INTRODUCTION. che, 
Carrera, the speaker or secretary of the junta. The president was 
allowed a casting vote. 
The first act of the junta was to levy an army, if we may call two 
small bodies of raw recruits by that name. The first of infantry was 
intrusted to Jose Santiago Luco, the agent for the junta of Old Spain, 
and, under him, to Don Juan Jose Carrera, the second son of Don 
Ignacio, and the other, a mounted troop, was placed under Torre, 
the son of the president. The next object to which the junta directed 
its attention was the assembling a national congress, to consist of 
members from every township in Chile, and while means were taking 
for carrying this desirable measure into effect, the Marquis de la 
Conquista died in the month of November, and the more active 
Rosas was elected president in his stead. It was not until the 11th 
of April of the following year (1811), that the people of the different 
towns met to elect their representatives, and on that occasion the first 
blood was shed on account of the Revolution. The immediate cause 
of this was as follows :—The royal party of Buenos Ayres had request- 
ed assistance from Chile, and accordingly 400 men had been detached 
from the army of the southern frontier under Don Tomas Figaroa by 
sea, from Talca to Valparaiso, whence they were proceeding by land to 
cross the Andes by the road of the Cumbre to Mendoza. They had 
already reached Casablanca on their way, when the fifty dragoons of the 
capital, alarmed at the electorial meetings, sent to Figaroa, entreating 
him to hasten his march, and to take under his command, not only 
their troop, but the recruits which were in training for the patriot 
army, whom they engaged to secure. [Jigaroa, leaving his 400 
men to follow, pushed on to Santiago, and putting himself at the 
head of the dragoons, who had performed their promise of securing 
the recruits, whom they forced sword in hand to join them, went into 
the placa with the imprudent determination of dispersing the people 
assembled for the purpose of electing their representatives. They 
were not, however, to be deterred from their purpose, and turning 
on the royalists, completely discomfited them and forced them to 
retreat, leaving about forty persons of both sides deadin the square. 
D 
