the approach of winter to the eastern side of the Cordillera.* Their incursions had been of late so frequent and destructive, that it was absolutely neces- sary to put them down. Three divisions, to act on different points, were accordingly formed, and Lieut. - Colonel Tupper was appointed to command a squadron of dragoons, with which he passed the Cordillera, parallel with the town of Chilian, in pursuit of the bandits, and went to the eastward as far as the river Nanken, in the province of Mendoza. Pincheira contrived, however, to elude all pursuit, and before the end of the campaign Lieut. -Colonel Tupper was sent by General Borgono on a mission to the capital, where he arrived in April, 1827, and on the 1st of May following was appointed first aid-de-camp to the supreme government, an office of trust and respecta- bility. At this time General Pinto, a statesman of liberal principles and enlightened views, although perhaps wanting in political firmness, was elected president in the place of General Freire. Much was expected from the administration of the new president, and it was hoped that he would be powerful enough to remove many existing abuses, but those interested in their continuance proved in the end the stronger party. General Pinto, having been employed in a diplomatic capacity in England, was a warm admirer of every thing English, and his chief aid-de-camp ever found in him a sincere and steadfast friend. He wrote on June 27th : —
" I consider my commission in this service as secure as an employment under any South American govern- ment can well be. My pay is that of a lieutenant-
- They were commanded by Pincheira, the son of a European by an
Indian mother, who held the rank of colonel in the Spanish service, and committed his depredations under the Spanish standard.
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