INTRODUCTION. 95 
head of a small but determined army, and had fought his way across 
the continent of South America, making alliances with the Indians 
and keeping up a correspondence with Benevidies by their means 
as well as with numerous discontented persons in Chile. Benevidies 
had met with various success, but upon the whole had lost ground. 
The patriot commanders, of whom Freiré was certainly the most 
distinguished, had gradually closed in upon him, and. though he 
had incited the Indians to commit great ravages, and to burn the 
farms and carry off the produce of the southern provinces, he re- 
ceived no such aid from them as could prevent his final destruction, 
unless he received assistance from abroad, which the superiority of 
the Chileno squadron rendered almost hopeless. 
On the 31st of August, Carrera’s army, reduced by its very victories, 
and now consisting only of 500 soldiers, but embarrassed with a 
number of women and other followers, was completely routed. 
Carrera himself, his second in command Don Jose Maria Benevente, 
with twenty-three other officers, were taken at the Punta del Medano, 
and. carried to Mendoza, where he and several of his principal officers 
were shot in the public market-place, by, in my opinion, a piece of 
the most unjustifiable cruelty and false policy. I refer to Mr. Yates’s 
paper in the Appendix for the reason of Benevente’s safety, and the 
particulars of the death of Jose Miguel ; the gazettes in which these 
things were announced to the public, breathe a fierce and atrocious 
spirit of revenge, disgraceful to the leaders of the nation and to the age. 
Don Jose Miguel Carrera was only 35 years of age. His person 
was remarkably handsome, and his countenance beautiful and pre- 
possessing. I have heard that his eyes seemed even to possess a power 
of fascination over those he addressed. Among all who have arisen 
to notice in the struggle for South American independence, he was 
undoubtedly the most amiable, his genius was versatile, his ima- 
gination lively, and his powers great, where he chose to apply 
them. I have heard that while at Montevideo, he wished to print 
some papers for distribution, and not having the means to do so, 
he shut himself up for weeks, and actually constructed a press, and 
