THE RE VOL UTIONAR Y PERIOD 153 to Santiago, where the}' expected to regain by family influence and their usual intrigues the power and posi- tions they had lost by their arbitrary and exasperating measures. On the way they were captured by a party of royalists and taken to Chilian as prisoners. The Spanish forces under Pareja remained for some time at Chilian within their fortifications, both parties making active preparations during the time, for a re- newal of the contest. Soon after the time of General Pareja's death, General Gavina Gainza arrived from Peru with a large number of reinforcements, which now gave the royalist army a decided advantage, as it was superior to the Chilean army both in cavalry and artillery, and had been recruited by the indefatiga- ble Sanchez with Araucanian Indians and peons from the southern provinces. General Gainza assumed com- mand and opened the campaign with vigor. The guer- rilla commander, Eiorreaga, took Talca for the royal- ists, the junta having previously retired to Santiago with a part of the patriot troops. The first movement was made by General Gainza, who attempted to prevent a union of the patriot army. On the 19th of March, 1814, he was repulsed by O'Hig- gins on the heights of the Quilo, and the day following he attacked Colonel Mackenna with a division of the Chilean army encamped at Membrillar, twelve miles from Chilian, but the attack was gallantly repulsed. O'Higgins came to Mackenna's assistance with his division, and the royal army was roughly handled. A few days after the affair at Membrillar (March 29th) a force of one thousand men was dispatched from San- tiago under the Argentine officer, Manuel Blanco En- calada, to take Talca. This force was defeated at Can- cha-Rayada bj' Eiorreaga, and the capital was thus left almost wholly unprotected.
