José de San Martín Manuel Rodríguez had returned to Chile before the crossing, and began a guerrilla war in Santiago de Chile against the royalists, in support of the upcoming army. He was supported in the south of the city and the countryside. The strategy was to occupy nearby villages, seize the royalists' weapons and flee. The attacks on Melipilla and San Fernando, and a failed one at Curicó, demoralized the royalists. The columns that crossed the Andes began to take military actions. The column in the north led by Cabot defeated the royalists in Salala, seized Coquimbo and then Copiapó. In the south,
John Higgins of Montoge John Higgins of Montoge Sir John Higgins of Montoge (1678–1729) was an Irish physician. Higgins was a descendent of the O'Higgins of Montiagh, an Irish noble family who lost their lands in Sligo under the English Crown about 1649. His parents were a Dr. Patrick Higgins of Limerick City and his wife Mary Loftus of Annacotty. He was a cousin of Don Esteban de Iguiño (Stephen Higgins) who was Spanish General of the Infantry in the Army of Philippine islands. Sir John Higgins was born in 1678, and after the Treaty of Limerick in 1691 left Ireland to live in