Hipólito de Villegas in charge of negotiating the financial support from the Buenos Ayres government. He finally returned to Chile with the army in 1817, and was appointed Minister of Finance by Bernardo O'Higgins, a position he held from February 18, 1817 until March 30, 1818. As such, he drafted the first budget for the new republic. He was again elected a deputy, this time for "Huasco", in 1823, but resigned a month later after the exile of O'Higgins. He withdrew from public life after that until his death at the age of 77. Hipólito de Villegas Hipólito de Villegas y Fernández Manzanares
Juan Bautista de las Casas was quickly revolutionized. There was little resistance in Nacogdoches, where the presidio commander was arrested, or in La Bahia. Las Casas promptly confiscated property belonging to Spanish residents, proclaimed himself the head of a provisional government, released political prisoners and jailed royalists. His arbitrary rule disenchanted much of the army, and they soon teamed together with the remaining royalists. Juan Manuel Zambrano, the subdeacon of San Antonio, soon led a counter-insurgency against him. On March 2, Zambrano and his royalists marched on the government house, captured and arrested Casas and Ignacio Aldama, (Hidalgo's ambassador to the United States). Las Casas