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Rh the army, but Sanchez had already retreated from Concepcion and Talcahuano, and in spite of an active pursuit by Escalada and Alvarado crossed the Bio-Bio with small loss, and shut himself up in the fortress of Valdivia. This is spoken of as the last campaign in Chile, but bands of Indians and banditti still for three years infested the southern provinces.

José Miguel Carrera, still in Monte Video, fulminating vows of vengeance against Pueyrredon, San Martin, and O'Higgins, there met some French adventurers whom he succeeded in interesting in his cause. They went on to Buenos Ayres, and, after many secret consultations at the house of Doña Javiera, three of them left for Chile in November with a troop of bullock carts. Pueyrredon received secret information that another conspiracy was on foot, and sent a party after them to arrest them. One of them, named Young, attempting to resist, was shot. The other two, with some of their accomplices who had remained in Buenos Ayres, were tried by court-martial on a charge of conspiracy to assassinate. Three were acquitted, the other two, Robert and Lagresse, were shot on the Plaza del Retiro on the 3rd April, 1819, protesting their innocence to the last.

San Martin, on his return to Chile, found that the successes of the Chilian fleet had greatly relaxed the eagerness of the Government for the projected expedition. Now that they had command of the sea they were safe from invasion, and the treasury was so exhausted that the pay of his soldiers was very irregular. The people also murmured against a Government which relied for support upon Argentine bayonets. Nevertheless, he and O'Higgins both issued proclamations to the Peruvian people, announcing an expedition for the purpose of giving liberty to Peru: "So that they would become a nation with a Government established by themselves, in accordance with their own customs, with their situation, and with their inclinations."