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 duties of a council for the government and a provisional legislative body ad interim. It was also authorized to draw up the plan of a new constitution on the basis of such general principles as might be agreed upon by the cabildos and provincial assemblies.

There had been trouble meanwhile with the old enemies of Chile, the Araucanian Indians. They were incited to war by Mariloan, Pincheira, and other old royalists, who, when the patriots had come into power, had taken refuge with the Indians, maintaining afterward on the frontiers a desultory war of robbery and pillage.

Being now hard-pressed (1828) by the Chilean forces under General Borgoño and Colonel Beauchef, many of these Spanish refugees living with the Indians made overtures with the government of Chile for a return. Pincheira and many of his followers escaped; the Chileans recaptured many of the stolen cattle and set free about three hundred captives.

In 1827, Chile had dispatched two war frigates to assist Buenos Ayres in her war with Brazil. One of these was wrecked off Cape Horn and all on board perished ; the other put back to Chile, so that the expedition came to naught.

Considerable excitement followed an affair in a Valparaíso theatre in the latter part of 1827. A British officer struck a Chilean, and soldiers were called in. One of them touched the officer with a bayonet, when the latter drew his pistol and shot him dead. All the British officers were arrested. Sir John Sinclair, the British admiral, and Mr. Nugent, consul-general, applied to the government for the release of the officers. The authorities were slow in giving up the prisoners and the admiral landed his marines. Then the British subjects were all released, save the one who