APPENDIX. 4] 5 



fantry and dragoons to the Positos, and from thence sent an advanced guard 

 of 48 dragoons to Jocoli, a small village eight leagues distant from Mendoza. 

 This guard was surprised and attacked by Caxaravillo, the celebrated Porteno, 

 with 200 cavalry and 400 infantry. The guard charged, and routed the 200 

 cavalry with considerable loss to the enemy ; and, on their return from the 

 pursuit, had the audacity to attack the infantry, in which more than three- 

 fourths of the guard perished : a remnant, however, returned to Corro. This 

 victory of GOO men over 48, was not owing to their courage, or to the courage 

 or dispositions of Caxaravillo, but to their impossibility of running away ; for 

 if the infantry could have followed the example of their cavalry, they certainly 

 would have done so : if they could have run, they would never have stood to 

 conquer. This dear-bought victory of the enemy was celebrated in Mendoza 

 with much pomp and ceremony. 



The officers and soldiers unanimously requested of Corro to lead them to 

 the town, as the defeat which the guard had suffered only seemed to establish 

 on firmer grounds the high opinion of their own superiority. But Corro saw 

 it in another light. He was a most consummate coward ; void of ideas, dis- 

 position, or any sense of honour or shame. He put his troops in retreat to 

 return to San Juan ; whilst the Mendocinos, informed of his timidity, pursued 

 him with 2000 men, causing him to redouble his marches : however, he 

 arrived without any loss in San Juan, where his soldiers expected he might 

 pluck up a little courage amongst the ladies, as he was a great gallant. On 

 the approach of the Mendocinos (who had the promise of co-operation from 

 a faction in the town) Corro inarched out, and was eagerly followed by his 

 soldiers, who expected he was going to give the enemy battle on the Legua 

 (a small plain outside San Juan) ; but their indignation was raised to the 

 highest, when they were ordered to leave the ground they had devoted to 

 the fortune of war, in order to retreat to La Arioja. The soldiers, seeing 

 that Corro was only determined to run (as his name foretold for him), denied 

 all further obedience to the coward, and dispersed to the different towns. 

 About 200 soldiers, natives of Salta, still followed him, as he was going to 

 that town. Mendizabal, governor of San Juan, was superseded by Don 

 Antonio Sanchez in the government, and carried to Mendoza, where he was 

 confined in a dungeon till after the death of Carrera, whose faithful friend he 

 was ; and at the time of our passing the cordillera, he also was sent to Chile 

 at the disposition of O'Higgins, who, either from a desire to be considered 

 magnanimous, or from real principles of humanity and justice, desisted from 



