APPENDIX. 459 
mies the idea that our march would be in that direction, and thereby distract 
their attention ; but the enemy received correct information from our guides, 
and made the necessary preparations to meet us. 
On the 21st of August, 1821, we marched from San Luis towards San Juan. 
Ximenes, who acted as governor of San Luis, accompanied us with eighty 
Puntanos; the greater part of whom deserted when we approached _ the 
enemy. 
Our horses were miserably reduced in our encampments at San Luis, as 
there was no grass but what was artificially produced, and it had been de- 
stroyed by the enemy’s horses previous to our arrival. On our march to 
San Juan we too late discovered the country to be an uninhabited and sandy 
desert, scarce of water, and producing no kind of vegetation, except some 
copses of stunted brushwood ; the decayed branches of which were the only 
food of our horses in the march of eighty leagues. The guides every day 
promised that the next we might expect to meet pasture for the horses; and 
so brought us on insensibly, till at length we had advanced too far to think 
of receding. A division of the enemy had occupied San Luis a few days 
after we evacuated it; and if we retreated, the enemy would have an oppor- 
tunity of uniting their forces. 
We had an expectation of receiving horses in San Juan; on the realisation 
of which depended all our hopes. We still continued to advance ; and on 
the 29th of August we met a strong detachment of the enemy on the banks 
of the river of San Juan prepared to dispute the passage. The river was 
wide, deep, and difficult to ford: the pass was, however, carried with little 
loss, and the enemy dispersed. We continued our march towards San Juan, 
the principal force of which was encamped in the Ligua, a plain some dis- 
tance from the town; and we encamped close to them that night, and ex- 
pected to attack them in the morning. 
In our division there were not twenty horses fit for service; and by a 
prisoner who had been taken that day, the General was informed that in 
Guanacacho (about eight leagues distant, on the road to Mendoza), there 
were horses; and also, that the Mendocinos were in march, and hourly ex- 
pected to join the San-Juaninos. This intelligence made Carrera alter his 
plan of attacking the San-Juaninos at day-break ; instead of which we marched 
towards Guanacacho, in order to possess ourselves of the horses which were 
there, and intercept the Mendocinos in their march before they should form 
a junction with the force of San Juan. 
3Nn 2 
