, 1891-07-11

to avoid giving battle. as the forces that were
coming up III our second train took up their
position on the heights. Robles formed his
Irregular troops on the heights Of San Fran
cisco, placing his main body on the railway
and in the oicina Catalina. Our charge was
tremendous, as we charged the forces that
Robes had in the plain, which were scatter
ed, being separated from those which
were fighting on the hill, Robes had
TO fee, calling of all the troops possible, leav-
those on the hill to fight alone. these were
fighting we'll and fell Ivy degrees. They Were
composed of the 4th Of the line, which regi-
Incnt may now be considered as extinct. We
only lost one officer, a young man named Gale
gulllos, of Pisagua, and had ten officers wound.
cd, who are ALL out of danger, and some 100
men killed and wounded. The enemy lost Sc
Verely. Of the 4th of the line only one officer
remained to serve the dictator. The two
leaders, Requeline and Villagran, fell in this
battle, and | much regret the death of the lat
ter, as / was we'll acquainted with his moth
er IN LOta. All that remains of this regiment
say 60 men--serve the Congress with much
enthusiasm. Our situation after the battle was
worse than before. Upon searching the dead
we were able in all to gather only sufficient
cartridges to give out five or six cartridges to
each soldier; our great draw back all through
being deficiency in ammunition. We were in
this critical and horrible situation when we
observed on the Tacna road, on the morning
of the 10Th, approaching us small party of
cavalry, which was coming towards our camp
naturally thinking it to be the camp of Colonel
Robles. On finding out their mistake they
fed, leaving in our possession q quantity of
mules, laden with boxes which on examination
were found to contain 200 "Aras" rifles
and 100000 cartridges. Even the most scep-
tical among us saw in this incident the direct
intervention of Divine Providence; the Dicta-
tor himself sent us the eleme ats with which to
fight him. The cartridges divided among the
men amounted to 40 cartridges. This was but
little, however, but with the enthusiasm, conf
dence grew, that wa, going to cost us dear.
We left the Oficina Catalina on the 10th and
cncamped in the ofcina PRIMITIVE and rcsolv.
cd to open fire on the enemy wherever we
found them. We thought the enemy very weak
as they withdrew after the battle of San Fran
cisco with only 200 men, and thought, more.
over, that Silinas could assist Robes with
Tut few troops, at the outside 800, of the
] 200 composing the garrison of ~Iquique,
owing to the necessity of defending this place
from the squadron. Nevertheless he did it,
sending to Robles all he had--militia, regulars,
and even the police of the town thus LAYING
@'~l"N OPCH ~ HdNAHB lQulquc occupied Dy
the squadron, as eventually happened, but on
the other hand increasing the chances
of triumphing against lis and calculating that
Robes, once victorious, would return to Iqui-
que, cbliging us to attack him there. This
was not a badly arranged plan and was al
most successful. Our forces came face to foce
with those II Robles at the oficina Of Huara.
In addition to the enthusiasm of the troops
which 1t was most difficult to restrain, there
was a most important reason for not delaying
the battle. We had just learned that the I'M
perlal had landed the Cana division in the
Peruvian port of tie and the Santa Rosa the
Arrate division in africa, and that these forces
with all kinds of materials and mules, were
advancing on lis with forced marches. With
out careful examination of the forces and
20 sltlon OF the enemy we gave battle at $50
in the afternoon of the 18th of February,
n ainSt the 1000 and odd troops of Robles.
We drove them back at first until our troops
had discharged the last cartridge, and were
therefore, obliged to retire. We lost 300 men.
80 officers, rifles, two cannons, and three Cat
ling guns being those taken from the enemy
in Pisagua and San Francisco. l had a mira
culous escape in this combat, which l do not
relate, In order not to lengthen out this letter
with personal details. In Huara the chief Of the
Valparaiso Regiment, Manuel Aguirre, was
killed. He had all through the campaign
behaved in a most patriotic and valiant
manner. Many brave comrades fell at this.
battle. The prisoners and tho Nroun1ad wora