THE COLONIAL PERIOD 165 It had been necessary to begin the action at once, for Maroto was advancing with reinforcements of 1,200 troops. The victory was important; the cavalry de- tachment under Colonel Nicochea descended into the plain from the pass of Tavon and falling pellmell upon the royalists cut them down in their flight, which so demoralized the whole Spanish army that it refused to act when Marco del Ponte and Maroto had called a coun- cil of war outside the city of Rancagua. The officers fled to Valparaiso. There many of them, including Marco del Porite, were captured by the patriots ; Maroto effect- ed his escape. Marco del Ponte was sent to San Luis in the Pampas, where he remained many years. It is no wonder that San Martin and O'Higgins were surprised at their easy victory, and were led to believe that they should be met by the enemy in another more sanguinary field before arriving at the capital. That night they moved forward cautiously to Colina. There they remained three days preparing for the anticipated struggle. But there was no enemy before them ; the royalists had fled toward the Ma3'po, and Santiago had been abandoned. In time the remaining royalist troops were driven into Talcahuano, where they shut them- selves up to await reinforcements from Peru, which did not arrive until the following year. On the 15th of February, 1817, San Martin, with two doubloons in his pocket, no military chest, no stores, no medicine or surgeons for his wounded sol- diers, entered the capital with his wild gauchos and refugees at his back. Some there are who say that the general was hailed as the Savior cif the country ; others affirm that he was greeted by few voices, that he was received in sullen silence by the natives, and looked upon as another invader by a people who had grown tired of patriot machinations. Perhaps both accounts
