204 A HISTORY OF CHILE 1S24, under the command of General Blanco Encalada, in search of the Spanish vessels, which seemed to have had no other reason for staying several months at Chilo6 than that their crews were sick. As soon as their men were well they went on to Peru. Director O'Higgins had sent to Rome the patri- otic canon, Don Josd Ignacio Cienfuegos, to arrange certain ecclesiastical matters and to undertake the work of reuniting the different elements of the Romish church in Chile. He returned in the first part of the year 1824, at the time General Freire was absent on his expedition to Chilo^, and was accompanied by the apostolic vicar, Don Juan Muzi. This person came with full authority from the Pope to act in the pre- mises, bringing with him a secretary, and was accom- panied by the Roman canon, Mastai Ferreti, who some time after became Pope Pius IX. These eminent prelates were received in Chile with some apprehension, as it was reported and generally believed that they served secretly the interests of the king of Spain and the sovereigns of the Holy Alli- ance, who had great influence with the Pope, and that they desired to see a return of the American colonies to their former allegiance to the mother country. The vicar associated much with the bishop of Santiago, Don Jose Santiago Rodriguez, a pronounced royalist, and with others whose sympathies were with the defeated cause of the king. This caused the patriots to look upon him askance and month after month passed, find- ing the government and the vicar more and more out of sympathy, until at last there came a decree from the government removing Rodriguez from the bishopric and installing the patriotic Cienfuegos in the office. Persisting in his opposition, Rodriguez was some time after banished from the country and went to Spain.
