72 



OFFICIAL ACCOUNT OF BENAVIDES. 



the conduct of the South Americans, that the 

 execution which has taken place to-day is in no 

 respect derogatory from that scrupulous attention 

 (delicadeza) which Chili has always paid to the 

 rights of all parties engaged in the war so vigor- 

 ously carried on by her against the pertinacious 

 interference of the Spanish usurpers. This outlaw, 

 who has just been executed, is Vicente Benavides, 

 son of Toribio, jailor in Quirihue, in the province 

 of Conception : he was a foot-soldier in the Patriot 

 army, and had attained the rank of Serjeant of 

 grenadiers at the time of our first revolution. He 

 then deserted to the enemy at Membrillar, and in 

 the memorable action at that place under General 

 Makenna was taken prisoner, and brought by the 

 corps de reserve along with the army, which 

 were marching on that side of the river Maule, 

 to be tried by a court-martial. Near the city of 

 Linares, he set fire to a store-house and fled, 

 taking advantage of the army making preparations 

 for a night attack. He continued in the employ- 

 ment of the tools (serviles) of Ferdinand, until 

 again taken prisoner on the glorious 5th of April 

 1818, on the plains of Maypo. He was kept as a 

 prisoner until he was sentenced, by a military 

 tribunal, to be shot as a deserter ; but having 

 survived the execution in the most extraordinary 

 maimer, he presented himself to the General of 

 the army, and offered his services to dissuade the 

 Indians and the other inhabitants, on the southern 

 bank of the river Biobio, from lending themselves 

 to the desperate and illegal war in which the 

 Spaniards wished to involve them. His offer was 

 accepted : passports were given him, and other 

 documents relative to his commission. Thus 

 accredited he proceeded to the town of Los An- 

 geles, and from thence to Nacimiento, where he 

 succeeded in persuading Don Juan Francisco 

 Sanchez, commander of the Spanish troops, that 

 he possessed ability to keep up the desolating 

 war, which had almost ceased on the southern 

 frontier of Chili. The commander accordingly 

 retired to Valdivia, leaving Benavides as com- 

 mander-in-chief of the whole frontier. He com- 

 menced his authority by a most scandalous action, 

 directly against the laws of war. He attacked an 

 officer of the name of Riveros, who commanded a 

 party in the fort of Santo Juana, and took him 

 prisoner, with fourteen soldiers who were saved 

 from the bloody attack. It was deemed proper 

 to propose to exchange for this officer the wife of 

 Benavides, then a prisoner in the city of Concep- 

 tion ; and for this purpose, Lieutenant Don Eugenio 

 Torres was sent with a flag of truce. Benavides 

 agreed to the proposition ; but his depraved dis- 

 position inspiring him with distrust, he detained 

 the flag of truce and the soldiers, and sent back 

 the officer Riveros alone. The officer of the ad- 

 vanced guard applied for Torres, who had borne 

 the flag of truce, stating, that Benavides' wife 

 had already been sent from the fort of San Pedro ; 

 nevertheless, with an excess of ferocity, unheard 

 of in this enlightened age, that very night he 

 ordered the officer's throat to be cut who had 

 brought the flag of truce, although he had actually 

 Bapped in his company- The fourteen soldiers, 

 who had been made prisoners, were also put to 

 death on that night. 



" His subsequent proceedings were marked by 

 a similar spirit ; even the instructions which he 



gave to the commanders of his guerrillas seemed 

 to be written with blood, for in them he consigns 

 to death ' every insurgent, whatever might be his 

 offence ;' — orders which were executed with an 

 exactness that characterises these vile instruments 

 of cruelty. These murderous agents were in the 

 habit of offering to the peaceable peasants the 

 terrible alternative of following them, or of being 

 put to death. They slaughtered children, women, 

 and old men, to prevent information being given 

 of the road they had taken, or of the mountain in 

 which they had hid themselves. In the month 

 of July 1820, when General Freire was passing 

 through the Hacienda of Totoral, on the banks of 

 the river Itata, a widow presented herself to him ; 

 her husband, she said, had been killed a few days 

 before, by the captain of a guerrilla party, for 

 having given information that the party had been 

 in his house. Actions similar to this were innu- 

 merable, and quite notorious in the districts of 

 Chilian and Rere. At a place called Cajon de 

 Palomares, a party of the enemy found an old 

 man of sixty years of age, his wife, his daughter, 

 and three nephews, all poor people, and, having 

 robbed them of all they had, finished by murdering 

 them ; their bodies were afterwards carried to the 

 burying-place of Conception in April 1821. 



" In this manner the contest was maintained 

 ever since the year 1819 — very much, it may be 

 observed, in the manner the war has been carried 

 on by the Spaniards themselves in all parts of 

 South America. 



" Several times the Intendant of Conception, 

 commander-in-chief of the army of the south, by 

 authority of government put the law of retaliation 

 in force ; but with characteristic moderation, and 

 with the sole view of repressing these violations 

 of the laws of war. At other times this conduct 

 was changed, and offers of pardon, approved by 

 his Excellency the Supreme Director of the Re- 

 public, were made to those who should give them- 

 selves up ; and these promises were held sacred 

 even with the most atrocious. The commanders 

 and officers of the Chilian army were restrained 

 from exercising the just resentment inspired by 

 thefall of their companions, so inhumanly murdered ; 

 but nothing could mitigate the insane fury of this 

 monster Benavides, and his iniquitous associates. 

 He took prisoner in an action, on the 23d Sep- 

 tember 1820, Don Carlos Maria O'Carrol, and 

 ordered him to be shot immediately. On the 

 26th, on the banks of the river Laja, he attacked 

 three hundred men of the Coquimbo battalion, 

 No. 1, and some militia, which had been sent to 

 reinforce the head-quarters ; the action was so 

 sharply maintained, that his dastardly person was 

 in some danger. At eight o'clock next morning 

 he addressed a despatch to Major-General Don 

 Andres Alcazar, offering to spare the lives of all 

 those who should give themselves up unarmed. 

 It happened that this worthy veteran had run 

 short of ammunition, and his people were worn 

 out with fatigue ; he therefore capitulated, giving 

 up at once his arms and his life. The officers 

 were immediately shot, without being allowed the 

 consolations of religion ; one person only escaped 

 by accident, Friar N. Castro, of the order of 

 Hermits. Major-Genera 1 Alcazar, and Sergeant- 

 major Ruiz, were then delivered over to the 

 Indians, that they might be speared to death, 



