EVENTS SUCCEEDING THE ELECTION. 321 



ft formidable battery, with suitable cavalry protection, to command the opposite gide, the main 

 body kept away from the river until ready to cross at Nalnndtoro, reaching the hoiith shore 

 without iiiulcstatii.il. At a later peri.. d. the artillery and dragoons met with like fortune'. It was 

 supposed that tin- passage of the Nuble would have been disputed, and that the IOJ>H to the gov- 

 ernment army would inevitably be considerable. Such docH not appear to have been the policy 

 of (MMieral Ou/. Hi' had consumed all the pn. visions an. I forage around ( 'liillan : h,- i, ;i ,| IP. 

 doubt .,!' its loyalty, should he desire to repossess liimsell' of it ; and bin infantry and artillery 

 wen- inferior to those of his opponent ; yet, whilst he sent a few parks and three or four cavalry 

 squadrons to reciprocate the compliment on the river bank, his army moved quietly to Lo 

 Guindos, an estate five or six miles E.S.E. from Chilian, better capable of fortification, and 

 a Hording ampler room for mameiivrm^ superior cavalry. 



Three weeks previously, Zuniga (a half-breed) had been despatched by General Bulnes with 

 a squadron of horse, to raise a force of forest warriors among the Araucanians, for the purpose 

 of attacking General Cruz in the rear. Zuniga held from government a commission as a Capitan 

 de Indios, whose duties are to cultivate the good will of the more than semi-savage race still 

 unsubdued within the republic. Of necessity these appointments are given only to men trusted 

 by the administration. He was accompanied by a brother and two sons. Partially participating 

 in their blood, living among them, and their friend on every occasion, it was supposed he would 

 have a powerful influence. His presence with a horde of untamed Indians in the rear as enemies, 

 could accomplish more towards intimidating the army of Cruz than a greater number of far 

 better armed men. Therefore the Intendente of Concepcion started to intercept him, with such 

 troops as could be spared from the small garrison and as were otherwise hastily collected ; but 

 from the results it would appear this had been unnecessary. Cherishing bitter hostility to all 

 the associates of Bulnes, on account of former wrongs, the Araucanians massacred Zuniga and all 

 his associates, as soon as they set foot within their territory, and nearly 2,000 warriors then pro- 

 ceeded under Catrileo, one of their chiefs, to join the revolutionists. Exclusive of these, the army 

 of Cruz numbered at this time 4,650 men, one third of whom were cavalry; and a letter from 

 him to an intimate friend at Santiago states that they were both better men and better disciplined 

 than those of the government. There was a tone of confidence through the whole letter that 

 could not fail to inspire a similar feeling among his partisans at the capital, by whom authentic 

 intelligence was rarely attainable, and who, in consequence, had begun to despond. From day to 

 day, and every day, news was transmitted from house to house with a rapidity which only San- 

 tiago knows ; but to those who reflected, it too generally bore on its face evidences of home adul- 

 teration, if not of actual domestic manufacture. Both sides wilfully perverted the truth. Even 

 government officials, with no other object than to dishearten adversaries, consented to the pub- 

 lication of reports knowing them to be false. And as connected with the intelligence it was 

 necessary to send by the steamer that took the mail for the United States and England, there 

 will presently be occasion to mention this practice more particularly. For the purpose of effect- 

 ing similar results, recruits were collected as rapidly as possible, and within a few days 

 of the departure of the steamer several bodies of them, numbering from 100 to 300 each, were 

 marched to Talca, for the formation of an army of reserve in case General Bulnes should be 

 compelled to fall back. A part of these were mere boys, certainly not exceeding sixteen years 

 of age, conveyed from the city by night, and in carts, under escort of a squadron of lancers. 

 Arriving near the Cachapual, they mutinied and dispersed as suited the will of each, the escort 

 having no power to prevent them. But information of the revolt, and of another that took place 

 at Talca about the same time, fortunately arrived too late for the steamer ; else the state of the 

 country must have been seen in its true colors. 



To return to the principal actors in the domestic tragedy. The army of Cruz, being covered 



on one side by a callcjon (lane) protected by a fosse (so says the government paper), and on 



the other by a palisade, in order to attack him in the rear Bulnes put his troops in motion at 



dusk of the 18th, passed along the left flank, and took up a position on the heights of Urra 



41 



