The men of the army
carried their own food, consisting of dried meat and parched corn, and
depots of food were established at intervals along the route, the
difficulty of transporting provision-trains being thus avoided. The
field-pieces were slung between mules or dragged on sledges made of tough
hide, and were hoisted or lowered by derricks, when steep places were
reached. Some two thousand cattle were driven along to add to their food
supply.
Thus equipped, San Martin's army set out on its difficult passage of the
snow-topped Andes. He had previously sent over guerilla bands whose active
movements thoroughly deceived the royalist generals as to his intended
place of crossing. Onward went the cavalry, spurred to extraordinary
exertion by the fact that provisions began to run short. The passes to be
traversed, thirteen thousand feet high and white with perpetual snow,
formed a frightful route for the horsemen of the plains, yet they pushed
on over the rugged mountains, with their yawning precipices, so rapidly as
to cover three hundred miles in thirteen days.
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