APPENDIX. 415 
fantry and dragoons to the Positos, and from thence sent an advanced guard 
of 48 dragoons to Jocoli, a small village eight leagues distant from Mendoza. 
This guard was surprised and attacked by Caxaravillo, the celebrated Portefio, 
with 200 cavalry and 400 infantry. ‘The guard charged, and routed the 200 
cavalry with considerable. loss to the enemy; and, on their return from the 
pursuit, had the audacity to attack the infantry, in which more than three- 
fourths of the guard perished: a remnant, however, returned to Corro. This 
victory of 600 men over 48, was not owing to their courage, or to the courage 
or dispositions of Caxaravillo, but to their impossibility of running away ; for 
if the infantry could have followed the example of their cavalry, they certainly 
would have done so: if they could have run, they would never have stood to 
conquer. ‘This dear-bought victory of the enemy was celebrated in Mendoza 
with much pomp and ceremony. 
‘ The officers and soldiers unanimously requested of Corro to lead them to 
the town, as the defeat which the guard had suffered only seemed to establish 
on firmer grounds the high opinion of their own superiority. But Corro saw 
it in another light. He was a most consummate coward; void of ideas, dis. 
position, or any sense of honour or shame. He put his troops in retreat to 
return to San Juan ; whilst the Mendocinos, informed of his timidity, pursued 
him with 2000 men, causing him to redouble his marches: however, he 
arrived without any loss in San Juan, where his soldiers expected he might 
pluck up a little courage amongst the ladies, as he was a great gallant. On 
the approach of the Mendocinos (who had the promise of co-operation from 
a faction in the town) Corro marched out, and was eagerly followed by his 
soldiers, who expected he was going to give the enemy battle on the Legua 
(a small plain outside San Juan) ; but their indignation was raised to the 
highest, when they were ordered to leave the ground they had devoted to 
the fortune of war, in order to retreat to La Arioja. The soldiers, seeing 
that Corro was only determined to run (as his name foretold for him), denied 
all further obedience to the coward, and dispersed to the different towns. 
About 200 soldiers, natives of Salta, still followed him, as he was going to 
that town. Mendizabal, governor of San Juan, was superseded by Don 
Antonio Sanchez in the government, and carried to Mendoza, where he was 
confined in a dungeon till after the death of Carrera, whose faithful friend he: 
was; and at the time of our passing the cordillera, he also was sent to Chile 
at the disposition of O’ Higgins, who, either from a desire to be considered 
magnanimous, or from real principles of humanity and justice, desisted from 
