completely defeated. A junta was immediately formed at Santiago, and the dictatorship was offered to San Martin, who declined it.
The royalist army of Chili fled to Talcahuano, and after receiving reinforcements from the viceroy at Lima, resumed the offensive. It encountered the patriot army on the plains of Maypu, April 5, 1818, and the encounter resulted in one of the most sanguinary battles on record, when the number of men engaged is considered. Out of eight thousand men comprising the Spanish army, two thousand were killed or wounded, and three thousand captured. The general escaped with a portion of his cavalry, but all the baggage, artillery, military chests, and supplies fell into the hands of the patriots. The loss of the latter was one thousand killed and wounded, out of an aggregate of about seven thousand. The victory gave independence to Chili, and turned attention towards Peru. Steps were immediately taken to aid the Peruvians to gain their independence, and for this purpose an army and a naval force was organized.
Lord Cochrane, an English naval officer, arrived in Chili in November, 1818, and was immediately appointed to the command of the Chilian squadron. Great exertions were made, and in the course of a year many captures were effected, though not without some losses by the Chilian squadron. On the 20th of August, 1820, a combined land and naval expedition left Valparaiso for Pisco, about one hundred miles south of Peru, where the land forces were disembarked. The squadron proceeded to Callao, where a Spanish frigate of forty guns with two sloops-of-war and fourteen gun-boats were lying under the protection of the batteries. On the night of November 5th, Lord Cochrane succeeded in capturing the frigate, and this exploit was practically the termination of the Spanish naval power in the Pacific, so far as offensive measures were concerned.
An armistice of the land forces was made by request of
