surrender, and his back on Fortune in the fatuous hope of de- ceiving an opponent whom he had only to reach out his hand to crush to powder. However, the Government of Chile ratified what they called a treaty and which was not even a protocol ; Gainza was released from imminent peril and suffered to regain his hold on cities that were already slipping from his grasp, until the whole of Chile south of Talca was again under his con- trol. The indignation of the army and of the popu- THE INDEPENDENCE OF CHILE lace was beyond all description. The Capital was filled with tumult and the army with discontent and chagrin. Every patriot heart was rendered furious by this base betrayal of the national hope. Not even another siege of Chilian could have re- duced O'Higgins's prestige like the treaty of Lircai. Carrera's name began to be mentioned with regret. The soldiers called for Carrera, the ^ recollections of the people reverted to Carrera, but Carrera had disappeared; on the 4th of March, Carrera and his brother Luis had been seized by the royalists and imprisoned in Chilian as traitors to the King, and, while the treatv_of Lircai pro- vided for the release of all prisoners, a secret clause excepted the two Carreras from the opera- tion of the treaty. fThe "Treaty of Lircai" was signed on the 3d of May, 1814. A week later Jose Miguel and his brother Luis were permitted to escape from Chilian, and on the 14th Carrera presented him- self before O'Higgins in Talca. They embraced like brothers but hatred was in their hearts. Each thought of his own errors ; Carrera hated O'Hig- gins for Chilian and the Roble, O'Higgins hated Carrera when he remembered his own recent agree- ment with Gainza. Carrera went on to Santiago and was received with enthusiasm. He can hardly be blamed of taking advantage of his rival's sur- render of national rights at Lircai, and he found that he had touched a vital place in Chilean hearts. At once his ambition was aroused, he exercised THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE 233 his most seductive arts, he headed a conspiracy, he overthrew the government on July 23d, 1814, and caused the appointment of a new Junta, as- sociating with himself Uribe and Urzua, by whom he was restored to his former post of Commander in Chief of the Army. O'Higgins would have availed himself gladly of any help toward breaking the treaty of Lircai, except the help of Carrera, but with Carrera he was determined to fight. The country was di- vided and the army was split in two. A civil war between the rivals was already begun, when the news came~that Abascal had refused to ratify the treaty, and had sent another army under Ossorio to take over the conduct of the war. In the face of a common danger, Carrera and O'Hig- gins patched up the appearance of a peace and prepared to withstand the forces of the Viceroy. On September 4th, O'Higgins resigned his com- mand in chief to Carrera, though with the sepa- rate command of his own division. Ossorio's ad- vance from Chilian began, and already the rival chiefs of the patriot forces were again at issue over the selection of a suitable battle ground. The river Maule was not only the boundary line between the provinces of Santiago and Con- cepcion, but it was also the strategical frontier of the Capital. The defense of the Maule had been neglected in consequence of the struggle be- tween the two generals, and there was now no time to remedy this lamentable neglect. This THE INDEPENDENCE OF CHILE frontier was practically in the enemy's possession. Within the province of Santiago a second line of defense was formed by the Cachapoal, an affluent of the Rapel, but as the fords on the Cachapoal were numerous, and their defense necessitated an army many times greater than Chile could possi- bly furnish, Carrera determined to make his de- fense at the pass of Paine, but O'Higgins insisted on making an effort to resist the enemy at the Cachapoal. Thus the battle of Rancagua was in reality an act of insubordination on the part of O'Higgins. The first division, which O'Higgins commanded, comprised only five hundred and fifty men, which was, however, reinforced by the arrival of Juan Jose Carrera in command of the second division on September 26, with five hundred mounted militia and grenadiers. Nevertheless, the army of Ossorio crossed the river on the 1st of October without opposition, and O'Higgins with Juan Jose Carrera fell back on Rancagua, their aggregate forces amounting to about one thou- sand men. Carrera with the third division was nine miles to the north at Las Bodegas del Conde. In anticipation of this event, O'Higgins had thrown up a hasty barricade of logs and stones and bales of dried beef, and had protected the entrances to the town with what cannon he pos- sessed, consisting of three eight-pounders and nine four-pounders. He expected if driven from Ran- cagua, to be able to make an orderly retreat to the position held by General Carrera, but Ossorio THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE 235 with something over five thousand men surrounded the town, and no passage remained save through the enemy's lines. An assault was at once made on the town from all quarters, but after hard fighting for an hour the royalists drew off and prepared themselves for new operations. The water supply was first cut off and then a redoubt was thrown up for some siege guns, which Ossorio finally placed in position after a spirited sally from the town, in which eighty-five of his men fell, and two or three of his field pieces were captured. Under cover of the fire from the redoubt, a second assault was rendered, as fierce and as fruitless as the first, and toward night a third assault met with no better result. Ossorio now despaired of success and decided to draw off his forces, cross the Cachapoal and give up the field. He had not expected such sturdy resistance. Indeed, he had already given the command to depart, when he was dissuaded by Elorreaga and Urrejola, who convinced him of the impossibility of recrossing the Cachapoal with- out destruction in the face of such an enemy. At midnight, O'Higgins despatched a messenger to Carrera for ammunition. He added, "If your division will come to our help in the morning the day will be ours." Carrera replied, "I can only get ammunition to you under cover of a cavalry charge. In the morning I will see." The next day, Sunday, October 2d, at day- break, O'Higgins ascended the tower of the 236 THE INDEPENDENCE OF CHILE church of La Merced, and gazed expectantly north to the road leading from Las Bodegas del Conde to Rancagua. Soon afterward, Ossorio delivered a fresh assault at the southern side of the town, and O'Higgins descended to the aid of Captain Astorga, who was in command at that point. The ammunition was becoming scanty, and O'Hig- gins directed the gunners to fire only when an assault was made. During the intervals between assaults, then, the town was silent, but the guns of the redoubt and the field pieces that threatened the rest of the town, kept up an unceasing fire upon Rancagua. When this assault on Sunday morning was repulsed, a wall of bodies filled the approaches and choked the guns. At ten o'clock, a concerted attack was made on all sides, which was likewise repulsed with slaughter. By this time the condition of O'Higgins's forces was al- most desperate. Their ammunition was entirely gone, for twenty-four hours they had been without water, their mortality was very great, the sur- vivors had had little food and less sleep, and still they endured. Their disappointment at Carrera's absence was more dispiriting than all else. Sud- denly all their ills were forgotten ; from the tower of La Merced, where O'Higgins had stationed a watchman, the cry rang out, "They come ! Viva la patria !" A thick cloud of dust appeared coming from Las Bodegas del Conde. Soon the cavalry lines emerged and an infantry column drawing the guns came into view. It was Luis THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE 237 Carrera^coming with the jthird division to the aid of O'Higgins. From the parched throats of the patriots a shout went up loud, long continued, which drowned the roar of the enemy's guns. Suddenly Colonel Ramon Freire, who was at O'Higgins's side, touched his General's sleeve and pointed to the south. A column of dragoons was making its way from the camp of the royalists toward the ford of the Cachapoal. At its head rode a corpulent horseman with a white poncho. For a moment the attention of the group was di- verted from Luis Carrera. "Who is the officer in the white poncho?" asked O'Higgins. "Don Mariano Qgsorio," replied Freire. O'Higgins had now no doubt of victory. Re- lief was coming and the enemy was in flight. Either was enough to ensure victory and both were at hand. O'Higgins sent an order by Freire for the dragoons to mount and make a sally on the south and west. Captain Ibanez rode forth with his detachment of dragoons and drove the enemy from his trenches, cutting them down as they fled, while one of O'Higgins' aides, Flores, led another detachment with like success against the trenches on the west. At eleven-thirty, Luis Carrera arrived with the mounted militia and at- tacked the enemy on the north. When Ossorio rode away from Rancagua, he considered the battle lost, and his purpose was to escape before a victorious enemy could harass his escort while crossing the river ; but Elorreaga and 238 THE INDEPENDENCE OF CHILE Quintanilla refused to accompany him, and re- mained undaunted by the succors then in sight coming from the north. The third division con- sisted of nine hundred and fifteen men, mostly mounted militia, which throughout the war had emulated the steadiness of regular troops, and Luis Carrera had proved himself in several actions a brave and capable officer. His reinforcement was fresh, well-mounted and well-armed, sufficient to turn the wavering scale decidedly in favor of the patriots. Yet almost at the first blow, the third division turned their backs to Elorreaga's men and rode away. Luis Carrera had at that moment received a despatch from his brother, the General-in-Chief of the Chilean army, Brigadier General Don Jose Miguel Carrera, to withdraw his troops from action immediately and return to headquarters. Luis uttered an imprecation, broke his sword over his knee, and obeyed the order to retire. Then fell the darkness of despair upon the devoted band thus infamously deserted in their dire need. Another general assault was ordered by Elorreaga, under cover of a furious cannonade during which the flagstaff was struck and the Red, White and Blue flag of the nation fell. As soon as this was observed, Elorreaga, thinking it was lowered in token of surrender, ordered the guns to cease firing, but in a few minutes the flag appeared again over the tower of La Merced. It appeared, but it no longer displayed its folds in the afternoon breeze, for THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE 239 it was tied about the middle with a black band. The interrupted assault was resumed and repulsed. Night was now approaching, Rancagua was a heap of ashes, all hope of succor from the General- in-Chief had been abandoned, and O'Higgins realized that there was no longer any safety but in flight. Over four hundred of his men were killed and all that remained were wounded. Of the militia and the grenadiers that guarded the quarter of San Francisco, Captain Astorga and three men alone survived. O'Higgins collected the maimed and blackened remnants of his men in the plaza. The enemy, renewing the assault, were entering the town without opposition from the east and south. Only a few minutes remained for escape. O'Higgins ordered the foot soldiers to mount behind the horsemen, Molina to lead the van and Astorga to defend the rear, and sabre in hand the shattered troop, two hundred and sixty-eight in number, rode out of Rancagua. A short but bitter contest at the trenches on the north, and the little band rode over the battalion of Captain Sanchez and immediately dispersed in single flight for the city of Santiago. The battle of Rancagua was ended, and the hope of liberty was destroyed. PART V THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE TO MAIPO CHILE UNDER O'HIGGINS THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE TO MAIPO CHILE UNDER O'HIGGINS "Desprecio ahora la muerte como siempre la he despreciado en el campo de batalla. "O'HIGGINS." "I disregard death to-day as I have al- ways disregarded it on the field of battle/' From the 2d of October, 1813, until the 12th of February, 1817, from Rancagua to Chacabuco, the unfortunate country languished under the se- verity of its reinstated oppression. It was not a return of Colonial life, even the Spaniards spoke of this interval as the "Period of the Reconquest," it was the desolation of captivity. The harsh- ness of the renewed rule of Spain found its first expression in the exile or the execution of the pa- triots, and in the confiscation of their property. Such was the bitter penalty meted out by Spain in the nineteenth century to those whose only aim was justice and equal freedom. Such was always the process by which sovereign states avenged themselves upon their consanguineous depend- encies who sought equality with their oppressors. 243 244 THE INDEPENDENCE OF CHILE Not until the United States of America became possessed of the Philippines, did the happiness and prosperity of a Colony become an object of unselfish interest to the paramount state. The government of the Philippines has influenced the councils of the world. Unfortunately, the sub- jugation of Corea by Japan shows that that in- fluence is not yet imperative. England would, however, to-day, as little venture to undertake a war for the subjugation of Canada, as she would V hesitate to overwhelm India with the horrors of an- yy other conquest. A few words will suffice to describe the reversion AT A' -* of government in Chile. By a stroke of the pen Ossorio rescinded the great work of Rozas and restored the old order. The royal monopolies were resumed with all the ancient exactions, paro- chial fees were renewed, slavery reestablished, public instruction discontinued, and the Chinese wall of commercial restrictions re-erected. _JEyeryr_ thing, whatever its merit, that savored of the in- surrection, was swept away in contempt. During the time of the Colony, the Chileans had been de- spised as an inferior race by the Spaniards of peninsular birth, as Jose Antonio Rojas and many others had discovered when visiting Spain; now, however, that the disgrace of Chilean birth was augmented with the taint of rebellion, the natives of Chile sank to a condition of practical outlawry. It was no more a crime for a Spaniard to kill a Chilean than it was for a Spartan to kill a helot. ?, \ CHILE UNDER O'HIGGINS 245 They were prohibited from possessing firearms. If a citizen picked up a stone in the street, or if he carried in his hand a stick or a cane, he was arrested and flogged. If a Chilean were found on the street after nine o'clock at night, he was im- prisoned for a year and his property seized. Even the soldiers in Ossorio's army were made to feel the shame of Chilean birth, and a majority of the royalist soldiers were Chileans. Hundreds of exemplary citizens were sent to Valdivia and to Juan Fernandez, to languish in exile, and the prisons of the Capital and of Valparaiso were en- larged and dug deeper that they might contain those suspected of patriotism. Such a tyranny, so intolerable, and so indiscriminately applied to all Chileans, whatever their previous attach- ment or opposition to the principles of independ- ence, consolidated the nation better than victories could have done. The most ardent royalists, who had resented the triumphs of the patriots, wept^ bitter tears of regret when they remembered the. wise and gentle sway of Rozas. Through hu- miliation and contempt, the cause of independence took deep root in the Chilean heart. Defeat strengthened the national spirit and diffused its hopes better than success. Thus Ossorio and his successor, Marco del Pont, confirmed the freedom of Chile. Now, too, for the first time there ap- peared a genuine public sentiment. The people of Chile began~^Eo~~1innkrto"make comparisons, to draw conclusions, to have purposes; and public 246 THE INDEPENDENCE OF CHILE sentiment is the safeguard of popular govern- ment. On March 26, 1815, there arrived in Santiago, Don Francisco Casimiro Marco del Pont, ap- pointed by King Ferdinand to supplant Ossorio. Marco's father was a fisherman of Vigo, who plied his calling about the Islands of Bayona, and who enriched himself by carrying on a contra- band trade during the Peninsular war. Marco's brother was a parasite of King Ferdinand, and Marco himself wrote a dozen trivial titles after his name, wore a breastfull of medals, ribbons and royal Orders, and became Governor and Captain General of the kingdom of Chile and President of the Royal Audience. For the Royal Audience was also revived by Ossorio, and three of the Judges who served under Carrasco reappear now after an interval of five years. These were Jose Santiago Concha, Jose Santiago Aldunate and Feliz Basso i Berri. To the titles that Carrasco wore Marco added another. "Vice-Royal Patron of the Kingdom of Chile." Marco was small, bloodless and nervous, with little, cruel eyes, such as Commodus must have had. The Chileans had suffered bitterly under Ossorio, but Marco's finger was thicker than Ossorio's loins. In him culminated the tyranny and cruelty of three cen- turies of Colonial governors. Ossorio was con- tent to appropriate all the proceeds of Colonial thrift and the entire income of the inhabitants ; but to satisfy his successor's demands, savings, CHILE UNDER O'HIGGINS 247 furniture, family jewels, heirlooms, horses, cattle, and all movable property were inadequate. "I will not leave the Chileans even tears to shed," he declared. Marco surrounded himself with a camarilla of Spaniards to whose rapacity of ex- tortion he could refuse nothing. The regiment of Peninsular soldiers that came to Chile with Ossorio, which took a bloody part in the battle of Rancagua and whose name, "Talavera," be- came a terror to the people, he elevated to a sort of Varangian power in the state ; while their hated leader, Colonel San Bruno, who had been a Car- melite friar in Spain, became the head of an irresponsible tribunal which possessed the same inquisitorial functions in civil and political life that was held in Spain by the Holy Office of the Inquisition, now recently reinvested by Ferdinand with all the power and all the terror of the days of Philip II. This new institution was called the "Tribunal of Vigilance." Eve.ry functionary in Chile, whether civil, judicial or military, was sub- ject to the commands of this Tribunal, whose Or- ders were as peremptory as those of Marco him- self. No Chilean was allowed to leave his place of residence without a special license signed by San Bruno. If any one were accused, "even by an untrustworthy witness," aun por un testigo menos idoneo, of communicating with the exiled patriots, he was immediately, without any process of law whatever, put to an ignominious death by hanging. If any one, however innocently, gave 248 THE INDEPENDENCE OF CHILE food or lodging or other help or countenance to any one suspected or who should at any time thereafter become suspected of holding any cor- respondence, however trifling or personal, with any one in exile, he also was to be put to death without a hearing. From this Tribunal there was no appeal. No case was ever tried by this infernal Court. It shielded its informers with impenetrable secrecy, and shared with unknown accusers the proceeds of its confiscations. Bur- glars and bandits and highwaymen exercised their craft, under this code, without danger and with abundant and secure profit. The passes over the Cordillera were occupied by squads of soldiers, whose orders were to kill at once and without in- quiry any one who should attempt to cross the Cordillera without a passport signed by San Bruno. Ossqrivin imposing an annual contribution on fKff province, had indeed exacted the uttermost farthing, but, recognizing the fact that an arbi- trary imposition might in some cases exceed all possibility of payment, he had suffered the full demand to be modified in a few exceptional cases. M**e&-#ssessed the full amount of this tax against the Collector, who thus was obliged to indemnify the Treasury for such losses from his own pocket ; and as no Collector would willingly face a certain deficit for which he was personally liable, Marco placed the army at his disposal to collect the full contribution. The amount of this annual con- CHILE UNDER O'HIGGINS 249 tribution, thus arbitrarily added to all the pre- vious innumerable exactions of the government, amounted to the fixed monthly sum of eighty-three thousand dollars or a million dollars yearly. It is inconceivable that a small country like Chile, always sparsely populated and now for years dev- astated by war, whose agricultural population was so reduced by battle, enlistment and exile, that the crops rotted in the fields unreaped, whose commerce was annihilated, and who lived veritably within the shadow of death, could satisfy the in- fernal rapacity of its tyrant, but his demands were not yet completed. On November 2d, 1816, a decree was published that the government would issue bills, of denominations between fifty dollars and eight hundred dollars, which would be dis- tributed for compulsory purchase among all the inhabitants of Chile, in agreement with an ar- bitrary scale of assessment made by the govern- ment for that purpose. It was well understood that such bills would never be redeemed. By this time the government had practically exterminated those who were suspected of favoring independ- ence, and all who now remained in Chile were pre- sumably royalists. Is it any wonder that the hearts of the royalists themselves among the Chileans longed for the return of O'Higgins and his patriots, that their only hope lay beyond the eastern Cordillera and that they hastened by their fervent prayers the coming of that, army whiek, should indeed be to them an army of deliverance? i 250 THE INDEPENDENCE OF CHILE They themselves realized now what kind of gov- ernment had been that of Spain, when it reached its logical culmination in the intolerable tyranny of Marco. It is not conceivable that such measures could be enforced without encountering opposition. There gradually came into active existence various quadrillas or partidas in different sections of Chile, who waged an irregular war against the factors and agents of Marco. The most famous among the leaders of this guerrilla warfare was a young lawyer, Don Manuel Rodriguez, at one time pri- vate secretary to Jose Miguel Carrera. Rod- riguez conducted his operations throughout the rugged, difficult district of Colchagua, between the Maipo and the Maule. His story is as romantic as that of William Wallace, and the narrative of his escapes and exploits as interesting as that of the Scottish patriot. Colchagua was another Lanarkshire, similarly situated in the heart of the enemy's country, similarly full of caves and hiding places and of devoted adherents. His men were the sturdy shepherds and peasants of the foothills, without uniform or visible organization, apparently unarmed, but with suitable weapons hidden where they could be easily otTtained when needed. The land owners, farmers and hacienda- dos of the basin of the Rapel were his friends and assistants, and often concealed him when he was hard pressed by his pursuers. San Fernando, Melipilla, Curico and many another town of Col- CHILE UNDER O'HIGGINS 251 chagua suffered from his daring, and Santiago itself was the scene of some of his individual ex- ploits, when in disguise he held the Governor's stir- rup for him to mount his horse, or posted on the walls the notices of the reward offered for his own head. While not always eluding discovery, he always evaded pursuit, until his name became a terror to Marco and his camarilla; the mails were seized and the supplies of ammunition and money to and from the Capital rarely reached their des- tination unless they were attended with a detach- ment of troops strong enough to defy attack. Rodriguez was in constant correspondence with San Martin, and in person made many trips to Mendoza by way of the Maipo pass. After General Manuel Belgrano, in October, 1813, had suffered the two disastrous defeats at Vilcapujio and Ayohuma which put a decisive end for the time to the efforts of the Buenos Ayreans to conquer Alto Peru; and had fled in terror and despair before the army of the Vice- roy, San Martin had been appointed in his stead, and had succeeded in preventing the entry of the Vic^roy^s_force&-intoJJie^territory of Buenos Ayres. Eon Josejie San Martin was born February 25, ^1778, in the Misiones, to-day a province of the Argentine, his father being at the time governor of that district. At the age of fifteen, he was sent to Spain to be educated, and later he entered the Spanish army, where he attained the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. He took a prominent part i f THE INDEPENDENCE OF CHILE in the battle of Bailen and was present at many actions between the French and the English under whose general, Sir Arthur Wellesley, afterwards the Duke of Wellington, he won much praise. In 1811, he^eTreH~Trbm the Spanish service and the next year reached Buenos Ay res, whither the fame of his courage and conduct had preceded him. He early perceived the futility of invading Alto Peru the Charcas of Pizarro's time, the Bolivia of to-day, which was but the fringe of the Viceroy's garment, and conceived the bold idea of striking at the heart of the Spanish power in America, Lima. The road to Lima he was convinced, lay through Santiago and not through the Charcas. He requested and obtained the post of Governor of the province of Cuyo, and took up his residence in the city of Mendoza, the capital of the province. He had hardly_seated himself in his government wheiL-the-Te^u^^es~"^unr Chile, swept over the Cordillera in irresistible panic, poured into his province and inundated Mendoza. Among them were the remnants of the Chilean army led by Freire, Astorga and Ibanez. O'Higgins had yielded up his command, abjured war, and returned to private life; he accompanied as a friend the officers whom he had commanded as a general. But they were not all soldiers who came ; old men, terrified women, children of all de- grees of helplessness, torn from their homes with- out preparation, scantily clad and unprovided even with food, faced the long, rugged CHILE UNDER O'HIGGINS 253 covered perils of the dreadful road, from the Resguardo to Uspallata. For days and weeks that human wave surged irregularly across the An des~and sank exhausted on the plaintTof Men- ddza. SanlVlartin welcomed and succored tKem. Don Bernardo O'Higgins was already known to hini By fame ; they were also fellow-masons, and a strong bond of patriotic sympathy bound them closely together. San Martin realized O'Higgins's worth and easily persuaded him to resume his command. He then examined and reviewed the Chilean troops, and was impressed with their strength, courage and intelligence, though they were almost entirely without discipline as soldiers. Here were indeed the men, who, well-trained and under a good leader, could conquer Chile and n_ess, ambition and Ql?stinflry r hnt. hi^ only aim in life was the high and righteous purpose to de- stroy utterly the power of Spain in America, and in this single purpose he compelled everything to yield to his inflexible will, and destroyed inexora- bly everything that could thwart or hazard his success. When_Doji-Jose MifflaeJGan-eT eventually to Mendoza, San Martin distrusted him and refused to recognize him as General-in-Chief on the soil of Mendoza, and when Carrera haugh- tily insisted on recognition, San Martin, without a moment's hesitation, placed him under arrest and ordered him to be conveyed to Buenos Ayres under an escort of dragoons. There is no doubt that V 254 THE INDEPENDENCE OF CHILE Mackenna and Irisarri, who had been exiled by Carrera after he regained power during the Truce of Lircai, had convinced San Martin of his treach- ery and ambition; and there is no doubt that O'Higgins, in his narrative of Rancagua, had con- demned without limit the fatal conduct of the Gen- eral-in-Chief on that occasion ; it was in Mendoza too that Rozas, after loading his country down with unexampled benefits, had died an exile, in or- der that Carrera's vulgar ambition might be grat- ified. Perhaps no man was ever disgraced with better warrant, and certainly San Martin was justi- fied in refusing to associate with himself in his au- dacious purposes a man whose insane ambition of rule, combined with his inordinate incapacity of command, would inevitably ruin any righteous en- terprise. San Martin proceeded to organize and drill the "Army of Liberation" in Mendoza. The officers were also instructed in the duties of command. Every day there was an eight hour drill ; sometimes they were roused at night for a hurried march of ten or fifteen miles to attack a supposititious en- emy. They had no idle moments. Their ac- coutrements and uniforms had to pass a daily in- spection and they were drilled in every duty which the exigencies of war and battle might at any time thrust upon them. The men of Chile had never known what discipline was, but no children ever hurried to play at the noon hour as these men has- tened to take their place in the ranks for a midnight CHILE UNDER O'HIGGINS 255 march, for they were more than soldiers, they were patriots. But if the road for San Martin lay from Men- doza through Santiago to Lima, Abascal possessed greater facilities for traversing it in the contrary direction and vindicating the authority of Spain over these Colonial militiamen who now alone, in Buenos Ayres, withstood the power of Ferdinand, which had been restored in evervother province throughout hia American pp^etsionsTN The prep- arations of San\Martin wre known to Marco and to Abascal hirns'Uf.xAbascal did not forget the little centre of instarrectipn in Mepdoza, but sev- eral revolts in Jfis own counTfyT notably one that flared up spontaneously in Cuzco and required an army to (juench, kept his mind immediately oc- cupied with Peruvian concerns. He certainly un- dervalued the importance of the activity in Men- doza and underrated the strength and character of San Martin. As for Marco, he kept his army busy collecting difficult taxes, that he might soon return to Spain and buy a title of nobility. He no thought or care for his sovereign's inter- ests oXfor any interests but his own, and he evi- dently expected to depart from Chile before any attempt froha Mendoza could disturb his plans or threaten his safety. San Martin, however, was not content with prob- abilities ; he was deWmined to take a bond of fate, and make Marco himstelf an instrument in the per- fection of his plans. It was important to learn 256 THE INDEPENDENCE OF CHILE something of affairs in Chile, for since all cor- respondence by letter was interdicted as criminal, and since all persons who passed the Cordillera without San Bruno's passport were certain to be shot, the news that came to Mendoza from Chile was meagre and untrustworthy. There was in Mendoza a Spanish merchant named Castillo-Albo, who had formerly lived in Chile, but had been ex- iled by Carrera on account of his persistent and outspoken devotion to the cause of Ferdinand. No Spaniard in Chile had been better known or more highly regarded. His royalism was as un- questionable as his commercial integrity. He was still living in Mendoza, where he was engaged in a prosperous business. San Martin decided to use Castillo- Albo's name for the purpose of engaging Marco himself in correspondence. He wrote Marco a letter over Castillo-Albo's signature, in which he gave him presumably complete details of such matters in Mendoza as would probably inter- est Marco, going to considerable length in describ- ing San Martin's affairs. This he did in such a way as best suited his purpose of allaying any suspicion that the Governor of Chile might have as to his warlike preparations and purposes. He af- fected great solicitude concerning the King's cause and, after lavishing discreet praises on Marco, pro- claimed his willingness to contribute abundantly to the expenses of the Chilean government. Marco answered this letter, and a regular correspondence ensued between the Governor of Mendoza and the CHILE UNDER O'HIGGINS 257 Governor of Chile, from which the former gleaned perfectly authoritative information, which was be- yond price, and the latter was completely hood- winked and deceived. San Martin's letters, di- rected to Marco personally, passed easily to their destination, and those of Marco, addressed to Cas- tillo-Albo, were handed to San Martin in person. Meanwhile, it was necessary to ascertain by which route an army comprising horse, foot and artillery, could most easily cross the Andes. San Martin burned his night-cap every morning; he had no favorites and no confidants, but he was a good judge of mankind and had always those about him who could serve him intelligently without ask- ing questions. Among these devoted friends was Don Jose Antonio Alvarez Condarco, an excellent engineer, whom San Martin despatched in secret to report on the comparative practicability of the various passes. Alvarez set out by night, trav- eled alone, returned disguised and reported after dark to San Martin, until he had ascertained that none was suitable for artillery. Only the pass of Los Patos and that of Uspallata remained unex- amined, and they were guarded through their whole extent by detachments of Marco's soldiers. San Martin was not discouraged. He was full of resources and was never at a loss for expedients, some of which, except to a casuist, might well seem of questionable dignity. He wrote out a procla- mation announcing that the provinces of Buenos Ayres had declared themselves independent of 258 THE INDEPENDENCE OF CHILE Spain, addressed it to Marco, added the customary seals, and sent Alvarez, with the credentials of an envoy, to Santiago. He was to go by Uspallata and return by Los Patos. Such an impertinence might well have cost the envoy his life. Marco was in a towering rage. Still, an ambassador is not to be put to death without a little reflection, and Marco, after doubling the guards at the en- trances of the palace, turned Alvarez into the ante- chamber, while he made up his mind what to do with him. In the ante-chamber Alvarez found two of the officers of the army, and, deeming his case desperate, he made a peculiar motion with his hands, that he might learn whether among these enemies he might find a brother. They responded to his gestures and fell at once into confidential conversation with him. There Alvarez learned the disgust with which the tyranny of Marco had filled the officers, and the hope that they all enter- tained of his speedy departure from Chile. A page now entered to conduct Alvarez back to Marco. He had determined to call a council of war to try the daring envoy who came with such suspicious credentials. The Council was convened and Alvarez saw with much satisfaction that his friends of the ante-chamber were among them. He was quickly absolved and a passport was given him to return to Mendoza. He reported to San Martin that both the Uspallata pass and that of Los Patos could be traversed by the light artillery. The next step was to deceive Marco as to the CHILE UUDER O'HIGGINS 259 route that the Army of Liberation would take in its descent on Chile. San Martin wrote him, over the signature of Castillo-Albo, that San Martin had decided to lead his scanty, ill-equipped and untrained soldiers through the southern pass that enters Chile by the province of Concepcion, and that the Governor of Mendoza relied greatly on a patriotic rising to aid him in his attempt. Marco promptly sent the greater part of his army to the south, and disclosed his plans in his reply to Cas- tillo-Albo. San Martin then caused the report to be cir- culated freely that a squadron of ten vessels had been fitted out at Montevideo with which a descent would be at once made upon the Chilean coast, Talcahuano, Nuevo Bilbao (Constitucion), and Valparaiso being especially menaced. This report was circumstantial and was sent to Marco, who at once despatched several companies of regular sol- diers to each of the places indicated. Meanwhile San Martin, in the character of Cas- tillo-Albo, wrote Marco, that "while San Martin seems uncertain which road he will take, yet there is an increasing likelihood that he will finally enter Chile by way of Coquimbo, as he understands* that he will probably encounter less resistance from the royal troops there than elsewhere." Marco in consequence withdrew several additional battalions from his troops in Santiago and sent them to the north. He was distracted with uncertainty. San Martin moved and manoeuvred and stationed 260 THE INDEPENDENCE OF CHILE Marco's troops as if he were their general, and from his cabinet in Mendoza, prepared Chile for ..his own invasion. On January 21, 1817, the "Army of Liberation" started on its journey over the Andes, with pro- visions for twelve days. Major General Soler led , ;, the van, Brigadier General O'Higgins the centre, S and General-in-Chief San Martin the rear. It * comprised three thousand nine hundred and sixty y men. On the llth of February, San Martin [ marched from Santa Rosa, where he had rested his army, and approached the hill of Chacabuco, where the royalist forces had been stationed for the purpose of opposing him. Chacabuco lies among the foothills of the Cordillera, about twenty-five miles north-northeast of Santiago. The royalist army numbered twenty-five hundred men, all that were left to protect the Capital after the dissemination of Marco's troops in obedience to San Martin's intimations from Mendoza. These troops had collected under their coordinate regi- mental officers and only the evening before the bat- tle, Colonel Maroto rode up with a commission from Marco to conduct the operations. In the meantime San Martin had reconnoitered the ground and made his arrangements. His plan of battle was simple. General Soler was ordered to make a detour to the right without attracting the atten- tion of the enemy, and O'Higgins, with the sev- enth and eighth battalions of foot and a' squadron of grenadiers, was ordered to cover this manoeuvre CHILE UNDER O'HIGGINS 261 by a feigned attack in front, the rest of the army under San Martin being expected to sustain O'Higgins and fall upon the royalists, when Gen- eral Spier completed his manoeuvre and arrived to attack them on the rear. The manoeuvre was simple and ought easily to have been counteracted by falling back under cover of a line of skirmishers and taking up a new posi- tion beyond the arc which w r ould bring Soler to his point of attack, but Maroto had never before had command, and probably San Martin realized that the simplest strategy would avail to deceive his opponents. Maroto had stationed two hundred horsemen on the summit of Chacabuco, with orders to resist any attack that might be made against them. O'Higgins had no instruction to attack them, but passed along the flank of the hill with- out regarding them, until, seeing the likelihood of being cut off by his advance, they hastily retreated to unite with their main body. The position of O'Higgins was by this act become so advantageous, that he determined to avail himself of it at once and, moved by a sudden inspiration, he conceived the audacious plan of converting his feint into a real attack, and followed by his grenadiers at a gallop and his two battalions of infantry on a quick run, he dashed against the ranks of the roy- alists. He led only seven hundred men and the number of the enemy was estimated at twenty-five hundred, but at this very moment the rear guard of San Martin appeared rounding the base of the 262 THE INDEPENDENCE OF CHILE hill, and General Soler swung into position on the enemy's left flank. Before this concerted move- ment the royalists broke and fled, and the cavalry of all three divisions of San Martin's army followed them until exhaustion compelled them to abandon / the pursuit. The presence of San Martin and Soler afforded O'Higgins great moral aid, but as a matter of fact the battle of Chacabuco was won before they came up. Colonel Elorreaga was among the dead. He with a handful of infantry made a stand on a southern spur of the hill, and attempted to stay the flight of his men, but he and his little company were crushed to a swift death by the rush of the infantry that followed O'Hig- gins. Don Bernardo has been censured by some writers for his insubordination at Chacabuco, with which accusation the success of his charge has not been duly collated. He was insubordinate at Rancagua because he failed to effect his purpose; he had always in him the germ of insubordination, but on this occasion he deserves no adverse crit- icism, for the event proved that he made a skillful move at the proper time. Perhaps, when duly con- sidered, war is the only field of human activity where success not only sanctions, but gives rules to, merit. Certainly San Martin found no fault with Don Bernardo. We find recorded one battle of which Chacabuco was an exact copy, when An- tigonus led the army of the Achaeans against Cleomenes and his Spartans, who were posted CHILE UNDER O'HIGGINS 263 among the hills of Sellasia. Philopoemen was sta- tioned with his horsemen among the Illyrian foot, and at a favorable moment in the battle, without awaiting for the signal from Antigonus, he ex- ecuted a cavalry charge which caused the sudden rout of the wing opposed to him and threw the whole Spartan line into disorder. After the battle the charge of insubordination was made against Philopoemen, but Antigonus replied, "That young man acted like an experienced commander." When the news of the battle reached Santiago, borne by terrified and wounded fugitives, the wild- est tumult filled the city. Marco and his camarilla and his soldiers fled, and the road to Valparaiso was swollen with a human flood hurrying to es- cape. Wild reports filled the air and the panic- stricken refugees, whipped with a sudden frantic fear, threw away their baggage, their clothes, their money, everything that could delay their headlong flight for safety. Marco did well to escape, not from San Martin but from the people of the Cap- ital, who would have torn him limb-meal if they could have found him. They filled the palace, seeking him, and scattered about in a fury of dis- dain the broken remnants of his powder-boxes, his phials of cosmetics and perfumery, his porcelains, his tapestries, his furniture, but Marco was gone. The day after the battle, San Martin entered the city with his officers, and a Cabildo Abierto was summoned, over which Ruiz Tagle presided, which offered to San Martin the post of Supreme 264 THE INDEPENDENCE OF CHILE Director. Twice he refused the office and O'Hig- gins was then chosen unanimously by a Cabildo of two hundred and ten citizens of Chile. A few days later Marco, who had wandered about without the courage or the wit to escape, was captured and brought to Santiago. He was led into the room where the General-in-Chief, San Martin, was seated, and with a profusion of cere- mony presented his little sword, richly ornamented, to his conqueror, saying with a flourish, "I offer you my sword. You are the first in my life to whom I have yielded it." "Keep it," replied San Martin, disdainfully, running his eye over his diminutive prisoner, "I have no use for such a weapon as that," and he held out to the discomfited Marco a copy of the proclamation in which the Governor had offered eight dollars apiece for the heads of the patriots and one thousand dollars for that of the Argentine General. Marco quivered with fear and stam- mered out childish excuses, but San Martin had no feeling but contempt for the man whom from Men- doza he had for months led around with a string like a puppet, and after a few days he sent him to Buenos Ayres, under guard of a corporal and four men. There yet remained several thousand royalist troops in Chile, but the terror of Chacabuco pos- sessed them, and while the greater part escaped by sea to Lima, Ordonez, with those whom he could collect from the southern province, shut himself CHILE UNDER O'HIGGINS 265 up in Concepcion, the only point on Chilean soil which remained in the hands of the Viceroy's forces. San Martin reported to the government of Buenos Ayres: "In twenty-four days we have crossed the Cordillera, defeated the enemy, expelled the tyrant, finished the campaign, and given liberty to Chile." Still Chile was not yet wholly purged of the royal soldiers, and while San Martin returned to the Argentine, to complete the arrangements that he had long contemplated, O'Higgins besieged Talcahuano. Before doing this, however, he ap- pointed Don Hilario Quintana as his deputy in Santiago and organized a ministry consisting of Don Miguel Zanartu for the Departments of Gov- ernment and Foreign Relations, and Don Jose Ig- nacio Zenteno for those of War and the Treasury, "with the same provisional character as the post that I myself occupy," said O'Higgins, "which will terminate with the final expulsion from Chilean soil of the last relics of the royal army, and give place to an administration of the state agreeable to the sovereign will of the people." They were all, including O'Higgins, members of Lautaro Lodge of the Gran Reunion Americana. The time has now arrived to consider in such de- tail as remains possible, the activity of a society which exerted immense power in Chile during the period under present examination. This society is the Gran Reunion Americana to which reference has been made in earlier pages. While Miranda 266 THE INDEPENDENCE OF CHILE was yet living in the United States, and was brought into an admiring acquaintance with Wash- ington, he became initiated into a lodge of Free Masons in Virginia. It is useless to speculate on the peculiar attraction and influence that secrecy alone imparts to such mysterious organizations, but whatever the original stimulus in Miranda's case, and perhaps it was the reverence he owed to the character and' achievements of his great ideal, he easily saw to what valuable uses a society founded on Free Masonry might be applied, in the condition of the American Colonies of Spain. There is something essentially tenebrific about the Gran Reunion Americana, but with its silent pur- poses and dubious achievements in the rest of America we have fortunately no present concern. The grand lodge was in London, and branches or subordinate lodges were established through Spain and America. Spanish officers of regi- mental rank were those as a rule who were chosen members in that country. In each of the Spanish Colonies was established a subordinate Lodge, which in the case of Chile was for several years located in Concepcion. It was named Lautaro Lodge. Rozas was the Master while he lived. O'Higgins was a member of the branch Lodge in Concepcion. The office of Master was conferred for life. The subordinate Lodge was restricted to five members while the Grand Lodge had only thirteen. There was nothing in their constitution to prevent priests from joining the Lodge. In CHILE UNDER O'HIGGINS 267 fact it was expected that every Lodge should have at least one priest. Cortes, Fretes and Cienfuegos were priests who were members. It was strictly a political organization, and refrained in its consti- tution, from the most incidental reference to social or religious affairs. In 1812 the Lodge in Buenos Ay res was erected into a Grand Lodge with juris- diction over all the branch Lodges in the Colonies, and San Martin became the Grand Master. This explains in part his influence in the Argentine, for Pueyrredon, the Supreme Director of Buenos Ayres, was a member of his Lodge. This also di- rected San Martin's preference to O'Higgins in- stead of Carrera as his assistant and representa- tive. With the erection of the Grand Lodge in Buenos Ayres, the number of members for Buenos Ayres and Chile was increased to the full number ^ of thirteen. K^&f This was the drganization which directed the * / * r movement for independence in South America, and f educated the Colonists in the path of political equality and freedom. The Constitution of the ' Order was intended to perpetuate power in the hands of its members as being better fitted for authority than those who had been less identified with the propaganda of independence. It thus constituted an irresponsible Junta. Upon their own individual members they diffidently relied, and lest any should err through ignorance or passion, they adopted the following among the rules of the Order, a copy of which is before me: 268 THE INDEPENDENCE OF CHILE "ARTICLE 9. If it should happen that any one of the brothers be elected to the chief office in the state, he shall not decide anything of importance without having consulted the opinion of the Lodge, unless the urgency of the matter demands prompt action, in which case he shall justify such action in the first meeting of the Lodge. "ARTICLE 11. He shall not appoint anyone to an office of influence or importance in the state, either in the Capital or beyond its limits, without the assent of the Lodge; this restriction being intended to apply to foreign envoys, governors of provinces, generals in chief of the army, judges of the Superior Courts, the highest officers of the Church, and includes Regi- mental Line officers and others of corresponding rank. "ARTICLE 23. When the supreme government shall be in the charge of a brother, he shall not dispose of the fortune, honor or life of another brother without the assent of the Lodge." Among its penal laws was the following: "Any brother who shall reveal the secret of the ex- istence of the Lodge, either by word or sign, shall be put to death in such way as may be most convenient." Thus was erected and organized this secret body, the Lautaro Lodge, as powerful as the Council of Ten, as ambitious as the Society of Jesus, as mys- terious as the Vehmgerichte of Westphalia. And yet this society, sinister as its constitution appears and irresponsible as its decisions must have been, was the seat of patriotism and the centre of pop- ular government. So long as its power was con- CHILE UNDER O'HIGGINS 269 fined to such men as swayed its operations at this time, it wrought incalculable benefit to Chile, nor did it seek, apparently, to perpetuate its power after the occasion for its early exercise had de- parted. During the earlier part of O'Higgins's administration, we lose gradually all indications of its existence, and if perpetuated or revived, it must have become animated with a changed pur- pose. It is not uninteresting to observe that dur- ing the precise period of its known influence over Don Bernardo O'Higgins, the state was more pros- perous, more progressive and happier than after it had ceased to be an active power in the govern- ment. ; One of Don Bernardo's first official acts was to send a vessel to Juan Fernandez to repatriate the proscripts of Ossorio and Marco. Another was to rescind the decrees of his two predecessors and re- establish the sagacious and beneficent laws of Don Juan Martinez de Rozas, which were destined to leave their permanent mark upon Chilean legisla- tion so long as Chile should remain a free coun- try. But above all else in urgent necessity, was the prevention of any repetition of such division as resulted in the loss of the battle of Rancagua, and the destruction of the country in 1814. The royalist party was one of these dangers and Jose Miguel Carrera was the other. The royal- ists, in the absence of any accredited representa- tive of the King of Spain, sheltered themselves under the convenient robe of Bishop Rodriguez of 270 THE INDEPENDENCE OF CHILE Santiago. He, fancying that this episcopal office would suffice to protect him in any intrigue which he might sanction or promote, ventured to offer protection to the most ardent and outspoken roy- alists, and was summarily sent into exile, while O'Higgins appointed a vicar to perform his duties. Jose Miguel Carrera had yet many personal and family friends in Chile who angrily resented any imputation to him of blame for the defeat at Ran- x cagua. Carrera was himself in Buenos Ayres, having returned with an expedition from the - | * .United States. But the Lautaro Lodge baffled him and buffeted him in a hundred invisible ways, thwarted his plans, impaired his credit, destroyed his prestige, blasted his hopes and finally at this very time, took Juan Jose and Luis prisoners, and confined them in the jail in Mendoza, Carrera him- self escaping with difficulty to Montevideo. In 1818 Juan Jose and Luis Carrera were put to death in Mendoza by the orders of Lautaro Lodge. O'Higgins was disappointed in his purpose to take Talcahuano, now occupied by Ordonez, al- though one of Napoleon's Generals in person, Gen- eral Brayer, assisted in the operations. Don Bernardo knew well that there was yet to come the final test of strength between Chile and Peru, that Chacabuco was not decisive of the great question of independence, and he wished to destroy Ordonez and deprive the Viceroy of the commodious and convenient landing place that Talcahuano would furnish. For this urgent reason he prolonged the CHILE UNDER O'HIGGINS 271 siege until the early rains drove him and his army to seek protection from the winter. Meanwhile he had visited the frontiers and inspected the garri- sons and defenses of the towns throughout the province of Concepcion, that he might if possible prepare them to resist, when the army should come that the Viceroy would almost certainly send dur- ing the coming summer. In the middle of January, 1818, this long ex- pected army arrived in Talcahuano. It consisted of three thousand four hundred and seven men which, added to the seventeen hundred already un- der Ordonez, made a total of about five thousand soldiers. Ossorio came with them, having a com- mission from Pezuela, the present Viceroy of Peru, to supersede Ordonez. Ossorio had received the credit for the royalist victory at Rancagua, and Elorreaga was no longer alive to dispute his claim. Indeed the Viceroy Pezuela wrote to the war office in Madrid, under date of September 19, 1817, "I have determined to put in chief command Brigadier General Ossorio, whose military skill and experi- ence are well confirmed by the general opinion, since to him is due the glory of having entirely subjugated that country in the brief period of sixty days and restored it to submission." Not without difficulty, humiliation and delay, had Pezuela succeeded in fitting out another ex- pedition. Chile had long since come to be the granary of Peru. The need of Chilean wheat to support the population of Lima had put an end to 272 THE INDEPENDENCE OF CHILE the absurd restrictions formerly imposed on inter- colonial commerce, and the annual amount of wheat sent to Lima from Chile amounted to twenty-three hundred tons. Pezuela computed at eight hundred thousand dollars yearly the trade between the two countries. Now the inhabitants of Lima were suffering from hunger and the Vice- royal treasury was empty. New taxes and con- tributions only increased the distress of the inhab- itants without bringing any but inconsiderable re- turns to the Viceroyal exchequer. In this emer- gency, Pezuela entered into an agreement with ten of the merchants of Lima, by which he was to re- ceive certain sums which he deemed adequate to his purpose, and in return for which he was to permit them to introduce into Chile without duty, sugar and tobacco and a few other specified articles of commerce, to an amount immensely exceeding the sums that they furnished for his necessities. Per- haps the difference between what he received and what he promised the syndicate, represents not only his urgent need but also the risk; to them that the speculation involved. This contract is dated November 27, 1817. San Martin had now returned to Chile and re- sumed his duties as Commander-in-Chief. So long as there existed any uncertainty as to where Pezuela's army might land, the Argentine general remained in Valparaiso with about two thousand men, that he might be present to repel any attempt of the enemy upon that port. When therefore he CHILE UNDER O'HIGGINS 273 was assured that Ossorio had gone to Talcahuano, to incorporate with his army the soldiers of Or- donez, San Martin despatched an aide to O'Hig- gins ordering him to proceed without unnecessary precipitation to Talca, that he might destroy all stores that could be serviceable to Ossorio, and take measures to remove the inhabitants of the southern districts either to Santiago, where the army could defend them, or to the uplands, where they would be protected by the asperities of access. Ossorio had no wish to delay long in Talcahuano or to consume much time in reducing the towns of the south. The facility with which, in 1813, these communities had admitted the garrisons and pre- tensions of either party, had shown him that the quickest way to occupy the country was to defeat the army of San Martin and O'Higgins, as he had no doubt whatever of being able to do. But how- ever eager he was to consummate his mission, he found, almost as soon as he had landed, that it would be necessary, before advancing to meet the patriots, to conciliate the hostility of Ordonez, for the two generals had had prior acquaintance, and Ordonez was unwilling, even at the command of the Viceroy, to yield the conduct of the campaign to a general who spent his time on his knees be- fore the Virgin of the Rosary, and who depended for success in battle on her intercession rather than on his own skill, and on the discipline, courage and endurance of his soldiers. However, after some stormy interviews which permanently embittered THE INDEPENDENCE OF CHILE their relations, the spirit of discipline finally pre- vailed, and Ossorio led the army northward. ' Meanwhile on the 12th of February, the first an- niversary of Chacabuco and the two hundred and seventy-seventh anniversary of the founding of Santiago by Don Pedro de Valdivia, O'Higgins is- sued the proclamation of the independence of Chile. In Talca, San Martin joined O'Higgins, and being firmly persuaded of his superiority in disci- pline as in numbers, for the forces of the patriots amounted to sixty-six hundred men, he withdrew from Talca at the approach of Ossorio, and left the line of the Maule entirely unguarded. It was his intention not merely to defeat Ossorio, but to annihilate him. The patriot army retired to San Fernando, and Ossorio crossed the Maule, not with- out surprise and some misgivings at encountering no resistance whatever at this important point. Under the continued influence of this suspicion, he advanced with great caution, throwing out small scouting parties in all directions, and endeavoring to fathom the tactics of his opponent. This care- ful advance was distasteful to Ordonez, who wished to push on rapidly toward the enemy and come as soon as possible to a decisive encounter, and the animosities of Talcahuano were renewed between the two royalist generals. Still Ossorio continued to proceed with the utmost circumspection. He was confirmed in his purpose by the fact that his mounted scouts were in almost continuous touch CHILE UNDER O'HIGGINS 275 with the flying squadrons of San Martin, under the command of Colonel Freire. The circumstances under which Ossorio had crossed the Maule and occupied Talca in 1814* were almost exactly parallel to those which at- tended his present passage of the same river on the 9th of March, 1818, but he was conscious of a new spirit that now actuated his opponents and a new will that now dominated them. In 1814, he delayed his advance until the rival factions of Carrera and O'Higgins, exhausted with the strife of civil war, might fall a ready prey into his hands ; now he knew that a united and disciplined army was before him, while dissension was busy in his own ranks. He had also observed that a new spirit pervaded the country, for in his passage northward from Concepcion, his former welcome had now changed to a sullen silence which was full of menace. When San Martin knew that the enemy had crossed to the north bank of the Maule, he moved his army from San Fernando and deploying his light cavalry in an extended line, he advanced to within a few miles of Curico. Here he called in his mounted scouts and having assured himself that Ordonez had taken possession of Curico with his grenadiers, lancers and dragoons of the fron- tier, he determined, before coming to an engage- ment, to await the arrival of the main body of the royalists which lay near Talca. In the early morning of March 14th his scouts reported that 276 THE INDEPENDENCE OF CHILE the cavalry that had occupied Curico had with- drawn during the night across the Lontue, where they were now holding the fords of that river. San Martin at once marched his troops to the bank of the Lontue and on the morning of the 15th, di- rected Freire, with two squadrons, to force one of the fords and bring him word of Ossorio. Freire crossed the ford in the face of a severe musketry fire and advanced, driving before him the grena- diers who had defended the ford, and who fell back in order until they rested on the advancing division of General Ordonez, before which Freire retired, recrossed the ford and reported to San Martin that Ossorio was not yet come up. On the 16th, San Martin crossed the Lontue, having ascertained during the night that Ossorio had advanced to Camarico with his whole body as soon as he knew of the affair between Freire and the division of Ordonez, but when San Martin had crossed without encountering resistance, he found that Ossorio had withdrawn southward again as soon as he had learned that there had been noth- ing but a trifling skirmish. San Martin had now reached a position of considerable advantage, where he was enabled not only to defend the road to the Capital and to threaten Ossorio, but where he could avail himself at last of a road through the hills, by which he hoped to cut off the retreat of the royalists. But Ossorio had already taken fright and realizing suddenly the disadvantage of his position, had withdrawn in haste toward Talca CHILE UNDER O'HIGGINS 277 San Martin, finding that his enemy was evading him, marched his whole force by the hill road as rapidly as possible to cut Ossorio off from Talca and despatch him at once, but night approached before he could reach the enemy. At nightfall his advance guard of cavalry came into the main road leading to Talca, in time to have a brush with the rear guard of Ossorio, but a general engagement was refused, and the patriot cavalry, after losing a few men, drew off, awaiting the arrival of the infantry. It was dark night, March 19, 1818, when the patriots encamped at Cancha Rayada about two miles from Talca, where Ossorio lay. Ossoriojjilly realized Ms position. Before him lay a well-equipped and well-disciplined army ex- ceeding his own by fifteen hundred men, eager for battle and under a skilful leader; behind him was the Maule which he must cross in the presence of the enemy. San Martin had finally succeeded in his purpose of forcing a battle where there was no hope of escape for the royalists if they were beaten. And now a strange thing happened. At Ran- cagua, Ossorio had deserted his army and fled across the Cachapoal with a brigade of dragoons. At Cancha Rayada, instead of trying to save him- self by flight as he could still do by deserting his soldiers, he decided to attack San Martin at once. He divided his troops into three divisions, one un- der Ordonez, another under Colonel Latorre and the third under Primo de Rivera, and directed them to march in silence and fall upon San Martin. 278 THE INDEPENDENCE OF CHILE It was now eight o'clock at night, and the Chi- lean general had given the command to shift the camp. The necessary pickets and sentinels hav- ing been posted, Lieutenant Colonel Arcos had moved the first division behind a ditch that had been hastily dug to protect the new position, and was transferring the second division to their place when shots were heard and the pickets fell back; before the advancing royalists. At once the discharge of muskets became general, the Chileans extinguished their fires and fell into position, while several companies of infantry were posted quickly on the flanks and rear for protection from attack. Ordonez, charging with his column on the place where he had seen the Chilean in- fantry encamped at nightfall, was disconcerted at finding them removed, and while he wavered, un- certain what direction to take, a furious discharge of musketry at short range decimated his ranks indeed, but showed him also where his enemies were stationed. He wheeled about and attacked the second division fiercely. The utter desperation of the royalists and their compact and unbroken formation gave them an immense advantage over the Chileans. In the darkness these could not see their officers, and the incessant firing drowned the commands which were necessary to control and direct them. Still they stood fast and fired into the night and prayed for day. Meanwhile the first division had escaped dis- persion. Their Commander, Colonel Quintana, CHILE UNDER O'HIGGINS 279 had ordered them to preserve their present forma- tion until he returned from headquarters, whither he went for instructions, and as he had not re- turned, the commanders of the several battalions agreed to designate Don Gregorio de las Heras as their leader until Quintana came. It was now midnight, and Las Heras determined to save his division from destruction by a retreat. He there- fore formed his battalions into a square with the artillery in the front to preserve it from attack, and a few squadrons of cazadores to cover the rear. His division consisted of thirty-five hundred men. San Martin, O'Higgins and their officers did not fail in their duty to their troops on this dreadful occasion, but the darkness, the noise and the general bewilderment rendered ineffectual all their efforts. They had the good fortune to ex- tricate a battalion of infantry and some detached bodies of mounted grenadiers with which San Mar- tin succeeded in reaching San Fernando, where he was gratified to learn that Las Heras was bringing north the first division almost intact. The confidence of San Martin and O'Higgins in the unerring success of the campaign had been imparted to the residents of Santiago, who thought only of how they could fitly celebrate the coming victory, but when, two days after Cancha Rayada, the terror-stricken fugitives began to pour into the Capital, shrieking aloud that the army was destroyed, a sudden despair fell upon the city. Escape was the only thing thought of. 280 THE INDEPENDENCE OF CHILE The Delegate Director Cruz endeavored in vain to quiet the panic and restore confidence to the city. Already the terrified men and women began to stream out of the city toward the Cordillera as they had done after Rancagua; already the public funds had been taken from the Treasury and loaded on wagons for instant removal. The terror of Ossorio and of Marco was upon the city, and they expected momentarily to see the royalist troops enter under their dreaded commander. In this sudden panic one man only, the Cabildo felt, could save the city. That man was Manuel Rodriguez, the young lawyer, the secretary of ' Carrera, the patriot of Colchagua, the hero and idol of the Capital. Being invited, he assumed command, and so great was the confidence of the people in him and so judicious his directions, that / by the time San Martin and O'Higgins arrived [ with reassuring news of the army, the city was \ quieted and Rodriguez had collected a body of old men and boys and was drilling them for the \defence of the Capital. He had imbued them with ihis own confidence and given them, to sustain the desperation of their courage, the title of "The Hussars of Death." (Los Husares de la Muerte.) By the 27th of March, the Chilean army had reached the effective strength of forty-five hun- dred men, and lay encamped a few miles from Santiago, awaiting the approach of Ossorio from Talca. Ossorio had suffered considerable loss at Cancha CHILE UNDER O'HIGGINS 281 Rayada and a rest of a few days in Talca was indispensable. On the 24th he left Talca and marched north. He knew that the first division of the Chilean army had retreated in perfect or- der, and that the Chilean fugitives would speedily rejoin their regiments, and he therefore advanced with the same caution as before, reaching San Fernando without opposition on the 28th. Here his advanced guard of some two hundred cavalry met a detachment of sixty mounted grenadiers led by Captain Cajaravilla, who immediately at- tacked them and drove them back in some dis- order and with the loss of forty men. On the I 30th Ossorio occupied Rancagua, and two days | later crossed the Maipo by the ford of Lauquen. I Here he halted until the 4th of April, when having * reconnoitered the country and satisfied himself of the strength and position of the Chilean army, a council of war was held and the decision reached to take up a position on the hills about Las Casas del Espejo, after detaching a body of horse to hold the road to Valparaiso and cover their re- treat in the event of their being compelled to retire. His position was skilfully chosen, his ar- tillery well placed, his men in good condition and his forces nearly if not quite equal to his op- ponents and full of the confidence with which their success at Cancha Rayada had inspired them. The Chileans on the other hand knew that the supreme hour had arrived when they were to over- come the last obstacle that yet remained between THE INDEPENDENCE OF CHILE them and the realization of all their hopes. They drew their determination to conquer, as well from the past as from the future. The recollection of Marco incited them as well as the hope of liberty. Ossorio's centre, protected by his main bat- tery, occupied the adobe buildings of Espejo, his right under Ordonez, and his left under Primo de Ribera, were stationed on the adjoining hills and all was in readiness when the Chileans ap- proached. San Martin commenced the battle by advancing a battalion of Grenadiers from the right wing to attack Ribera, who in reply opened on it with four small field pieces, under cover of which his cavalry advanced to a counter attack ; the Chilean troops drew together into close order and awaited them. At almost the same moment the Chilean guns opened fire on Ribera's cavalry and threw them into disorder, and the Chilean Grenadiers charged, driving them up the hill, where, however, they were received by such a vol- ley of musketry that they promptly recoiled. Being reinforced, they returned again to the at- tack, and finally, after fierce hand to hand fight- ing, succeeded in driving the enemy from the hill which they seized and occupied. On the other wing, Colonel Freire withstood the charge of Ordonez's whole body of infantry supported on the flanks by the Royal Lancers and the Arequipa dra- goons ; and suddenly taking the offensive, broke them by a sharp attack and dispersed them in all CHILE UNDER O'HIGGINS 283 directions. In the centre, Ossorio's battery re- pulsed an attack of the Eighth battalion (which O'Higgins had led at Chacabuco), and drove them from the field almost entirely destroyed. The Sec- ond battalion repeated the charge, at a run, with fixed bayonets, but owing to the rugged character of the ground, they lost their formation and with it their confidence. While they wavered, the Chileans who had driven Ribera from his position opened a destructive fire on Ossorio's flank from the neighboring hill, while San Martin ordered up the reserves under Quintana. Under cover of this support, the officers of the Second battalion re- stored order among their men, who advanced up the hill in the face of Ossorio's battery and of a furious musketry discharge from his infantry. At this time Freire, having put Ordonez to a com- plete rout, delivered a cavalry attack on the other flank. These concerted and almost simultaneous attacks in front and on each flank, threw the royalists into complete confusion and they gave way and fled. When Ribera had been driven from his position on the left wing, he had quickly restored order to his ranks and was on his way to join Ossorio when he met Ordonez coming from the other wing with all that he could collect of his men. To- gether they approached the Casas del Espejo, where the final charge was taking place, but they were too late. Already the fugitives from the field apprised them that all was lost. Still they \ 284 THE INDEPENDENCE OF CHILE advanced, hoping to retrieve the fortunes of the day, but after a bitter resistance they were com- pelled to yield their swords to Las Heras. Fif- teen hundred of the royalists lay dead on the field of battle, and twenty-five hundred were taken prisoners, among them one hundred and ninety officers. Seven hundred only succeeded in making their escape to Concepcion, and Ossorio was the first to arrive at that grateful harbor of refuge. The Chilean loss was about one thousand killed and wounded. O'Higgins was sick in bed at San- tiago with septic fever following the wound he had received at Cancha Rayada, but he insisted on rising, and in fact succeeded in reaching the battle field in time to take part as a simple trooper in the final charge, under command of his old friend, Colonel Ramon Freire. Thus ended the battle of Maipo, which sealed the independence of Chile and prepared that of Peru. San Martin was perhaps the only man in Chile whose heart was not stirred to its depths by exultation. To him it meant merely another rung of the ladder that led up to Lima. At Cancha Rayada he had lost a pawn, at Maipo he had taken a rook. Vicuna-Mackenna said well of San Martin, "He was not a man, but a mis- sion." Jose Miguel Carrera was the first Chilean to recognize the fact that the sea was the natural highway of Chile, and after Rancagua he went 1 CHILE UNDER O'HIGGINS 285 from Buenos Ayres to the United States to pro- cure aid in fitting out a maritime expedition against Ossorio. This he succeeded in doing, and with four vessels he reached Buenos Ayres on February 9th, 1817, three days before Chacabuco. In Buenos Ayres he fell into the snares of the Lautaro Lodge and his great plans were frittered away gradually and irretrievably as we have al- ready seen. San Martin himself realized how important was the command of the sea in the prosecution of his undertaking, and on the very field of Chaca- buco, O'Higgins replied to the felicitations of his friends, "This victory and a hundred more will be without effect unless we control the sea." On the 17th of February, 1817, five days after* Chacabuco, O'Higgins sent to the United States * two hundred thousand dollars to buy or build ves- sels suitable for use in Chilean waters, and at the same time he sent Don Jose Antonio Alvarez Con- darco to England with a like mission. He also directed that the Spanish flag be kept flying over Valparaiso, and a few days later, the Spanish brigantine Aguila unsuspectingly entered the port and was surprised and captured. O'Higgins put one of his cavalry officers, Raymond Morris, an Englishman, in command, with orders to bring home the exiles from Juan Fernandez. In Octo- ber, the Aguila captured the Perla of sixteen guns and, before the year 1817 closed, the frigate 286 THE INDEPENDENCE OF CHILE Minerva and the brigantine Santa Maria de Jesus were added to the little fleet. tip to this time the Chileans had avoided the sea. There were no coast cities of any impor- tance ; Concepcion was a military post, Valdivia a fort, Valparaiso a fishing hamlet; the Chilean towns occupied the middle plateau and the popu- aon was agricultural. Morris was taken from the cavalry to command the Aguila, and Manuel Blanco-Encalada was now detached from the ar- tillery to take charge of the fleet. He had served a year as a midshipman in the Spanish navy, and he was now advanced to the rank of Rear- Admiral in command of the Chilean fleet. There were not a dozen men in Chile* who could distinguish be- tween the mizzen chains and the spanker, and yet, when once the Chileans were on the sea, they found themselves at home, and prize after prize was brought into Valparaiso, whose cargo was applied to the conduct of the war, while the vessels them- selves helped to form the fleet with which Lord Cochrane began that amazing career in the Pa- cific whose exploits are among the most mar- velous feats of naval warfare. On October 10, 1818, Rear-Admiral Blanco- Encalada left Valparaiso with a squadron com- prising the San Martin of sixty guns, the frigate Lautaro, forty-six guns, the corvette Chacabuco, twenty guns, and the brigantine Araucano, six- teen guns. The news had come to Chile that a fleet of twelve Spanish vessels was coming with CHILE UNDER O'HIGGINS 287 an army of three thousand men to renew the war. j Concepcion was still held by Colonel Sanchez and : was thought to be the port to which this fleet was directed. The warning came almost too late to be of service, for the Maria Isabel and three other vessels had just arrived at Concepcion, when the San Martin and the Lautaro entered the bay and began the attack under close fire from the guns of the four ships and of all the land batteries. The battle lasted several hours, but at the end the | Chileans, having sunk one of the Spanish vessels, captured the others and sailed out of the bay in triumph. The Chacabuco and Araucano had equal success, and in thirty-eight days the Chi- lean squadron sailed into Valparaiso, with eight prizes filled with a Spanish army, with all kinds of military stores and with several hundred thou- sand dollars in gold. After this victory the Span- I ish vessels disappeared; from Chilean waters. When Rear-Almiral Blanco-Encalada returned to Valparaiso, where Zenteno had established the department which conducted the operations of the navy, he found that Lord Cochrane had arrived and would take over the command of the Chilean Navy with the rank of Vice-Admiral. In this ap- pointment no one concurred with heartier goodwill and more genuine enthusiasm than Blanco-En- calada himself. He at once yielded up the com- mand of the fleet, declaring that he would be proud to serve under so illustrious a commander. He retained, however, his rank of Rear-Admiral. 288 THE INDEPENDENCE OF CHILE The Vice-Admiral immediately hoisted his pen- nant on the Maria Isabel, now christened anew as the O'Higgins, and proceeded to overhaul the fleet, which was finally ready for s,e^ January 14, 1819. Lord Cochrane was the eldest son of the Earl of Dundonald. His brilliant achievements in the Napoleonic wars would have added lustre to the fame of Nelson. He was as daring as his coun- tryman John Paul Jones, and as fortunate. Sir James Mackintosh said of him, "He is such a miracle of nautical skill and courage, his adven- tures have been so romantic, and his achievements so splendid, that no Englishman can read them without pride that such things have been done by his countryman." When Alvarez Condarco reached England, as agent for Chile, the great fame of Cochrane had apparently reached its apogee, but the Chilean agent pointed out to the eager enthusiasm of the Scotchman, a new field of glory and other laurels that awaited him in the Pacific, and as Amadis offered his single aid to King Perion of Gaul, so Cochrane, relying simply on his own genius, came to the help of Chile against Spain. Over two centuries had passed since the great sea captains of Queen Elizabeth ploughed with hostile keel the tranquil waters of the Pacific. During that period no one had ventured to chal- lenge the proud claim of Spain to the undisputed sovereignty of the Western Ocean. The pirates of Tunis and Algiers might destroy or capture CHILE UNDER O'HIGGINS 289 her vessels in the Mediterranean or ravage with impunity the coasts of Miircia and Alicante; Es- sex might burn Cadiz, Rooke capture Gibraltar and Peterborough seize Barcelona ; England might blockade every Atlantic port and prey upon the defenseless commerce of Spain ; but Callao and Guayaquil were tranquil and secure from any hostile invasion, and in the Pacific at least her commerce was free from menace. That tran- quillity was now to be disturbed, that security to be attacked, by the one country which she had most despised as a Colony and which less than two years earlier lay prostrate and gasping under the heel of her merciless despotism. The attack on Callao by the Chilean fleet filled the world with amazement and revealed to Spain her precarious tenure of her Colonies. The Chi- lean fleet swept the whole American coast from Acapulco in Mexico, to Valdivia in the south of Chile, collecting prizes in every harbor, and cap- turing every vessel that ventured abroad, while the Spanish war ships cowered under the guns of Callao and Panama. One of these many prizes, the Motezuma, was laden with merchandise and money to the amount of five hundred thousand dollars. Thus the funds were furnished by Spain to liberate Peru, in much the same way as in the war of the American Revolution, the Colonies sup- ported their armies by the sale of prizes and mer- chandise captured from the British vessels. Ad-, miral Cochrane was a daring and fortunate com-j 290 THE INDEPENDENCE OF CHILE \/ mander, and in nothing was he more fortunate than in the boldness and intelligence of the seamen who manned his ships, and of the soldiers whom he led to victory. / Valdivia was conceded to be the best fortified harbor on the Pacific. The Spaniards boasted -that it was the strongest post in the world. Gib- raltar had been captured, but Valdivia was im- pregnable. A narrow entrance from the sea gave admittance to a deep and commodious harbor, at the further bend of which, fifteen miles from the entrance, lay the city. This harbor was com- pletely surrounded and dominated by nine forts, four on the southern and four on the northern side, while one, the largest of all, constituted the citadel. Each was guarded by a ditch and a para- pet, behind which arose the steep cliff in which the works had been partly excavated and partly constructed. Each fort was separated from its neighbor by an interval of one-fourth to one-half a mile of rugged precipice, to which the forest trees clung thick and wild, while the adjoining forts were connected by covered galleries spanning these intervals, so narrow that but one person at a time could pass, and commanded at entrance and issue by twenty-four pound guns. Thus each fort, while being impregnable to attack from with- out, could defend itself perfectly from any assault from its neighbor, if an enemy should succeed in effecting an entrance there. For two centuries the convicts from Spain and CHILE UNDER O'HIGGINS 291 Peru had expiated their crimes and exhausted their lives in continuous labor on the erection of this system of forts, which should secure the southern entrance to the Pacific from any attack that the nations of the earth could prepare against it. These fortifications were garrisoned with eleven hundred men, and through their embrasures one hundred and eighteen cannon denounced the immediate annihilation of any vessel that might enter the harbor with hostile intent. Nothing of this was unknown to Lord Cochrane, and yet he determined to capture Valdivia and its forts; as he, himself said, "when unexpected proj- ects are energetically put in execution, they al- most invariably succeed." To his genius nothing seemed impossible, and having tested the intelli- gence and intrepidity of his soldiers, he knew that they were worthy to execute his daring purpose. At about four o'clock of the afternoon of the 3d of February, 1820, the Admiral with two small ships sailed into the harbor of Valdivia and an- chored just within the bay. At once the alarm gun from Fort Ingles rang over the water of the quiet harbor, and Fort Ingles opened fire on the two Chilean vessels. It seems incredible, but it is nevertheless an undeniable fact, that the artillerymen in the Span- ish service had never been trained to take aim at the object they sought to hit. A general direc- tion was all that they were taught to attain, and they fired less with the intention, than with the THE INDEPENDENCE OF CHILE hope, that their shot might hit the mark. It was winged with a prayer, but the prayer was seldom heard, for not one shot in a hundred could take effect at a distance of one hundred yards. Lord Cochrane was familiar with this peculiarity of the Spanish artillerymen. He had calculated his chances at different distances and took his risk willingly. So now, disregarding the fire from the fort, he ordered two boats to be lowered and manned, to carry a detachment of soldiers ashore. By this time the other forts had opened fire, and when the landing party approached the shore under Fort Ingles, they found themselves opposed by a company of seventy-five men, who had de- scended the steep slope of the outer wall and now, from behind the parapet, opened a hot fire from close range on the approaching Chileans. These, however, in a few minutes reached the shore and, dashing through the ditch, they climbed the scarp and the parapet slopes, to find that their enemies were clambering up the wall of the fort on their hands and knees to escape. Those above lowered some ladders to hasten their ascent, and withdrew them when once their comrades had reached the ramparts. Major Beauchef, who commanded the assault, watched them as they disappeared through the crenelles. Then he took off his hat, and, rais- ing his voice, called out, "Thank you, gentlemen, for your courtesy in showing the way." By this time all the Chileans were collected at the base of the wall, and Major Beauchef divided CHILE UNDER O'HIGGINS 293 them according to the prearranged plan into three bodies, which were by separate ways to scale the height between Fort Ingles and Fort San Carlos, and then unite in a general attack on Fort Ingles. By this time Fort Ingles had six hundred men ready to repel the attack, while the assailants con- sisted of two hundred and fifty soldiers, whom Freire had lent Cochrane for this purpose, and some of the artillerymen from the fleet. Night fell while the Chileans were climbing the rough ascent under the cover of the trees. No one of the enemy offered them the slightest re- sistance. The Spaniards had lost sight of them and had forgotten the ancient aphorism of war that your enemy is never so near to you as when he has disappeared. After an hour's hard work the Chileans were mounted nearly to the level of the fort. There lay a stretch of open rock, smooth and sloping dangerously to the bay, be- tween them and their object. This little transit of two hundred yards must be made in the full view of the fort. Beauchef stood in the shade of the trees and measured with his eye the distance. Along that perilous dome the path lay, where a single misstep might precipitate a score of men to destruction, and where they would be absolutely helpless against the fire from the fort. "For- ward, in perfect silence!" he said, and stepping out from the shelter, he dashed across the inter- vening space followed by all his men. A sudden cry of alarm from the sentinels, and a vague 294 THE INDEPENDENCE OF CHILE rattle of musketry that did no harm, saluted the little band, who in a moment swarmed up the battlements and leaped into the fort. Here the resistance was speedily overcome. The Spaniards fled in the confusion of terror. Some escaped by the gallery to Fort San Carlos, some leaped from the crenelles and were dashed to pieces on the rocks below, while the rest surrendered in instant fear. Leaving twenty men to guard the fort, Beauchef led the rest along the covered gallery and entered Fort San Carlos. Here he encountered no effec- tive resistance, and Forts Amargas and Choroco- mayo also yielded with unexpected facility to his attack. At the entrance to Fort Corral, he ex- pected resistance, but though two hundred Span- iards remained there, they offered scarcely an ob- jection to his entrance, and at once gave them- selves up as prisoners. At four o'clock in the morning, all the five forts on the southern shore of the harbor were in the hands of the Chileans, and by nine o'clock, the garrisons of the four remaining forts on the north shore had fled in terror, before Lord Cochrane had had time to send a party to assault them. In Callao, he cut out the Esmeralda from under the fire of three hundred guns and carried her away in triumph. In the harbor of Callao lay the merchant fleet of Spain, protected by the guns of the shore batteries and guarded from attack by a line of battle ships which consisted of the Esmeralda jrf forty-four guns, a corvette, two CHILE UNDER O'HIGGINS 295 brigantines, two sloops of war ? three large mer- chant vessels, which had been converted into armed cruisers, and twenty gunboats. The whole har- bor was moreover protected with large floats fas- tened together with heavy chains, making a boom which effectually closed the harbor, and prevented entrance except on the north, where an opening had been left wide enough for the passage of single vessels. Outside of the cordon lay the U. S. S. Macedonia and H. B. M. S. Hyperion. Lord Cochrane prepared his plan of operations, selected from his squadron the men who should execute it and drilled them at night until they understood their individual duties. On the night of November 5th, 1820, he signaled all the Chi- lean vessels to leave the bay and pass outside beyond San Lorenzo, with sufficient ostentation of departure to persuade the Spaniards that the whole Chilean fleet had put to sea. All lights were extinguished on his flagship, the O'Higgins, to which the men had been transferred who were to assist in the operations of the night, and an hour before midnight, twelve boats put off from the O'Higgins in two parallel lines, a boat's length apart. Lord Cochrane in person headed one line and Captain Guise of the Lautaro the other. As the boats rowed silently toward the entrance of the harbor, they passed under the bow of the Macedonia whose officers prevented their sentinels from challenging them, while in a low voice they wished them good luck and a happy result. The 296 THE INDEPENDENCE OF CHILE sentinels on the Hyperion, however, hailed them noisily, and continued to challenge them until they had all passed. At twelve o'clock the expedition penetrated the harbor and reached the line of Spanish gunboats, and a few minutes afterward they were alongside the Esmeralda, without any effective alarm having been given to the enemy. Lord Cochrane himself was the first to board the Esmeralda, mounting by the main chains on the port side, and despatching the single sentinel on deck, while Captain Guise climbed aboard by the forechains to starboard. In a moment the deck of the Esmeralda was thronged with Chilean sea- men. By this time the alarm had been given and the crew of the Esmeralda rushed on deck. A hand to hand fight followed, while the Spanish officers from the quarter deck directed a noisy but vague fire against the boarders, and the Spanish seamen, seeking refuge from the invaders in the forecastle, opened a fire of small arms which aroused an indescribable tumult throughout the bay. The gunboats and the launches within the harbor discharged their broadsides without defi- nite purpose, and the great guns of the shore batteries boomed into the night. Vessels began moving about and the gunboats filed up on either side of the Esmeralda and opened fire at close quarters. By this time the decks of the vessel were awash with blood, some of the boarding party were killed, and several others, including Lord Cochrane himself, wounded. They now cut CHILE UNDER O'HIGGINS 297 the cables and hoisted the topsails and top gallant sails and the Esmeralda got gradually under way and drew out of the harbor, being all the time under fire from the gunboats, and with her decks raked fore and aft by the fire from her own crew imprisoned in the bow and stern. The bay was a whirlwind of fire, and the Macedonia and Hy- perion, displaying neutral lights, at the miz- zen peak and at the jib boom, raised their anchors, set their topsails, and sailed out of this pandemonium of noise and wandering danger. Cochrane at once made the same signal of neu- trality, and with the O'Higgins, followed the American and British ships out of the bay. Before three o'clock in the morning, the Esmeralda and two gunboats which she had captured, were beyond the reach of the guns of Callao. Of the crew of the Esmeralda one hundred and fifty-seven were killed and one hundred and seventy-three taken prisoners. The Chilean loss was eleven killed and thirty wounded. On the following day, Captain Downs of the Macedonia, felicitated Lord Coch- rane on the success of his enterprise and added, "Never was a more brilliant achievement accom- plished with greater dexterity." This exploit filled the Viceroy with unutterable dismay, and shook the empire of Spain to its very founda- tions. A hundred other achievements, less spec- tacular, indeed, but not less heroic, filled the early annals of the Chilean navy and formed the traditions under which Prat and Latorre and 298 THE INDEPENDENCE OF CHILE Condell learned the great lessons of heroism and strategy. Meanwhile, Chile was adapting herself to her changed condition, and, under the easy rule of ^ O'Higgins, was resuming the agricultural and commercial life of earlier years. Npjw_at_last^^he began to experience the revived benefits of Rozas's rule, and, elated with the realization of their per- manence, saw no cloud as yet on her horizon. To be sure, Sanchez continued to occupy Concepcion until the capture of the Maria Isabel put an end to his hopes of succor from Spain, and until the successful assault of Valdivia destroyed his au- thority in the south of Chile, after which he took his departure from the soil of the Republic; in the mountainous regions of Arauco, too, an or- ganized band of assassins and robbers covered themselves with the name of Ferdinand, and under Benavides, Pico and the two Pincheiras, ravaged the remote districts and waged a war of murder and fire on the scattered inhabitants of that diffi- cult district ; but these were never sufficient to form a menace to their independence, and but for the great preparations for the Conquest of Peru, would doubtless have been quickly exterminated. But every effort of the government was employed in the preparation of the army which was to pro- ceed to Peru on its beneficent mission of libera- tion. This enterprise would have seemed impossi- ble to anyone who was not under the immediate in- fluence of San Martin. The nation, devastated CHILE UNDER O'HIGGINS 299 by hostile armies for ten years, was tired of war and exhausted by repeated sacrifices. Without the prizes which her ships acquired and the glory that they reaped on the sea, neither the resources nor the enthusiasm of the country could have sus- tained the effort of preparation. But finally the road was opened to Lima, and the army was ready to embark. San Martin led his troops aboard the fleet and sailed north. With the departure of the army, thus equipped by Chile with a heroism and self-sacrifice rarely paralleled in the world's annals, the further history of San Martin passes beyond our present horizon. We must return and consider the progress of the civil administration of Chile under the virtual Dictatorship of O'Higgins. On February 16, 1817, Don Bernardo O'Hig- gins was unanimously elected Supreme Director of Chile in a Cabildo Abierto held in Santiago, and composed of two hundred and ten Chileans. This election was enthusiastically confirmed by ihe whole nation without dissent, and for six years O'Higgins continued to rule Chile. After Chaca- buco, San Martin returned to the government of his province, meditating constantly upon the best and surest way to achieve his ultimate purpose, the destruction of the King's authority in America. Nothing less could satisfy his lofty soul. This was his only ambition. He had refused with dis- dain the magnanimous offers of the Chileans to place their government in his hands. He was ab- 300 THE INDEPENDENCE OF CHILE solutely without any personal ambition of power, and seemed almost to resent the invitation of Chile as an aspersion of his motives. Chile was to him the highway to Lima, and after Chacabuco, his path lay through the sea. For the present there was nothing for him to do in Chile, and he returned to Mendoza revolving in his mind the means of prosecuting his great purpose. O'Higgins's presence being required with the army at Talcahuano and Concepcion, where Or- donez lingered and perpetuated the threat of inva- sion, the Director named Colonel Quintana to exer- cise the delegated duties of the chief office in San- tiago and went in person to conduct the operations in the southern province. Quintana was expected to attend to the simple routine duties of govern- ment, under the constant control of the Lautaro Lodge, but the real seat of government was in the Chilean camp before Talcahuano, and the Minister of War was at the army headquarters with O'Hig- gins. Even the perfunctory duties of Delegate were, however, beyond Quintana's skill to conduct without friction ; he was moreover an Argentine, and the preference thus shown to a foreigner was annoying to Chilean pride. Strong in the con- scious support of the Lautaro Lodge, he was little careful to respect the sensibilities of the Chileans, and attempted to introduce into civil life something of the austere control of military authority. Quintana had many of the qualities of Governor Carrasco, and when at the command of the Lau- CHILE UNDER O'HIGGINS 301 taro Lodge he laid his hand on the person of Manuel Rodriguez, and imprisoned him under the accusation of treason, the temper of the people gave way, and they demanded Quintana's immedi- ate separation from command. Rodriguez was released and Quintana removed. Luis de la Cruz, also a member of the Lautaro Lodge, was ap- pointed Delegate Director. Soon afterward, Ossorio landed at Talcahuano and the war re- commenced with the result that we have described. During this period of fourteen months, O'Higgins's only title to office was the one conferred upon him by the two hundred and ten members of the Ca- hildo Abierto of Santiago. While the uncertain result of the final contest impended over Chile, everyone acquiesced in the necessity of avoiding any issue that might create division among the people and renew the animosi- ties that had brought about the defeat at Ran- cagua. No Congress was convened, no constitu- tion drawn up. The Cabildo of Santiago, through which, at the time of the ' provisional Junta, Rozas had promulgated his laws, represented to O'Higgins their willingness to assist him by con- ferring an additional legality upon his decrees, but the Supreme! Director rejected their offer with disdain. In this he was doubtless justified, but after the total defeat of the Spaniards at Maipo the agitation for a constitution was carried on openly and widely. In fact O'Higgins's power was now become 302 THE INDEPENDENCE OF CHILE greater than that of any of the Colonial governors had been. There was no stated limit to his au- thority, and no Royal Audience to act as a check upon his will. Public and private rights had no other security than his personal sense of justice, and the liberty of Chile no other guaranty than his patriotism and the rectitude of his intentions. Such guaranties were insufficient for the future, and the only result for the present seemed to be a change of masters. The spirit of liberty was very strong in^Chilfr, arid was r^ ^ _ until it was assured by a Constitution, which should confirm public liberty and private rights, and inscribe the powers of the government within due bounds. , O'Higgins recognized the temporary character of his officer He~kiiew~that his appRTrntrneTit-was em, jujrjie_jlso^new that until Viceroy was expelled from Peru, the freedom of Chile was subject to permanent menace. TmV was not only true but urgent, and he realized that the achievement of this great purpose must not be left to the chance of caprice, or to the uncer- tainty of popular election. If the necessity of an absolute authority was manifest between Chacabuco and Maipo, that necessity, though less generally evident, was as real now that a more re- mote peril threatened the independence of Chile. Not for a moment could the future of Chile be assured, until the Spanish power in Peru was de- stroyed, and the more pressing became the de- CHILE UNDER O'HIGGINS 303 mands of the people, the more evident was their blindness to their peril. In this emergency he had recourse to an ex- pedient which, while safeguarding his country, he must have known would result in an injustice, per- haps an injury, to himself. It is impossible to believe that he was moved by the vulgar desire to prolong his authority for a few brief months at the ultimate price of the loss of prestige and the diminution of his fame. Glory was al- ways dear to the heart of O'Higgins, but even glory yielded to the magnanimity of his pa- triotism. He knew that he must yield at least an apparent obedience to the will of the people, but he was determined that his country must be rescued from peril. He therefore announced in a public proclamation dated May 18, 1818, that "inasmuch as the present moment is manifestly inopportune for the election of a Congress, the Supreme Director, pending such election, will ap- point a commission of seven individuals to prepare and. present a provisional constitution, which may give direction to the deliberations of the Congress when elected, and shall serve in the meantime as the organic law of the country." On the 8th of August, 1818, the commission submitted their protocol of a Constitution, which was published by the government, and accepted by the municipal corporations of Chile on the 23d of October. The first article of this Constitution, thus accepted by the country, after affirming the 304 THE INDEPENDENCE OF CHILE sovereignty of the people, declared Don Bernardo O'Higgins to be the supreme head of the nation, allotting no term to his office and imposing no valid restrictions upon his power. The public clamor was for the time quieted by this subterfuge, and be- fore it could again become importunate, Rear Ad- miral Blanco-Encalada, like another Duilius, led into Valparaiso on the 17th of November, a whole / fleet of Spanish vessels. Then followed the glori- ous campaigns of Lord Cochrane, which swept the Spanish fleets from the Pacific and opened a pas- sage to Lima for the army of Chile. This glory inundated the nation. It is impossible to describe the enthusiasm of the whole people, as the news came of success after success without a disaster to Chilean arms. They lived in a continuous ecstasy of triumph. To O'Higgins belongs the glory of the mag- nificent achievements of the Chilean fleet, but the credit he must share with Zenteno, his Minister of War on land and sea. With no personal knowl- edge of naval affairs, with inexpert and im- promptu assistants, and with little aid from an empty treasury and an impoverished people, Zen- teno, without ostentation but without friction, maintained and supplied the fleet, paid the officers and sailors, and transported the army to Lima out of his own department. He not only made the navy pay for itself without other resource, but managed, out of the proceeds of the sale of prizes and captures, to furnish considerable sums toward CHILE UNDER O'HIGGINS 305 the expense of the civil administration. O'Hig- gins, too, had sold or mortgaged everything he owned in the world, and left himself absolutely without means of subsistence, that he might equip the army for its mission to Peru. It was at such a time as this, that Jose Miguel Carrera, lifted his head for a last attack on his country. Although constantly buffeted by the Lautaro Lodge, he had managed to enlist the sym- pathies of family friends in Chile, and to recruit a body of men in the Argentine. He had even so- licited and obtained the assistance of the Indians of the Pampas, in the execution of his enterprise,. But Chile was now freed from the armies of Spain, and Carrera's expedition must then have been di- rected either against Chile as a nation, or against the government of the nation, which was O'Hig- gins. A casuist might be able to draw this dis- tinction, but even Carrera, who was no casuist, must have known that to invade the territory of the republic with an armed force was treason and the penalty was death. That penalty was in- flicted in Mendoza by the Lautaro Lodge, while O'Higgins, on the other side of the Andes, turned away his face that he might not seem even to con- cur in the sentence so justly executed. Carrera's ultimate purposes were variously regarded at the time, and have continued to exercise a wide in- genuity of conjecture among his countrymen. It seems to the present writer indubitable, that if Chile had yielded to the domination of his initia- 306 THE INDEPENDENCE OF CHILE tive and assumed the impress of his personality, she would have become, under whatever specious euphemism, a monarchy. Applying to him the words of Daniel Webster, he possibly meant to ex- ercise power usefully, but he meant to exercise it ; he meant to govern well, but he meant to govern; he promised himself to be a kind master, but he meant to be master ; he might have been a brilliant ruler, but he would have ruled alone. So Rozas thought, so O'Higgins felt, so San Martin con- cluded. O'Higgins has been charged with the death of Carrera, as he was charged - some years earlier with the assassination of Manuel Rodriguez, the hero of Colchagua, who had quieted the tumult of the Capital after the disastrous dispersion of the Chilean army at Cancha Rayada. Miguel Luis Amunategui believed, and recorded his belief, that O'Higgins was guilty in both instances, in spite of extant documentary proof that not O'Higgins but the Lautaro Lodge decreed and enforced both the public execution of Jose Miguel Carrera, and the secret murder of Manuel Rodriguez, who was by far the most sympathetic figure of the Chilean Independence. O'Higgins's own abhorrence of the methods of this terrible tribunal may be inferred from the fact that henceforward its influence in the conduct of his administration becomes imper- ceptible if not entirely extinct. However, the death of Carrera furnished a sup- ply of ammunition to the enemies of O'Higgins, CHILE UNDER O'HIGGINS 307 who were not reluctant to use whatever weapon would serve them, and many of whom doubtless be- lieved that the Director was unscrupulous enough to employ any means for the removal of his ene- mies. O'Higgins, conscious of his deserts as well as of the purity of his purposes, paid less attention to his enemies than they merited. The Ministry of Hacienda had been held by a number of incum- bents, each of whom had failed to devise any ade- quate system of finance, and the Supreme Director now appointed to that office, which was become the most important in the administration, Don Jose Antonio Rodriguez- Aldea, a man of dubious ante- cedents, and of questionable integrity, whose ma- lign influence over O'Higgins precipitated the dis- aster which was already hastening to overwhelm him. Rodriguez- Aide a was a fellow townsman of O'Higgins, but he had thrown in his lot with the royalist cause. He was the Auditor who had sug- gested to Gainza the expedient by which that Gen- eral, through the Treaty of Lircai, had extricated himself from an apparently impossible situation, and had been thereby enabled to maintain himself until Ossorio came; it was probably Rodriguez- Aldea who had proposed the liberation of the Car- reras from their imprisonment in order to intro- duce division into the army, and discord into the councils, of the patriots. He had also been dex- terous enough to get himself appointed Attorney- General (Fiscal) by Ossorio, and to remain in this very important position when Marco became Gov- 308 THE INDEPENDENCE OF CHILE ernor. It is true that he extended many favors to the Chileans who were suspected of the crime of patriotism, and it was alleged that he had be- trayed the secrets of Marco to the patriots be- yond the Cordillera. The ability of the new Minister might be de- nied, but his industry was indefatigable. He found the Treasury without funds and without credit. The capitalists refused to lend money to the government without the personal security of the individual officials. Meanwhile the salaries of these officials remained unpaid. Zenteno had, as we have seen, conducted the affairs of the navy so skillfully and so honestly that there had re- mained a balance to the government, which was paid into the general treasury as long as it was available, but with the fall of Lima in July, 1821, this little revenue stopped and the seamen clamored jfor their pay, while Lord Cochrane wrote threat- jening letters to O'Higgins, which made extremely disagreeable reading for that gentleman, who with the best will in the world, was absolutely unable to raise the necessary money. Rodriguez- Aldea, who was neither a financier nor an economist, suc- ceeded where his predecessors had failed. He was called the Necker of the Chilean Treasury, but he more nearly resembled Calonne, for the money that filled the treasury was procured by the lavish gift, as a bonus for loans, of privileges, exemptions and monopolies to the new creditors, which, while pro- curing temporary relief, threatened the very ex- CHILE UNDER O'HIGGINS 309 istence of the republic. There were many men in Chile whose prevision easily detected the financial fallacy of the new minister, but O'Higgins had no feeling but gratitude for the agent who had re- leased him from his immediate difficulties, and his former confidence in Rodriguez-Aldea was aug- mented by this service. This incident illustrates the essential weakness of O'Higgins. His gener- osity and patriotism were never questioned, but his political sagacity proved wofully inadequate on many important occasions. Impulsive and avid of glory as few men have been, he fell a ready victim to unworthy flatterers, and yielded a dishonorable compliance to the seductions of his new Min- ister. Among those who recognized and denounced Rodriguez-Aldea as a dangerous charlatan, was his colleague in the Ministry, Don Jose Ignacio Zenteno. Rodriguez-Aldea struck at Zenteno through the Rear Admiral, Don Manuel Blanco- Encalada, who happened to be in Santiago, and whose patriotism at least might have been thought above attack since at Concepcion he had taken a Spanish fleet and led an army captive. But Blanco-Encalada also had severely criticised Rodriguez-Aldea's financial achievements, saying in effect that under such a system Chile would soon become worse than Turkey to live in. The re- mark was reported to Rodriguez-Aldea, who had the Admiral arrested on the charge of treason. Such an accusation, against so eminent a patriot, 310 THE INDEPENDENCE OF CHILE urged by the late Attorney General of Marco, was supremely absurd. It proved the exact truth of Blanco-Encalada's assertion. The case was at once dismissed, but Blanco-Encalada returned in disgust to his squadron in Valparaiso, while the utmost hostility ensued between Zenteno and Rodriguez- Aldea. O'Higgins, to quiet the acrimonious quar- rels of his two cabinet Ministers, appointed the Minister of the Navy to the governorship of Valparaiso, and named the Minister of Hacienda as the Diplomatic Agent of Chile in Peru, each to preserve the portfolio of his Cabinet Ministry. Zenteno departed for Valparaiso but resigned from the Ministry, while Rodriguez- Aldea remained in Santiago and received the portfolio of War as it fell from the hands of Zenteno. Echeverria, the Minister of Foreign Relations, whom Vicufia- Mackenna declares to have been a man "of the most extraordinary mediocrity," was appointed to take over the direction of Naval affairs. Thus Rodriguez- Aldea dominated the government in all of its activities. There remained only one oppo- nent whom he seemed unable to remove, to control, to corrupt, or to intimidate General Ramon Freire, the Governor of the Province of Concep- cion. Four years had now elapsed since the project of a constitution quieted the popular clamor for an instrument which should acknowledge and con- firm the independence of Chile, and during that '< time the freedom of the nation from foreign foes CHILE UNDER O'HIGGINS 311 had been secured by the expulsion of the last bat- talions of Spanish troops from Concepcion and - Talcahuano, and by the fall of Lima. The Chileans had concurred in yielding obedience to the essen- tially military government of O'Higgins, but now they were beginning to feel that the enemy to their freedom was at home in Santiago, entrenched in power and supported by an army, and they were determined to have a Constitution. Since the fall of Lima, O'Higgins knew that such a demand was inevitable and would be irresistible, but he was loth to yield up his autocratic power, partly be- cause it was so unquestionably delightful, but doubtless also because he thought himself the fittest person in Chile to rule the State. There is no question, too, but Rodriguez- Aldea clung to his delegated authority with a tenacity that had an immeasurable influence upon the Supreme Director. The Minister poured into the willing ear of his Chief assurances that he alone who had freed Chile could preserve her freedom, which under any other ruler must degenerate into either anarchy or despotism ; that his duty to his country demanded his retention of office by all legitimate methods; that the blind multitude could not judge easily of their political needs, but were led by unscrupulous demagogues whose only purpose was self-advance- ment. O'Higgins listened to the fatal words of his flatterer and determined to silence the popular clamor by evading the popular demand. The road he was already familiar with, having traveled it 312 THE INDEPENDENCE OF CHILE once before with a purer purpose. He issued a decree on May 7, 1822, calling for the election of delegates to a preparatory convention. There was no law providing for the election of any representative body and no legislature that could formulate such a law. O'Higgins announced therefore in his decree of convocation, that each municipality in Chile should by a majority vote elect one representative or delegate to the Prepar- atory Convention. In this there/was nothing im- proper or suspicious, but together with a copy of the decree which was sent to each municipality in the country, there went a note signed by the Su- preme Director, containing the name of the dele- gate whom the government wished to be elected. Thus the elections were carried on, not by the free choice of the municipal bodies, but in the darkness and secrecy of the private apartment of Rodrf- guez-Aldea. Moreover, the minister intended that his command should be obeyed, for when the Cabildo of Valdivia had the temerity~to pass over the name dictated to them and elect unanimously a resident of Valdivia by the name of Pineda, this gentleman was immediately arrested and impris- oned by the chief of the garrison and another meet- ing of the Cabildo was called which proved more tractable. On July 23rd, 1822, the Supreme Director in- stalled the Preparatory Convention with sufficient pomp, and after expressing his confidence in the result of their deliberations he placed in the hands CHILE UNDER O'HIGGINS 313 of their President, Ruiz-Tagle, a message contain- ing his resignation as Supreme Director. The first official act of the Convention was to re-elect him by acclamation for a period that should be ; determined by the future Constitution. This was a pitiable farce, entirely unworthy of the character of Don Bernardo and entirely unnatural to hhW The people of Chile were not represented by a sin- #' gle member. The Convention was packed and the whole of Chile knew it. The strings were too vis- I ible, the puppets too obedient to deceive any one. It is easy to recognize the hand of Rodriguez- Aldea ; it has been affirmed, even by lukewarm ad- mirers of O'Higgins, that the Supreme Director himself was one of the puppets ; but no sophistry and no excuse can materially mitigate the pain with which we read the lamentable burlesque in* which Don Bernardo O'H'iggins played such an| ignoble role. Fortunately for him, a different oc- casion was soon to show him in his true character, when the cowardly satellites of his power slunk from his side and left him standing alone before the people of Chile. This incompetent Convention derived its powers from the decree of the Director and immediately transcended them, by proceeding to the considera- tion and adoption of a Constitution for the Re- public. This Constitution was received with de- . rision, for the people were in no mood to respect such an irregular and invalid instrument. A Con- stitution, however excellent, was not now the press- THE INDEPENDENCE OF CHILE ing need ; the people were determined first of all to get rid of their Director, whose transparent sub- terfuge had exasperated them beyond endurance, for they saw in his conduct a menace to the State. To be sure, the new Constitution limited the term of the Supreme Director to six years which, at the expiration of that period, might be increased by four additional years, but even if the Constitution had been of valid origin, it was little suited to the demands of the country. It is not quite the exact truth that O'Higgins had become personally ob- j jectionable to Chile; he was not the real object of attack, it was the system under which an irrespon- : sible Ministry could so abuse its authority as to become a source of danger. But O'Higgins was a part of this system and must share its fate. For six years they had generously entrusted him with their fortunes, their lives and the welfare of their country, without a guaranty on his part and almost without a murmur on theirs. He had re- spected that trust. Without limitations to his power, he had preserved their rights; without guaranties given or required, he had added glo- rious pages to the nation's annals. But the future must be safeguarded, and Don Bernardo had de- ceived their hopes and baffled their efforts, through the undignified machinations of an unscrupulous favorite. Don Ramon Freire has from time to time ap- peared incidentally in these pages, but without dis- closing, and without himself suspecting, that his CHILE Ul DER O'HIGGINS 315 destiny was to succeed O'Higgins as Supreme Di- rector of Chile. For nearly the whole period of O'Higgins' rule, General Freire had been in com- mand of the province of Concepcion, and had been occupied in the protracted and discouraging effort to suppress the lawless and ferocious followers of Benavides and Pico, who when threatened, con- cealed themselves in the inaccessible woods of the Cordillera, or among the unsubdued Araucans, and when their immediate peril had passed, resumed their ravages and depredations on the plains be- low and on the cities of the plains. These bandits pursued simple rules ; they burned every house, hamlet or town they captured, they killed the men and the children, and the women and cattle they carried off to their mountain fastnesses. They took no prisoners but women, and gave no quarter to any one. Benavides had at different times a thousand men under him, well-armed and well mounted, and did not hesitate to give battle to Freire himself. The Chilean forces were neces- sarily distributed as garrisons among the cities and forts of the province, and Benavides even cap- tured the city of Concepcion and held it for weeks, against all the attempts that General Freire could make to recover it. In such a state of the prov- ince, the planting and raising of crops was im- practicable, and the army was dependant for its supplies of food as well as of clothing and ammu- nition, on the Central government. So long as Zenteno was in charge of the War Department, 316 THE INDEPENDENCE OF CHILE these supplies were sent with regularity, but when Rodriguez-Aldea supplanted him, the army was left to starve. In vain Freire wrote again and again that the soldiers went literally naked, and could not leave their barracks except under cover of night ; that the residents of the whole province were starving to death, and that he was without powder even for the muskets of the soldiers. With tears in his eyes and rage in his heart, he implored the Minister to send him flour and powder at least, to enable the people to live and the garrison to re- pel attack, Rodriguez-Aldea finally sent him powder and some corn, but the corn was insuffi- cient, and when the powder barrels were opened, they were found to be filled with sawdust. The flaming remonstrances of General Freire at this inconceivable barbarity were directed to Don Ber- nardo, but they were answered by Rodriguez- Aldea; Don Bernardo never saw them. The line of endurance had been crossed ; Freire took a ves- sel for Valparaiso with part of his army and the rest marched for the Capital by way of Chilian and Talca. All the southern province was in a flame of insurrection. Meanwhile affairs in Santiago were also ap- proaching a crisis. Early in January the details of Rodriguez- Aldea's iniquities were laid before the Supreme Director, who refused to believe them. Still his confidence in his Minister was shaken and, on the exhibition of convincing proof of the alle- gations, he dismissed Rodriguez-Aldea on the 7th CHILE UNDER O'HIGGINS 317 of January (1823) . With the fall of the favorite, fell also the whole system of spoliation that he had built up, and his clerks and dependants, the army contractors and the farmers of the revenue, the jobbers and the discounters, scurried away into terrified obscurity. The accounts of his office dis- closed a conspiracy of robbery that was beyond belief, but that never for a moment, in the sus- picions of his worst enemies, involved the reputa- tion of Don Bernardo, whose humiliation at this proof of the betrayal of his confidence was ex- treme. With the fall of the favorite, the confidence of the people in their Director seemed to revive, but his faith in himself had received a severe blow in the recent disclosures. On the 16th, he decided to relinquish his office by a voluntary and absolute resignation, and he wrote Freire in Concepcion that he would appoint him as his successor until the will of the people could be effectually ascertained. He still considered valid the election made by the Preparatory Convention of 1822, which had named him Director for a term of six years, but he had made up his mind to yield up the office to Freire as soon as he could reach the Capital; the Constitu- tion, under which his own, powers were continued, giving him the right to name his successor. Freire was recently become a member of the Lautaro Lodge. But the leaders in Santiago, though they and the whole country concurred in the nomination of General Freire, were fixed in the resolve, to put 318 THE INDEPENDENCE OF CHILE an immediate end to the present government, and on the 28th of January, Infante, Eyzaguirre and Errazuriz, with the Cabildo and the representatives of the important families of the Capital, convened in the Bishop's Palace and summoned Don Ber- nardo to a Cabildo Abierto. Don Bernardo refused to obey the summons. He had made up his mind to resign, but he wanted to resign in his own way, and he resented the ap- pearance of compulsion that the summons implied. A commission composed of his intimate friends was requested by the Cabildo Abierto to invite him to the Bishop's Palace. "If they wish to speak with me," he replied, "let them come to me. I am not subject to the beck and whim of a pack of cafe-waiters and street boys." The commission returned and were then di- rected by the Cabildo Abierto to induce Don Ber- nardo's mother and sister to intercede with him, as if he were another Coriolanus. They refused to do so. The Cabildo Abierto was now at a perfect stand. They were without means to compel the presence of Don Bernardo, or even to discover what his intentions might be. The garrison of the Capital, consisting of a regiment of Lancers, of a park of artillery well equipped and com- manded, and of the Body Guard of the Director, was known to be completely under Don Bernardo's control, if an appeal to arms became necessary; CHILE UNDER O'HIGGINS 319 but the Cabildo had no intention to resort to armed force, and if they had had an army they would not have determined to use it. Still Don Bernardo's irascible disposition was well-known, and many of those present in the Bishop's Palace would gladly have retired and left the solution to chance or to Don Bernardo's decision, but Eyzaguirre and In- fante were! resolute to come to an immediate under- standing with Don Bernardo, and withstood the dissolution of the Cabildo. Finally Cruz and Pereira, two of the officers of the city troops, were sent to represent to O'Hlggins the necessity of his presence and to impress upon him the respectable character of the Cabildo. To their solicitations he finally yielded, and accompanied by the two of- ficers, proceeded to the Palace, where the Cabildo Abierto awaited his presence. It was now about six o'clock in the afternoon. The heat of the day was passing, the sun was de- scending in the West, and a feverish impatience pervaded the Cabildo. Don Bernardo entered the hall alone, and passed slowly through the throng that filled it, until he had reached the head of the room, when he turned about and faced them. Dig- nified and unperturbed, he stood for a moment and glanced over the assembly. "What is the occasion of this meeting, and why was I summoned to attend?" he asked. A pro- found silence followed the question. Respect, ad- miration, gratitude for his great services, filled 320 THE INDEPENDENCE OF CHILE every heart. Again, in the same assured voice, he put the same question and again awaited a response. Egana replied, at length, "We all esteem and respect the Supreme Direc- tor as sons esteem and respect their father. We have called Your Excellency hither that we may together take counsel for the welfare of the State, and I, animated with the sentiments I have ascribed to all, venture to declare that it has be- come necessary for Your Excellency to resign his office." "If I resign my office," responded Don Ber- nardo, in the same quiet tone, "I must do so be- fore a body which represents the Nation, and this meeting seems not in any way to hold such repre- sentation." "That is true," said Infante, "but the people of the Capital alone regard themselves as still under Your Excellency's authority, and we have decided upon a change in the personnel of the Government of the Nation." "But," rejoined Don Bernardo, without losing his composure at this brusque intimation, "I still fail to recognize the Nation in this very respectable assembly. What you do to-day the Nation may refuse to-morrow to ratify." The purpose of the assembly wavered under the imposing presence of Don Bernardo, and its mem- bers looked at one another in uncertainty. They forgot that this question had been decided upon by them beforehand, and they were thrown into con- CHILE UNDER O'HIGGINS fusion by the calm reasoning of Don Bernardo. Here was no question of violence but of discussion and argument. Here, not force but reason must prevail. Errazuriz saw the hesitancy of his asso- ciates and said quickly, "Concepcion and Coquimbo have declared their decision. They are not indeed here in direct rep- resentation, but we may safely assume under the circumstances to represent them. By yielding to us then, Your Excellency yields up your command into the hands of the Nation." "I am in no wise intimidated by the action of Concepcion and Coquimbo, and may safely guar- antee to preserve the Capital from their attack if necessary," replied Don Bernardo. "I shall ex- pect to vindicate the office which I hold and exact the respect that is due to it." "Do not deceive yourself," said Errazuriz, firmly, "the entire Republic requires Your Excel- lency to resign your office without delay." The energy of Errazuriz had by this time roused the flagging will of his associates. Don Bernardo saw the effect of these words on the assembly. Fear fell from them, their forms became suddenly erect, every face was raised, and their eyes were filled with determination as they confronted his own. He read a challenge in the faces of the as- sembly. Taking a step forward he asked, haugh- tily, "Who has authorized you to make such a de- mand upon me?" THE INDEPENDENCE OF CHILE But the assembly had regained all their cour- age. In a moment, by a universal impulse, they surged toward him, shouting, "All! All of us! All!" Don Bernardo saw their threatening faces and misunderstood their intent. He thought they were going to murder him, but he did not flinch and made no motion to defend himself from their onset, though his sword hung as usual at his side. "Come, if you will," he called, in a voice that rang over their heads and was heard in the plaza, "Come ! I am not afraid. I disregard death to- day as I have always disregarded it on the field of battle." , At that word the crowd recoiled as if every man had received a blow. Back upon itself it crushed, baffled and beaten. A breathless pause ensued. Don Bernardo was again the hero of Chacabuco. They felt as if their hands had been restrained from committing a sacrilege. And indeed with the violent access of sudden passion, they might have killed him without having intended his death. They shrank back as far as the mass of their as- sociates would permit, appalled, as from a sudden gulf. O'Higgins regained his composure in a moment. He knew now that he controlled the situation, but he knew also that the only use he could make of it was to resign. "Since you represent the Nation," he said quietly, "let us come to an understanding ; but first CHILE UNDER O'HIGGINS 323 let the room be cleared of all unnecessary persons." By this time the sun had set, and the early dark- ness began to invade the hall. In the patio with- out, the people were grouped about the doors and windows, and the voices of the Director and of the self-constituted commission were easily heard. Not a sound came into the hall from without ; anx- iety and suspense reigned. "Now," resumed Don Bernardo, "that you as- sume, without credentials or other visible proof of authority, to speak for the Republic of Chile, tell me what it is that you intend to do, or rather tell me what you wish me to do." Don Jose Maria Guzman, the Intendente of Santiago, answered, "In order that there may be no question as to our credentials, I have to acknowledge to Your Excellency that, whatever other authority we might rightfully claim, we, who are here assembled in this apartment and in the patio without, are in reality nothing more than the people of the city of Santiago, but I for one had the honor to be pres- ent at the Cabildo Abierto, which on the 16th of February, 1817, elected Your Excellency Supreme Director of Chile, and that assembly was far less numerous and representative than the one which now requests your abdication." Don Bernardo could make no reply. He was conquered. He walked to the table and re- moved the ribbon from his chest and laid down THE INDEPENDENCE OF CHILE his staff of office. Then he turned to them and said: "I regret that I may not lay down the insignia of my office before the National Assembly from which a few months ago I last received it, and I regret still more that I may not bring to comple- tion the projects that I have meditated for the good of my country ; but I leave her free from for- eign domination or invasion, respected abroad, and at home covered with glory from her victories on land and sea. From this moment I am a simple citizen of Chile. It may be that during the years in which I held chief command, the respect due to my person or at least to my high office, has silenced complaint or shortened the reach of justice. Let such accusers now step forward and speak with- out impediment. What wrongs have I done, whose tears have I made to flow? I speak not now of the wrongs we have all suffered, of the tears we have shed together, of the evils that war and disaster have inflicted on every Chilean, but of those which my own evil passions may have caused. If any such have just cause of accusa- tion against me, let them speak, and though I am so poor that nothing remains to me but the blood in my veins, I will pay them in that coin if any accuse me." At once a great shout went up in which the people of the patio joined: "We have nothing against O'Higgins. Vive O'Higgins !" and then, a wonderful thing ! the CHILE UNDER O'HIGGINS 325 shout suddenly died, and the voice of weeping filled the assembly. O'Higgins was profoundly moved. He could not utter another word. He passed out of the apartment, through the patio and into the street. A throng of people followed him to his own door in silent honor and love. The morning sun as it rose above the eastern Cordillera, found many of them still standing at the entrance through which he had disappeared. With the demission of Don Bernardo O'Hig- gins, the freedom of Chile was finally assured. The dread of personal despotism was expelled in 1823, as the dread of Peninsular domination had been expelled in 1818 at Maipo. Not that Don Bernardo v/as a despot, nor that his successor, Don Ramon Freire, could have become one ; but the Constitution of 1823 formed an effectual barrier to any irregular attempt to impose on Chile the will of an autocrat, such as Prieto or some other ambitious egotist would have aspired, without such a barrier, to become. The people of Chile were just and generous. They were lacking in neither justice nor generosity toward O'Higgins in 1823, nor toward Freire, when, in 1830, he also was compelled to abandon his country and depart into exile. During these difficult years, Chile was struggling to find herself. The country was di- vided for a time between various theories of gov- j ernment ; between the single Chief Magistrate of a THE INDEPENDENCE OF CHILE Centralized Union, or a Junta in which the three provinces of Santiago, Concepcion and Coquimbo should represent the confederated authority of a divided Nation. Many Constitutions and Proj- ects of Constitution were elaborated by success- ive Congresses, until Don Diego Portales suc- ceeded, in 1833, in establishing the equilibrium of the Republic upon the basis of an oligarchy, a skilful compromise to which is due the subsequent stability of the Republic. "Never was a country worse prepared for a Jt republican mode of government than Spanish America," said Amunategui. Even the great men who led them to independence had, with the ex- ception of Rozas, little faith in the capacity of their countrymen for self government. Bolivar was a patriot but not a republican. His con- tinuous hope was to establish Presidencies for life in each of the five countries from whose necks he had assisted in striking off the Spanish yoke. Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia being thus, as he dreamed, governed by his crea- tures, his path to the Empire of all seemed clear It is probable that in the famous interview be- tween Bolivar and San Martin in Guayaquil, famous rather from the conjectures that arose as to its character than from any knowledge of it that has ever been made public the opinions of these great men clashed fatally on this one ques- tion. Bolivar's purpose was not then entirely con- cealed, and has been amply illuminated by a care- CHILE UNDER O'HIGGINS 327 ful study of his words and of his subsequent ac- tions. San Martin alluded to Bolivar's idea on a later occasion when he said, "We could never obey as a Sovereign a man with whom we had smoked cigars in camp." That San Martin, in this interview with Boli- var, despaired of the future of popular govern- ment among the people of Spanish America, and concurred in the purpose of Buenos Ayres to invite a European prince to ascend the throne that the Argentines were anxious to erect for him, was ad- mitted later by Bolivar himself, who derided the scheme, saying, "A European King in America would have none but frogs for his subjects." In Mexico, Don Augustin Iturbide assumed the rank and power of Emperor soon after the rule of Spain was destroyed, and Mexico seems never to have entirely thrown off the imperial obsession. In Chile we may only conjecture what purpose of personal grandeur was formed in the mind of Jose Miguel Carrera, for misfortune and defeat had filled his heart with saeva indignatio and had destroyed his career long before the murderer's bullet put an end to his life; but Don Bernardo nttrmfpfl hi irnlnn all desirable .limits^ _and was constrained to abdi- cate his office and live out his days in exile. "THe ingratitude of the people," muttered O'Higgins, as he left Valparaiso for Lima. "The ingrati- tude of the people," said Bolivar, when on the 29th of April, I860, his dictatorship came to an 528 THE INDEPENDENCE OF CHILE f) end with the promulgation of a new Constitution and the election of Mosquera as President ; and he added bitterly. "Our independence is the only thjng We have apVliVvP^"^ *^ p rnst of^pypr^fln'Tig else." San Martin wrote the same gloomy reflec- tion to O'Higgins from the little farm in Mendoza, where, only five years after the battle of Maipo, he lived in poverty, already neglected if not for- gotten. "Gratitude," he wrote, "is a private, not a public virtue." But the people were wiser, wiser with the wisdom of unconscious intuition; wiser for themselves, for their country and for the fame and splendor of their heroes. It was necessary for the people to acquire the experience in politics that would fit them for self-government. The state could not, with dignity and moral profit, continue to be gov- erned by individuals rendered irresponsible by prestige or gratitude. As to the heroes them- selves, their work was done, and only time could mature, consolidate and perfect it. Moreover, their memory has become dearer and their luster brighter from the unmerited humiliation that ob- scured their last earthly years, and which has added something like the glory of martyrdom to the splendor of virtue. BIBLIOGRAPHY "Los Precursores de la Independencia." 3 Vols. Don Miguel Luis Amunategui. "La Cronica del aiio 1810." 2 Vols. Don Miguel Luis Amunategui. "La Historia de Valparaiso." 2 Vols. Don Benja- min Vicuna-Mackenna. "La Mision de Don Juan Muzi, Delegado Apostolico en Chile, 1824." Don Luis Barros Borgono. "Report on the Present State of the Provinces of South America." By the U. S. Commissioners, Rodney and Graham. Published 1819- "A Voyage to South America." 2 Vols. Don Jorge Juan and Don Antoitffr de Ulloa. English Trans- lation, 1758. "Investigaciones sobre la Influencia Social de la Con- quista i del Systema Colonial de los Espanoles en Chile." Don Jose Victorino Lastarria. "El Primer Gobierno Nacional." Don Manuel An- tonio Tocornal. "Historia General de la Independencia de Chile." Don Diego Barros Arana. "Primeras Campafias de la Guerra de la Indepen- dencia de Chile." Don Diego Jose Benavente. "La Reconquista Espafiola." Don Miguel Luis and Gregorio Victor Amunategui. "Chile desde la Batalla de Chacabuco hasta la del Maipo." Don Salvador Sanfuentes. 329 S30 BIBLIOGRAPHY "La Guerra a Muerte." Don Benjamin Vicuna-Mac- kenna. "Primer Escuadra Nacional." Don Antonio Garcia Reyes. "Sucesos Ocurridos desde la Caida de Don Bernardo O'Higgins hasta la Promulgacion de la Constitu- cion de 1823." Don Domingo Santa-Maria. "Las Campanas de Chiloe." Don Diego Barros Arana. "Chile durante los Anos de 1824 a 1828." Don Mel- chor Concha i Toro." "La Dictadura de O'Higgins." Don Miguel Luis Amunategui. "El Ostracismo de O'Higgins." Don Benjamin Vi- cuna-Mackenna. "The Autobiography of a Seaman." 2 Vols. The Earl of Dundonald. "The Life of Thomas, Lord Cochrane, Tenth Earl of Dundonald." 2 Vols. Thomas, Eleventh Earl of Dundonald, and H. R. Fox-Bourne. "Twenty Years in South America." S Vols. W. B. Stevenson, Private Secretary to Lord Cochrane. # THI 14 DAY USE RETURN TO DESK FROM WHICH BORROWED LOAN DEPT. This book is due on the last date stamped below, or on the date to which renewed. Renewed books are subject to immediate recall. TOI, RECEIVED 1.0 LD 21A-50m-9,'58 (6889slO)476B General Library University of California Berkeley T.B 3* UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY .