Page:Tupper family records - 1835.djvu/95

 Of this reduced number not quite two thousand men were disembarked at Chiloe, as upwards of one hundred men were left sick at Valdivia, and more than four hundred remained on board the ships. The Chi- lotes had considerably upwards of three thousand men,

of whom four hundred were cavalry. Major ,

so far from distinguishing himself, would I think have been tried in the English service for cowardice. He commanded the first column of grenadiers, and I the second ; notwithstanding, my column led the van during the whole action, he bringing up the rear at a considerable distance, and certainly not being under tire during the four hours the affair lasted. Besides, he did what I think no brave man would do, — he took off his epaulettes when the first shot was fired, and gave them to his servant in presence of both columns of grenadiers."

In reply to some questions from his brother relative to a narrative by Doctor Leighton, an English sur- geon, of an expedition in the Indian territory in 1822, published in Miers' travels in Chile, he wrote from Santiago in October, 1829 : —

1 ' About a month previously to the expedition which Leighton narrates, Colonel Beauchef sent me with thirty men to endeavour to surprise Palacios in his dwelling, situated in the Indian territory, about forty or fifty leagues to the northward of Valdivia. The intended surprise was planned upon the information of a deserter of ours, who had resided some time with Palacios ; he offered to guide me, and averred that the dwelling of the bandit could be reached in one night. We set out accordingly, and after a most fatiguing night's march arrived by daybreak only on the borders of the territory of the Indians of Tolten.

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