320 EVENTS SUCCEEDING THE ELECTION. 



among those ordered to seek air without the pestilential political atmosphere at the capital, the 

 papers on one occasion making merry over their hanishment from the charming saloons of San- 

 tiago at so unfashionable a period. One more resolute than the rest appealed to the Peruvian 

 Charge" d' Affaires for asylum a courtesy not often denied by diplomatists to mere political 

 offenders of the ruder sex ; hut in the present case, extended as it was to one of the most 

 distinguished women of Santiago, the hospitality must have afforded great pleasure to Senor 

 Pardo. It was very generally known that the ability and wealth of this lady gave her power- 

 ful influence ; and as her brother was one of the leaders of the revolutionists at Coquimbo, the 

 hours necessarily passed over accounts and other business matters of the extensive estate to 

 which she is guardian, were readily believed to be occupied in treasonable correspondence. 

 Money sent to him (if any was sent) was regarded in the light of subsidy in the cause of 

 insurrection ; and, indeed, she had full credit for having sent $30,000 to excite an outbreak of 

 the mob at Valparaiso. No wonder, then, the ministers desired to destroy her power by banish- 

 ment ; nor that they should have accepted the voluntary services of the British Charge to mediate 

 for her expulsion from the house of Senor Pardo. But, to the honor of the latter, the inter- 

 meddling gentleman returned " with a flea in his ear;" and his employers were scarcely 

 prepared to violate the sanctity of her asylum. War against women because they had used 

 their only weapon, the tongue was a new order of things to us of Northern America ; and it 

 was somewhat spicily remarked, "If government will thrash the men, the women will soon be 

 silenced again by their babies." 



After a lingering imprisonment, most of those who had been arrested for participation in the 

 affair of 20th April were summarily tried by court-martial and condemned to death ; a punish- 

 ment commuted to banishment in every case, and carried into effect during the latter days of 

 the month. Thus, October terminated gloomily for the republic. There had been pronuncia- 

 mientos in every principal town of the northern provinces : in the bishopric of Coquimbo, the 

 clergy almost to a man had turned against government, the names of many appearing conspi- 

 cuously on the rebellious handbills ; from Chilian to the Indian frontier, the whole South was 

 hostile and in arms ; the wheat-fields were greatly neglected, and in some cases destroyed ; 

 cattle were consumed and wasted by armies and idle men ; mines and miners, from whose 

 products almost the entire foreign dues are paid, were yielding comparatively nothing ; in short, 

 the commercial and agricultural industry of the country was in a state of paralyzation, whilst 

 to support it in hostile condition extraordinary resources were indispensable. Not only this : 

 the elements of prosperity which had been taking root through twenty years of peace and order, 

 were now perishing in the atmosphere of blood and rapine, generated by civil war ; patriots 

 were fast becoming partisans who thought only of retaliation thirsted only for revenge ; the 

 common welfare and enviable position among nations of the world, attained after so many 

 struggles, were forgotton ; and the gulf of anarchy that yawned so threateningly beside the 

 altar of republicanism was wilfully overlooked. 



November passed with equally cheerless symptoms. The struggle was apparently as far from 

 conclusion as ever. The movements of General Bulnes not being so rapid as the impatience of 

 the government coveted, or as (at the distance of 200 leagues) its ministers considered expedient, 

 and his opponent showing no disposition to leave the encampment at Chilian, peremptory orders 

 were sent the General to cross the Nuble and assume the offensive with the least practicable 

 delay. Four leagues from San Carlos, and two from Chilian, where the main road from these 

 towns passes it, the width of the river may be near a quarter of a mile, and its depth, in holes, 

 sufficient to swim a horse. For more than forty miles above the road, its direction is from E. 

 by N., and thence to its source in the great Cordilleras is E.S.E. The Cato, a tributary also 

 originating in the Andes, joins it near the road, and sometimes adds greatly to its volume. 

 Horsemen sometimes cross at a ford called Nahuel-toro, five or six leagues up the stream, though 

 travellers ordinarily make use of the ferry-boats and balsas on the main line of road. In 

 accordance with instructions, Bulnes made a feint of crossing at the ford on the 14th. Planting 



