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6 and its independence was acknowledged in 1825. Its transition from a colony of a European government to an independent state was far less turbulent than that of its neighbors.

The revolution continued with varying success for more than a decade, but with the advantages decidedly in favor of the revolutionists. The progress towards independence was retarded by dissensions among the revolutionists, which frequently threatened to restore the royalist power; ambitions and jealousies too often obscured patriotism, and in many instances they led to open or secret assassination. This was the case in Buenos Ayres, Chili, and Peru to a very marked degree, and only to a minor extent in other parts of the revolted country. On several occasions assistance to beleaguered garrisons or to armies in the field was deliberately refused or withheld, for no other reason than personal ill-feeling between general and other officers who were engaged in a common cause of patriotism.

West of the Andes the progress of the revolution was less encouraging than in the countries to the eastward. The royalists were practically in full control of Peru and Chili in the early years of the insurrection, and in the latter country they had banished many of the leading patriots to the island of Juan Fernandez, and were exercising extreme tyranny over all the people. Early in 1817 General San Martin, Governor of Mendoza, and an active patriot of Buenos Ayres, conceived the design of crossing the Andes with an army of liberation to assist the Chilian patriots. Nearly a year was spent in organizing the army and collecting the necessary materials and transportation. The passage of the Andes by San Martin was a more difficult matter than that of Napoleon over the Alps; it was accomplished in thirteen days, with a loss of a few men and of five thousand horses and mules, and was followed by the battle of Chacabuco, in which the royalists were