Page:The History of San Martin (1893).djvu/189

Rh equipped. In one of these, the corvette Clifton, he reached Buenos Ayres on the 9th February, 1817. Pueyrredon not only refused to pay for the ships, but also prohibited the further progress of the expedition, knowing that the presence of the Carreras in Chile would be most prejudicial to the cause of the alliance. A few days afterwards the brig Savage arrived from Baltimore, and Carrera formed a plan for escaping with the two ships, but his intention being denounced to Pueyrredon by one of the French adventurers who had come with him, he was arrested as a conspirator, and confined in the Retiro Barracks, where San Martin visited him on the 12th April. Carrera haughtily refused to shake hands with him, and rejected his repeated offers to arrange matters for him with Pueyrredon. They never met again.

San Martin and Pueyrredon both wrote to O'Higgins, proposing that Chile should pension the three brothers Carrera, in recognition of their former services. But O'Higgins considered that such a measure would offer a reward to crime. Carrera soon afterwards escaped from prison and fled to Monte Video; later on he became conspicuous in the ranks of the enemies of Buenos Ayres.

On the 11th May San Martin was again in Chile, and was received in triumph at the capital, the enthusiasm of the people being increased by the news received the same day of the victory of Las Heras at Gavilán.

The same day he sent his friend and aide-de-camp, Alvarez Condarco, off, by way of Buenos Ayres, to London, with money to purchase another ship of war. Condarco had also another mission, which is enveloped in mystery, and is pointed to as a stain on the reputation of San Martin and O'Higgins. A certain sum was to be left in deposit in London for their private account. The documents relating to this matter are written in cypher, and have remained secret for more than sixty years. Only three persons have read them, of whom two are dead,