312 EVENTS SUCCEEDING THE ELECTION. 



When it is recollected how little power is given him by the Constitution, how much it grants 

 the Council of State under the authority to declare martial law at will, and how representatives 

 elsewhere regard what is due to their constituents, it is remarkable that only three deputies 

 should have been found to oppose making him absolute Dictator. The law passed is in the 

 following (translated) terms : 



" The President of the republic during a period of one year is authorized to cause the arrest 

 and removal of persons from one part of the republic to another ; to fix the residence of any 

 individual, and change it if he so considers necessary ; to augment the standing army to such 

 numbers as circumstances may require ; to expend public funds without previously submitting 

 estimates ; and to displace public officers without the formalities prescribed in section 10 of the 

 82d article of the Constitution." 



Towards morning the Chacabucos arrived at the ridge of that name, memorable as the scene 

 of the first victory of the patriots under General San Martin over the Spanish forces. Instead 

 of meeting welcoming friends from San Felipe, they were greeted by a summons to surrender 

 from the confidential officer, who had succeeded in his mission and returned here with quite a 

 force to back him. At the same moment, the pursuing troops from the capital were so close in the 

 rear, that their bugles could be heard quite plainly. Traitors are cowards ; and in this pre- 

 dicament the insurgent leader made his escape under the cover of darkness, when the Serjeants, 

 instigated by an ensign, without a blow arrested and delivered all the other officers to the 

 government troops. A few hours later the leader also was captured ; J&nd before daylight of 

 the 16th he was lodged in prison at the capital, the greater part of his troops for the moment 

 dispersing. As this leader had been a known spy of the government, who was seen to issue 

 from the President's quarters near midnight of the apparent revolt, many believed it only a 

 feint to draw opposition leaders into acts which would authorize their arrest, and thus the new 

 administration would come in with all the malcontents under lock and key. 



But the news of this result so gratifying to the mass of peaceable citizens was not 

 unalloyed. The revolutionary government at Coquimbo was hourly becoming stronger. 

 It had above 2,000 men under arms ; and had taken possession of a small steamer, on board 

 which it shipped quite a large amount of treasure to the confederates at Concepcion, from 

 which province not a word of information reached government until the middle of the 

 festivities. When it did come, the news was much of the same character as that from 

 Coquimbo, with the additional fact that the insurgents had appointed rulers pro tempore 

 until answers should be received from Generals Cruz and Viel, to whom respectively they 

 had tendered civil and military authority. They had obtained possession of all the arms, had 

 seized a small steamer with money sent by government to pay troops, and had begun to drill 

 men whose constant skirmishes with Indians on the frontier made adept pupils. They were 

 overjoyed by the intelligence which the Coquimbo steamer brought them ; and as General Cruz 

 accepted the revolution, his name was all-powerful to raise both soldiers and money. 



Meantime, it having been established to the satisfaction of the parties interested that the 

 steamer Firefly had been forcibly taken from the port of Coquimbo, the British vice-admiral 

 of the station declared that bay under blockade until restitution should be made, and the owners 

 indemnified for damages. To this end, the war steamer Gorgon was sent to cruise in the 

 mouth of the harbor. This was a deliberate interference in a domestic quarrel a fact which the 

 representatives of Chile and Great Britain knew well enough. But the officers of the former 

 were in need of all the support attainable from every quarter ; and if they did not directly 

 solicit, as there is reason to infer, the following official notes show that they at least assented 

 to the interference : 



VALPARAISO, September 24, 1851. 

 SIR : The verbal communications which I had the honor to hold with his Excellency the 



