San Martin returned to Chile, where he was shortly followed by an official representative of the Argentine government and the alliance created by Chacabuco received formal sanction. He found Chilean affairs in a very unsatisfactory condition. O'Higgins was hated by the powerful partisans of the Carreras, and distrusted by Chileans generally as too much under Argentine influence. His power really rested upon Argentine bayonets; his appointment of Quintana, an Argentine and San Martin's aide-de-camp, as acting dictator at Santiago was bitterly resented. San Martin's presence did something to allay the feeling, but as a matter of fact he had little sympathy for the Chilean people, being a man who despised the arts by which popularity is gained, and who made few friends. Meanwhile the three Carreras were actively plotting from their exile at Buenos Aires for the overthrow of O'Higgins and San Martin. Their friends and agents swarmed in Chile and preparations were made for a rising as soon as they should set foot in the country. The two younger brothers attempted to cross the Andes in disguise, but were detected and arrested at Mendoza. Quintana ordered the imprisonment of many persons suspected of being Carrera partisans, but his severe measures raised national feeling to such a height that it was thought safest to carry out San Martin's suggestion and appoint a Chilean as acting dictator in his stead. In the Argentine the position of the patriot government was even worse. With civil war actively raging in the one country and only held in check by foreign bayonets in the other, and with both governments struggling against financial difficulties, it is no wonder that the war-ships which were expected to sweep the Spanish frigates from the Pacific did not arrive. The delay cost the patriots dear. In January, 1818, four Spanish ships, mounting two hundred and thirty cannon sailed into Talcahuano, and landed three thousand four hundred well-equipped soldiers, most of them peninsular veterans. San Martin, a master of the art of recruiting, had raised a second army composed principally of Chileans and nearly equal in numbers to the original Army of the Andes, so that his total force amounted to nine thousand men, while the Spanish troops did not exceed five thousand. The Argentine general was in the dark as to where the enemy would land, and had already issued orders for O'Higgins, who was in command near Concepcion, to retreat, resolved on concentrating his forces near Valparaiso. Even after the Spanish army had disembarked at Talcahuano, San Martin was in doubt whether Osorio would not re-embark and strike at some unexpected harbour near Santiago. But the latter came up steadily by the land route, encountering no opposition though somewhat hampered by broken bridges and the bareness of the country of horses and supplies, for the retreating O'Higgins had left his track a desert. The farther the Spaniards penetrated toward