INTRODUCTION. 33 
such good service by conveying intelligence along the coast were his, 
and he now, with incredible pains, had begun to form a little squadron, 
having been appointed captain of the port; persons were empowered 
to purchase two frigates in North America; and the agents of the 
patriots had. instructions to treat with officers in England, and to 
purchase vessels there. 
But the first object, unquestionably, was to regain the southern part 
of Chile; and accordingly in the month of May, 1817, i.e. two 
months after the action of Chacabuco, O’Higgins took the command 
of the army of the south, leaving the government in the hands of 
three commissioners, but some difficulties and disputes arising among 
them, Don Luis Cruz * was appointed deputy-director. It was not 
long before great part of the province and the town of Conception 
were reduced ; but in the beginning of 1818 a strong reinforcement 
arrived at Talcahuana from Lima, commanded by Osorio, who im- 
mediately marched towards Santiago with 5000 men. He was met 
by San Martin at the head of the patriot troops, over whom, on the 
19th of March, at a place called Cancharayada, near Requelme, he 
gained a complete victory, dispersing the Chilenos and wounding 
O’ Higgins, who returned immediately to the capital, where all was 
alarm, and many women and children went out and crossed the 
mountains to Mendoza, as after the battle of Rancagua. | But the 
director exerted himself to repair the evil: money, clothes, and pro- 
visions, were instantly dispatched to the army. Many families gave 
their plate to be coined; the foreign merchants contributed their 
goods, their money, and their credit, so that by the fifth of April, 
the Chileno army under generals San Martin and Belcarce, and 
colonels Jas Heras, Freire, and others, again interrupted Osorio on 
his way to Santiago. At one day’s march from that city, the battle 
of Maypu was fought, on the plain to the south, called the Espejo, 
and never was action more decisive. Of Osorio’s army 2000 were 
* Afterwards Governor of Callao. 
+ On this occasion all the public papers, orders, documents, accounts, &c. were burnt, 
that private families might not be subjected to Osorio’s revenge. 
F 
