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THE PERUVIAN WAR 293 Colonel Espinar in reconnoitering the enemy's posi- tion brought on the battle. The Chileans opened a heavy fire of musketry and artillery upon the charging Peruvians, who sought to capture their artillery ; they then dashed upon their adversaries with bayonets fixed and drove them back. Colonel Espinar had fallen and the advanced force was without a leader ; falling back they caused demoralization in the main army, while a division under Villegras, ascending the ravine from the east, met with no better success. Villegras fell wounded. The troops retreated in fairly good order to Porvinir. The Chileans took no advantage of the rout. They lost their gallant leader, General Emilio Sotomayor, and two hundred and eight in killed and wounded. The Peruvian-Bolivian loss is not very definitely stated, but their dead was estimated at two hundred and twenty. Colonel Suarez collected the remnants of the army at Tarapaca. The Bolivians retreated toward the highlands of their own country. Iquique was evacuated by the allies and November 22nd a force of Chileans occupied it. The garrison un- der Colonel Rios retreated to Tarapaca. On the 29th, President Prado invested Admiral Lizardo Montero with the command and set out for his capital; on the i8th of the following month he turned over the gov- ernment to the vice president, General La Puerta. After the battle of San Francisco, the Chilean gen- eral dispatched a force of two thousand men with a small body of cavalry and one hundred and fifty pieces of artillery to reconnoitre the enemy at Tarapaci. The force was under the command of Colonels Arteaga and Vergara. Arriving at TarapacA, the troops were sepa- rated into three divisions, one under the command of Ramirez was to come up the ravine, one under Arteaga was to descend from the heights directly upon the town.