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,
Bernardo de Legarda Bernardo de Legarda Bernardo de Legarda (c. 1700 – 1 June 1773) was an Ecuadorian sculptor and painter who exemplified the Quito School movement. Legarda was a mestizo artist and the one who best personified the art of sculpture in the capital of Quito during his period. His first artwork dated from 1731 when he restored an image of Saint Luke in the Church of Santo Domingo, after which he was much in demand. In 1732 he was commissioned to do a sculpture of the Immaculate Conception for the Church of San Francisco. This work, which became known as the