The glory of saving the situation is principally ascribable to San Martín. This unfathomable man, the enigma of Argentine history, was born on February 25, 1778 in the Province of Corrientes in a town since obliterated. At the age of eight years, after a short primary education in Buenos Aires, he was sent to Madrid to school, where he remained until he was a few months over eleven. He then entered the Spanish army as a cadet, served in Africa against the Moors, in France against the Republic, in the Spanish fleet when defeated by Nelson at St. Vincent, fought against Portugal and again under Wellington during the Penninsula Campaign. In his twenty years service under the Spanish flag, he had had experience on land and by sea, in infantry, cavalry and trenches. In 1811 in Cádiz, he joined the "Lautaro Society", about which reference has already been made, went to London and affiliated with the Mother Lodge, taking in company with Alvear, the fifth and highest degree. About this time, Bolívar of Venezuela, O'Higgins of Chile, and all the other famous liberators became active members in the same Lodge. San Martín and Alvear reached Buenos Aires on the good ship "George Canning" on March 9th. 1812, San Martín being 34 years old while Alvear was only 23. San Martín was without friends or family or fortune, having as his only asset, his successful military career, while Alvear, the son of a wealthy and influential family, stepped immediately into prominence and became a dominant figure in political circles. San Martín was made a Lt. Colonel in the Argentine Army, that being the grade to which he had risen in the Spanish Army; and he started a school of tactics, discipline and military morality on a plane of efficiency and elevation theretofore unknown in Spanish America. He was a profound believer in the axiom that battles are won in the training camps. His special pride was a regiment of Mounted Grenadiers, for whom he designed the uniform, the same worn today by the stalwart young men who do guard duty in Government House. The Spaniards held Montevideo and controlled the nearby waters. Raiding parties up the rivers were frequent, one of which destroyed at San Nicolás three small Argentine sloops-of-war; although the operations were usually limited to robbing ranches and villages of cattle and food with which to supply Montevideo. San Martín followed by land one party which eventually disembarked at San Lorenzo, a few miles north of Rosario, where he attacked and defeated it. The battle of San Lorenzo was small in size, the Spanish landing party numbered 250 and San Martín had only 125, but the result was important, for river raiding ceased. It occurred on February 3, 1813, less than a year after San Martín's arrival in Buenos Aires, and won for him considerable fame; so much so that he was selected to take over from Belgrano the command of the Army of Upper Perú after the defeats of Vilcapugio and Ayohuma.