EVENTS SUCCEEDING TUB ELECTION. 331 



luting plain, limited <>n the west l.\ tin- river Loncorailla, whose stream, scarcely more than a 

 mile distant from the house of Urzua, is bounded by steep and pn < 'ij.it oiw banks, and at that 

 season is too r. i pid and deep to be forded without (lunger. Cruz had lost an<l left behind to 

 guard therein nearly a thousand men, including all the Indians except sixty, so that his effective 

 army numbered al><>ut 3,500 men. Fifteen hundred of the army of reserve from Talca increased 

 the force of r.ulnes to 4,500. These were formed in two parallel lines, with the cavalry on the 

 right, and he marched in pursuit of his adversary on the morning of the 8th. Cruz was pre- 

 pared to receive him, and the cavalry on both sides were soon engaged. In the first charge, that 

 of Bulnes drove their enemies before them, pursuing them closely. Many were cut down with 

 sabres and lances, others were crushed in their full over the cliffs, and large numbers were 

 drowned in attempting to cross the Loncomilla, on whose flood a mass of men and horses were 

 soon seen floating. However, this success was only temporary. Penned as they were like rats 

 in a corner, the pursued rallied, and in turn drove their opponents: a part fled through Talca 

 with tidings of their defeat, and another part were overwhelmed by the waters of the Maule. 

 The result of the cavalry contest was the almost total loss of this arm to both armies. 



Whilst this was going on, the infantry and artillery engagement began ; the Chacabuco 

 and Chilian regiments belonging to Bulnes being deployed to make an attack on the rear of the 

 houses. After having made them change their uniform for the ordinary dress of civic troops, 

 Cruz had posted his Carampangue regiment here ; the Guia and Alcazar in front. The action 

 soon became general, and for five hours a more galling and deadly fire was scarcely ever known. 

 Cannon and muskets were then thrown aside : " hand to hand and steel to steel," knife and 

 bayonet, did the work. Countrymen who had bivouacked by the same camp-fire, who had guarded 

 the same post alternately, who had shared the same ration, who were born from the fame 

 womb aye ! father and son had met in mortal combat with a degree of ferocity belonging to 

 untamed forest tribes not to those who profess Christianity. Different corps became so inter- 

 mingled that officers knew not where to find their own men, and were cut off, captured, and 

 recaptured several times during the engagement. After seven hours, Bulnes gathered the hand- 

 ful of men about him, abandoned his wounded, several pieces of artillery, and much ammunition, 

 and returned to his camp at Bobadilla. Undoubtedly he was defeated, and nothing but the 

 want of cavalry prevented his army from falling prisoners to Cruz on the spot. As it was, the 

 field was literally covered with the dead and wounded, the floors of the houses of Urzua drowned 

 in the blood of near 600 victims, and both armies were appalled at the carnage in which they 

 had been participants. Of 8,000 men who filled the ranks in health and vigor at daylight on 

 the 8th, less than 3,000 capable of bearing arms could be found on the morning of the 9th, 

 when neither party was willing to renew the combat. Indeed, it was very generally believed 

 that they refused to do so at a later hour of the day. 



Considering himself the victor, an envoy was sent by Cruz on the morning of the 10th offer- 

 ing terms to his adversary. In consequence, Senor Tocornal was empowered to arrange prelimi- 

 naries ; but after several hours' discussion, nothing could be agreed on, and he returned to the 

 head-quarters of Bulnes. Other overtures on the following day met with a like result. Mean- 

 while the government had not been idle with emissaries of another character, armed perhaps with 

 more subtle weapons arms that never fail to assure victory in Spanish-American revolutions. 

 Fifty thousand dollars, it was said, had been offered a Colonel Zailartu for himself and the 

 famous Carampangue battalion, if they would abandon General Cruz; and the temptation 

 proved irresistible. Principles were but words, golden ounces were/acte; and though some 

 few refused to transfer their allegiance, Cruz found his noblest regiment deserting him to an 

 alarming extent individuals joining the ranks of his rival companies taking up their line of 

 march for home. But there was also cause among them for discontent against himself. He 

 had kept them at the houses of Urzua for several days amid wounded and suffering compan- 

 ions, surrounded by multitudes of graves both depressing evidences of the conflict. Unfor- 

 tunately, there was the least possible provision for the maimed : and their lives of inactivity, 



