INTRODUCTION. 31 
of Terra Firma, and had taken refuge in Jamaica, the Buenos Ayrians 
had just suffered a signal defeat at Tucuman ; and had Marco’s troops 
gained the victory, the communication between the royalist armies 
would have been open, and the most mischievous consequences must 
have ensued. 
General O’ Higgins happened early on the morning of the twelfth 
to be looking over the plain from the summit of a rock, he perceived, 
and pretty justly estimated the number of the enemy at 3000.* San 
Martin was determined not to think them so numerous; but O’Hig- 
gins, certain of what he saw, persuaded Soler to join in his represent- 
ation, and then begged permission, though his was not the division 
appointed to attack, to meet the enemy in a certain favorable situation : 
several refusals could not make him yield the point, and at length he 
rather extorted permission than gained assent, and made the attack at 
three o’clock in the afternoon. The patriots were once so hardly beset, 
being but the handful of O’Higgins’s own division, that they sent for 
assistance, but did not wait for it, and before help arrived it was un- 
necessary. O’Higgins charged and broke the first line: every one 
fled, and the patriots remained masters, not of the field only, but f 
the baggage, ammunition, &c.; and the royalists fell back in every 
direction, under their leaders Maroto and Eloriaga. 
When the loss of the battle was known in Santiago, the confusion 
was beyond description ; every one escaped as he could, loaded with 
what he could carry, and the chief among the first. Some made 
their way by the Cuesta de Prado, others by the defiles of the Espejo, 
and some by the road of Melipilla: all crowded towards the sea. 
On the evening of the 13th, the confusion was transferred to Val- 
paraiso, where, when some officers of rank arrived, they could scarcely 
find room in the crowded vessels. The magistrates had all embarked ; 
* 1000 horse, 1100 foot, 360 hussars, and artillery men for their four field-pieces, be- 
sides servants, &c. 
The greater part of this account of the battle of Chacabuco is from an interesting 
paper written by an old Spaniard, called “ Relacion de los acontecimientos de la per- 
dida del reyno de Chile ;” the rest from the verbal account of the director Don B. 
O’ Higgins. 
