INTKODUCTION. 27 



powder mills ; all the public papers and acts of the new government 

 were burned ; and, taking with him the remains of the public money, 

 he beo-an a disorderly retreat towards Mendoza on the first of October, 

 1814, and Osorio entered the city on the fifth of the same month, 

 and, re-establishing the chamber of royal audience, appointed himself 

 captain-general, and exercised his functions by punishing with se- 

 verity the most distinguished patriots, many of whom were exiled to 

 Juan Fernandez. 



Mean time, some of those who had been most inimical to the royal 

 cause sought safety in flight, and accompanied the 600 troops who 

 followed Carrera across the Andes. The season was particularly 

 backward ; the snows had not yet melted ; and of the 2000 persons 

 who left the city, many, especially among the women and children, 

 perished from cold and hunger in the Cumbre. It was too early for 

 horses or any beast of burden to travel : so that these wretched 

 fugitives performed the long and painful journey on foot, laden with 

 the necessary provisions for the passage. 



On their arrival at Mendoza, the Carreras instantly claimed a right 

 to the government of the town ; a claim evidently inconsistent with 

 their fugitive situation, and which San Martin*, who then governed 

 that town under the junta of Buenos Ayres, certainly would not 

 attend to, but which had the effect of beginning that rooted dislike 

 to them which at length brought about the death of the three brothers. 



Such were the events of the first revolution in Chile, in which 

 much was done, because the old systems had been broken up, and 

 the people had learned in some measure to know their power : they 

 also had learned, that unless they turned their attention to the marine, 

 and formed a naval force, they could never be safe from the invasion 

 of troops from Lima, or even from Spain. Hitherto they had pos- 

 sessed only two or three miserable gun-boats and launches, which had 



• I have never been able to ascertain exactly either the place of his birth or his true 

 parentage. He was in Spain attuched to the military police, and is a very different person 

 from the brave general San Martin, for whom many persons have mistaken him. 



E 2 



