APPENDIX. 459 



mies the idea that our march would he in that direction, and thereby distract 

 their attention ; but the enemy received correct information from our guides, 

 and made the necessary preparations to meet us. 



On the 21st of August, 1821, we marched from San Luis towards San Juan. 

 Ximenes, who acted as governor of San Luis, accompanied us with eighty 

 Puntanos; the greater part of whom deserted when we approached the 

 enemy. 



Our horses were miserably reduced in our encampments at San Luis, as 

 there was no grass but what was artificially produced, and it had been de- 

 stroyed by the enemy's horses previous to our arrival. On our march to 

 San Juan we too late discovered the country to be an uninhabited and sandy 

 desert, scarce of water, and producing no kind of vegetation, except some 

 copses of stunted brushwood ; the decayed branches of which were the only 

 food of our horses in the march of eighty leagues. The guides every day 

 promised that the next we might expect to meet pasture for the horses ; and 

 so brought us on insensibly, till at length we had advanced too far to think 

 of receding. A division of the enemy had occupied San Luis a few days 

 after we evacuated it ; and if we retreated, the enemy would have an oppor- 

 tunity of uniting their forces. 



We had an expectation of receiving horses in San Juan ; on the realisation 

 of which depended all our hopes. We still continued to advance ; and on 

 the 29th of August we met a strong detachment of the enemy on the banks 

 of the river of San Juan prepared to dispute the passage. The river was 

 wide, deep, and difficult to ford : the pass was, however, carried with little 

 loss, and the enemy dispersed. We continued our march towards San Juan, 

 the principal force of which was encamped in the Ligua, a plain some dis- 

 tance from the town ; and we encamped close to them that night, and ex- 

 pected to attack them in the morning. 



In our division there were not twenty horses fit for service ; and by a 

 prisoner who had been taken that day, the General was informed that in 

 Guanacacho (about eight leagues distant, on the road to Mendoza), there 

 were horses ; and also, that the Mendocinos were in march, and hourly ex- 

 pected to join the San-Juaninos. This intelligence made Carrera alter his 

 plan of attacking the San-Juaninos at day-break ; instead of which we marched 

 towards Guanacacho, in order to possess ourselves of the horses which were 

 there, and intercept the Mendocinos in their march before they should form 

 a junction with the force of San Juan. 



Sn 2 



