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Updated: July 27, 2025
The enemy was known to be approaching, and the army was moved to a point about nine miles from the capital, occupying a location known as the farm of Espejo, where the coming enemy was awaited. On the afternoon of April 3, Osorio crossed the Maypo, the patriot cavalry harassing his flank and rear as he advanced.
He, however, deserted to the Spaniards, and was taken prisoner in their service, when they sustained, on the plains of Maypo, on the 5th of April, 1818, that defeat which decided their fortunes in that part of America, and secured the independence of Chili.
Melipilla, or San Joseph de Logronno, on the river Maypo, in lat 33° 36' S long. 70° 42' W. is the chief town of the province, and is but thinly inhabited, though in a beautiful situation and fertile country, as most of the principal proprietors reside in the neighbouring city of St Jago, the capital of the kingdom.
Boyacá—after Maypo, by which Chili gained its freedom—was the great battle of South America. It gave the patriots supremacy in the north, as Maypo had done in the south.
St Jago, or San Jacopo, is entirely inland, having the province of Aconcagua on the north, the Andes on the east, the river Maypo to the south, and Melipilla to the west. This is a small province, being only 45 miles from east to west, and 36 from north to south.
On the 5th his army took up a position on the brow of a hill opposite that occupied by the patriot forces. Passing out from Santiago there is a succession of white hills, known as the Lorna Blanca, on one crest of which, commanding the roads to the fords of the Maypo and to Santiago, the patriot army was encamped. The royalists occupied the crest and slope of an opposite ridge.
Of the total army less than three hundred escaped, General Osorio and some other officers among them. These fled to Concepcion, and embarked from there to Peru. Of the patriots more than a thousand had fallen in the hot engagement. This brilliant and decisive victory, known as the battle of the Maypo, gave San Martin immense renown, and justly so, for it established the independence of Chili.
Though many have applauded the sagacity of Valdivia in the choice of a situation for the capital of the new colony, it would in my opinion have been much better placed on the banks of the river Maypo, about fifteen miles farther south; as that river is much larger than the Mapocho, has a direct communication with the sea, and might easily be made navigable for ships of considerable burden.
It contains also an university, a mint for coining gold and silver, and barracks for the soldiers who are maintained as guards to the president and royal audience. Rancagua, is bounded on the north by the river Maypo and by the Chachapoal on the south, by the Andes on the east, and the Pacific on the west.
Below them ran the Maypo with its forests and hills. As the sun rose on the morning of the 5th San Martin saw with satisfaction the royalist force beginning to occupy the high ground in his front. With hopeful tone, he said, "I take the sun to witness that the day is ours." As he spoke, the golden rays spread like a banner of light from crest to crest.
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