rebel troops were defeated, but Prieto gained that
by treachery, which he could not effect by the sword;
and when Colonel Tupper resigned in disgust, the earnest
entreaties of his old commander, General Freire unfortunately
induced him to accept the government of Coquimbo,
which step soon after compelled him to resume the
command of his regiment. Freire was deceived
by some of Prieto’s chiefs, who, probably at
the instigation of that faithless general, had promised
to pass over to him with their troops at the first
convenient opportunity; and he allowed himself to be
forced into a battle on a vast plain at Lircay, near
Talca, on the 17th April, 1830. Nothing could
be more ill-judged or imprudent, as his army, which
consisted of about 1,700 men, had only two weak squadrons
of regular cavalry and four pieces of artillery, while
that of Prieto, amounting to fully 2,200 men, had
800 veteran cavalry, and eleven or twelve pieces of
artillery. The Chile cavalry is very formidable,
the men being most expert riders, mounted on active
and powerful horses, and generally armed with long
lances, which they use with great dexterity. After
a long engagement, Freire’s cavalry, consisting
of about 600 men, including militia and Indians, fled
completely discomfited, and abandoned the infantry,
composed of three weak battalions, to its fate.
Their situation was now indeed desperate, as the ground
was so favorable to cavalry, and the neighbourhood
offered them no accessible place of defence or refuge.
When they formed into squares to resist the hostile
cavalry, they were mowed down by artillery; and, when
they deployed into line, the cavalry was upon them.
In this dreadful emergency they maintained the conflict
for nearly an hour, with all the obstinacy of despair;
and at length, in attempting to charge in column, they
were completely broken. The loss in Freire’s
army fell chiefly on the devoted infantry, and included
eighteen officers among the killed. The only
officers mentioned as slain, in Prieto’s hurried
dispatch of the 17th of April, are Colonel Elizalde,
chief of the staff; Colonel Tupper, and his gallant
Major Varela, a young man of five or six and twenty.
Colonel Tupper is said to have exhibited the most reckless
valour during the day, and to have rallied his battalion
several times. Having dismounted to encourage
his men, he was unable, in the melee when all
was lost, to find his horse; and the accounts of the
manner of his death are so contradictory, that it
is impossible to reconcile them. All agree, however,
in stating that he was particularly sought after, and
that orders were given to shew him no quarter.
Certain it is that he was overtaken, and “sacrificed
to the fears of Prieto, who justly considered him
the sword and buckler of the irresolute and vacillating
Freire.” He was pronounced by an English
traveller, as “the handsomest man he had ever
seen in either hemisphere,” and undoubtedly his
tall, athletic, and beautifully proportioned person,