414 APPENDIX. 
rewards if they would declare war against us, which they promised to do; 
and the Cacique Nicolas (the ally of Buenos Ayres) came with his tribe to 
Pergamino, from whence he marched with 200 Portefiian soldiers to the vil- 
lage of Melingue, on the confines of Santa Fé. A detachment of ours which 
garrisoned the town was put to the sword, and all the females and children 
carried away by the Indians for slaves. The Cacique Nicolas promised to 
put at the disposition of Rodriguez '7000 Indians ; which force they considered 
would exterminate us without difficulty. 
Buenos Ayres, with her promised Indian allies, considered herself secure. 
Their miserable poets all rhymed of our inevitable destruction, and ridiculed 
in the most reproachful manner the political ideas of Carrera; whilst those 
whose abilities did not reach to verse were more mischievously employed, in 
order to cause a dissension between Carrera and Lopez, by an extensive dis- 
tribution of their pamphlets: in these pamphlets and papers, which were 
carefully thrown in our way, they made it appear that Lopez was but a mere 
cipher, subservient to all the measures of Carrera, without ideas, will, or 
opinion, of his own. The idea suggested in these papers did not deviate 
much from truth; but truth is not always pleasing. Lopez had self-love suf: 
ficient to make him feel the depth of his inferiority, which was now laid be- 
fore the public: however, he concealed as much as possible the envy that 
gnawed his ungenerous heart. 
The Portefios, rightly judging that their scheme might have had some effect 
on the uncultivated mind of Lopez, sent deputies to San Nicolas to. resume 
the negociation, relative to Lopez giving up Carrera and his officers to the 
Portefios. Bustos, governor of Cordova, seeing Carrera without force, and 
forgetting all his obligations, refused to deliver to him '700 Chilenos which 
existed in his army, and which were to be delivered whenever Carrera would 
demand them. He also sent deputies to San Nicolas, to co-operate with those 
of Buenos Ayres in our destruction, having previously had his government 
acknowledged as legal by Buenos Ayres. 
The regiment No. 1. in San Juan, which had been given to Carrera by 
Mendizabal, governor of that province, had been led by its colonel to attack 
Mendoza without any orders from Carrera, who had only directed that they 
should act on the defensive in San Juan in case of being attacked. Corro, 
who commanded that regiment, knew them to be as good soldiers as any in 
America, and put all his confidence in their courage, without consulting his 
own capacity for conducting such an enterprise. He marched with his in- 
