wedge thrust in between the two independent areas. By thus
cutting off the patriots of the north from their comrades in the
south, it threatened both with destruction of their liberty.

Again fortune intervened from abroad, this time directly from
Spain itself. Ferdinand VII, who had gathered an army of twenty
thousand men at Cadiz, was ready to deliver a crushing blow at
the colonies when in January, 1890, a mutiny among the troops and
revolution throughout the country entirely frustrated the plan.
But although that reactionary monarch was compelled to accept the
Constitution of 1819, the Spanish liberals were unwilling to
concede to their fellows in America anything more substantial
than representation in the Cortes. Independence they would not
tolerate. On the other hand, the example of the mother country in
arms against its King in the name of liberty could not fail to
give heart to the cause of liberation in the provinces oversea
and to hasten its achievement.

The first important efforts to profit by this situation were made
by the patriots in Chile. Both San Martin and O'Higgins had
perceived that the only effective way to eliminate the Peruvian
wedge was to gain control of its approaches by sea. The Chileans
had already won some success in this direction when the fiery and
imperious Scotch sailor, Thomas Cochrane, Earl of Dundonald,
appeared on the scene and offered to organize a navy. At length a
squadron was put under his command. With upwards of four thousand
troops in charge of San Martin the expedition set sail for Peru
late in August, 1820.

While Cochrane busied himself in destroying the Spanish blockade,