he) INTRODUCTION. 
been chiefly employed in carrying intelligence along the coast, and 
keeping up a correspondence with the patriots of Peru. 
Osorio’s government lasted two years, during which time the 
Carreras, with their sister, Donna Xaviera, and their wives, had been 
occasionally residents in Montevideo, Buenos Ayres, &c. Jose 
Miguel had gone to North America to endeavour to raise supplies 
and procure ships, O’ Higgins served in the patriot army of Buenos 
Ayres, and Mackenna was killed in a duel by Luis Carrera. 
But it was not the mere possession of the government by a Spanish 
general that could again reduce Chile under the Spanish yoke. 
Besides the wish for independence, and for deliverance from their 
double thraldom, (for such it was, being bound both to the king of 
Spain and the vice-king at Lima), many individuals had risen to a 
consequence they had scarcely hoped to attain, and which, having 
attained, they were not likely to part with. ‘“ From shopkeepers 
and tradesmen, and attornies, they had become statesmen and 
legislators ;” and as all men desire to possess influence and conse- 
quence, at least in their own country, this motive once felt, there 
was no reasonable hope of easily overcoming it. The reign of Osorio, 
or of Marco, his deputy, in Santiago, therefore, was not very tranquil ; 
and as the wretched state of Spain prevented her from succouring 
her generals in the colonies, he was but ill prepared for the events 
of the early part of 1817, which lost Chile for ever to the crown of 
Spain. The state of the country itself was deplorable. The effects 
of civil war are at all times shocking to humanity. This had been 
both a civil war and a foreign one. Natives of the country had fought 
on either side, and foreign soldiers and generals were engaged ; 
hence there were the petty and private hatred and malice of the 
first, and the want of sympathy with the sufferers of the last. Many 
of the dismissed soldiers had formed bands of thieves and murderers, 
and infested the thickets every where to be found between Santiago 
and Conception; nor was the road to Valparaiso exempt from the 
same. The regiments of Chillan and Talavera were employed in 
detachments which took it in turn to scour the country, and, if pos- 
