Page:A history of Chile.djvu/241

 ERA OF CONSTITUTION MAKING 221 Bolivian president agreed to enter Peru with an army to restore order, Orbegoso, on his part, promising to convoke an assembly to further. Santa Cruz' scheme for a confederacy. Santa Cruz threw an army of 5,000 men into Peru and defeated Ganiarra at Yanacocha near Cuzco, August 13th, 1835, and Salaverry in the battle of Socabaya near Arequipa, February 6th, 1836. Following the battle of Socabaya, the revolutionary leaders, Salaverry, Fernandini, Solar, Cardena, Rivos, Carrillo, Valdivia, Moya, and Picoaga, were condemned and villainously shot in the public square of Arequipa. This bloody affair, perpetrated despite the fact that General Miller, in receiving the surrender of the revo- lutionary chiefs, had guaranteed safety to their persons, turned the Salaverry-Gamarra faction of the Peruvians still more bitterly against the self-styled protector,Santa Cruz ; and, though repressed, the revolutionists bided their time. Gamarra had escaped the massacre, with such officers as La Fuente, Torrico, San Roman, Eles- puru and others and now watched for an opportunity to strike an effective blow. Santa Cruz entered Lima in October 1836, and proclaimed the confederation of North and South Peru and Bolivia. The government of Chile, being at this time in the hands of the wealthy pelucones, found a pretext for war with Peru in the Freire affair, and in the further fact that the town of Arica had been made a free port by the confederacy, which consideration caused vessels to pass the ports of Chile; further it was argued that ad- vantages were given to vessels by Peru which had not touched at any port in Chile, over those which did call at Chilean ports. Portales was the man to take prompt action, but his action can hardly be justified. Avail- ing himself of the disordered condition of affairs in Peru, he dispatched the two war vessels, the "Aquiles" and