Page:A history of Chile.djvu/165

THE RE VOL UTIONAR Y PERIOD 149 troops on the Araucanian frontier, he dispatched emis- saries to Concepcion who stirred up a riot, subjected the city to the authority of the junta of Santiago and apprehended Rozas, who was banished to Mendoza, where he soon after died. During the time that the Carreras were in power, there were constant dissensions and disaffections. Four conspiracies against them were suppressed ; all kinds of shocking enormities were committed ; many were the confiscations, great was the corruption. They quar- reled among themselves and Carrera once withdrew from the government; but a reconciliation was effected and he resumed his office. The Penquistos, or Concep- cion party, were greatly enraged at their loss of influ- ence, and made unceasing complaints. To cover his own ambitious designs and stop the complaints, Car- rera proclaimed a constitution (1812). This appar- ently placed the control of the junta in a senate, in a manner similar to the regulation prescribed in the con- stitution adopted at Buenos Ayres, and established a consulting council of seven members. Here was the first attempt in Chile to have the executive power con- trolled in all its executive functions by another body, a chimerical scheme which in subsequent years led to civil war. This constitution proclaimed civil equality, liberty of the press and other political and social re- forms, and for a time allayed the jealousies and fac- tional spirit of the leading families; then, too, they now had no time for quarreling among themselves as a new foe required their attention. Hearing of Don Jos6 Miguel Carrera's usurpation of the government at Santiago, Jos6 Ferdinand de Abas- cal, viceroy of Lima, dispatched south a large force under General Antonio Pareja in the early part of the year 1813, which in March attacked and took posses-