34 INTRODUCTION. 
left dead on the field, 2500 were made prisoners, besides 190 officers ; 
the artillery, medical establishment, and military chest, all fell into 
the hands of the Chilenos; but Osorio, with 200 horse, escaped. 
This victory was justly hailed as the greatest and most complete, 
as well as the most important in its consequences, that had been 
gained during the long course of the revolutionary war. It was, 
indeed, the last effort the Spaniards made for the recovery of Chile, 
though Talcahuana, Valdivia, and Chiloe, still held out against the 
patriots, and it allowed the Chilenos to carry the war out of their 
own territory, an advantage still more important. 
But, while the public papers and public proclamations hailed gene- 
ral San Martin as the hero of Chacabuco and Maipu, those engaged 
in these battles, and who, consequently, were eye-witnesses of his 
conduct, ventured to doubt his personal bravery. At Chacabuco he 
was scarcely within sight of the action. At Maipu-general Belcarce, 
colonels Las Heras and Freire and some others had fixed the atten- 
tion of their fellow-soldiers, and it was not till he appeared leading the 
victorious troops after the action, that they remembered San Martin. 
However, pyramids, and medals, and ribbons, were decreed, and the 
general joy was too great to admit of very nice inquiries. 
The forces on either side were not numerous ; Osorio’s, as we 
have seen, amounted to little more than 5000 men: but they were 
principally of trained and disciplined troops; while the Chileno 
army chiefly consisted of raw recruits and the country militia, armed 
only with Indian lances; the numbers were 4500 foot, and 2500 
horse, with twenty pieces of artillery. 
After the relation of such a victory, it is painful to advert to the 
tragical event which took place nearly at the same period at Men- 
doza. ‘The attempt of the Carreras to seize on that town, on their 
retreat from Chile in 1814, had neither been forgotten nor forgiven 
by San Martin, who then governed it; and the restless and ambi- 
tious spirit of Jose Miguel, had involved his brothers too deeply in 
his projects, to render it safe for them to cross the path of their 
enemy. Nevertheless, Juan Jose, and Luis, after many various ad- 
