they passed. They destroyed some Indian huts, and took a few poor prisoners; and this was all that was effected by the great expedition, which left the frontier as defenseless as it had been before, and is still. The divisions of Mendoza and San Luis returned equally unsuccessful from the deserts of the south. Rosas then raised for the first time his red flag, like that of Algiers, and assumed the title of Hero of the Desert, in addition to that already acquired, of Restorer of the Laws—those same laws which he was now about to destroy.
Facundo, too keen to be deceived as to the object of the expedition, remained at San Juaif until the divisions of the interior returned. The division commanded by Huidobro, which had been in the desert opposite San Luis, marched towards Cordova, and its approach put a stop to a rebellion headed by the Castillos, the object of which was to take the government from the Reinafes who were under the influence of Lopez. This rebellion was evidently gotten up at the instigation of Facundo; its leaders were from San Juan, the residence of Quiroga, and their supporters were his well-known partisans. The journals of the time, however, say othing about Facundo's connection with that movement; and when Huidobro retired to his provincial home, and Arridondo, with other leaders of the rebellion, was shot, there was nothing more to be said or done; for the war about to begin between the two parties of the Republic, between the two leaders who were contending for supremacy, was to be a war of ambuscades, snares, and treachery. It was a silent combat; not a trial of strength between armies, but
