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 ERA OF CONSTITUTION MAKING 217 went to Valparaiso and thence to Coquimbo, where he confided to General Lastra the command of the regular army. Lastra and Prieto met at Ochagavia, two leagues from the capital, and some indecisive skirmishing took place. Then the two generals held a conference and agreed to lay down arms and to recognize Freire as the head of the government. With this agreement the conservatives would not comply, and, after a few days, Prieto occupied Santiago with his troops and his party proclaimed another junta composed of three of their own adherents, December 22nd, 1829. This conservative junta invited the provinces to send delegates to the capital to form a congress. Having assembled they named as provisional president Don Francisco Ruiz Tagle. Tagle resigned office after a month and a half and his place was filled by Don Tomas Ovalle, the vice president, March 31st, 1830. Six days after, Ovalle named as his minister, Don Diego Por- tales, who had become the leader in the conservative reaction. The new government soon began to perse- cute the liberals and congress declared the proceedings of the former congress null and void. The changes of government were so rapid that a Chilean paper in January of the year 1830, pictures the situation as follows: "We believe that the day is not far distant when the inquiry of every morning will be 'Who is governor to-day?'" While the fighting and plundering continued, busi- ness was almost at a standstill and merchants susj pended payments. A paper dated in May of 1830, stated that the cities of Chile were being plundered by contending generals. In the disturbances, the house of the French consul was stripped. It was, in fact, a time of general Avolt throughout South America. One