EVENTS SUCCEEDING TUB ELECTION. 333 



self thwarted on every hand ; even successes themselves inexplicably reversed, and victories re- 



pn-M-!itr<l as n.iits. 



" I fin-ward to you a copy of the treaty ; and having been endowed with authority to nego- 

 tiate it, I hope you will accept and cause its execution, if not as a benefit obtained, at least as 

 a iirrrs.sity to wliirli we have been dragged. God preserve you." 



This closed the war in the south. The steamer Cazador was sent with news of the fact to 

 ( '<>) ii i mho, together with a letter from General Cruz to the leaders there. Seeing the hopeless- 

 ness of attempting to contend against government with their small force and resources, now 

 that its attention was no longer occupied by their chief co-laborer, the Coquimbanos made every 

 effort to secure the most favorable terms of capitulation. Arteaga and Carrera, it will be re- 

 membered, having been criminated in the revolts of April, were beyond the pale of the treaty 

 concluded at Purapel ; and both, no doubt, earnestly contended for such stipulations as would 

 permit them to return to their families at Santiago. Arteaga, indeed, for participation in the 

 April revolt, was under sentence of death by court-martial ; but the commander of the minis- 

 terial forces could not or would not make exceptions in their favor, and the besieged troops, un- 

 \villing to surrender on any terms, or to believe the account of General Cruz's defeat, mutinied 

 against the leaders, chaffering only for themselves, drove them from Serena, and then marched 

 out, taking the direction of Huasco. Arteaga found refuge on board a French vessel in the 

 harbor ; Carrera escaped to the Andes ; Coquimbo was taken possession of by the besiegers ; 

 a part of the retiring troops fell in a conflict with a detachment sent after them, and the re- 

 mainder pursued their journey to the north, where their compatriots had successfully raised 

 the revolutionary banner.* 



Copiapo, the city of almost improvised wealth, at midnight of December 26, had been seized 

 by less than one hundred resolute men, around whom a thousand others rallied within three 

 days, though the majority of them were more accustomed to the use of crowbars and hammers 

 than muskets. So sudden and unexpected had been the attack, that the Intendente had barely 

 time to strike one hurried blow and retreat to the interior ; not, however, until two gallant 

 young men who had flown to his assistance, and several soldiers, had fallen near him mortally 

 wounded. The leader of the revolutionists was at once installed as Intendente, his followers 

 believing that Cruz had been fully triumphant in the south, and that like success had attended 

 the Coquimbanos. Perceiving himself single-handed in the war, when news of the treaty of 

 Purapel was received by the steamer, four days afterwards, the Intendente, as a sensible man 

 should have been, was desirous to repair his error at the earliest moment, and he would gladly 

 have accepted any reasonable terms. He had sought revolution at a time when his party was 

 believed to be in the ascendant throughout the land, as the redress for grievances inflicted by 

 government ; and even his opponents have made public acknowledgment that his brief executive 

 career was marked by ability, energy, and determination, quite equal to the emergency. Such 

 order and decorum had never been observed in Copiapo as during these few days. 



But the wizard who had called up the whirlwind was not able to control it. Whilst the 

 mass submitted without a murmur when individuals of their own set, detected in robbery, were 

 publicly shot by his order, it was only because they were biding the time when siege and 

 assault, certain to ensue, would license pillage and rapine. Therefore, when troops arrived 

 from Valparaiso and Coquimbo to aid the displaced Intendente, they positively refused to be 

 surrendered. Several days were spent in preparations to march from the city, the government 

 leader meanwhile collecting the dispersed troops of the vicinity, and entrenching himself near 

 Linderos, about a dozen miles from Copiapo, on the line of the railroad. An action took place 

 on the 8th of January. Where the leader on one side was unwilling to fight, and his men, though 

 superior in numbers, were immeasurably inferior in the use of arms, and on the other not only 

 every man was a well-found veteran, but a veteran smarting under the mortification that a 



* At Petorca, a wbite (lag with a red cross. This was indicative of their principles, and, at tin- same thin-, n.mplimentary 

 to their chief, Cruz (Cross.) I do not know whether it WHS afterwards displii\<-tl. 



