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On the 7th of April, General Cantarac had fallen upon a division of the liberating army, and cut up or made prisoners of the whole, capturing 5,000 muskets, the military chest, containing 100,000 dollars, and all their ammunition and baggage.
The loss of the Allied army in Moquegua, where it has been beaten by General Cantarac, has occasioned such an effect on the result of the war, that possibly the capital of Peru may fall into the hands of the enemy in consequence of the ascendancy thus acquired.
"Thus Gen. Cantarac, with 3,200 men, passed to the southward of Lima within half-musket shot of the protecting army of Peru, composed of 12,000 entered the castles of Callao with a convoy of cattle and provisions, where he refreshed and rested his troops for six days, and then retired on the 15th, taking with him the whole of the vast treasure deposited therein by the Limeños, and leisurely retreating on the north side of Lima."
The end of this was, a five months' examination of O'Higgins, which resulted in his being permitted to leave the country; General Freire having, meanwhile, been elected to the Supreme Directorate, in the midst of internal dissensions in Chili, and disasters in Peru, where the Spaniards, under Cantarac emboldened by the pusillanimity of the Protector in permitting them to relieve Callao unmolested, and elated with their decisive victory over a division of his army, as narrated in a previous chapter had availed themselves of the treasure carried away from Callao in reorganising their forces, which now threatened Lima, and would no doubt have recovered Peru, had not Bolivar, foreseeing the result, sent a division of his army, under General Sucre, to the assistance of the beleaguered city.
"After Cantarac had led his troops into the batteries of Callao, the success was announced by the firing of guns and other demonstrations which harrowed up the souls of the Chilian officers. The patriot army thereupon passively occupied their old camp at the Legua, between Callao and Lima."
They were afterwards transferred to Santiago. The cruelty practised towards these prisoners in Peru, is of itself a reason why their tyrants did not venture to encounter the Spanish General Cantarac. Cruel people are invariably cowards.
The fortress, notwithstanding the supplies so successfully introduced by General Cantarac, having again by the vigilance of the squadron been starved into surrender, I received an order immediately to quit Callao and proceed to Chili, although the Peruvian Government believed that from the abandonment of the squadron by the officers and foreign seamen, it would not be possible to comply with the order.
This is the only fact contained in the proclamation. The enemy was pursued by 1,100 men, who followed them at a distance for ten miles, when Cantarac suddenly facing about, let loose his cavalry at them, and nearly the whole were cut up! The Spaniards in fact came to relieve Callao, and fully effected their object.
Disarmed and betrayed, they were completely at the mercy of the Protector, who, if he can be said to have had a motive in not encountering the small force of Cantarac, no doubt founded it in keeping his own troops intact for the further oppression of the unhappy Limeños with what effect we shall presently see.
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