Page:A history of Chile.djvu/324

 294 A HISTORY OF CHILE one under Santa Cruz was to advance down the ravine in which the place is situated. This division of the force caused its destruction. The Peruvian forces under Buendia and Suarez had left the town and were mov- ing northward in the ravine. Informed of the dispo- sition of their foes, they attacked them from the heights and after an hour of severe fighting routed them com- pletely, capturing a battery of Krupp guns. The divisions in the ravine were also obliged to fall back after a sharp encounter and the Peruvians were left masters of the field. The Chileans lost six hun- dred and eighty-seven in killed and wounded; the Peru- vians, nineteen officers killed, sixteen wounded, and four hundred and ninety-eight men killed and wound- ed — heavy losses for the number engaged in the com- bat. On the following day the Peruvians continued their march and arrived at Arica on the i8th of December, with three thousand of their number out of ammuni- tion, with few arms, ragged, hungry and thirsty. Gen- eral Buendia and Colonel Suarez were immediately ar- rested for the loss of the province. The Chileans buried their heroic dead at TarapacA and assumed complete possession of the province, where a small garrison was placed, while the main army was stationed in Pisagua and Iquique. This was soon reinforced, and the available forces in the field numbered seventeen thousand men. Arica, Islay, Ilo and Mollendo were blockaded, thus severing the first named place from its communications with the north, except by the overland way by Arequipa. Of the allied army remaining, Daza had about three thousand men at Tacna and Montero four thousand at Arica, the whole in a very demoralized condition. These reverses were without doubt the reason for