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JOURNAL 
 
 OF A 
 
 RESIDENCE IN CHILE, 
 
 DURING THE YEAR 1822. 
 
 AND A 
 
 VOYAGE FROM CHILE TO BRAZIL IN 1823. 
 
 By MARIA GRAHAM. 
 
 HAPLY THE SEAS AND COUNTEIES DIFfEEENT 
 WITH VABIABLE OBJECTS, SHALL DISPEL 
 THIS SOMETHINO SETTLED MATTEB IN HIS HEART. 
 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 PRINTED FOR LONGMAN, HURST, REES, ORME, BROWN, AND GREEN, 
 
 PATEHNOSTEK-ROW ; 
 
 AND JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE^TREET. 
 1824. 
 
 1 \ 1 ' ■" 
 
r 
 
 3 0<h3 
 
 /-|, f^^-^^t^i 
 
 London : 
 
 Printed by A. & R. Spottiswoode, 
 
 New. Street- Squ are. 
 
PREFACE, 
 
 The Journal of a residence in Chile should naturally have been 
 placed between the two visits to Brazil, which are the subject of the 
 writer's former volume. The reasons for dividing the Journals have 
 been given in the preface to that of the residence in Brazil. 
 
 The Introduction to the present volume is, perhaps, its most im- 
 portant part. Of the first six years of the revolution in Chile, no 
 account is to be procured, either from the offices of the secretaries of 
 state, or among the papers of the actors in the scene. During the 
 few wretched days that elapsed between the defeat of the Patriots at 
 Rancagua and their crossing the Andes, the whole of the public 
 papers and documents that could be collected were burnt, in order 
 to prevent them from falling into the hands of the Spaniards, who 
 might have persecuted those families who remained in their country, 
 and whose names might have been found among those of the Patriots. 
 Hence until 1817, no records are to be traced even in the hands of 
 government; and until the middle of 1818 nothing whatever was 
 printed in Chile ; so that a few years hence all remembrance of the 
 early period of the revolution in that country may be lost. 
 
 It was the writer's good fortune while in Chile, to become 
 acquainted with several persons, who, having participated either as 
 
 A 2 
 
iv PREFACE. 
 
 actors or spectators in the great event, were kind enough to allow 
 her to write down, from their verbal account, the main particulars 
 which she has detailed. What was related by those still Royalists, 
 agreed in all facts with what was told by the patriots, and all with 
 the clear and spirited narratives of the Supreme Director, O'Higgins ; 
 whose liberality and politeness on this, as on every other point, to- 
 wards the writer, deserve her warmest acknowledgements. From 
 1818 to 1821 ample accounts were published in the gazettes of every 
 public occurrence, and every document was during that period laid 
 before the people. But sometime in the year 1821, it became 
 evident that the political speculations of the Protector of Peru, and 
 the commercial schemes of the ministers in Chile, were of a nature 
 not to be unveiled, and the public papers are accordingly very defec- 
 tive from that time. The writer cannot flatter herself that she has 
 been able to supply the deficiencies entirely ; but she trijsts that the 
 leading marks she has been able to set up will be found sufficient 
 to induce others, more capable of the task, to fill up the outline 
 which she has but sketched. 
 
 As the struggle in Spanish America was purely that of the colo- 
 nies with the mother country, the writer had of course nothing to do 
 with the mention of any transactions between the neutral trading 
 nations, whose vessels, either of war or of commerce, might be in 
 the seas of Chile, unless where a direct interference, as in the case of 
 Captain Hillier's guarantee of the treaty in the south of Chile, 
 renders it absolutely necessary. 
 
 The Postscript to the Journal contains papers from which the pre- 
 sent political state of Chile may be understood. There is so much 
 of good in that country, so much in the character of the people 
 and the excellence of the soil and climate, that there can be no 
 
PREFACE. Y 
 
 doubt of the ultimate success of their endeavours after a free and 
 flourishing state : but there are no ordinary difficulties to get over, 
 no common wants to be supplied ; and if the following pages shall 
 in the slightest degree contribute directly or indirectly to supply 
 those wants, or to smooth those difficulties, by calling attention to 
 that country either as one particularly fitted for conimercial inter- 
 course, or as one whose natural resources and powers have yet to be 
 cultivated, the writer will feel the truest satisfaction. 
 
PLATES. 
 
 Plate I. Travelling in Spanish America . ... to face the Title Page. 
 
 11. Iglezia Matriz of Valparaiso to face Page 116 
 
 III. View of Valparaiso Bay from my House . . ; . . 146 
 
 IV. View from the Foot of the Cuesta de Prado 196 
 
 V. View over the Plain of Santiago from the Top of the Cuesta de Prado 197 
 
 VI. SaltadeAgua 213 
 
 VII. Country-house in Chile. This is that of M. de Salinas . . . 241 
 
 VIII. Lake of Aculeo 247 
 
 IX. View from the House of Salinas . . • . . . . . 254 
 
 X. Costume of Chile 262 
 
 XI. Street of San Domingo in Santiago, from my Balcony — Sketched on 
 
 the 18th September, the Houses adorned with Flags . . . 269 
 
 XII. Quintero Bay, seen from the Place where the House was . , 329 
 
 XIII. Landing Place at Juan Fernandez 351 
 
 XIV. Cacique with his Troops advancing to meet Carrera . . . 419 
 
VIGNETTES. 
 
 Page 113. — Fort at Valparaiso, in which several English Officers are buried. 
 
 1*2. — A Peruvian Double Vase, which being half filled with water and moved 
 
 from side to side, produces a whistling sound. These jars were buried 
 
 with the dead, and are now occasionally found on breaking open the 
 
 tombs in Peru; the specimen from which this cut was taken was 
 
 given me by an English Officer. 
 190. — The Cart, Plough, and Leather Bucket of Oiile. 
 227. — The Capelita or litde Chapel of Colinas, — drawn from the Roof of the 
 
 ■ Bathing House. 
 262. — Great Ovens for baking the Wine Jars, &c. on the Plain of Mellipilla. 
 299. — The Chile Palm Tree. — The Agave is growing near it, and the small 
 
 Bread Oven is at its foot. 
 304. — A Corner View of the Drawing-room Division of Lord Cochrane's House 
 
 of Quintero, as it stood before the Earthquake of the 19th of Nov. 
 324. — A Quebrada or Ravine, — sketched between Quintero and Valparaiso. This 
 
 and some others of the Vignettes are not very accurately placed ; but 
 
 they are true to the Scenery of the Country. 
 354. — Cape Horn. 
 358. — A Brick Kiln at Valparaiso. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OF CHILE. 
 
 The discovery of Chile by the Spaniards, and the accounts of 
 their first settlements there, form one of the most romantic chapters 
 in the history of the European conquest of South America. After 
 the death of the Inca Atahualpa in 1535, Pizarro, jealous of the in- 
 fluence and ambition of his companion Alniagro, represented the 
 conquest of Chile as an object worthy of his talents, and engaged 
 him in it notwithstanding his advanced age, which was then upwards 
 of seventy years. 
 
 The desert of Atacama separates Peru from Chile, and of the 
 two practicable roads connecting those provinces, Almagro's eager 
 impatience chose the shortest, though the most difficult, by the 
 mountains, instead of that by the sea-coast. The sufferings and loss 
 of Almagro's army, from cold and famine, during their march, ap- 
 pear incredible ; and, had not a few soldiers, better mounted than 
 the rest, pushed on to the valley of Copiapo, and obtained supplies 
 from the hospitable natives, which they sent back to meet their 
 suffering companions, in all probability the greater number must 
 have perished. 
 
 The Spaniards were kindly treated, and at first received by the 
 Chilenos with a veneration bordering on idolatry : but the thirst of 
 gold and silver, which had led them to seek the country through 
 burning deserts and over snowy mountains, soon led to disputes be- 
 tween the inhabitants and the soldiers, which Almagro revenged on 
 the former severely, and thus laid the foundation for that opposition 
 
2 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 on the part of the natives which still lays waste some of the best 
 provinces of the state. On reaching the southern side of the Cacha- 
 poal the Spanish army met several of the Indian tribes, and par- 
 ticularly the Promaucians, ready to oppose their farther progress ; 
 and though Almagro was on the whole victorious, he considered the 
 worth of the conquest as insufficient to reward the toils of the 
 conquerors, and in the 3'ear 1538 returned with his army to Peru, 
 where, after having possessed Cuzco for a short time, he was put 
 to death by order of Francisco Pizarro, in the seventy- fifth year of 
 his age. 
 
 Pedro de Valdivia was the next Spanish leader deputed by 
 Pizarro to conduct an army into Chile : he accordingly entered it in 
 1540 with 200 Spaniards and a large body of Peruvians, taking the 
 same road as Almagro ; but as it was the summer time, the soldiers 
 had nothing to fear from the cold, which had proved so fatal to 
 Almagro. The reception of Valdivia was very different from that 
 given to his predecessor. The Chilenos had learned to hate as well 
 as to fear the invaders. Every step was won by force of arms ; and 
 the settlements or colonies established by Valdivia were repeatedly 
 destroyed. Even Santiago, which he founded in 1541, did not find 
 sufficient defence in its citadel of Santa Lucia, but was burnt by the 
 people of the valley of Mapocho while Valdivia was advancing to 
 the banks of the Cachapoal to repel the Promaucians. On his 
 return from that expedition, he sent Alonzo Monroy and Pedro 
 Miranda, with six companions, towards the frontiers of Peru in order 
 to obtain succours ; and that they might the more readily entice 
 the European soldiers to join them, their bits and stirrups and spurs 
 were made of gold. This little company was however attacked by 
 the people of Copiapo, and Monroy and Miranda only escaped. 
 They were carried to the ulman or governor of the valley, who had 
 condemned them to death ; but the intercession of his wife saved 
 them ; a benefit which they repaid with the basest ingratitude. She 
 requested them to teach her son to ride, several of the Spanish 
 horses having been taken and brought to her. They made use of 
 
 & 
 
INTRODUCTION. 3 
 
 the opportunity to escape, but first needlessly stabbed her son, and 
 then fled to Cuzco. 
 
 That city was then governed by Castro, the successor of Pizarro, 
 who granted the assistance desired by Valdivia ; and Monroy led a 
 small body of recruits by land to Copiapo, while a considerable force 
 was conveyed by sea, under Juan Baptista Pastene, a noble Genoese. 
 Meantime Valdivia had obtained possession of the rich gold mines 
 of the valley of Quillota ; and, sensible that nothing effectual could 
 be done without a communication by sea with Peru, had begun to 
 build a vessel at the mouth of the river of Aconcagua, which rises 
 near the Cumbre pass of the Andes, traverses the whole valley of 
 Quillota, and falls into the dangerous bay of Concon, between the 
 harbours of Valparaiso and Quintero, neither of which receive any 
 considerable rivers. 
 
 On receiving the reinforcement from Castro, Valdivia imme- 
 diately ordered Pastene to explore the coast of Chile, as far as the 
 straits of Magellan ; and then despatched him to Peru for fresh 
 succours, as the natives became daily more enterprising, and had 
 recently put to death the whole body of soldiers stationed at the 
 gold mines near Quillota, burned the vessel which was just finished, 
 and destroyed the store-houses at the mouth of the river. On re- 
 ceiving news of this disaster, Valdivia marched from Santiago, 
 revenged the death of his people by exercising as much cruelty as 
 possible towards the unhappy Quillotanes, and built a fort for the 
 protection of the miners. Thence he advanced to meet his new 
 reinforcements under Villagran and Escobar, who brought him 300 
 men from Peru ; and desiring to have an establishment in the north- 
 ern part of Chile, he pitched upon the beautiful plain at the mouth 
 of the Coquimbo, where he established the colony of La Serena, 
 commonly called Coquimbo, in 1543. 
 
 The year following was marked by gaining over the Promaucian 
 Indians to the Spanish cause, to which they have ever since faithfully 
 adhered, impelled probably by their jealousy of their immediate 
 neighbours the Araucanians. Valdivia then pursued his conquests 
 
 B 2 
 
4 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 to the southward ; but after crossing the Maule was defeated at 
 Itata, and obliged to go in person to Peru to obtain reinforcements. 
 During his absence, the people of Copiapo, who had not forgotten 
 the treacherous murder of their young chief by Monroy and Miranda, 
 fell upon a detachment of forty Spaniards, and put them to death ; 
 and those of Coquimbo massacred all the inhabitants of the new 
 colony, and levelled its walls to the ground. Francis Aquirre was 
 immediately sent thither, and rebuilt the town in a more convenient 
 situation in 1549 ; and Valdivia having returned with a considerable 
 number of new adventurers, the northern part of Chile was, after 
 nine years of incessant and excessive fatigue on the part of the 
 general, reduced to tranquillity, and the lands parcelled out amongst 
 his oldest followers, according to the feudal customs then prevailing 
 in Europe. 
 
 The next year, 1550, Valdivia proceeded as far south as the 
 Biobio, near whose mouth, in the beautiful bay of Penco, he founded 
 the city of Conception^ in one of the richest and most fertile pro- 
 vinces of Chile. But his progress was stopped here by the Cacique 
 or Toqui Aillavilla, the chief of the Araucanians, who crossed the 
 Biobio in order to succour the people of Penco, and to resist to the 
 death these invaders of their territory. 
 
 Araucana is a rich and fertile province, extending from the Biobio 
 to the Callacalla, generally very woody, full of hills, and well 
 watered. The inhabitants are hardy, brave, and passionately fond of 
 liberty : they have never yet been subdued, having equally resisted 
 the armies of the Incas, and those of the Spaniards. It has been 
 their fortune to have a poet in the person of Ercilla, among their 
 enemies, who has done justice to their valour, and preserved the 
 memory of their very singular customs and polity, of which he was 
 an eye-witness, having taken a distinguished part in most of the 
 battles he describes. 
 
 Between the first foundation of Conception, 1550, and its destruc- 
 tion in 1554, the activity of Valdivia had founded Imperial on the 
 river, which forms a port at the very walls of the city, which, during 
 
INTRODUCTION. - 5 
 
 the short period of its existence, was the richest city in Chile ; Villa- 
 rica, on the banks of the lake Lauquen ; Vaidivia on the Callacalla 
 which commands the most beautiful and commodious harbour of the 
 Pacific : Angol, or the City of the Frontiers ; and had built the fort- 
 resses of Puren, Tucapel, and Arauco, the two latter of which were 
 quickly destroyed by the Cacique Caupolican, who by the assistance 
 of Lautaro, a young hero of his nation, overcame the Spaniards in a 
 great battle, in which Vaidivia was taken and put to death. 
 
 Lautaro had been taken prisoner by Vaidivia, who educated him, 
 and made him his page. He seemed attached to his conqueror, and 
 had never evinced a desire to join his countrymen, till, seeing them 
 routed in battle, and flying before the Spanish artillery, he was seized 
 with shame, stripped off his European garments, ran towards his 
 countrymen, and calling on them in the name of their country to 
 follow him, led them on to that victory which was confirmed by the 
 death of Vaidivia. From that day he became their principal leader. 
 Villagran, who succeeded to Vaidivia, immediately evacuated Con- 
 ception, which was burned to the ground by Lautaro ; but the small- 
 pox having appeared among the Araucanians, the Spaniards took 
 advantage of the distress occasioned by that dreadful malady, and 
 rebuilt Conception, 1555. Lautaro, however, immediately attacked 
 the new colonists, once more destroyed their city, and marched 
 directly towards Santiago. On the road, however, he was met by 
 Villagran, whom a spy had conducted by a secret path to the sea 
 shore, where the Araucanians had halted in a pass between a high 
 hill and the ocean. He came upon them at day-light, and just as 
 Lautaro, having watched during the night, had retired to rest. Lau- 
 taro, who ran to the front of his army as soon as he heard the 
 approach of the enemy, received an arrow through his heart ere he 
 could give .directions for the fight ; but his people perished to a man ; 
 and their enemies record their unshaken valour, and the virtues of 
 the young hero, who, dying in his nineteenth year, has left a name 
 pre-eminent in the history of patriotism. 
 
 After the death of Lautaro, Conception was rebuilt, Cafiete 
 
6 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 founded, and the Archipelago of Chiloe discovered by the Spaniards. 
 Ercilla accompanied the discoverers, and inscribed some verses on a 
 tree, recording his name and the date of the discovery, January 31st, 
 1558 ; and on the return from Chiloe, the city of Osorno was built. 
 
 At this period the Araucana of Ercilla closes ; the poem having 
 extended to the events of nine years, the time of the poet's service 
 in the South American army. He then returned to Spain, and was 
 employed in the European wars of Philip II. The continuation of 
 the poem by Osorio is far from possessing equal merit with that of 
 Ercilla : it extends no farther than the death of the second cacique 
 (called Caupolican), the temporary subjugation of Ai*aucana, and the 
 disappearance of its chiefs. 
 
 But while the Spanish governors were engaged in invading 
 Tucuman, and building the towns of Mendoza and San Juan, beyond 
 the Andes, the Araucanians were silently preparing for new wars, 
 and, ere they were expected, sallied from their woods and destroyed 
 the flourishing town of Caiiete, which was however rebuilt (1665) by 
 the younger Villagran, who had succeeded his father in the govern- 
 ment. The next year Ruiz Gamboa was sent to take possession of 
 Chiloe, and founded the city of Castro and the port of Chacao. 
 
 Meantime, the long continuance of the war in so important a 
 province as Chile, and the consideration of the great inconvenience 
 of applying to Peru in all cases of civil and criminal jurisdiction, 
 induced Philip II. to establish a court of audience at Conception ; 
 but the courtj arrogating to itself military as well as civil authoritv, 
 was soon discovered to be worse than useless, and was therefore 
 suppressed in 1575. There had been a suspension of hostilities 
 between the Spaniards and Chilenos for nearly four years, owing, in 
 great measure, to the effects of an earthquake, which had laid waste 
 a great part of the country ; but the Araucanians had employed the 
 interval in diligently seeking allies among the neighbouring Indians, 
 and had engaged the Pehuenches, a mountain nation, and the Che- 
 quillans, the most savage of the Indians, to assist them in resisting 
 the Spaniards ; and he same harassing and continued warfare took 
 
INTRODUCTION. 7 
 
 place which had marked the government of each successive captain- 
 general from the time of Valdivia. 
 
 Notwithstanding; these continued disturbances in the south, the 
 quantity of the precious metals derived from Chile, the fertility of 
 the country, and the mildness of the climate, began to attract the 
 attention of other nations. The English, under Sir Thomas Caven- 
 dish, who arrived in 1586, with three ships, attempted to form a 
 settlement in the bay of Quintero, but were immediately attacked 
 and repulsed by the Spaniards, who suffered no nation to interfere 
 in their new settlements. A second expedition under Sir John 
 Narborough, in the reign of Charles II., was still more unfortunate, 
 the whole fleet being lost in the straits of Magellan. 
 
 The Dutch also, with five ships, attempted in 1600 to make a 
 settlement in the Island of Chiloe, and began by plundering the 
 settlement and massacring the settlers ; but the crew of their 
 commodore having landed at Talca, the Indians fell upon and de- 
 stroyed them, and the enterprise was therefore abandoned. Mean- 
 time the Araucanians, under Paillamachu, had leagued themselves 
 with all the Indian tribes, as far as the Archipelago of Chiloe. 
 Every Spaniard that was found outside of the fortresses was slain, 
 and the cities of Osorno, Valdivia, Villarica, Imperial, Cariete, Angol, 
 Coya, and the smaller fortresses, were invested at once. Conception 
 and Chilian were burned, and in little more than three years all the 
 settlements of Valdivia and his successors between the Biobio and 
 Chiloe were destroyed : the inhabitants, after suffering the extremes 
 of famine, were made prisoners, and the unmarried of both sexes 
 given to people of the country, but the married allowed to retain 
 their wives and families. The descendants of these prisoners are 
 among the most inveterate enemies of the Spaniards, but the Indians 
 have improved in the arts of civil life by their means. The fortunate 
 cacique died in 1603, the year after the taking of Osorno, the last 
 place that he reduced. 
 
 To prevent a recurrence of these disasters, a body of 2,000 regular 
 troops was established on the frontier in 1608, which has at least 
 
8 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 served the purpose of preventing the Indians from any serious in- 
 vasion of the northern districts ; but their predatory inroads have 
 never been wholly repressed, and Araucana continued free. 
 
 In 1609, the court of audience, which had been suppressed at 
 Conception, was re-established at Santiago, a city far enough from 
 the Indian frontier not to dread the incursions of the natives, but 
 too distant from the sea, being ninety miles from Valparaiso, its 
 nearest port. This situation, however, had at that period its con- 
 venience, as it was out of the reach of the French, Dutch, and 
 English adventurers, who then disturbed the tranquillity and 
 endangered the possessions of the Spanish settlements on the 
 shores of the Pacific. 
 
 In 1638, the Dutch made an attempt to form an alliance with the 
 Araucanians, and thus obtain possession of Chile ; but that nation 
 refused all intercourse with Europeans, and destroyed the parties the 
 Dutch had landed both in. the islands of Mocha and Talca. Not 
 disheartened, however, that enterprising people returned in 1643 
 with a numerous fleet, troops, and artillery, took possession of the 
 deserted Valdivia, and began to build three strong forts at the en- 
 trance of the harbour. But the Indians not only refused to assist 
 them in arms, but denied them provisions ; and they were compelled 
 to abandon the place three months after their landing. The 
 Spaniards availed themselves of the labour of the Dutch ; finished 
 their forts, and strengthened the island of Mancura. So that the 
 settlement remained undisturbed from without till the late revolution. 
 
 While the provinces of southern Chile wei'e thus desolated and 
 depopulated by a continual warfare, the same causes that threw back 
 the other Spanish provinces operated also upon this small state. 
 The unnatural aggrandisement of Spain during the reign of Charles V. 
 involved it in all the wars of the continent of Europe ; and as it had 
 lost the advantages it had derived from the arts and agriculture of 
 the Moors, which were never replaced by any corresponding industry, 
 the sole resources whence the long and expensive contests of that 
 prince could be supplied, lay in the quantity of the precious metals im- 
 
INTRODUCTION. 9 
 
 ported from the new world. Hence the short-sighted policy of 
 repressing all industry in the colonies, that was not directly applied 
 to the procuring gold and silver, the jealous exclusion of com- 
 merce, and the prohibitions of manufactures, excepting the very 
 coarsest for home consumption. The misfortunes which attended 
 the successors of Charles in some measure fell also on their foreign 
 possessions ; and as the demand for treasure became more urgent, 
 the circumstances of South America became such as to render the 
 supply more difficult. The wars and the cruelties of the Spaniards 
 had destroyed so many of the Indians, that there were scarcely any 
 left to labour in the mines ; and though a bargain was made with the 
 Dutch to supply African negroes for the purpose, the number of 
 these, in Chile at least, was never great. The first viceroys and 
 governors had been men of enterprise and talents ; and although the 
 character of Valdivia is not free from the imputation of cruelty, yet 
 the building of towns, establishing something like lawful tribunals^ 
 and a disposition to win over, if possible, the natives, which form the 
 principal object both of his government and that of some of his imme- 
 diate successors, were highly beneficial. But before the accession of 
 Philip V. the wants of a needy court had set up the high offices of the 
 Indies to sale. The viceroys no longer sought to distinguish them- 
 selves by arms or policy ; and they jealously guarded commerce from 
 the intrusion of strangers only that they themselves might become 
 the sole monopolists. The instructions sent by the court of Ver- 
 sailles to Marsin, the ambassador at Madrid, in 1701, contain the 
 following observations: — "The rights of the crown of the Western 
 " Indies have been sacrificed to the avarice of viceroys, governors, and 
 " inferior officers." And again, — " The different councils of Madrid 
 " are full of abuses, and that of the Indies particularly so. In it, so far 
 " from punishing malversations, the guilty are supported in propor- 
 " tion to their bribes. The excesses of the viceroys and other officers 
 " remain unpunished. This impunity, and the immense property 
 " which they bring back, encourage their successors to follow the same 
 " example. On the contrary, if any one, from a principle of honour, 
 
 c 
 
IQ INTRODUCTION. 
 
 " pursues a different course, his disinterestedness is punished by a 
 " shameful poverty. If he is a subaltern, the reproach which his 
 " conduct draws on his superiors, or the attention he bestows to 
 " throw light on theirs, exposes him to hatred. He soon feels the 
 " effects, in the loss of his employments ; for truth never reaches the 
 ',' king of Spain; distance gives facilities for disguising it, and 
 " timely presents can always obscure it." 
 
 Meanwhile, the ambitious and enterprising court of Louis XIV. 
 had turned its views to the advantages to be derived from a colony 
 on the western coast of South America, or, at least, an exclusive 
 right of commerce. Accordingly, having obtained the privilege of 
 supplying Peru and Mexico with slaves, instead of the Dutch, the 
 French ships began to trade thither ; and, as opportunity occurred, 
 men of science in different branches were sent to observe and report 
 on the state of the country. Father Feuille, to whom we are indebted 
 for the best botanical account of Chile, where he resided for three 
 years, was one of these ; and Frezier, whose " Voyage to the South 
 Sea" can never be sufficiently commended for its accuracy, was 
 another. But the consequences of this French commerce, as exclu- 
 sive as that of the Spaniards themselves, were far from beneficial to 
 Spain or the colonies. The French traders were formed into two 
 companies, which interfered with the rights of the Spanish merchants, 
 and excluded all others: and in 1709 we find the following; remark- 
 able passage in the memorial on the state of Spain, transmitted by 
 the French minister, Araelot, from Madrid : — " The riches of Peru 
 " and Mexico, those inexhaustible sources of wealth, are almost lost 
 " to Spain. Not only are complaints made against the French mer- 
 " chants for ruining the trade of Cadiz and Seville, in spite of the 
 " regulations of the French court against those who infringe the 
 " established rules ; but the enormous abuses of the administration 
 " of the viceroys continue in full force. Avarice and pillage are un- 
 " punished ; fortresses and garrisons are neglected ; all things seem 
 " to portend a fatal revolution." At this period the viceroys were 
 recalled ; and an attempt was made to restrain the enormous profits 
 
INTRODUCTION. 1 1 
 
 arising from their offices. Chile was then under the viceroyalty of 
 Peru, and the captains-general often, if not always, nominated by the 
 viceroys ; so that the same system of extortion went on, in order to 
 furnish means for the same system of bribery, in a subordinate 
 degree, at the vice-court of Lima, as pervaded the council of the 
 Indies at Madrid. 
 
 The feeble monarchs of the house of Bourbon in Spain, were too 
 much harassed by their continual domestic struggles with their 
 people, who never heartily loved or respected the French dynasty, 
 and by the share they took in all European wars, and in that between 
 England and her North American colonies, to have either leisure or 
 power to ameliorate the condition of the western kingdoms. Indeed 
 after the provincial edicts of 1718, drawn up with ability, and well 
 adapted to the circumstances of the country, it does not appear 
 that any considerable effort was made in Europe in favour of the 
 colonists. Some of the captains-general, and vicei*oys, it is true, earned 
 the name of fathers of the people over whom they presided ; and 
 Chile, in particular, has reason to be grateful to Don Ambrosio 
 O'Higgins, an Irish soldier, who, having served in the Spanish 
 armies, afterwards commanded the troops on the frontier of Chile, 
 and having repulsed the Indians, who had once more begun to 
 threaten the tranquillity of that state, he put many of the fron- 
 tier towns and forts in a state of proper defence, discovered the 
 ruins of Osorno, which he rebuilt, and made an excellent road from 
 Valdivia to that city, thereby facilitating the intercourse with Chiloe. 
 These services were rewarded with the title of Marquis of Osorno, 
 and the office of captain-general of Chile. He continued his bene- 
 ficent and splendid works on his removal to the capital. He built 
 bridges, he formed the present road by the Cumbre pass across the 
 Andes from Santiago to Mendoza, on which he caused rest-houses 
 to be built for the accommodation of travellers, and he caused the 
 broad carriage-road from Valparaiso to the capital to be constructed 
 in such a manner, that, though it has not since been repaired, it 
 has resisted the rains and earthquakes so often destructive in Chile. 
 
 c 2 
 
12 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 On his removal to Lima, as viceroy of Peru, the same disin- 
 terestedness as to private fortune, the same regard to pubhc utihty, 
 continued to distinguish his character. To him the Limanians are 
 indebted for the fine road between their city and the port of Callao, 
 and for other works of usefulness and ornament. His justice and 
 beneficence, during his administration, are still remembered with 
 gratitude, both in Chile and Peru ; and his death, in 1799 or 1800, 
 when he left his family far from rich, was most sincerely regretted. 
 
 This event brings us within a very few years of the period when 
 the South American colonies of Spain began to claim, first, equal 
 privileges with the mother country ; and, finally, that independence 
 as a right, of which they prepared to assert their possession as a fact, 
 which the fleets and armies of Old Spain were in no condition to 
 controvert. The emancipation of North America had produced an 
 effect, at first unnoticed, but which broke out from time to time in 
 impatient and impotent struggles, both in the Spanish and Portu- 
 guese colonies. As the courts of Europe became either more feeble, 
 or more deeply engaged in the momentous concerns of the long 
 revolutionary war, their western settlements came to feel not only 
 that they were strong enough to protect themselves, but that they 
 might eventually be forced to do so, if they wished to evade sub- 
 jection to a power, whose manners, habits and language, were foreign, 
 and consequently hateful to them. The period during which they 
 were thus, in a manner, left to themselves, taught them to discover 
 and to depend on their own resources ; and the constant demands 
 for money supplies from a distant government, which could afford in 
 return little aid or protection, disgusted the natives with so distant 
 and expensive a monarchy. 
 
 The influence of the church too, which had hitherto been almost 
 omnipotent in favour of the ancient order of things, betyan to be 
 exerted, perhaps unintentionally, in the cause of independence. To 
 prevent South America from falling into the hands of the French, 
 a nation without an inquisition, and tolerant alike of Jew, heretic, 
 and infidel, became a serious object with the priests ; and hence, 
 
INTRODUCTION. 13 
 
 while the revolutionists proceeded at first cautiously, and only pro- 
 fessed to hold the country for the legitimate sov ereign, resisting the 
 French usurpation, the priests were always to be found on the 
 patriot side. They began to discover the necessity of more education 
 among themselves ; hence, books long proscribed and placed on the 
 interdicted lists, were sought after, and read with eagerness. Per- 
 sons were sent even to England to purchase these ; and though, in 
 the first heat of the moment, good and bad were taken together, 
 and systems of all kinds mingled and confused, yet all tended to 
 produce an anxious longing for independence, a serious determin- 
 ation to cast off the yoke of the mother country. 
 
 This design was furthered in no small degree by emissaries from 
 the central junta of Old Spain, who came partly to raise supplies for 
 the Peninsular war, partly to persuade the colonies to disavow the 
 sovereignty of Joseph Buonaparte, and to reserve themselves for 
 their rightful sovereign Ferdinand. They brought with them the 
 opinion of Don Gaspar Jovellanos, delivered on the 7th of October, 
 1808, before the central junta, where he says, " When a people 
 " discovers the imminent danger of the society of which it is a 
 " member, and knows that the administrators of the authority, who 
 " ought to govern and defend it, are suborned and enslaved, it 
 " naturally enters into the necessity of defending itself, and of con- 
 " sequence acquires an extraordinary and legitimate right of insur- 
 " rection." The South Americans were too much in earnest in their 
 wishes for independence to let slip so favourable a pretext, and those 
 who had not begun the work of revolution before, now advanced 
 towards it with greater or less caution as their situation permitted. 
 
 But there is no comparison between the circumstances under 
 which the British colonies of North America asserted their inde- 
 pendence, and those in which the Spaniards in South America are 
 now struggling for it. The Spanish colonies, from the first, had 
 furnished such abundance of gold and silver, that they became at 
 once the objects of the attention, and of the interference of the 
 government in Europe. The whole cumbersome machinery of an 
 
J4 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 old monarchy, ecclesiastical, military, and civil, was at once trans- 
 ferred to them. The rights of Mayorasgo, which is, in fact, a strict 
 entail, by keeping immense tracts of uncultivated land in the hands 
 of individuals, checked population by preventing that division of 
 property so favourable to cultivation, and consequently to the 
 increase of hands. * And, finally, every act of government ema- 
 nated directly from the council at Madrid, and every officer of 
 consequence, was a Spaniard sent from Europe, so that there was 
 no occasion which could call out the talents, or exercise the powers 
 of the natives of the country. 
 
 But the political institutions of the British colonies were more 
 favourable to the improvement of the states, and the cultivation of 
 the land, than any other. Many of the original settlers were men 
 who were carried there by the desire of liberty of conscience, who 
 took with them that sturdy and independent spirit which resists 
 interference, as oppression ; and who, forming their own provincial 
 councils, legislated and governed for themselves, and transmitted 
 that privilege to their children. The land too was by no means so 
 engrossed. Alienation was made easy, and as each person obtaining 
 a new grant was obliged to cultivate a certain proportion of his 
 land, population increased as rapidly as the means of subsistence ; 
 and the governors being mostly chosen from among the colonists 
 themselves, there was always a proportion of men so educated as 
 to be capable of that important task. 
 
 Hence the states of North America, firm and united in purpose, 
 and prepared by the best education (for there is an education of 
 states as well as men), rose at once from the state of a disunited 
 colony, after an expensive war, to the dignity of a great nation, while 
 years must, perhaps, elapse before the harassed provinces of Spanish 
 
 * I am aware that the subdivision of property may be carried to a mischievous length, 
 as is now, or will shortly be, the case in France by the operation of the Agrarian law. 
 But in Chile the enormous estates are mischievous, because it is impossible that any one 
 proprietor in the present state of the country, or perhaps in any state, should attempt the 
 improvement of a twentieth part of his land. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 15 
 
 America can assume a national character, even now that the yoke of 
 Spain is virtually broken, for want of the internal material, if I may 
 so speak, to form a government. 
 
 The whole system of Spain, while the colonies were kept close, 
 was, with regard to them, commercial, and not political. The vice- 
 roys were, in fact, after the first wars with the natives were over, no 
 more than the presidents of a set of monopolists ; their views were 
 bounded by their sordid and narrow mercantile interests, and the 
 government and occupation of Mexico and Peru were never looked 
 upon otherwise than as a means of acquiring riches, while the 
 freedom, happiness, or interest of the inhabitants was neglected. 
 Sloth and ignorance were the necessary consequences ; and when the 
 people roused, as from sleep, and asserted their independence, the 
 habits and ideas of the class, from which of necessity the chiefs and 
 governors were chosen, had been so moulded on those of the ancient 
 order of things, that they have followed the same path ; and regard- 
 ing the possession of power as merely that of the capital of a mer- 
 cantile company, they have speculated accordingly, and, by petty 
 trafficking, public and private monopolies, and trading schemes, have 
 injured the people they ruled, excited distrust among foreigners, and, 
 in many cases, ruined themselves. 
 
 Such, at least, has been the case in Chile, and such I believe 
 it to have been in Peru and the provinces of La Plata. I am too 
 little informed of the facts relating to Columbia and Mexico, but, 
 from what has come to my knowledge, I suspect it has not been 
 very different with them : but it is time to return to the history of 
 Chile, of which alone I can speak with certainty. 
 
 It was on the 22d of June, 1810, that Carasco, captain-general of 
 Chile, having convened the inhabitants of Santiago to a meeting in 
 the palace square for the purpose of promulgating to them the orders 
 of the expatriated court of Spain to obey the French regency, that 
 the first popular tumult took place. Some private meetings had 
 been held before. The agents of the central junta were not inactive, 
 but no public occasion had yet appeared to call forth the public 
 
X6 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 sentiment. On that day, however, it was loudly declared, and 
 although Carasco was suffered to remain in his office, the whole of 
 the other members of his government, with the exception of Reyes, 
 the secretary, were dismissed, imprisoned, or banished. A few days 
 afterwards Carasco himself was cashiered, and brigadier-general 
 Torre, Conde de la Conquista, was elected captain-general by the 
 people. 
 
 At this time the royal troops in Chile consisted only of the usual 
 2000 men on the Indian frontier, with about fifty dragoons in the 
 capital ; and of these a part had been already gained over to the 
 cause of independence by Don Bernardo O'Higgins, then bearing a 
 colonel's commission, and stationed at Chilian, his native town. 
 This officer was the son of Don Ambrosio O'Higgins, Marquis of 
 Osorno, who sent him early to Europe, where he remained some 
 years, five of which were spent in England, at the academy of 
 Mr. Hill, at Richmond, in Surrey, where he had not only learned the 
 language perfectly, but a good deal of the free and independent spirit 
 of the nation. 
 
 The conditions on which Torre was made captain-general were, 
 that he should not acknowledge the French regency, but reserve the 
 province of Chile for king Ferdinand, adhering meantime to the 
 principles and constitution of the junta. But some bolder patriots 
 ventured to hint at a more complete independence, and the Marquis, 
 with his natural timidity, at first endeavoured to silence these whis- 
 pers, and afterwards sent the authors of them, among whom was the 
 poet Dr. Vera, prisoners to Lima. Mean time the principal persons 
 of the country had resolved on a complete change in the form of 
 government, and on the 18th September of the same year a meeting 
 was held, at which the office of captain-general was suppressed, and 
 a junta was appointed which was to acknowledge the rights of Fer- 
 dinand, but to resist every foreign authority. Torre, the ex-captain- 
 general, was named president ; his colleagues were the Marquis de la 
 Plata (the richest man in Chile), Don Francisco Rayna, Don Juan 
 Henrique Rosales, Don Juan Martinez Rosas, and Don Ingnacio 
 
INTRODUCTION. 17 
 
 Carrera, the speaker or secretary of the junta. The president was 
 allowed a casting vote. 
 
 The first act of the junta was to levy an array, if we may call two 
 small bodies of raw recruits by that name. The first of infantry was 
 intrusted to Jose Santiago Luco, the agent for the junta of Old Spain, 
 and, under him, to Don Juan Jose Carrera, the second son of Don 
 Ignacio, and the other, a mounted troop, was placed under Torre, 
 the son of the president. The next object to which the junta directed 
 its attention was the assembling a national congress, to consist of 
 members from every township in Chile, and while means were taking 
 for carrying this desirable measure into effect, the Marquis de la 
 Conquista died in the month of November, and the more active 
 Rosas was elected president in his stead. It was not until the 11th 
 of April of the following year (1811), that the people of the different 
 towns met to elect their representatives, and on that occasion the first 
 blood was shed on account of the Revolution. The immediate cause 
 of this was as follows : — The royal party of Buenos Ayres had request- 
 ed assistance from Chile, and accordingly 400 men had been detached 
 from the army of the southern frontier under Don Tomas Figaroa by 
 sea, from Talca to Valpai-aiso, whence they were proceeding by land to 
 cross the Andes by the road of the Cumbre to Mendoza. They had 
 already reached Casablanca on their way, when the fifty dragoons of the 
 capital, alarmed at the electorial meetings, sent to Figaroa, entreating 
 him to hasten his march, and to take under his command, not only 
 their troop, but the recruits which were in training for the patriot 
 army, whom they engaged to secure. Figaroa, leaving his 400 
 men to follow, pushed on to Santiago, and putting himself at the 
 head of the dragoons, who had performed their promise' of securing 
 the recruits, whom they forced sword in hand to join them, went into 
 the playa with the imprudent determination of dispersing the people 
 assembled for the purpose of electing their representatives. They 
 were not, however, to be deterred from their purpose, and turning 
 on the royalists, completely discomfited them and forced them to 
 retreat, leaving about forty persons of both sides dead in the square. 
 
 D 
 
18 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Figaroa took refuge in the convent of San Domingo, where he was 
 discovered the next day and brought out and shot in the pla9a. * 
 
 Meantime the business of election proceeded, and in June the 
 congress met. Don Bernardo O'Higgins, who was afterwards to act 
 so conspicuous a part in the Revolution, being the deputy from 
 Chilian. The first act of the representative body was to depose the 
 junta, and constitute itself a legislative assembly, confiding the 
 executive power to the commission of three men, Rosas, the pre- 
 sident of the former junta, Don Martin de Incarada, and Don 
 
 Mackenna. But Rosas was, at this time, absent at Conception, called 
 thither by a species of civil discord which had nearly ruined the 
 patriot cause. Conception having had some former claims to being 
 considered the capital of Chile, being in fact nearly in the centre of 
 its provinces, and situated on a harbour the most advantageous for 
 commerce, had also been the most forward in furthering the cause 
 of independence. Its inhabitants, therefore, insisted that the seat of 
 government should be there placed, and particularly that the con- 
 gress should sit there. The people of Santiago, however, who had 
 long enjoyed the advantages attendant on having the metropolis fixed 
 in their city, were not disposed to give them up. They pleaded also 
 the safety of their situation, equally removed from the Indians and 
 the sea ; whereas Conception, so near the Araucanian Indians, who 
 might easily be prevailed on to invade and waste their lands, (as 
 indeed they have done since,) was too much exposed to be proper for 
 the assembly of the legislative body. The prudence of Rosas for 
 the time quieted the clamour of the people of Conception ; and, as 
 he still remained among them, Don Juan Miguel Benevente was 
 . appointed his proxy as one of the executive triumvirate. 
 
 The first act of the legislative assembly was to abolish slavery. 
 All children of slaves were from that moment born free, and all 
 
 # 
 
 May 5th, 1810. The viceroy, Cisneros, unable to resist the public voice at Buenos 
 Ayres, had called together the first junta of government to resist the French claims on 
 that province, and to establish a provisional government. In 1811, Artigas began to dis- 
 tinguish himself; — there has been scarcely a three months' cessation of civil war in that 
 vfide province since. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 19 
 
 slaves brought to Chile were to become free on six months' 
 residence there. But the congress, as is usual with all new poli- 
 tical bodies, attempted to compass more than was within its reach 
 at so early a period. Not content with seeking to establish inde- 
 pendence by adapting old institutions to circumstances, substituting 
 new where necessary, raising troops, and above all guarding the 
 frontier ; a college, museum, printing-office, and other public esta- 
 blishments were projected, which, however, there was not time to 
 bring to any degree of perfection before another revolution took 
 place, by means of a young man who acted so conspicuous a part in 
 several succeeding years, both in Chile and the states of Buenos 
 Ayres, that some account of him cannot be altogether uninter- 
 esting. 
 
 Don Jose Miguel Carrera was the second son of Don Ignacio Car- 
 rera, of an ancient Creole family, rich itself originally, but still richer 
 at the period of the revolution, from the grants or easy purchases 
 obtained by Don Ignacio, of certain lands forfeited either by old 
 Spaniards, or by religious bodies which had been suppressed. This 
 young man, possessed of great advantages of person, natural intel- 
 ligence, and many qualities of a higher class, was uneducated and 
 wild. In early life, like the heroes of Moliere's comedies, he had 
 recourse to all sorts of petty and entertaining roguery to raise money 
 to supply his private, and not always innocent expenses; till, at 
 length, one of these expedients encroached so largely on the fortune 
 of an uncle established as a merchant at Lima, that Don Ignacio, 
 by way of separating him at once from the evil companions whom 
 he regarded as the seducers of his son, sent him to Spain, where he 
 entered the army. There is a dark story of an Indian murdered 
 while defending the honour of his wife or daughter, which his 
 enemies talk loudly of, and his friends know to be too consonant 
 to his habits not to fear it true. 
 
 But Spain, at that period, was the last place which could reform 
 either the morals or manners of a youth so gifted as Jose Miguel 
 Carrera ; — overrun with armies from every country in Europe ; full 
 
 D 2 
 
20 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 of all the crimes and wretchedness attendant on foreign and domestic 
 strife. He imbibed indeed a spirit of enthusiasm, and a knowledge 
 of the partisan or guerilla warfare which harrassed the French, and, 
 even more than the victories of Wellington, drove them out of 
 Spain ; and he returned to Chile with no profit but a wish to join 
 in the struggle for independence, and no desire but to imitate Napo- 
 leon, — to profit by what had been done by others, and to possess the 
 country, and raise his family to a rank hitherto unequalled there. 
 
 The influence of his family was great. Don Ignacio, no longer 
 a member of the actual government, yet possessed great weight ; 
 Juan Jose was already second commander of the chief body of the 
 troops ; the sister, Donna Xaviera, a lady of great beauty and address, 
 both by her first and second marriage was connected with some of 
 the principal families of Chile ; and the younger brother, a singu- 
 larly handsome youth, was very generally beloved on account of the 
 sweetness of his manners, and his uncommonly amiable disposition. 
 
 With these advantages, Jose Miguel did not find it difficult to 
 cause the dismissal of Luco from the head of the army, and to pro- 
 cure his own appointment to succeed him. His frank and noble 
 manners quickly engaged the affections of the soldiers, his liberality 
 confirmed their attachment, while his enthusiasm and eloquence 
 gained him many partisans among the higher classes. But the 
 command of the army while subject to the congress, and while that 
 command was divided with the colonel of the artillery and other 
 officers not of his family or faction, did not satisfy his ambition : he 
 therefore began to sound the opinions of the various parties which 
 a time of revolution is sure to form. To the patriots he pretended 
 a thorough zeal for their cause mingled with hints of the slow pro- 
 gress of the congress ; to the royalists he promised to restore the 
 ancient order of things ; and his own party were to see a council 
 established with Don Ignacio at their head, and the three sons in 
 command of the horse, foot, and artillery of the state. These 
 schemes were not so quietly agitated but that reports and rumours 
 of them got abroad ; but so frankly did Jose Miguel carry himself, 
 
INTRODUCTION. 21 
 
 SO fearlessly did he deny or laugh at all who ventured to name them, 
 that all suspicion seems to have been lulled. On the night of the 
 14th of Nov., when Mackenna,the commander of the artillery, called 
 on .Juan Jose in his quarters, he found the whole family assembled ; 
 the three brothers, Donna Xaviera, and the father : but as Juan 
 Jose seemed to be confined by illness, even the unusual appearance 
 of Don Ignacio in town, did not excite surprise. Jose Miguel 
 accompanied Mackenna back to his lodging, saying laughingly, " cer- 
 tainly now they will say that my father is come to town to place 
 himself at the head of affairs." The next morning, at daybreak, the 
 city was alarmed by the sound of beating to arms. The prin- 
 cipal officers of the artillery and grenadiers were placed under arrest. 
 Juan Jose remained at the foundling barracks, while Luis put him- 
 self at the head of the artillery and detached two guns to the aid of 
 his brother.' Jose Miguel dispersed the senate and established a 
 new junta of which he was declared president, and all the offices of 
 government were filled by the Carreras and their connections. 
 
 Such a government, however, where the chief power was in the 
 hands of a man of talent, it is true, but of so imprudent a character 
 that no one could trust him, — of so changeable a will that himself 
 knew not always what his own intentions were, — andso great a lover of 
 pleasure, that the slightest temptation allured him to forget the 
 gravest affairs of state in music and dancing, displeased all the pro- 
 vinces which were not in the immediate neighbourhood of the capital. 
 The juntas of Valdivia and Conception, in particular, made heavy 
 complaints ; the old claim of the latter city to be considered as the 
 metropolis was revived ; and a civil war appeared inevitable.* The 
 
 * The account given above of the early life of Jose Miguel Carrera, and of the manner 
 in which he seized the government, was communicated to me by a gentleman who had 
 resided during the whole period at Santiago, who was tenderly attached to Luis Carrera, 
 his schoolfellow, and who evidently softened many things in his recital as much as possible. 
 Nevertheless, I print as an appendix Mr. Y.'s very interesting paper, entirely satisfied of 
 the truth of every part where Mr. Y. was an eye-witness, and knowing the rest to be the 
 story told by the family, who-undoubtedly loved Jose Miguel with a warmth honourable 
 to him, although even his friends confess that he had no steadiness and little principle 
 even in private life. 
 
22 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 discontent of the south, indeed, had arisen to such a pitch, that Carrera 
 put himself at the head of the troops, and advanced as far as the 
 Maule, in order to reduce Conception ; but Rosas was still there, 
 and, having heard of the march of the army, he went out to meet it. 
 
 On reaching Carrera's head-quarters on the banks of the river, 
 his prudent representations induced the young general to withdraw, 
 and for this time to spare the effusion of blood. He therefore re- 
 turned to the capital on the 12th of March, 1813, and resumed the 
 reins of government. The sixteen months of his power had been of 
 little use to the country. His profuseness to the soldiers increased 
 their numbers indeed, but it was at an expense so new a state was ill 
 able to bear ; and of many useful projects he had formed, not one was 
 really accomplished, partly owing to his unsteadiness, and partly to 
 want of money.* 
 
 Meanwhile the viceroy of Peru, Abascal, was no indifferent spectator 
 of the affairs of Chile ; and seeing the discord that prevailed, he had 
 ordered general Pareja, who commanded in Chiloe, to observe both 
 parties carefully, and to seize on the first favourable occasion to restore 
 the royal government. In consequence of this order, Pareja landed in 
 Chile in the middle of the very month in which Carrera had made 
 his excursion to the Maule. It appears that the royalists in Con- 
 ception and Valdivia had believed Carrera to be in earnest in his pro- 
 fessions of attachment to their party, at the time he had first seized 
 the government, and that he would unite himself with Pareja as 
 soon as a fit opportunity occurred. They therefore openly declared 
 themselves for the royal cause. There was no union in the opposite 
 party ; and the whole of the south of Chile was soon in the hands of 
 the invader. 
 
 But the Carreras, though by their imprudence they often forwarded 
 the royal cause, or hurt that of the patriots, were not traitors ; at 
 
 * The means which were resorted to in order to procure horses and other necessaries 
 for the army rather resembled the lawless actions of a freebooter than those of the head 
 of a regular government, — for private property was in no case respected. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 23 
 
 least in that sense. They immediately marched towards the south, 
 and in the very beginning of April the head-quarters of their army 
 were at Talca. All the officers which their dissensions had cashiered 
 or rusticated, were recalled. Mackenna was quarter- master-general ; 
 O'Higgins commanded all the troops of the south,and the native militia 
 — a useful body in such a country, being most expert horsemen, and 
 armed with lances fifteen feet long. The deep and rapid Maule 
 formed the line of defence, whose very fords- are not always practi- 
 cable for horse, much less for infantry. A person named Poinsett, 
 acting as American consul, was then with the Carreras, and ap- 
 pears to have taken an active part in all affairs, even to interfer- 
 ing in the military business of the time ; but his ignorance, if not 
 his cowardice, seems to have been of singular disservice to those 
 unfortunate young men, who, following his advice, more than once 
 retired to safe quarters, while inferior officers were gaining advantages 
 over the enemy ; and the unhappy issue of the affair of Yervas-buenas, 
 which at first appeared favourable to the patriots, is entirely attri- 
 buted to him. 
 
 Jose Miguel remained at head-quarters at Talca, five leagues from 
 the river, while the great body of the army under Luis was on the 
 bank of the Maule. Fortunately for the Chilenbs, Pareja seems to 
 have been a man of as little capacity for military affairs as their own 
 leaders. Numerous skirmishes took place, the patriots generally 
 gaining ground, till at length, in the beginning of October, the action 
 of the Roble, where O'Higgins turned the fortune of the day, drove 
 the enemy into Chilian, and left the Chilenos masters of the country 
 between the Maule and Itata, 
 
 The singular and irregular conduct of the Carreras had now dis- 
 gusted most of the Chilenos ; their absence from the capital allowed 
 time and opportunity for conspiring against them, and their over- 
 throw was carried into effect quietly and decorously. It is believed, 
 that the family of La Rayna was the centre of the plot ; but they pru- 
 dently took no direct share of the government themselves, appointing 
 
24 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 as Supreme Director of the state, Don Henriquez Lastra *, a man of 
 unquestioned probity and great good sense, though slow in business, 
 then governor of Valparaiso and head of marine, and sending an order 
 to Jose Miguel Carrera to place the command of the army in the hands 
 of Don Bernardo O'Higgins. This order was for some time evaded, 
 but at length complied with about the period when the brothers, 
 Jose Miguel and Luis, were taken prisoners by the royalists and con- 
 fined in Chilian. Meantime the patriots had recovered most of the 
 territory north of the Biobio, and particularly the town of Concep- 
 tion. O'Higgins found the army in a sad state of want, the military 
 chest exhausted, and daily parties were deserting "j" ; so that he did not 
 refuse to negotiate with the new Spanish general, Gaenza, who had 
 been deputed from the vice-court of Peru, on the death of Pareja. 
 The British captain, Hillier, of His Majesty's ship Phoebe, became 
 guarantee for the performance of the conditions of the peace, the arti- 
 cles of which were signed at Lircae near Talca, on the 3d of May, 1814. 
 It was stipulated that Chile should acknowledge the sovereignty of 
 Ferdinand, at least until his restoration : and, meantime, govern her- 
 self by congress, and enjoy a free trade. Gaenza was bound to give 
 up the Carreras, and with his army to evacuate Chile. But while 
 the commissioners repaired to Lima to submit these articles to the 
 consideration of the viceroy, a new change of afiairs placed the 
 Carreras once more at the head of the government. 
 
 The escape of the brothers from Chilian is said to have been 
 managed by a royalist lady, who delivered them from prison, and 
 gave them horses and money to convey them to Santiago. They 
 disguised themselves as peasants ; and early in August arrived at the 
 city, where they went from house to house, and from barrack to 
 
 * Juan Jose Carrera had married Donna Ana Maria de Cotapos, a most beautiful 
 woman, and niece to Don Henriquez Lastra. There had been a family dispute, owinw 
 to which Juan Jose had gone to Mendoza while Jose Miguel and Luis remained with 
 the army. 
 
 t The army was so destitute of weapons that the yokes of the oxen were taken and used 
 as clubs. O'Higgins caused a large wooden cannon to be made and bound it round with 
 hide, but it burst after the fourth discharge. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 25 
 
 barrack where they wei*e known ; and having prepared their party, 
 and won over most of the soldiers, they deposed Lastra, and Jose 
 Miguel once more became the chief of the state*. The first object 
 of the brothers was to seize the treasury, which contained 800,000 
 dollars ; they then gave way to all the imprudence of their charac- 
 ters, and their government became insufferably oppressive. 
 
 While these things were going on in Chile, the terms of the con- 
 vention of Lucae had reached Lima, where Abascal was on the point 
 of signing them, when the regiment of Talavera, with Marco at its 
 head, arrived from Spain, and volunteered to go alone and overrun 
 Chile ; on which the viceroy changed his determination, and sent a 
 strong body of troops f under General Osorio, who sailed from Callao 
 on the 18th of July, landed at Talcahuana on the 12th of August, 
 and marched immediately towards Santiago. " The incapacity of a 
 " weak and distracted government," says Gibbon, " may often assume 
 " the appearance and produce the effects of a treasonable corres- 
 " pondence with the public enemy." And this juncture furnishes 
 a fatal proof of the justice of the remark, for while General O'Hig- 
 gins, who had been indefatigable in forming new troops and reduc- 
 ing the old to order, hung upon and harassed the march of Osorio, 
 and was on the point of giving him battle in the neighbourhood of 
 San Fernando, he received a deputation from all the authorities of 
 Santiago and the neighbouring towns, entreating him to march 
 immediately to the capital against a worse foe than the Spaniards 
 themselves, in the person of Carrera, whose yoke had become into- 
 lerable. He accordingly left the main body of the army, consisting 
 of about 2000 men, to observe the enemy, and marched towards the 
 city with 900, when he met Carrera at the head of a very superior 
 force, on the plain of Maypu, at a place called the Espejo, and sus- 
 tained a decided defeat. After which he appealed both to the versatile 
 Carrera and to those who had sent to invite him to leave the army, 
 
 • His colleagues were Don M. Munnos OrrOa and Don Jose Urive. 
 f The regiment of Talavera alone was 700 strong. 
 
26 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 whether it would not be better to unite to destroy the common enemy, 
 and afterwards adjust their internal disputes, representing also to 
 his own party, that the tyranny of Carrera being new would easily be 
 put down, but by no means must they allow the Spaniards to regain 
 their ancient dominion. The proposal was approved, Jose Miguel 
 Carrera returned to the city, O'Higgins marched to Rancagua, where 
 the enemy had arrived, and Juan Jose at the head of a large body of 
 troops was to follow and join him. But O'Higgins was disappointed, 
 the troops of Carrera never arrived. He was surrounded in Ran- 
 cagua, and for thirty-six hours a fight continued from street to street, 
 and from house to house, the Spaniards giving no quarter. About 
 noon of the second day, Osorio sent a deputation to O'Higgins, offer- 
 ing him personal safety, and even royal favour, if he would surrender. 
 This he indignantly refused, saying, he would not accept even of 
 Heaven from the king, and that though he gave quarter he desired 
 none. In an hour afterwards the town was on fire in several places. * 
 " ^hey covered us," said the general -f-, " with black and red, death 
 " and fire. So I took my banner, and I caused them to sew a black 
 " stripe- across it ; and the fire having now reached the very house 
 " from which we were fighting, and our ammunition being all 
 " expended, we broke through one of the squares that had been 
 " formed round our house, sword in hand, and made our way to the 
 " capital." 
 
 On joining Carrera, O'Higgins represented to him, that as Osorio 
 had lost many men, if all the troops were united they had still enough 
 to overcome him, and save the capital. But a panic seems to have 
 seized the whole body of government. Carrera hastily gave orders 
 for the demolition of several of the public works, particularly the 
 
 » In June, 1818, in memory of the suiFerings of Santa Cruze de Triano, or Rancagua, 
 it received the title of the very faithful and national city; also permission to bear as 
 arms, a red shield surrounded with laurel, a phoenix rising from the flames with the 
 tree of liberty in its right claw, and the motto, " Rancagua rises from its ashes, for its 
 patriotism rendered it immortal." 
 
 + I once heard Don Bernardo O'Higgins relate, with the greatest simpUcity, the history 
 of this action ; I am sure he used the words in English as I have given them. It was 
 on this occasion that the patriots loaded their guns with dollars. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 27 
 
 powder mills ; all the public papers and acts of the new government 
 were burned ; and, taking with him the remains of the public money, 
 he began a disorderly retreat towards Mendoza on the first of October, 
 1814, and Osorio entered the city on the fifth of the same month, 
 and, re-establishing the chamber of royal audience, appointed himself 
 captain-general, and exercised his functions by punishing with se- 
 verity the most distinguished patriots, many of whom were exiled, to 
 Juan Fernandez. 
 
 Mean time, some of those who had been most inimical to the royal 
 cause sought safety in flight, and accompanied the 600 troops who 
 followed Carrera across the Andes. The season was particularly 
 backward ; the snows had not yet melted ; and of the 2000 persons 
 who left the city, many, especially among the women and children, 
 perished from cold and hunger in the Cumbre. It was too early for 
 horses or any beast of burden to travel : so that these wretched 
 fugitives performed the long and painful journey on foot, laden with 
 the necessary provisions for the passage. 
 
 On their arrival at Mendoza, the Carreras instantly claimed a right 
 to the government of the town ; a claim evidently inconsistent with 
 their fugitive situation, and which San Martin*, who then governed 
 that town under the junta of Buenos Ayres, certainly would not 
 attend to, but which had the effect of beginning that rooted dislike 
 to them which at length brought about the death of the three brothers. 
 
 Such were the events of the first revolution in Chile, in which 
 much was done, because the old systems had been broken up, and 
 the people had learned in some measure to know their power : they 
 also had learned, that unless they turned their attention to the marine, 
 and formed a naval force, they could never be safe from the invasion 
 of troops from Lima, or even from Spain. Hitherto they had pos- 
 sessed only two or three miserable gun-boats and launches, which had 
 
 • I have never been able to ascertain exactly either the place of his birth or his true 
 parentage. He was in Spain attached to the military police, and is a very different person 
 from the brave general San Martin, for whom many persons have mistaken him. 
 
 E 2 
 
28 INTRODUCTION, 
 
 been chiefly employed in carrying intelligence along the coast, and 
 keeping up a correspondence with the patriots of Peru. 
 
 Osorio's government lasted two years, during which time the 
 Carreras, with their sister, Donna Xaviera, and their wives, had been 
 occasionally residents in Montevideo, Buenos Ayres, &c. Jose 
 Miguel had gone to North America to endeavour to raise supplies 
 and procure ships, O'Higgins served in the patriot army of Buenos 
 Ayres, and Mackenna was killed in a duel by Luis Carrera. 
 
 But it was not the mere possession of the government by a Spanish 
 general that could again reduce Chile under the Spanish yoke. 
 Besides the wish for independence, and for deliverance from their 
 double thraldom, (for such it was, being bound both to the king of 
 Spain and the vice-king at Lima), many individuals had risen to a 
 consequence they had scarcely hoped to attain, and which, having 
 attained, they were not likely to part with. " From shopkeepers 
 and tradesmen, and attornies, they had become statesmen and 
 legislators ;" and as all men desire to possess influence and conse- 
 quence, at least in their own country, this motive once felt, there 
 was no reasonable hope of easily overcoming it. The reign of Osorio, 
 or of Marco, his deputy, in Santiago, therefore, was not very tranquil ; 
 and as the wretched state of Spain prevented her from succouring 
 her generals in the colonies, he was but ill prepared for the events 
 of the early part of 1817, which lost Chile for ever to the crown of 
 Spain. The state of the country itself was deplorable. The effects 
 of civil war are at all times shocking to humanity. This had been 
 both a civil war and a foreign one. Natives of the country had fought 
 on either side, and foreign soldiers and generals were engaged; 
 hence there were the petty and private hatred and malice of the 
 first, and the want of sympathy with the sufferers of the last. Many 
 of the dismissed soldiers had formed bands of thieves and murderers, 
 and infested the thickets every where to be found between Santiago 
 and Conception ; nor was the road to Valparaiso exempt from the 
 same. The regiments of Chilian and Talavera were employed in 
 detachments which took it in turn to scour the country, and, if pos- 
 
INTRODUCTION. 29 
 
 sible, seize and bring to the city the persons of the robbers ; — a most 
 harassing employment for them, and one which but ill answered its 
 purpose. In any other country and climate famine would probably 
 have been the consequence of these misfortunes ; but Chile, as if 
 spontaneously, still continued to produce her seventy and eighty fold 
 of corn, and to supply Peru. 
 
 Buenos Ayres, under all its various governors and forms of govern- 
 ment, had always looked upon Chile as linked in interest with itself. 
 Those who thought of establishing one great empire, regarded it as 
 the province which should command the trade of the Pacific, and 
 probably secure the riches of the Philippines and Moluccas beyond 
 it ; while those who contemplated a federal state, saw it as a 
 member under a light at least as flattering ; and all depended upon its 
 union with the provinces to the eastward of the Andes, as a matter of 
 course. Hence, when the Chileno fugitives, after the battle of 
 Rancagua, reached Buenos Ayres, they were not only favourably 
 received, but a great effort was made to restore them to their country, 
 and to assist them once more to shake off the Spanish dominion. 
 There was besides a strong motive for such an effort. TJbe passages 
 across the Chilian Andes are short and easy, while those from Peru 
 are distant and difficult ; so that while the royal troops possessed 
 Chile, the viceroy of Peru could always succour or communicate with 
 the old Spaniards beyond the mountains by means of the port of 
 Valparaiso. Therefore, to cut off this communication was of the 
 greatest consequence to Buenos Ayres itself Accordingly, the latter 
 end of 1816 was employed in collecting a force at Mendoza, under 
 general Don Jose de San Martin. Besides the Chilenos who had fled 
 after the action of Rancagua, and many others on that side of the 
 Andes, thei'e were some troops from Buenos Ayres, particularly two 
 negro regiments, which were placed under the immediate orders of 
 General O'Higgins. General Saleres also commanded a considerable 
 body of troops ; and the whole number of the " army of the Andes" 
 amounted to about 4000 men. 
 
 While San Martin was preparing all things at Mendoza for his 
 
30 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 invasion of Chile, he caused himself to be surprised more than once 
 by some Spanish prisoners of war that were on the point of return- 
 ing to Osorio, in the act of examining maps and plans of the road by 
 the south, called the Planchon, into Chile, and even went so far as 
 to write false despatches and cause them to be surprised, intimating, 
 that, in order to avoid the difficulty of the Cumbre, he meant to march 
 by the Planchon. Accordingly most of the royal troops were kept in 
 that quarter to be ready to receive him. In fact, a small party under 
 General Don Ramon Freire did march that way ; another small divi- 
 sion took the usual road of the Cumbre; while the main body of the 
 army pursued the way of San Juan de los Patos, with such complete 
 secrecy, that the whole had crossed the mountains and reached the 
 plain of Chacabuco before the enemy knew that they had left Mendoza. 
 It was on the 4th February, 1817, while every body was expecting to 
 hear of invasion in the south, that unwelcome intelligence was re-' 
 ceived in Santiago, that a party of the patriots had surprised the 
 guard of the Andes about fifteen leagues from the villa of Santa 
 Rosa, and that only thirteen men had escaped to bring the news. 
 The guard of los Patos also brought intelligence that the enemy had 
 been seen in that pass. The city was instantly in the greatest 
 agitation : Marco the governor, together with the Cabildo, ordered 
 and counter-ordered, appointed officers and changed them, and even 
 then seemed preparing for flight. On the 5th Col. Quintanilla * was 
 despatched from the city, to reinforce the troops already stationed in 
 Aconcagua, Santa Rosa, and on the roads. He found on the 6th 
 that most of the forces under Major Atero had retired to the heights 
 of Chacabuco, leaving behind their ammunition and baggage, so 
 hasty had been their retreat. On the 7th there was some skirmishing 
 between the outposts near Curimon, in which the royalists were 
 worsted ; but it was not till the 12th that the great action of Cha- 
 cabuco was fought, an action of infinite importance, not only to Chile, 
 but to the whole of South America. Bolivar had been driven out 
 
 • The same who, with persevering loyalty, still (1823) holds Chile for the king of Spain. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 31 
 
 of Terra Firma, and had taken refuge in Jamaica, the Buenos Ayrians 
 had just suffered a signal defeat at Tucuman ; and had Marco's troops 
 gained the victory, the communication between the royalist armies 
 would have been open, and the most mischievous consequences must 
 have ensued. 
 
 General O'Higgins happened early on the morning of the twelfth 
 to be looking over the plain from the summit of a rock, he perceived, 
 and pretty justly estimated the number of the enemy at 3000. * San 
 Martin was determined not to think them so numerous ; but O'Hig- 
 gins, certain of what he saw, persuaded Soler to join in his represent- 
 ation, and then begged permission, though his was not the division 
 appointed to attack, to meet the enemy in a certain favorable situation : 
 several refusals could not make him yield the point, and at length he 
 rather extorted permission than gained assent, and made the attack at 
 three o'clock in the afternoon. The patriots were once so hardly beset, 
 being but the handful of O'Higgins's own division, that they sent for 
 assistance, but did not wait for it, and before help arrived it was un- 
 necessary. O'Higgins charged and broke the first line : every one 
 fled, and the patriots remained masters, not of the field only, but f 
 the baggage, ammunition, &c. ; and the royalists fell back in every 
 direction, under their leaders Maroto and Eloriaga. 
 
 When the loss of the battle was known in Santiago, the confusion 
 was beyond description ; every one escaped as he could, loaded with 
 what he could carry, and the chief among the first. Some made 
 their way by the Cuesta de Prado, others by the defiles of the Espejo, 
 and some by the road of Mehpilla : all crowded towards the sea. 
 On the evening of the 13th, the confusion was transferred to Val- 
 paraiso, where, when some officers of rank arrived, they could scarcely 
 find room in the crowded vessels. The magistrates had all embarked ; 
 
 * 1000 horse, 1100 foot, 360 hussars, and artillery men for their four field-pieces, be- 
 sides servants, &c. 
 
 The greater part of this account of the battle of Chacabuco is from an interesting 
 paper written by an old Spaniard, called " Relacion de los acontecimientos de la per- 
 dida del reyno de Chile ;" the rest from the verbal account of the director Don B. 
 O'Higgins. 
 
32 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 the port was abandoned ; the populace in parties were ransacking 
 the houses, and the beach was covered with people trying in vain to 
 get on board the ships. 2000 ounces of gold and silver belonging to 
 the treasury had been lost or stolen, and the prisoners had broken 
 loose, and turned the guns of the batteries upon the royalists. Nine 
 ships full of the fugitives sailed for Peru, but being in want of water, 
 put into Coquimbo, where the patriots fired on their boats, and they 
 proceeded to Guasco, where they discovered, that in the hurry of 
 their departure they had left their chief, Marco, behind, each vessel 
 thinking he was in the other. Upon this discovery, Don Manuel 
 Olaguer Zelin took the command, and the little fleet proceeded in 
 safety to Lima. 
 
 The patriots immediately marched into Santiago, where all their 
 friends, and all who found it convenient to appear such, joined them. 
 General San Martin was called upon to take the office of supreme 
 director ; but he excused himself, and recommended to their choice 
 Don Bernardo O'Higgins, a native of the country, as one of her 
 bravest and most enlightened defenders ; San Martin remained at 
 the head of the army. Meantime, the royalists still possessed the 
 provinces of the south, and maintained a constant communication 
 with Peru by means of their superiority at sea, a superiority which 
 threatened to render vain all the exertions of the patriots.* The 
 attention of the new government was, therefore, immediately turned 
 to the creating a naval force. Captain Tortel, a Frenchman, who had 
 been a privateer and a smuggler on so large a scale as to have been 
 almost the commander of a man of war, and almost a merchant, had 
 long been settled in Chile. He was from Toulon, and had the prin- 
 ciples and feelings of the best and earliest of the French republicans. 
 The two launches which, in the former patriot government, had done 
 
 * See Appendix. Manifesto del Gubrerno. The English merchants had effectually 
 assisted the patriots by supplying them regularly with arms and accoutrements. As 
 official paper of the royalist government of 1816, alleges as a recent reason for not allow- 
 ing strangers to enter the ports, even to trade in copper, that Don Juan Diego Ber- 
 nard had supplied the patriots with ninety-eight pair of pistols. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 33 
 
 such good service by conveying intelligence along the coast were his, 
 and he now, with incredible pains, had begun to form a little squadron, 
 having been appointed captain of the port ; persons were empowered 
 to purchase two frigates in North America ; and the agents of the 
 patriots had instructions to treat with officers in England, and to 
 purchase vessels there. 
 
 But the first object, unquestionably, was to regain the southern part 
 of Chile; and accordingly in the month of May, 1817, i.e. two 
 months after the action of Chacabuco, O'Higgins took the command 
 of the army of the south, leaving the government in the hands of 
 three commissioners, but some difficulties and disputes arising among 
 them, Don Luis Cruz * was appointed deputy-director. It was not 
 long before great part of the province and the town of Conception 
 were reduced ; but in the beginning of 1818 a strong reinforcement 
 arrived at Talcahuana from Lima, commanded by Osorio, who im- 
 mediately marched towards Santiago with 5000 men. He was met 
 by San Martin at the head of the patriot troops, over whom, on the 
 19th of March, at a place called Cancharayada, near Requelme, he 
 gained a complete victory, dispersing the Chilenos and wounding 
 O'Higgins, who returned immediately to the capital, where all was 
 alarm, and many women and children went out and crossed the 
 mountains to Mendoza, as after the battle of Rancagua. f But the 
 director exerted himself to repair the evil : money, clothes, and pro- 
 visions, were instantly dispatched to the army. Many families gave 
 their plate to be coined; the foreign merchants contributed their 
 goods, their money, and their credit, so that by the fifth of April, 
 the Chileno army under generals San Martin and Belcarce, and 
 colonels I^as Heras, Freire, and others, again interrupted Osorio on 
 his way to Santiago. At one day's march from that city, the battle 
 of Maypu was fought, on the plain to the south, called the Espejo, 
 and never was action more decisive. Of Osorio's army 2000 were 
 
 * Afterwards Governor of Callao. 
 
 ■f On this occasion all the public papers, orders, documents, accounts, &c. were burnt 
 that private families might not be subjected to Osorio's revenge. 
 
34 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 left dead on the field, 2500 were made prisoners, besides 190 officers ; 
 the artillery, medical establishment, and military chest, all fell into 
 the hands of the Chilenos ; but Osorio, with 200 horse, escaped. 
 This victory was justly hailed as the greatest and most complete, 
 as well as the most important in its consequences, that had been 
 gained during the long course of the revolutionary war. It was, 
 indeed, the last effort the Spaniards made for the recovery of Chile, 
 though Talcahuana, Valdivia, and Chiloe, still held out against the 
 patriots, and it allowed the Chilenos to carry the war out of their 
 own territory, an advantage still more important. 
 
 But, while the public papers and public proclamations hailed gene- 
 ral San Martin as the hero of Chacabuco and Maipu, those engaged 
 in these battles, and who, consequently, were eye-witnesses of his 
 conduct, ventured to doubt his personal bravery. At Chacabuco he 
 was scarcely within sight of the action. At Maipu ■ general Belcarce, 
 colonels Las Heras and Freire and some others had fixed the atten- 
 tion of their fellow-soldiers, and it was not till he appeared leading the 
 victorious troops after the action, that they remembered San Martin. 
 However, pyramids, and medals, and ribbons, were decreed, and the 
 general joy was too great to admit of very nice inquiries. 
 
 The forces on either side were not numerous ; Osorio's, as we 
 have seen, amounted to little more than 5000 men : but they were 
 principally of trained and disciplined troops ; while the Chileno 
 army chiefly consisted of raw recruits and the country militia, armed 
 only with Indian lances j the numbers were 4500 foot, and 2500 
 horse, with twenty pieces of artillery. 
 
 After the relation of such a victory, it is painful to advert to the 
 tragical event which took place nearly at the same period at Men- 
 doza. The attempt of the Carreras to seize on that town, on their 
 retreat from Chile in 1814, had neither been forgotten nor forgiven 
 by San Martin, who then governed it ; and the restless and ambi- 
 tious spirit of Jose Miguel, had involved his brothers too deepl}'^ in 
 his projects, to render it safe for them to cross the path of their 
 enemy. Nevertheless, Juan Jose, and Luis, after many various ad- 
 
INTRODUCTION. 35 
 
 ventures, depending on the temper of the ruling parties of Buenos 
 Ayres, and wishing to join their family in Chile, proceeded towards 
 it in disguise by different roads, and at different times. They had 
 been seized and recognised, however, near Mendoza, and there 
 closely imprisoned. They more than once attempted their escape, 
 well knowing that they could expect but little mercy from the mili- 
 tary governor. The young and lovely wife of Juan Jose, accom- 
 panied her husband, and sold every thing of value belonging to her, 
 to provide him even with common necessaries in the prison : it will 
 give some idea of their sufferings, when it is stated, that a friend 
 having sent her a fanega of flour, she actually went to the public 
 market-place to sell it, to obtain a supply of other necessaries for her 
 husband ; and that a shoemaker whom she had formerly employed, 
 seeing her in the market, and touched by her distress, made her 
 I'est in his house, while he disposed of the flour to the best ad- 
 vantage; and on the price obtained for it she and her husband 
 subsisted almost until his untimely death. Meantime a commis- 
 sion had been sitting to take cognizance of the crimes of the Carreras. 
 I have read the published account of it attentively ; the chief article 
 is the attempt to escape from prison — for as to having been mem- 
 bers of the government of Chile, and having endeavoured to re- 
 possess themselves of their former influence, times of civil war open 
 but too fair a field to all adventurers not to warn any successful leader 
 to beware how he punishes such attempts too severely, lest the axe 
 should fall in turn on his own neck. After the commission had sat 
 some time in Mendoza, San Martin's confidential secretary, Montea- 
 guda, arrived there, it was said solely in consequence of the rout of 
 Cancharayada. But on the 8th of April, not many hours after he 
 reached the place his name appeared affixed to tlie sentence of death 
 pronounced on these unfortunate young men, which sentence was 
 executed at six o'clock the same evening. They were seated on a 
 bench in the public square, and, as the soldiers fired, they embraced 
 each other, and so died ! Their death excited pity for them, and 
 fear of the party that so wantonly used its power : that fear has been 
 
 F 2 
 
36 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 deepened into horror against some of the individuals. It must be 
 confessed, that the severity was useless ; and useless severity in go- 
 vernments, is always criminal. Their authority is conferred, that 
 they may increase and guard the happiness of the community with 
 the smallest possible abridgment of freedom, or happiness to indivi- 
 duals. But even while the struggle for independence was going on, 
 the new governors became so intoxicated with power, that, with the 
 name of freedom on their lips, they oppressed and murdered, and, 
 while they gratified their own base passions, they called it public 
 duty. 
 
 The Carreras were neither good nor useful citizens, but the two 
 who had now suffered were, at least, harmless, and might surely with 
 their families have been permitted to breathe in some climate, where 
 they could not have interfered with the soldiers or governors of 
 Chile. * 
 
 Meantime, the Spaniards had blockaded the port of Valparaiso by 
 means of the frigate Esmeralda of 40 guns, and the brig Pezuela ; 
 but as the government had purchased a large vessel, called the Lau- 
 taro, armed and manned as a ship of war, and had given the command 
 of it to Mr. George O'Brian, a lieutenant in the British navy, he 
 resolved to go out and attack the enemy on the 27th of April, 1818 ; 
 he did so accordingly, and both vessels had actually struck : but 
 Captain O'Brian, having headed the boarders, who had taken pos- 
 session of the deck of the Esmeralda, was shot by a man from below, 
 whose life he had just spared. This sad event, by which Chile lost an 
 active and intelligent officer, together with the confusion occasioned 
 by the Esmeralda taking fire, obliged the Lautaro to retire without 
 her prizes who escaped, but the port remained free from blockade. 
 This little, though brilliant action, raised the spirits of the Chilenos 
 to the highest pitch ; and they redoubled their efforts to raise money 
 to procure and equip a squadron. Taxes, voluntary loans, and sub- 
 scriptions were all resorted to, and all were paid cheerfully for the 
 
 * See Mr. Yates's paper, in the Appendix. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 37 
 
 great object. In aid of this, several privateers were fitted out, 
 which at least served to procure intelligence of the motions of the 
 enemy. But the encouragement of the privateers having been 
 found detrimental to the manning of the regular ships of war, an 
 order was published commanding them to give up their men, and 
 to return to trade some time in August, in which month also are 
 dated the first regulations for the rank of officers, and the first naval 
 appointments, the admiral being Don Manoel Blanco Encalada, an 
 artillery officer, who had many years before served as a midship- 
 man in the Spanish navy; and the other officers were, with few 
 exceptions, nearly as little qualified by previous habits for the 
 service. During the course of the same month, a large ship, called 
 the Cumberland, laden with coals, and commanded by Mr. Wilkinson, 
 who had been first mate of an East Indiaman, arrived at Valpa- 
 raiso : she was immediately purchased, and her captain persuaded 
 to stay with her ; and by the 30th of August she was converted into 
 a ship of war, new named the San Martin, and hoisted the Chileno 
 flag. 
 
 A singular piece of good fortune befell the Chilenos at this junc- 
 ture. The Spanish government had fitted out nine transports, 
 under the convoy of the fifty-gun frigate, the Maria Isabella, in 
 which were embarked upwards of 2000 troops, under Don Fausto 
 del Hoyo, destined to reinforce the viceroy of Peru. The crew of 
 one of the transports, the Trinidad, or rather the soldiers on board, 
 rose on the officers, seized the ship, and carried her into Buenos 
 Ayres, where they joined the patriots, and gave information of the 
 force of the rest, and their destination to the south of Chile. A 
 courier was immediately despatched across the Andes : the govern- 
 ment took its measures accordingly, and, redoubling every effort to 
 get the squadron to sea, it sailed on the 9th of October in pursuit 
 of the enemy. The force consisted of the San Martin, 64 guns, 
 commanded by Captain Wilkinson, and bearing Admiral Blanco's 
 flag ; the Lautaro, 50 guns, commanded by Captain Worcester, who 
 
 * f3 
 
38 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 was master of an American privateer during the last war, and who 
 went to Chile on mercantile speculation ; the 20 gun corvette, 
 Chacabuco, under Don Francisco Diaz, an artillery officer, and an 
 old Spaniard ; the brig Araucana, 1 8 guns, Captain Morris ; and the 
 Pueyrredon, Captain Vasquez. On the 28th of the same month, 
 the squadron discovered the Maria Isabella and transports in Tal- 
 cahuana bay, under the guns of the fort, which contained four field-, 
 pieces, four one pounders, and three other guns of the same calibre. 
 But with these it could do little or nothing to annoy the ships. The 
 Maria Isabella and the transports were in a dreadful state — one- 
 third of the crews and soldiers having died on the passage, partly 
 because too many men had been put on board in proportion to the 
 tonnage of the vessels, — partly from the want of ventilation and 
 cleanliness in the ships during so long a voyage ; and the crew of 
 the Spanish fri^te, after landing her sick, was reduced to 200 men 
 at the most. Such was the condition of the adverse ships when 
 the patriots, having about 1000 men, arrived in the bay. The 
 Spaniards made a defence creditable to themselves, and when ob- 
 liged to strike, the Maria Isabella ran ashore under the batteries, 
 which endeavoured to protect her, but they were too weak for the 
 purpose, and she was got off the day after. This was a real subject 
 of triumph for the people of Chile. They had not only reduced 
 the enemy's power, but they had gained a ship for their own squadron 
 second to none of her class, an admirable sailer, and provided amply 
 with all kinds of stores. Meantime the Buenos Ayres brig of 
 war. Intrepid, had come round the Horn to assist the Chileno 
 squadron, but did not arrive until the 11th of November, on which 
 day, one of the transports, on her way to Lima, was captured ; 
 and before the ships reached Valparaiso, the Helena, another be- 
 longing to the same convoy, was seized. Of the nine that sailed 
 from Cadiz, one, the Trinidad, went to Buenos Ayres, seven were 
 captured by the Chilenos, and one was never heard of. Never 
 had a fleet been so welcome to Chile as was the return of the 
 squadron from the south on the 17th of November: it gave a 
 
INTRODUCTION. 39 
 
 prospect of hastening the plans which had long been meditated for 
 carrying the war out of the country. But the government, though 
 gratified with this first success, and proud of the number of ships 
 raised within seven months, still bitterly felt the want of competent 
 officers. Their hopes were anxiously turned towards England, whence 
 indeed the Galvarino* had lately arrived, and had been received 
 into the service. Besides her commander, Captain Spry, she brought 
 out Captain Guise, of the English navy, who was not without hopes 
 of obtaining the command of the naval forces of the country ; and a 
 number of followers were about him who were so much interested 
 that it should be so, that they seemed to consider it as his right, and 
 had partly persuaded him to think the same. Captain Forster, of 
 the British navy, had also gone to Chile with similar hopes and 
 similar fancied claims ; and at that juncture the success of the late 
 expedition had not rendered either Captain Wilkinson or Captain 
 Worcester wilHng to yield to any junior officer in the Chileno 
 employ. Where these disputes might have terminated it is idle 
 to inquire : they were, for the present at least, silenced by the ar- 
 rival of one of the ablest officers that even England had ever pro- 
 duced. 
 
 By one of those singular coincidences which not the fondest cal- 
 culation for the benefit of Chile could have anticipated, the agents of 
 the government of that country, who had been instructed, if possible, 
 to procure the assistance of some able commander, (Sir H. Popham, 
 was once named,) were fortunate enough to find Lord Cochrane at 
 liberty to devote himself entirely to the cause of South American 
 independence — A cause to which he could honestly give his talents 
 and his time, without violating those principles of regulated freedom, 
 from which he had never departed. 
 
 The state of the Chilian navy required a man of prudence as well 
 as courage, of temper as well as firmness, and in no one man did 
 
 * Formerly the Hecate, an English 18-gun brig of war. Captains Guise and Spry 
 bought her, and brought her to Chile on speculation. She was purchased from them by 
 the government of Chile, after being refused at Buenos Ayres. 
 
40 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 these qualities ever meet in so eminent a degree. His naturally 
 powerful mind had received all the solid advantage and much of the 
 grace of cultivation ; and his singularly gentle and courteous man- 
 ner, which veiled while it adorned the determination of his character, 
 was admirably calculated to conciliate all parties. * 
 
 He arrived with his family in a small vessel called the Rose, on 
 the 29th of November, and was received with the greatest joy by the 
 director, who came from Santiago to Valparaiso to welcome him. 
 On the 9th of December the Maria Isabella was named the O'Higgins, 
 and it was understood that she was to be offered to Lord Cochrane, 
 but he did not hoist his flag on board of her until the 22d. There 
 had been a petty scheming and intriguing cabal among the officers 
 already in Chile, who, rather than see one so superior to them all at 
 their head, or perhaps afraid lest he should lead them into danger, 
 actually endeavoured to bring about a sort of divided -command, 
 wishing, as they said, two commodores and no Cochrane. This was 
 not merely the cry of the English officers, they had gained some of 
 the inferior ministers, whose jealousy of a nobleman and a foreigner 
 it was not difficult to excite ; but Admiral Blanco, the only man whose 
 rank and interest were really likely to be affected by Lord Coch- 
 rane's arrival, cordially supported him, convinced that he was the 
 only proper person for the situation. 
 
 Such was the state of the naval affairs of Chile at the close of the 
 year 1818, the most eventful in the history of the country since its. 
 discovery. It will be necessary to go back a few months, in order to 
 notice the state of the civil government. 
 
 On the first appointment of the director, all power, legislative as 
 well as executive, devolved necessarily on him. No monarch is ever 
 so absolute, for the moment, as a military chief just successful, es- 
 
 * If I had less cause for gratitude towards Lord Cochrane, I should probably do 
 more justice to him, but to speak of him as he should be spoken of, would require not only 
 an abler pen, but feelings more free from that sensitiveness that makes a friend modest in 
 speaking of friend, as though he were a part of himself. 
 
INTRODUCTION, 41 
 
 pecially in the cause of independence, since he has the power of 
 opinion as well as the power of the sword along with him. 
 
 Le premier qui Jut Roi, fut un Soldat heureux. 
 
 But it became necessary to think of some kind of constitution for 
 the country. Accordingly, the director named a commission for the 
 purpose of drawing up the project of a provisional government *, to 
 serve until circumstances permitted the calling together a represent- 
 ative congress. As soon as it was framed, books were opened in every 
 parish, where every head of a family, or man who had means of living 
 by his own industry, provided he was not actually accused of any crime 
 before a court of justice, was competent to enter his assent or dissent, 
 in presence of the curate, judge, and scrivener: the majority of votes 
 determined the adoption of the provisional constitution, and on the 
 23d of October it was solemnly sworn to. On the same day, agree- 
 ably to one of its articles, the director named a senate, to advise with 
 and assist him, whose province it was to make and modify laws and 
 regulations, and superintend the business of the state ; but the whole 
 executive power remained with the director, and no secretary or em- 
 ployed minister was to be admitted into the senate. Its members 
 were five : — 
 
 Don Jose Ignacio Cienfuegos, Governor of the province of San- 
 tiago. 
 
 Don Francisco de Borgo Fuentisilla, Governor of the City. 
 
 Don Francisco Antonio Perez, Dean of the tribunal of Appeals. 
 
 Don Juan Augustin Alcalde- 
 Don Jose Maria Rosas. 
 
 Each of these was provided with a deputy or proxy, in case of 
 sickness or absence. 
 
 The first labours of the senate were naturally directed to the im- 
 provement of the finances, which, in spite of a total want of know- 
 ledge and principle in political economy, did advance considerably. 
 Their attention was then turned to the establishing schools, the 
 
 * Projecto de Constitucion provisoria para el estado de Chile, 1818. 
 
 G 
 
42 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 repairing of the old public works, and the forming new, particularly the 
 canal of Maypu, which conveys the waters of that river along a high 
 level, for the purpose of irrigating an immense plain, formerly barren, 
 and the resort only of robbers, but with water capable of every kind 
 of improvement. * These works had the advantage of giving employ- 
 ment to the numerous prisoners of war, whose subsistence would 
 otherwise have been a heavy burden upon the state, and whose treat- 
 ment was such when not so employed as humanity would gladly 
 draw a veil over. But the Spaniards had given terrible examples, — 
 no wonder if the nations they had oppressed sometimes retaliated. 
 
 General San Martin meantime had visited Buenos Ayres, but 
 chiefly resided at Mendoza ; he was augmenting the army, for the 
 purpose of invading Peru, so soon as the troops and money could be 
 ready, by means of the Chileno squadron ; and he was believed, not 
 without reason, to be the real director of all the affairs of Chile. The 
 ascendency this man had acquired is singular ; his courage is more 
 than doubtful, and his talents are not above mediocrity. But he has 
 a handsome person ; an imposing air ; a versatile manner, accom- 
 modating itself to all tastes, from that of a finished courtier to a 
 country clown ; and a great power of feigning. He is one of those 
 of whom Bacon says, " There be that can pack the cards, and yet 
 " cannot play well : so there are some that are good in canvasses 
 " and factions, that are otherwise weak men." His secretary, Mon- 
 teagudo, has many qualities in common with him ; but the fail- 
 ings of the master are carried to a greater length, and certainly he 
 is superior even to San Martin in unfeeling cruelty. But his acute- 
 ness is astonishing ; he is " perfect in men's humours," — and so 
 leads them by their own foibles : his eloquence was of great service to 
 the good cause, though on many occasions his proclamations and state 
 papers savour too much of that bombastic turn which the Spaniards 
 in general are reproached with, and which is, indeed, very conspi- 
 cuous on the western side of the Atlantic. The plain simple good 
 
 * The sale of the land and of the water on this plain has mol'e than paid the expense, 
 and is beginning to be a profitable concern to the government. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 43 
 
 sense, honesty, and right feeling of O'Higgins, was not always a 
 match for the more worldly talents of San Martin ; and he was too 
 apt to rely on the honesty of others from the very uprightness of 
 his own intentions. It is singular, that, with that natural straight- 
 forward honesty, he should ever have been induced to admire or 
 practise any thing like a crooked policy ; but he was taught to con- 
 sider it as a necessary evil in civil government, and therefore always 
 preferred the camp to the palace, as there, at least, deception could 
 not be requisite. The secretary, Zenteno, afterwards minister of 
 marine, and governor of Valparaiso, was now rising into impor- 
 tance. He had been an attorney in Conception, had joined the 
 patriot army early in the revolution ; and, having been among the 
 fugitives in 1814, had been so reduced as to serve as a boy in a 
 pulperia, drinking-house, in Mendoza, for a maintenance, but rejoined 
 the army of the Andes in 181*7, and reappeared in his proper station. 
 Zenteno has read a little more than is usual among his countrymen, 
 and thinks that little much : like San Martin, he dignifies, scepticism 
 in religion, laxity in morals, and coldness of heart, if not cruelty, with 
 the name of philosophy ; and, while he could show creditable sensi- 
 bility for the fate of a worm, would think the death or torture of a 
 political opponent a matter of congratulation. His manner is cold ; 
 but, as he is always grave and sententious, and possesses much of the 
 cunning and quickness commonly attributed to his former profession, 
 he passes for clever. 
 
 Such were the principal persons with whom Lord Cochrane had 
 to deal on his arrival in Chile. O'Higgins was sincere ; and of San 
 Martin it may be said, that, like Lord Angelo, 
 
 " I partly think 
 " A due sincerity governed his deeds, 
 « TUl he did look on — " 
 
 the possibility of exercising absolute power in the rich country of 
 Peru. But events will speak for themselves. The present business is 
 with the history of Chile, during the early part of the year 1819. 
 The squadron of Chile then consisted of the O'Higgins, Lord 
 
 a 2 
 
44 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Cochrane's flag-ship, commanded by Captain Forster, the Lautaro ; 
 Captain Guise ; the San Martin, Captain Wilkinson ; and the Chaca-- 
 buco, Captain Carter. * These ships sailed from Valparaiso under 
 Lord Cochrane's command, on the 15th of January. Most anxiously 
 did the people of Chile look upon this expedition. It was the first 
 time they had dared to attack the enemy in his own strong-hold. 
 Callao had always been deemed inexpugnable, and the ships of 
 Spain had been accustomed to consider it as an inviolable sanctuary. 
 Now the Chilenos saw their ships sailing to attack it, and a feeling 
 of dread at the daring mingled with their hopes. Their own port 
 had been blockaded but a few months before, and all their wishes had 
 then been confined to being freed from the enemy's ships. But 
 they had changed situations ; theirs was now to be the inviolable port, 
 and their ships were to attack the strong-hold of the enemy. 
 
 No wonder that every report was eagerly listened to, and that a 
 stranger sail giving flattering news of their squadron was eagerly 
 received ; at length, however, true despatches arrived, and they were 
 published in a series of extraordinary gazettes, as the most important 
 documents that had ever reached Chile. The fleet had been prin- 
 cipally manned with natives, many of whom were wild from the 
 mountains : the whole squadron might have on board 300 foreign 
 seamen, including officers ; so that there was ground for anxiety on 
 more than one account concerning the expedition. But the very 
 first trial was sufficient to prove that the navy of Chile would in a 
 short time have the dominion of the Pacific. 
 
 The squadron had fallen in with several vessels ; and from the 
 information obtained from them, the admiral had determined to 
 cruize off* Lima until the 21st of February, to intercept the San An- 
 tonio, which was bound for Cadiz with a considerable treasure on 
 board ; and then, on the 23d, the last day of the Carnival, to run into 
 the bay with the Lautaroj and attack the ships and forts durino- the 
 confusion usually occasioned by that festival, f The San Martin 
 
 * There were also the Galvarino, Araucano, and Pueyrredon. 
 
 f The reason (said to be so by some) for running in with only two ships, and those 
 
INTRODUCTION. 45 
 
 was to remain behind the island of San Lorenzo, to act according to 
 circumstances. But, on the 21st, so thick a fog came on that the 
 ships lost sight of each other : it continued for four days, so that 
 the plan for the 23d was frustrated. On the 26th it cleared a little, 
 and the San Martin took the Victoria, laden with provisions from 
 Chiloe to Lima ; but the fogs which are so common on the coast of 
 Peru still rendered it impossible for the squadron to act until the 29th, 
 when a heavy firing was heard, which the admiral imagined was one of 
 his ships engaging the enemy ; he therefore stood towards the bay of 
 Callao. The San Martin, Lautaro, and Chacabuco, who each imagined 
 the admiral in action, steered the same way ; and, just as the fog cleared 
 away for a moment, they discovered one another. That moment of 
 light had also discovered a strange sail among them ; the O'Higgins 
 followed and took her : she was a gun-boat, having on board a lieu- 
 tenant and 20 men, one 24 pounder, and two pedreros. The admi- 
 ral learned from the gun-boat, that the firing heard in the morning 
 was in honour of the viceroy, who was visiting the forts and ships. 
 Lord Cochrane, sure that some of his ships had been seen, determined 
 to run into Callao, both to try his ship's company, and to endeavour 
 to capture some vessel of war, or at least some of the gun-boats ; 
 the Lautaro followed him closely. They found the enemy's ships 
 arranged in a half-moon of two ranks, the rear rank so disposed as 
 to cover the intervals between the ships of the front rank ; the mer- 
 chant vessels were stationed in the rear, and the neutrals were 
 anchored on the right. The O'Higgins had neutral colours* : but it 
 was of little consequence. At four o'clock in the afternoon, the 
 Esmeralda began to fire on the two ships ; her fire was immediately 
 followed by that of the whole line of Spanish ships, and of the 
 batteries. Unfortunately Captain Guise was severely wounded early, 
 and his ship retired from action. Neither the San Martin nor 
 
 under English colours, was, that they had information that two English ships were 
 expected in Lima. 
 
 * The O'Higgins and Lautaro had both been painted to resemble ships of War of the 
 United States. 
 
46 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Chacabuco came to support the O'Higgins, whether from a doubt as 
 to the result, or from mistaken orders, has never appeared ; and, 
 therefore, the admiral, after sustaining the fire of three hundred guns 
 from the ships and forts for two hours, was obliged reluctantly to 
 retire. * The port of Callao was now declared in a state of blockade ; 
 and the squadron, when not cruizing, lay under the island of San Lo- 
 renzo, off the forts of Callao, about two and a half miles distant. On 
 the 2d of March, the boats of the squadron, under Captain P'orster, 
 attacked the signal post on the island of San Lorenzo, destroyed it, 
 released twenty-nine Chilenos, part of the crew of the Maypu who 
 were chained and employed on the public works ; and a few Peruvian 
 prisoners were made. 
 
 As soon as the patriot squadron appeared in the bay of Callao, it 
 had been debated in the vice-regal council whether red-hot shot might 
 be lawfully employed against it, and the opinion of the archbishop 
 declared in favour of it ; but although some fell near the O'Higgins, 
 as she was crossing the bay in spite of the firing of the ships and 
 forts to stop a vessel entering, none seem to have done any damage. 
 Between the 4th and the 17th of March a correspondence, of so sin- 
 gular and characteristic a nature, that I shall give large extracts at 
 the end of the volume, took place between Lord Cochrane and the 
 Viceroy of Peru. The subject was, the exchange of prisoners, man 
 for man, and rank for rank. The letters of Lord Cochrane are full of 
 humanity and gentleness ; they aim at introducing a more humane 
 system of warfare than that which had hitherto disgraced the struggles 
 in South America ; and they contain, on the part of his country, him- 
 self, and the men of his own rank in his country, the most dignified 
 justification of his conduct in the war of independence. 
 
 Meantime there were constant skirmishes with the gun-boats. 
 On the night of the 22d of March, a project that was first planned 
 for that of the 19th, but then abandoned because the enemy became 
 
 * Lord Cochrane's little son walked the deck during the whole time with his father, 
 holding by his hand ; a man being killed at the quarter-deck guns, he said to his father, 
 " The ball is not made for little Tom yet, papa !'' 
 
INTRODUCTION. 47 
 
 aware of its, was to be carried into execution : the boats were sent into 
 the harbour first with a fire-ship, and the large ships were to follow, 
 cover, and support them ; but, by some inexplicable fatality, none but 
 the O'Higgins joined, and thus the scheme was rendered nugatory. 
 By this time the squadron was in want of water and other necessaries, 
 and therefore on the 25th it sailed to Huaura to procure them. 
 Here, after two days' amicable intercourse with the rratives, the 
 officers suddenly found the water refused, and the people forbidden 
 to bring them provisions ; upon which a party was landed from the 
 ships, which marched to the little towns of Huacho and Huaura, and 
 took them on the 30th without difficulty, thereby securing a good 
 watering place and market for provisions. While the squadron was 
 at Huaura, Admiral Blanco arrived there in the Galvarino. This 
 officer hoisted his flag on board the San Martin as second in com- 
 mand, and shortly afterwards sailed to join the cruising squadron 
 and maintain the blockade of Callao. 
 
 From the information received on the coast, Lord Cochrane found 
 that several neutral vessels were in the different little ports embark- 
 ing Spanish property ; on which he ran along the coast with some 
 of the vessels, and parties were landed to take possession of the small 
 towns, the inhabitants being not unwilHng to be taken. At Patavilca 
 a considerable prize was made, in money (about 67,000 dollars) and 
 provisions, sugars and spirits. At Guambacho 60,000 dollars were 
 taken out of a brig, which was smuggling them on board. AtSupe 
 his lordsliip disembarked the marines, who intercepted about 120,000 
 dollars under an escort of Spanish infantry. The money was claimed 
 as private property by a Mr. Smith, an American ; but as it was 
 under a government escort, it was sent on board the O'Higgins ; and 
 it afterwards appeared that it was to have been embarked at 
 Guarmey, in the American schooner, Macedonia, in the names 
 of Abadea and Blanco, the agents for the Philippine Company. 
 The American, Smith, was so enraged at the capture of the money, 
 that in the cabin of the O'Higgins he pulled out a pistol and pre- 
 sented it at the head of Lord Cochrane, who put it aside with his 
 
48 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 hand, saying, " Put up your pistol, Mr. Smith, you may make a 
 " more prudent use of it," and proceeded coolly with the business 
 he was about without farther notice of the enraged merchant.* 
 
 About the middle of April, part of the squadron appeared before 
 the town of Payta, which the Admiral summoned to surrender. But 
 the Spanish governor, although he must have been conscious of his 
 want of power to resist, defied the patriots. Lord Cochrane, anxious 
 to save bloodshed, sent a second flag of truce, which the Spaniards 
 fired upon, and his lordship therefore landed some troops and his 
 marines, and the town was almost instantly taken, together with the 
 schooner Sacramento, three brass eighteen pound guns, two field 
 pieces, a quantity of ammunition, sugar, cotton, cocoa, pitch, &c. 
 Some of the marines having stolen some of the church ornaments, 
 the Admiral caused them to be restored, and punished the offenders, 
 besides sending to the chief priest a thousand dollars to repair the 
 mischief done to the sacred edifices.-f About the same time a rich 
 prize, the fleet of Guayaquil, escaped owing to the caution given to 
 it by an American vessel. 
 
 While Lord Cochrane was engaged in this expedition to the 
 northward. Admiral Blanco was maintaining the blockade of Callao 
 with the San Martin, Lautaro, Chacabuco, and Pueyrredon, which 
 was continued till the beginning of May, when the squadron re- 
 turned to Chile amidst the congratulations of all ranks of people. | 
 There was indeed cause for exultation. During the first month the 
 Chilian squadron consisted only of the 
 
 O'Higgins, - 48 guns 
 
 Lautaro, - - 38 
 
 • See the Gazette extraordinary of 2d August, 1819, by which it appears that Mr. 
 Smith had forfeited his claim to be considered as a neutral merchant, having entered 
 warmlv into the service of the Viceroy, conducting his dispatches, and carrying his officers 
 from port to port, all which services the Viceroy acknowledges in his public letters. 
 
 -|- See Gazette extraordinary of August 9. 1819. 
 
 J Admiral Blanco was put under arrest on his arrival at Valparaiso, on the 26th May, 
 for having raised the blockade, though the ships were in want of provisions. A court- 
 martial, of wiiich Lord Cochrane was president, and Jonte judge-advocate, acquitted him 
 honourably on the 22d of July. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 49 
 
 San Martin, - 60 
 Chacabuco, - - 24 
 This little force had completely blockaded the port of Callao, whose 
 batteries are tremendous, and where there were lying the 
 II Venganza, - 42 guns 
 
 II Esmeralda, - - 44 
 
 II Sebastiana, - 28 
 
 II § Resolution, - - 36 
 11 § Cleopatra - - 28 
 § La Focha, - 20 
 II Brig Maypu, - 18 
 
 II Pezuela, - - 22 
 
 II Potrillo, - - 18 
 
 II Name unknown, - 18 
 
 II Schooner, 1 long 24 pounder, 20 culverins 
 
 § Ship Guarmey, - 18 
 § San Fernando - 26 
 § San Antonio, - 18* 
 
 besides 28 gun vessels. Two hundred thousand dollars belonging to 
 the Philippine company had been taken, besides smaller prizes, and 
 many towns on the coast freed from the Spanish yoke. 
 
 Thus the viceroy found himself in the most humiliating situation, 
 deprived of the provisions which were absolutely necessary to the 
 country, and shut up in his capital by a force of not one quarter the 
 strength of his own, but which, with an activity unexampled in these 
 seas, went from port to port, put down all opposition, arrested his 
 convoys both by sea and land, and attacked his forts and vessels even 
 in their strongest hold. 
 
 On the return of the squadron to Chile, among other compliments 
 paid to Lord Cochrane, a public panegyric on His Lordship was pro- 
 nounced at the national institute of Santiago, of which I have only 
 
 • The vessels marked thus § are merchant ships, but hired and armed for the king's 
 service ; those marked thus || are ready for sea. 
 
 JI 
 
50 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 been able to procure the following extract : — " He arrives at Callao : 
 " that port is defended by the strongest forts of the Pacific, and 
 " crowned with batteries. Ten ships of war, and a number of gun- 
 " boats present a formidable barrier. The gallant admiral seizes 
 " on the isle of San Lorenzo, anchors his squadron there, undertakes 
 " to force an entrance into the port, and goes forward with the 
 " O'Higgins and Lautaro : 300 pieces of artillery vomit death all 
 " around him. From three sides the shots come to destroy his 
 " ships : but he advances, unalterable, at a steady pace through these 
 " torrents of fire : he strikes terror into the enemy, he spreads 
 " around horror and death, he fires into their ships, and their fear 
 " arises to such a height, that they make use of forbidden means, 
 " firing red-hot shot from all the castles. After having harassed them 
 " severely, he returns, serenely victorious, to the rest of his squa- 
 « dron," &c. 
 
 Meantime, one of the frigates bespoken in New York, had 
 arrived in Chile. * Both had reached Buenos Ayres. It appears 
 that by the terms of a treaty with Spain, America was bound not to 
 furnish the patriots of South America with armed vessels ; there- 
 fore, on the application of the Buenos Ayrian government for two 
 frigates for Chile, two vessels, the Horatii and the Curiatii, were 
 fitted out completely in every thing but arms and ammunition ; 
 which, however, followed the frigates in the ship Sachem, and 
 arrived a few days after them at Buenos Ayres. The scarcity of 
 specie at that city prevented the full purchase money from being paid ; 
 on which the Curiatii alone hoisted the Chilian flag, after receiving 
 her guns and her complement of marines ; and the Horatii sailed for 
 Rio Janeiro, where she was bought by the government f , the part of 
 the purchase money already advanced being thus forfeited. 
 
 On the return of Blanco's division of the squadron, the supreme 
 director came to Valparaiso to receive them, and also to inspect the 
 
 • 23d May, 1819, 
 
 f She is now in the Imperial service, and called Maria da Gloria. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 51 
 
 new ship which had been partly promised to Captain Guise. On the 
 arrival of the O'Higgins, however, on the 16th of June, Captain 
 Forster, the senior officer, was appointed to her, and she was named 
 Independencia or Nuestra Senora del Carmen. Some other slight 
 changes took place in the squadron, and every exertion was made to 
 refit and victual it, in order to resume the blockade of Callao. 
 
 While the navy was thus harassing the enemy's coast, the array of 
 the south, under General Belcarse, was gradually gaining ground. 
 The war there was, however, carried on in a more desperate manner. 
 The royalist Benevedeis, in particular, had rendered his name odious 
 by many atrocities, and particularly by the murder, in cold blood, of 
 an officer sent by Freire to him with a flag of truce, and of the whole 
 party that was with him, as well as other prisoners ; they were cut down 
 with sabres to save the waste of powder. General Sanchez was little 
 behind him in cruelty. The latter had evacuated Talcahuana. Freire 
 had taken Chilian, and success every where attended the patriots. 
 (See Gazette, March 13th, 1819.) The most conciliatory proclam- 
 ations were addressed to the Indians, who were invited as brothers to 
 join the cause of independence, and hopes were entertained of their 
 unitingwith the patriots against the Spaniards. The domestic govern- 
 ment seemed also to be settling into tranquillity. The adherents of 
 the Carreras were, for the time at least, silenced. No foreign nation 
 interfered between the mother country and the colonies, but all 
 seemed to look with complacency on a change which promised a free 
 commerce to the Pacific. 
 
 It is singular, that the experience of centuries has not been able 
 to teach any nation that it is impossible to confine gold and silver, 
 beyond a certain portion, within any particular state ; or that so con- 
 fined, they do not render the country any richer ; because the mo- 
 ment there is more than sufficient for the purchase of other articles, 
 the gold and silver becomes totally valueless. This applies particu- 
 larly, where the precious metals are the chief products of the country. 
 Yet even the reformed governments of South America, lay so heavy 
 a duty on the exportation of gold and silver, that it would amount 
 
 H 2 
 
52 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 to a prohibition, did not all nations combine to smuggle it away. In 
 countries like these, where there are no manufactures, and little raw 
 produce of any kind but the precious metals, the advantage of 
 exchanging these for goods of every kind is most apparent. But 
 the Spanish habits of thinking still prevail, hence the smuggling 
 which elsewhere would be accounted scandalous, is openly practised 
 even by British ships of war here, because in no other way, can the 
 merchant obtain a return for his goods. Might not this be an article 
 to be considered in any treaty entered into for acknowledging the 
 independence of South America ? 
 
 The British merchants had been of material use to the independent 
 cause, by the large importations of arms and stores, both naval and 
 military, which, in spite of every prohibition, they continued to 
 furnish. It is true, that sometimes they also supplied the royalists ; 
 but in general their cargoes of this nature were for the patriots, be- 
 tween whom and themselves, there was a much more cordial inter- 
 course than they had ever maintained with the Spaniards. In Chile 
 the Protestant worship in private houses was connived at, and the 
 Protestants had been permitted to purchase ground for a burial place, 
 both in the city and at the port ; and something had been attempted 
 as to facilitating marriages between Protestants and Roman Catholics, 
 but it was too early as yet to hope for perfect and public toleration : 
 yet the officers entering into the service, naval or military, were 
 never incommoded on account of their form of worship, or even re- 
 quested to change it. 
 
 The rainy season, with strong gales from the northward, was now 
 set in, but the equipment of the ships went on with zeal, so that by 
 the 11th of September, the squadron was ready to put to sea: a loan 
 of 2000 dollars had been requested from the merchants of Valparaiso ; 
 they refused, however, any thing like a forced contribution, but in- 
 stantly subscribed 4393 dollars, a fourth of which was from the Eno-lish 
 merchants, as a free gift to forward the expedition, which was now 
 to adopt more active measures than on the former occasion. Lord 
 
INTRODUCTION. 53 
 
 Coclirane offered as a loan for an unlimited time, the prize money he 
 had made during the expedition. * 
 
 The squadron, consisting of the O'Higgins, Lord Cochrane ; the San 
 Martin, Captain Wilkinson ; the Lautaro, Captain Guise ; the Inde- 
 pendencia. Captain Forster ; the Galvarino, Captain Spry ; the Arau- 
 cano. Captain Crosbie ; and the Pueyrredon, Captain Prunier, met at 
 Coquimbo, to complete their water and other stores. They had with 
 them twotransports,chiefly employedinconveyingmortars and rockets, 
 with which it was intended to annoy the enemy. On the 28th of 
 September, the squadron arrived off Callao, and began immediately 
 to construct their rocket and mortar rafts, and to prepare the ships 
 for action. The admiral began by several false attacks, in order to 
 weary out the enemy ; but on the night of the 1st of October, the 
 Galvarino, Araucano, and Pueyrredon, entered the bay of Callao, each 
 towing a raft, two for the rockets, and one for the mortars : the In- 
 dependencia was ordered, also, to go in to protect the brigs, but by 
 some mischance anchored eight miles off. Unfortunately one of the 
 rocket rafts blew up, and severely wounded Captain Hind who com- 
 manded, and the men employed. The rockets themselves, either 
 from bad materials or unskilful composition, did not answer their 
 purpose; but the shells produced some effect and a constant dis- 
 charge of them was kept up. Meanwhile the forts and shipping 
 were firing incessantly on the brigs and rafts, and red-hot shot was 
 used ; but the damage done by it was trifling considering the cir- 
 cumstances, amounting to little more than the wounding the Arau- 
 cano's foremast, and breaking one of her anchors f ; the Galvarino 
 lost Lieutenant Bealy and some men. On the three following nights 
 feint attacks were made which annoyed the enemy as appeared par- 
 ticularly from an attempt made by their ships to escape from the bay 
 on the night of the third : by the fifth every thing was ready for an- 
 other serious attack. The brigs, as before, towed the rafts into their 
 
 * See Gazette, July 3. 1819. 
 
 f Stores were so scarce in the squadron, that the mast was fished with an anchor 
 stock from the Lautaro, and an axe was borrowed from the O'Higgins. 
 
54 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 places. Mr. Morgell had the command of the fire-ship Victoria ; 
 and the squadron was so placed, as to prevent the escape of the 
 vessels from the roads : the moment the brigs were within gun-shot, 
 the ships and batteries opened upon them. As soon as the fire-ship 
 was within grape-shot, and close to the chain which defended the 
 ships, Mr. Morgell set fire to her, and in ten minutes she exploded : 
 had there been a breath of wind, the greater number, if not the 
 whole of the enemy's ships, must have been destroyed. But, unfor- 
 tunately it was calm, and it produced little effect ; the rockets too, 
 again failed although managed with still greater care than before, 
 and Lord Cochrane determined to adopt some other mode of 
 proceeding. * 
 
 The Spanish frigate, Prueba, having been reported off" the bay, the 
 squadron immediately chased her, but she escaped, and most of the 
 ships sailed towards Pisco, in order to obtain stores, particularly 
 spirits for the ship's companies, leaving the Araucano to lookout 
 at Callao, At Pisco, the troops from the squadron were landed and 
 placed under Colonel Charles, of the marines, a brave and excellent 
 officer, who deserved a better fate than to be killed at the taking of 
 so paltry a fortress. f Major Miller was also severely wounded, and 
 the patriots lost 10 men. The end, however, was answered, and the 
 stores procured. 
 
 On returning to Callao, Lord Cochrane was informed that the 
 Prueba had proceeded to Guayaquil, where, with other Spanish ships, 
 she had taken refuge. He immediately went in pursuit of her, with 
 the Lautaro, Galvarino, and Pueyrredon ; and, arriving on the 25th 
 of November, off" the island of Puna, at the entrance to the river of 
 Guayaquil, undertook, notwithstanding the prejudices to the con- 
 trary ingeniously kept up by the Spanish charts, to pilot his squa- 
 dron up the rapid and dangerous stream. The night was the only 
 
 * The persons particularly praised in Lord Cochrane's despatch are Captains Spry, 
 Crosbie, Prunier, and Morgel; and there is a handsome compliment to Admiral 
 Blanco. 
 
 t He was buried at Valparaiso with military honours, on the return of the squadron. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 55 
 
 time for this bold undertaking ; accordingly on that of the 26th he 
 entered the river, but want of wind obhged him to stand out again, 
 and it was not till the evening of the 27th that he was able to pro- 
 ceed. Meantime he had learned that the Prueba had run up, even 
 without discharging her guns, at Puna, a usual precaution on account 
 of the shallows in the river, and was now under the batteries, which 
 he was induced to believe very strong ; but that the Aquila, of 
 30, and Vigona, of 20 guns, the best of the hired armed ships, were 
 lying where he had expected to have found the Prueba. He imme- 
 diately made sail for them, and at daybreak they saw with dismay 
 the O'Higgins at their very anchoring ground, 40 miles up the river. 
 The ships had each about 100 men on board, and they kept up a 
 brisk fire for 20 minutes, but the broadsides of the O'Higgins were 
 too much for them, and the crews took to the boats leaving the 
 ships to the admiral. During this action the Lautaro and brigs 
 which had remained outside of the Puna, were alarmed at the firing, 
 concluding it was from the Prueba, and had prepared to sail in case the 
 action had been unfavourable to the admiral ; but they were relieved 
 by the appearance of the prizes.* Lord Cochrane remained three 
 weeks off the island of Puna, having occupied the village of that 
 name, for the purpose of watering and procuring provisions for the 
 ships, as well as cutting timber to load the prizes.f 
 
 Having received intelligence, that one of the Spanish frigates 
 had taken refuge in Valdivia, the admiral resolved to proceed thi- 
 ther immediately on leaving Guayaquil, and accordingly sailed for 
 that port on the 17th of December. On his way he fell in with and 
 
 * The beautiful brass guns of the Vigonia (15 pounders) were given to the Lautaro 
 to complete her armament. 
 
 f There are upwards of twenty different kinds of timber to be procured at Guayaquil : 
 that most esteetned for ship-building is called oak, though it has no resemblance to that 
 tree ; the wood is yellowish and brittle, therefore not fit for planking : but it is very dura- 
 ble, and bears being underwater. The cedar and balsam timber is good; the ebony 
 coarse. The ship-building at Guayaquil was one great source of the prosperity of that 
 province, which has few or no mines. It produces cacao, rice, salt, qotton, tobacco, 
 cattle, and wax. 
 
56 INTRODUCTION- 
 
 captured the Potrillo, a small Spanish vessel with provisions, stores, 
 and 20,000 dollars in money, which she was conveying to the garri- 
 son of Valdivia, and having sent her to Valparaiso, he proceeded to 
 Talcahuano bay, where he arrived on the 22d of January, 1820. 
 There he found the Chilian States' schooner, Montezuma, and the 
 brig of war. Intrepid, belonging to Buenos Ayres ; and, desiring to 
 reconnoitre the port of Valdivia, he left the O'Higgins at Talcahuano, 
 and proceeded in the schooner, under Spanish colours, to make his 
 observations on the harbour. 
 
 Valdivia had always been considered as impregnable. The har- 
 bour is formed by the river of Callacallas, which, widening opposite 
 the town to an aestuary of four leagues broad, narrows again at its 
 mouth to half a league. Four considerable forts defend the narrow 
 entrance, besides a battery at the Morrd Gonzales, or the English- 
 man's watering place, in which there are altogether upwards of 100 
 guns, the fires of which cross each other from every point. Under 
 the Spanish flag, however, Lord Cochrane ran in so close to the place 
 that the health boat boarded him, and from the officer he learned the 
 state of the ports and of the garrison, and immediately returned to 
 Talcahuana to take measures for the attack he meditated. 
 
 On being made acquainted witli His Lordship's plans, General 
 Freire frankly lent him 250 men, under Major Beauchef ; and, supe- 
 rior to the petty jealousy and bargaining which too often disgrace 
 the operations of war, where the navy and army have to act together, 
 he placed them absolutely at the admiral's disposal, and on the 29th, 
 they were embarked in the O'Higgins, Intrepid, and Montezuma, 
 and sailed on the 30th. Unfortunately the frigate struck on the rocks 
 off the island of Quiriquina in getting out, but as it did not appear 
 that she was much damaged at the time, the little fleet proceeded, 
 and on the 2d of February, 1820, arrived off Valdivia, 10 leagues 
 to the southward, when the whole of the troops were put on board 
 of the small vessels, and the O'Higgins was ordered to keep out of 
 sight till the next day. At sunset, the troops were landed at the 
 Englishman's bay, Lord Cochrane accompanying them, and, as they 
 
INTRODUCTION, 57 
 
 marched, rowing along the beach with four boys in his gig, exposed 
 to the enemy's fire, to direct the march. The first fort to be attacked 
 was that of the Enghshman, situated on a promontory and defended 
 by a strong palisade, headed by six guns which swept the beach. The 
 soldiers, two abreast, continued to march along close to the palisade, 
 which appeared impracticable, when a Chileno midshipman perceived 
 one of the pales to be rotten at the bottom ; he seized it ; it gave 
 way, but finding it still impossible to enter, on account of his large 
 hat, he took it off, threw it over the palisade, got through himself, 
 and quickly enlarging the opening, the rest followed him and attacked 
 the fort so vigorously that it was carried in a few minutes. The mo- 
 ment this position was secured, the troops proceeded to the fort of 
 the Corral, the strongest and most important of all, without paying 
 attention to some smaller batteries behind. It was also speedily 
 reduced, and of course all the southern batteries, Avanzada, Barros, 
 Araargos, and Chorocomayo followed. The Colonel, Don Fausto del 
 Hoyo, with what remained of his regiment (the Cantabrian), was 
 taken. The enemy's loss in killed and wounded was great, that of 
 the patriots was only 6 killed and 18 wounded. 
 
 Next morning the O'Higgins arrived, and those on board suflTered 
 the most lively alarm from a trifling circumstance. Knowing the 
 extreme danger of the meditated attack, they had obtained a promise 
 from the admiral, that if all was well, he would hoist two flags of 
 any kind on the outer flag-staff". As they approached they saw but 
 one, and that one Lord Cochrane's boat's ensign, the Chile colours. 
 His Lordship had but that one with him and could get no other. 
 They began to fear he had been taken, and that the flag was hoisted 
 as a decoy. Meantime, the troops in the northern forts, perceiving 
 the frigate, hoped she was a Spaniard and made their private signal, 
 which she answered and continued advancing, when a boat boarded 
 her. All was safe, the admiral well. The Spanish flag was instantly 
 hauled down, the patriot ensign hoisted in its place, and the troops no 
 longer hoping for assistance, precipitately abandoned the town and 
 
58 INTRODUCTION, 
 
 remaining forts, and fled in every direction ; and the standards, 
 barrack stores, military chest, &c., fell into the admiral's hands. * 
 
 This action is perhaps one of the most daring and successful on 
 record, and done, like every thing Lord Cochrane has performed, for 
 the use of the thing, and not for the display of his own courage or 
 
 * « Port of Valdivia, February 5th, 1820. 
 
 " Sir, 
 
 " Resolving to profit by the advantages gained last night, by our brave officers and men, 
 1 ordered the Montezuma to pass forts Niebla and Mancera this morning, in company with 
 the brig Intrepid, and they both anchored under the guns of the Corral w^ithout other 
 danger than that from two balls which touched the Intrepid. The troops embarked im- 
 mediately in the two vessels, with the intention of entering the river, and taking possession 
 of the enemy's head-quarters in the battery del Piqjo ; but we had hardly made sail, when 
 the O'Higgins hove in sight abreast of the Morro de Gonzalo at the mouth of the port, 
 and the garrison abandoned the works, flying precipitately. 
 
 " This unexpected retreat of the enemy having caused me to change my plans, the 
 Montezuma and Intrepid were ordered to approach as near the shore as possible, and the 
 troops were landed at the Niebla, until the tide should permit the boats to convey them to 
 Valdivia. By this operation, the 100 guns of the castles, forts, and batteries of the ene- 
 mies of Liberty and Independence are turned against themselves. &c. &c. &c. 
 
 " Cochrane." 
 
 " Head-Quarters Valdivia, February 6th, 1820. 
 " Sir, 
 " While our troops were actually embarking in the boats, to follow the garrisons which 
 had fled to Valdivia, we perceived a flag of truce coming down the river. By it we 
 learned that the enemy had abandoned the town in the greatest confusion, after rifling the 
 houses of private persons, and the public store-houses. We, at least, have the happiness 
 to know, that we have omitted nothing that might protect the people, who, distinguishing 
 between friends and oppressors, have assisted in the maintenance of good order. Those 
 who had fled from their houses are beginning to return, and I hope that the governor, 
 whom the people will name to-morrow, will secure order and tranquillity. To this end 
 I have circulated proclamations, assuring the inhabitants, that they will not be molested 
 in the slightest manner, and that the troops shall not interfere in any way, in civU matters. 
 Want of time prevents my enclosing a copy of these papers. &c. &c. &c. 
 
 " Cochrane. 
 " To Don Jose Ignacio Zenteno, Minister at War and of Marine." 
 
 In another letter, Lord Cochrane says : -~- 
 
 " At first it was my intention to have destroyed the fortifications, and to have taken the 
 artillery and stores on board ; but I could not resolve to leave without defence the safest 
 and most beautiful harbour I have seen in the Pacific, and whose foi'tifications must 
 doubtless have cost more than a million of dollars." 
 
INTRODUCTION. 59 
 
 talent * ; by it, the enemy was deprived of his last hold of Chile, 
 and what is of still greater consequence, the Chilenos learned to 
 place confidence in themselves and their officers, and to have the 
 moral as well as the physical courage necessary for all great achieve- 
 ments. 
 
 But there is no character so perfect, no action so heroic, as to be 
 safe from envy. As the Spanish poet says — 
 
 " Envy is Honour's wife, the wise man said, 
 Ne'er to be parted till the man was dead." 
 
 On the arrival of the news of the taking of Valdivia at V^alparaiso, 
 all the mean and bad passions of little men were awakened. The 
 people at large showed a joy that perhaps exasperated the envious ; 
 but it is certain that there were many persons in power, with Zen- 
 teno at their head, and some even of his own countrymen, who scru- 
 pled not to say, that Lord Cochrane deserved to lose his head for 
 daring, unbidden, to attack such a place, and for endangering the 
 patriot soldiers, by exposing them to such hazard. 
 
 But the time was not yet arrived for any effectual attack on Lord 
 Cochrane. The government felt his value, or rather the absolute 
 necessity of the state required his services, and the clamours of the 
 envious and ungrateful were for once stifled, f 
 
 Unconscious of these cabals, and encouraged by his success at Val- 
 divia. Lord Cochrane naturally turned his attention to Chiloe, where 
 
 * A force of 2000 men, with 100 guns, had been overcome by 350, aided by the pre- 
 sence and name of their gre^t chief. 
 
 f On the 2d ofi March, the people of Coquimbo sent a congratulatory address to the 
 director and the admiral on the taking of Valdivia. 
 
 On the 14th of August, the government voted medals to the captors of Valdivia to be 
 suspended by a tricoloured ribbon ; to Lord Cochrane, Captain Carter, Major Miller 
 Major Beauchef, and Major Vicente, gold medals ; and silver medals to 23 others. 
 The decree says of the capture of Valdivia, " It was the happy result, of the devising of 
 " the best arranged plan, and of the most daring and valorous execution." And it 
 concludes, by conferring on Lord Cochrane, an estate from the confiscated lands of Con- 
 ception, of not less than 4000 quadras in superficies. 
 
 This estate Lord Cochrane begged leave to return, that it might be sold for the pay- 
 ment of the sailors of the squadron. Z%m q^er was iiot accepted. 
 
 I 2 
 
go INTRODUCTION. 
 
 the Spaniards had still a strong position, under an able and deter- 
 mined officer, Colonel Quintanilla. The account of that expedition 
 is best given in His Lordship's own letter addressed to the Minister 
 of Marine : — 
 
 " Sir, 
 
 " The unfortunate circumstance, of the running ashore of the brig 
 Intrepid, on the day I last had the honour of addressing Your Excel- 
 lency, and her total loss in this port without either wind or storm, 
 owing to her being quite rotten, deprived me of the greater part of 
 the force and means for taking Chiloe. Nevertheless, I determined 
 to proceed with the schooner Montezuma, and the transport Dolores, 
 Captain Carter of the Intrepid having volunteered to command the 
 latter, in order to reconnoitre the port of San Carlos, and to offer the 
 inhabitants such assistance as was in my power, if they showed an 
 inclination to shake off the yoke of Ferdinand. 
 
 " With this purpose we landed in the bay of Huechucucuy in the 
 evening of the 17th. The soldiers, with the marines of the O'Hig- 
 gins and Intrepid, took possession of the three outer batteries which 
 defend the port, dislodging about thirty foot and sixty horse ; but 
 having afterwards lost their way, owing to the darkness of the night, 
 in roads almost impassable, they halted till dawn, by which time 
 the militia headed by the friars, armed with lances or whatever wea- 
 pons they could get, had assembled in such numbers in the fort of 
 Aguy, that it rendered the taking of that strong hold with so small 
 an attacking force impossible. The brave Col. Miller being severely 
 wounded. Captain Erezcano of Buenos Ayres, agreeably to my in- 
 structions not to engage the troops farther, caused them to retreat 
 and go on board. 
 
 " Having re-embarked them, I resolved to return to Valdivia, con- 
 ceiving that the securing that place and expelling the enemy from 
 the province were more important objects than even the establishino- 
 a garrison in Chiloe. 
 
 " I ought to add, that the outer defence of San Carlos was entirely 
 
INTRODUCTION, gj 
 
 destroyed by us, that there is safe anchorage, and that Chiloe is at 
 the mercy of 500 men, whenever it shall please the government of 
 Chile to incorporate it with the cause of liberty and independence. 
 
 " All the troops behaved with the greatest bravery ; our loss con- 
 sists of four killed and ten wounded. May God keep you many 
 years. " Cochrane." 
 
 " Chiloe, Feb. \9. 1820. 
 
 On Lord Cochrane's return to Valdivia, he furnished what arms 
 he could to the people of the neighbourhood, to assist in driving out 
 the enemy, and despatched Beauchef to Osorio with 100 men to 
 secure that town, which commands one source of the supplies of 
 Chiloe. Beauchef and his little troop were received by all the 
 Indians both in the country and at Osorio with the greatest joy. 
 " I believe," says that officer, in his official letter addressed to Lord 
 Cochrane, " that I have embraced more than a thousand caciques 
 " and their followers. They have all offered their people to serve 
 " in the patriotic cause ; but as circumstances do not require this, 
 " I have invited them to return to their own lands, and have received 
 " their promises to be ready if the country should call for their ser- 
 " vices. I have distributed to each on taking leave, a little indigo, 
 " tobacco, ribbon, and other trifles." The flag of Chile was hoisted 
 on the castle of Osorio on the 26th of February ; some cannon, 
 forty muskets, and ammunition were found there, but no resistance 
 was made, the Spaniards having escaped to Chiloe. 
 
 Meantime, in consequence of the damage sustained by the O'ELiw- 
 gins when she struck at Quiriquina, she was disabled from going to 
 sea, and was therefore hove down at Valdivia to be repaired, while 
 the admiral returned to Valparaiso in the Montezuma. Upon his 
 departure, some feeble efforts were made by the dispersed Spaniards 
 to repossess themselves of Valdivia, and to induce the Indians to fall 
 upon Beauchef: but that brave officer speedily put an end to the 
 struggle, and placing sufficient guards in Osorio and other posts, 
 fixed his own head-quarters at Valdivia. 
 
62 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 As soon as Lord Cochr,ane arrived in Valparaiso, he despatched 
 the Independencia and Araucana with every thing necessary for 
 repairing the O'Higgins, and with orders to return with her to that 
 port as soon as possible. The great expedition, so long looked for- 
 ward to, for the coast of Peru was now to be undertaken. The 
 political temper of the Peruvians, and especially of the people of 
 Lima, was ripe for it. A considerable body of troops had been 
 assembled, and the taking of Valdivia having driven the enemy from 
 his last strong hold in Chile, it only remained to prepare and victual 
 the fleet in order to attack the provincial capital itself; and it was 
 resolved that immediately after the next rainy season the expedition 
 should sail. * 
 
 Meanwhile the ships were employed under Lord Cochrane's own 
 eye, in surveying the coast in the neighbourhood of Valparaiso ; par- 
 ticularly the bays Concon and Quintero, the former at the mouth of 
 a very large river, and which might be important as a port for em- 
 barking produce brought down the river from the interior ; the 
 lattei; as being a fine harbour, better defended from the winds than 
 that of Valparaiso, and better situated with regard to the facility of 
 wood, water, and provisions, though more distant from the capital. 
 Some of the ships' crews were also employed in forming piers for 
 the embarkation of the troops, in fitting transports and other pre- 
 parations for the expedition. 
 
 But the short-sighted policy of the financiers of these new govern- 
 ments who will not see that it is more profitable to purchase good- 
 will and faithful service by punctual payment to the soldiers and 
 sailors, than to retain the money in their hands, even if they trade 
 with it, or lend it for usury, which is not uncommon, had nearly 
 unmanned their squadron, and deprived them of half their officers.f 
 
 * The Instructions of the Viceroy Pezuela to the governor of Valdivia, found in the 
 public office of the place, urge him strongly to maintain himself thei-e ; not only as pre- 
 serving a footing in Chile, but as preventing the government from making the threatened 
 attack on Peru, by diverting a considerable part of the forces. (See Gazette of the 22d 
 and 29th of April, 1820.) 
 
 ■j- On this occasion it was that Lord Cochrane offered the estate to be sold to pay the 
 people. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 63 
 
 The discontent broke out in the San Martin and Araucana early in 
 May ; but it was not until the middle of July that the only proper 
 and just remedy was applied, that of paying the people and officers, 
 which immediately restored tranquillity, and nothing of any moment 
 occurred before the sailing of the troops for Peru. 
 
 While the arms of Chile were thus successful, the civil government 
 was, at least, improving. Some sort of order had been introduced 
 into the financial department ; and, although the custom-house 
 regulations were still, in great part, formed upon the ancient narrow 
 Spanish system, there was a considerable improvement even in them. 
 A college had been instituted in Santiago, and other works of utility 
 had been carried into effect. A public library was founded, a theatre 
 was built, and the director had oven intended to have erected a tele- 
 graph ; but the prejudices of the people, and especially the priests, 
 against such a miraculous mode of communication, were too strong, 
 and a telegraph must wait, at least, twenty years before it can be 
 admitted in Chile. 
 
 But the army destined for Peru was now (August, 1820,) assembled 
 at Valparaiso, and the name of Exercito Libertadore (liberating 
 army) was resounded in all parts. The director had come to Val- 
 paraiso to be present at the sailing of the squadron ; and he and 
 General San Martin, who was appointed captain-general of the liber- 
 ating forces, renewed solemnly those protestations in favour of 
 Peruvian liberty which they had formerly made in the proclamations 
 issued by them, and distributed among the people of Peru, during 
 the preceding 18 months. In one of those of O'Higgins, dated 
 Feb. 1819 *, he says, after telling them the expedition is almost 
 ready — " Do not think that we pretend to treat you as a -conquered 
 " people ; such a desire could have entered into the heads of none 
 " but those who are inimical to our common happiness. We only 
 " aspire to see you free and happy : yourselves will frame your govern- 
 " ment, choosing that form which is most consistent with your cus- 
 
 * See Appendix. 
 
g4 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 " toms, your situation, and your wishes. You will be your own 
 " legislators, and, conse^ently, you will constitute a nation as free 
 " and as independent as ourselves." 
 
 In another of a later date, he says — 
 
 " Peruvians, — These are the compacts and conditions on which 
 " Chile will affront death and toil to save you, contracted in the 
 " presence of tKe Supreme Being, and calling on all nations to bear 
 " witness, and to avenge their violation. You shall be free and 
 " independent ; your laws and your government shall be constituted 
 " by the sole spontaneous will of your representatives. No in- 
 " fluence, civil or military, direct or indirect, shall be exercised by 
 " these your brothers, over your social institutions. You shall send 
 " away the armed force that is now going to protect you the moment 
 " you will ; and no pretext of your danger or your security shall serve 
 " to keep it with you, against your consent. No military division shall 
 " ever occupy a free town, unless invited by the lawful magistrates -, 
 " and the peninsular parties and opinions that preceded the times of 
 " your independence shall not be punished by us, or by our help." 
 
 A long proclamation* of San Martin, dated March, 1819, speaks 
 the same language. After declaring that he is justly empowered by 
 the Independent States of the United Provinces of South America 
 and of Chile, to enter Peru, in order to defend the cause of freedom ; 
 he laments, at large, over the slavery of that kingdom, and rejoices 
 that deliverance is at hand. " My address," he says, " is not that of 
 " a conqueror, who treats of systematizing a new slavery. The force 
 " of things has prepared this great day of your political emancipation, 
 " and I can be only the accidental instrument of justice, and the 
 " agent of destiny." He then goes on exulting in the certainty of 
 victory over the oppressors, saying, " The result of the victory must 
 " be, that the capital of Peru will see, for the first time, its sons 
 " united, and freely electing a government, and appearing in the face 
 " of the world in the rank of nations." Such were the views held 
 
 See Appendix. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 65 
 
 out by the chiefs of the expedition. Views in which Lord Cochrane 
 sincerely participated ; and his sentiments in favour of leaving the 
 Peruvians to govern themselves were so well understood, that San 
 Martin, fearing lest they should thwart some private projects of his 
 own, actually obtained from the Chileno government secret instruc- 
 tions, empowering him to act as a check on the admiral's conduct ; 
 but it was long ere he found it convenient to make known that he 
 possessed such instructions. 
 
 The Chileno officers, both native and foreign, of the army and 
 navy, certainly believed in the sincerity of their leaders ; and they 
 imagined that, prepared as Peru was to receive them, they would have 
 been led immediately to attack the capital, in order to put an end 
 to the war at once. All were in the highest spirits, and on the 21st 
 of August, 1820, San Martin hoisted the captain-general's flag on 
 board the ship named after himself, and sailed with the squadron 
 and transports, amidst the congratulations of all ranks of people. 
 San Martin had with him the soldiers of Chacabuco and Maypu ; 
 and Lord Cochrane himself commanded the squadron. Victory was 
 considered as certain ; and the departure of the army was like a 
 triumph. * 
 
 The soldiers and sailors were animated by the hopes of extraordi- 
 nary rewards : San Martin having promised them a bounty of a year's 
 pay, in addition to their wages, on the taking of Lima. 
 
 At Coquimbo, the squadron stopped to take in more provisions, 
 and to embark the troops assembled in that town, and then pro- 
 ceeded towards Peru. Meantime, the director declared all the ports 
 between lat. 2° 12' and 21° 48' south, or from Iquique to Guayaquil 
 in a state of blockade, unless they should fall into the hands of the 
 Chileno leaders : but in order not to oppress neutrals more than was 
 necessary, the admiral had full powers to grant licenses upon certain 
 conditions, for landing or trans-shipping their cargoes, f 
 
 * Among the poems that appeared on the occasion, the farewell of the ladies of Chile 
 to the liberating army, and the answer, are the most considerable. 
 
 f Against this blockade the British commander-in-chief remonstrated, somewhat intem- 
 
66 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 This necessary document being published, the director next caused 
 a manifesto to be circulated, dated 31st of August, 1820. It is en- 
 titled " Manifesto from the Captain-General of the Army, Don 
 " Bernardo O'Higgins, to the People whom he governs." It begins 
 by congratulating them on the sailing of the Liberating Expedition, 
 and then proceeds to give a short but clear statement of his political 
 life, and the events, civil and military, in which he had been engaged. 
 He says ; " Educated in the free country of England, that desire for 
 " independence which is born with every man in the climate of 
 " Arauca was strengthened. Loving liberty, both from sentiment 
 " and principle, I swore to assist in procuring that of my country, 
 " or to bury myself under its ruins." The paper is well written, 
 and the sentiments expressed do honour both to the head and heart 
 of the supreme director, whose personal character has always been 
 esteemed, while such of his actions as have dissatisfied the people 
 have uniformly been ascribed to the influence of his ministers. 
 
 Meanwhile, the expedition had arrived at Pisco. On the 7th of 
 September, the squadron passed San Gallan, and anchored off that 
 place at six o'clock in the evening. Lord Cochrane immediately 
 proposed to land a small detachment, and surprise the town before 
 the enemy should have time to convey away the slaves, cattle, and 
 provisions. The army was in want of recruits and horses, and as the 
 ships were scantily victualled, it was of importance to secure the 
 spirits and other stores known to be at Pisco : but this proposal of 
 his lordship's appeared too hazardous to the captain-general, and the 
 attack on the place was postponed till next morning. On the 8th, 
 therefore, the first division of the troops was landed under General 
 Las Heras, with two pieces of artillery, and formed into two squares, 
 each of 1000 men, on the burning beach of Paraca, where they con- 
 
 perately, telling Chile in so many words, that a little nation had no business to attempt a 
 great operation ; and saying something about the law of nations, as if that law was not 
 the same for little as well as great nations. The answer written by Zenteno, told him, 
 that the Esmeralda had been taken, and that the addition of force gained by it gave Chile 
 quite enough ships to maintain the blockade. Gazette, Feb. 24. 1821. fSee Appendix. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 67 
 
 tinued until sunset. Meantime, about sixty of the enemy's horse 
 were seen on a hill above, 4iaving come apparently to reconnoitre, 
 but they were dispersed by a few shots from the Montezuma ; and 
 when the troops at length arrived in Pisco, after a march of six hours, 
 they found that the Spaniards had conveyed away all the stores, and 
 had sent the slaves and cattle into the interior, they themselves had 
 retired to lea, leaving nothing behind but jars of the brandy of the 
 country, generally called Pisco : this was divided between the fleet 
 and the army, and was most acceptable to the sailors, as they were in 
 great want of spirits or wine. The next day the rest of the troops 
 landed, and head-quarters were fixed at Pisco, whence regular bul- 
 letins were issued, containing rather pompous details of the feats of 
 the great expedition ; and several proclamations relative to the good 
 order and discipline of the troops. In these bulletins, the real 
 failures or oversights in the marching, ordering, or commanding the 
 troops were corrected for the public eye. The foraging parties 
 brought in horses and cattle sufficient for the army, but the fleet con- 
 tinued without adequate supplies. 
 
 During the fifty days that the head-quarters of the army were at 
 Pisco, Colonel Arenales occupied lea, Palque, Nazca, and Acari, 
 taking a quantity of military stores, and revolutionising the country 
 as he marched : but the captain-general remained completely in- 
 active. Indeed, from the 26th of September to the 4th of October, 
 he was carrying on a negotiation with the viceroy, an armistice 
 having been concluded at Miraflores for that purpose. What the 
 hopes of either party could have been, from the negotiation seem 
 unintelligible. The grounds, however, on which the viceroy treated, 
 were, that the king of Spain had sworn to adhere to the constitution 
 in the month of March preceding. The same constitution had been 
 published in Lima on the 9th, and sworn to on the 15th of this very 
 month. Was it by Pezuela's authority, and on account of the arrival 
 of the liberating force, that he had given directions, in consequence, 
 that all the states, which had in fact separated themselves from the 
 mother-country, should be invited to rejoin her, under the protection 
 
 K 2 
 
68 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 of the constitution, their first magistrates receiving all the honours, 
 and all the consideration consistent with the dignity of the Spanish 
 crown ? 
 
 But Pezuela must have been strangely deceived as to the temper 
 of the South Americans, if he could have imagined that on such 
 vague invitations, they would give up that independence that had 
 already cost them so much : or, that an army, like that now at Pisco, 
 would quietly withdraw from an enemy's country, on the mere requi- 
 sition of its government. However, that no opportunity might be 
 neglected of attaining that freedom peaceably, which, if not conceded 
 by Spain, every man had sworn to die for, the proposals of the 
 viceroy were listened to, and Colonel Don Tomas Guido and the 
 secretary, Garcia del Rio *, were appointed plenipotentiaries on the 
 occasion. But, as the viceroy insisted on the submission of all the 
 South American provinces to the crown and cortes of Spain, the ne- 
 gotiation fell to the ground. The most conciliatory paragraph to be 
 found in the viceroy's letters, after telling San Martin that his best 
 way would be to submit to the king, and swear to the constitution, 
 is the following : — " Although the Americans may have made some 
 " objections, and some complaints concerning points in which they 
 " feel themselves aggrieved, this appears to be of little moment; 
 " for I assure your excellency, that wherever their complaints are 
 « reasonable, they will be done justice to by the cortes and the king." f 
 And on other grounds than that of first taking the oaths to the con- 
 stitution of the cortes, the viceroy refused to treat, while the deputies 
 of San Martin insisted on his recognizing the full authority of Chile 
 as an independent representative government. The truce of Mila- 
 flores was, therefore, speedily ended, and hostilities were declared to 
 have recommenced on the 4th of October, on which day the news of 
 the revolution of Guayaquil arrived. 
 
 The commander-in-chief having sufficiently recruited his army, 
 
 * The same who was afterwards employed in conjunction with Paroissien, in libelling 
 Lord Cochrane, not only in Chile, but in Brazil as well as in England, 
 f See the Gazettes, and the manifesto printed at Pisco, Oct. 13. 1820. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 69 
 
 during fifty days at Pisco, re-embarked on the 28th of October *, and 
 directed his course to the northward, but not, as every officer and 
 man in the army hoped, to Lima itself. His first intention was to go 
 to Truxillo, a town not less than four degrees to leeward of Callao, 
 and where the army could have had no advantage, but that of being 
 safe from an attack from Lima, as it was not approachable by land, 
 and the squadron would have protected it by sea : with some difficulty 
 General San Martin was prevailed on to abandon this plan, and to 
 approach a little nearer the principal point of attack. Had he done 
 so at once, the people were all so prepared throughout the country 
 for receiving the liberating forces with open arms, that his success 
 was certain : but he lingered. Some declared too soon for him ; and 
 they were fined or imprisoned, or corporally punished by the viceroy ; 
 others rendered cautious, demurred on the approach of San Martin's 
 people about supplying them, and they were treated by him with 
 military rigour ; thus the people were worn out, and harassed till 
 they looked upon both parties alike as oppressors, and lost the taste 
 for national independence introduced by the violation of civil liberty. 
 The General's conduct appears to have been guided by an idea, that 
 
 * The only event that marked the interval was the death of the auditor, General Jonte, 
 on the 22d : the whole army mourned three days for him : this man had been one of the 
 agents for Chile in England. He was one of those who mistake cunning for wisdom, and 
 scrupled not to employ any petty means of obtaining the information he wanted, and of 
 which he made use either for himself or his employers, well knowing how to dole it out. 
 Such men, as they begin by the petty tricks of espionage, are apt to contract a love for 
 the thing itself. Hence, not only public papers, but private letters, are violated ; and 
 I have seen an account of cattle opened, examined, and sealed up again, with wily 
 cautiousness, in order to see if the very cow-keepers wrote politics. As for Jonte, his 
 curiosity had become a passion almost insatiable, and the meannesses which he would 
 have started from on other accounts, were practised daily by him for its gratification. It 
 was believed, that he had been commissioned to offer Peru, Chile, and, I think, the 
 Buenos Ayrian provinces as a sovereignty, first to a prince of the blood-royal of England, 
 and next to a Bourbon prince. If so, it could have been only with a view of inducing 
 those powers to stand by in neutrality, in hopes of a rich possession, while the Spanish 
 American colonies were struggling for their freedom. The petty scheme was worthy of 
 its authors, who certainly never meant to realise such plans,, but merely to bribe England 
 and France to abstain from assisting Old Spain : the cunning was childish and useless, and 
 it marks the weakness of the employers of Jonte. 
 
70 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 by simply appearing on the coast he could frighten the viceroy into 
 submission, and that by harassing the petty villages along the shore, 
 he could possess himself of the castles of Callao. However, on the 
 28th, as we have seen, he embarked ; on the 29th, the fleet anchored 
 in the bay of Callao, and having gratified his curiosity by a sight of 
 the castles, and the naval forces, the captain-general proceeded on 
 the 30th to Ancon, where he remained with the troops on board 
 the transports for ten days. Meantime, on the 2d of November, 
 the regiment of Numancia deserted the Spaniards and joined the 
 patriots. 
 
 While the army was thus inactive. Lord Cochrane had been dili- 
 gently employed in reconnoitring Callao, having formed the design 
 of seizing the frigate Esmeralda, of 40 guns, -which then lay in 
 the bay under protection of the castles. Besides 300 pieces of artil- 
 lery on shore, she was defended by a strong boom and chain-moor- 
 ings ; several tiers of old ships, armed as block-ships, guarded her ; 
 she was surrounded by 27 gun-boats of different sizes ; and the 
 enemy, dreading, lest she should be attacked, had supplied her and 
 the block-ships with additional men, so that she had "about 370 on 
 board of the best sailors and marines that could be procured, and 
 they had slept at quarters for six weeks. On the fifth of November, 
 the purpose for which the necessary preparations for the enterprise 
 had been made was first communicated to the ofiicers and ships' 
 companies ; when the following address was read to them : — 
 
 " Marines and seamen ! 
 
 " This night we are going to give the enemy a mortal blow: 
 " to-morrow you will present yourselves proudly before Callao, and 
 " your companions will look on you with envy. One hour of cou- 
 " rage and resolution is all that you require in order to triumph. 
 " Remember, that you are the conquerors of Valdivia : and do not 
 " fear those who are accustomed to fly from you on all sides. 
 
 " The value of all the ships taken in Callao will be yours ; and 
 " besides, the same sum will be distributed among you, that has 
 
INTRODUCTION. 71 
 
 " been offered in Lima to those who shall capture any vessel of the 
 " Chilian squadron.* The moment of glory approaches: I trust 
 " that the Chilenos will fight as they have done hitherto, and that 
 " the English will do as they always have done, both in their own 
 " country and elsewhere. 
 
 " COCHEANE," 
 " On board the O'Higgins, 
 " Nov.Sth, 1820. 
 
 The whole of the marines and seamen of the 0'Higgins,Lautaro,and 
 Independencia, volunteered for the service, but 240 only were accepted; 
 and at eight o'clock in the evening all the boats, fourteen in number, 
 assembled alongside of the O'Higgins, with their crews dressed in 
 white, and each armed with a cutlass and pistol. The first division 
 of boats was intrusted to Captain Crosbie, the second to Captain 
 Guise; and, at 10 o'clock. Lord Cochrane, having given a few orders 
 enjoining strict silence and the exclusive use of swords, got into his 
 boat and pulled directly for Callao. They were first challenged by 
 one of the gun-boats astern of the Esmeralda, when Lord Cochrane, 
 rising in the boat and drawing his sword, said in an under tone, 
 " Silencio o Muerte !" and was obeyed. He demanded the sign 
 and countersign of the night. Victoria — Gloria ; a good omen, 
 and they passed on unmolested. In a few minutes the boats were 
 alongside of the frigate, the starboard and larboard side being boarded 
 at once. Lord Cochrane was the first man on board, and was shot 
 immediately, through the flesh of the right-thigh just above the 
 knee ; but, having first seized the sentinel who fired at him by the 
 heel and thrown him overboard, he seated himself on the hammock- 
 netting and continued to give his orders. Meantime the Spaniards 
 had retreated to the forecastle, and seemed resolved to defend their 
 post. Twice did Captains Guise and Crosbie charge along the gang- 
 
 * The sum of 50,000 dollars having been offered by the Spaniards for a Chileno fi-igate, 
 the same sum was levied on them on the fall of Lima, as if for the captofs of the Esme- 
 ralda ; but the money was appropriated by San Martin, and neither that nor the value of 
 the vessel ever paid. 
 
72 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 ways at the head of their divisions and were repulsed ; and it was 
 not until the third attack that they carried it. The marines, to a man, 
 had fallen in their place on the quarter-deck. 
 
 The fight was renewed on the main -deck, but it was, in comparison, 
 feebly sustained, most of the people having now taken refuge in the 
 hold, and the ship at length surrendered. 
 
 Lord Cochrane now ordered the boats to be manned, that he might 
 pursue his plan of taking out the Maypu and some other vessels ; but 
 the men were busy plundering, and the darkness and confusion ren- 
 dered it impossible to enforce the order. Besides, the castles had 
 begun a heavy fire upon the frigate ; and, although she had hoisted 
 the same lights with the neutral ships, the Hyperion, English frigate *, 
 and the Macedonia, United States' ship of war, the firing continued ; 
 so that to prevent her being damaged, her sails were set and her chain 
 cables cut, and she was anchored out of gun-shot, with two of the 
 largest gun-boats which Lord Cochrane had also taken. 
 
 The enemy's loss in killed, wounded, and drowned, was very great. 
 All the officers, three of whom were wounded, were taken prisoners, 
 and Captain Coig, the commander, received a severe contusion from 
 a ball from the batteries ; 150 of the crew were also taken, with the 
 standard of the commander-in-chief; a considerable quantity of naval 
 stores, and some treasure. The loss on the Chileno side was 15 killed 
 and fifty wounded. 
 
 Although Lord Cochrane was not able to complete the whole of 
 his plan, the success he had gained surpassed all that had ever been 
 done or imagined in those seas ; and, indeed, if we except his own 
 actions in the service of his own country -f, no age or nation has 
 
 * The Hyperion and Macedonia had hoisted lights to distinguish them as neutrals. 
 A midshipman of the Hyperion was standing on the gangway looking on, and seeinop 
 Lord Cochrane's noble bearing, clapped his hands in congratulation, and exclaimed, " ^^■ ell 
 and Englishly done !" Captain S. reprimanded him, ordered him below, and threatened 
 to put him under arrest ! Had Lord Cochrane been an enemy, a generous man would 
 have felt with the midshipman; — but a neutral and a cotintryman ! — The Macedonia 
 behaved very differently. 
 
 t See the English Gazettes, of Aug. 1801, for the taking of the Spanish zebeck by 
 the Speedy, in 1801 ; and from that time to Basque Roads, a series of exploits, of which 
 every Englishman is proud. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 73 
 
 witnessed so bold a design so ably executed. But who ever pos- 
 sessed, like- him, the quick eye to perceive every advantage ; the 
 resolute spirit to undertake ; and, above all, the perfect self-posses- 
 sion, in every situation, that is necessary to accomplish great actions ! 
 The secrecy with which this blow was planned, and the suddenness 
 of the execution, secure to Lord Cochrane the double praise of the 
 politician and the warrior. " For the helmet of Pluto," says Lord 
 Bacon, " which maketh the politic man to go invisible, is secrecy in 
 " the council and celerity in the execution ; there is no secrecy com- 
 " parable to celerity ; like the motion of a bullet in the air, which 
 " flyeth so swift as it outruns the eye." 
 
 Coriolanus, when his country was ungrateful, went and commanded 
 the armies of her enemies and revenged himself. Alcibiades fled to 
 a tyrant's court, and disgraced the land he had left by his excesses; 
 and most of those who have been obliged to " teach them other 
 tongues, and to become no strangers to strange eyes," have followed 
 either the one example or the other. But Lord Cochrane, when he 
 left his beloved home, refused the splendid offers of a court, because 
 he could not fight against the principles of his country, but went to 
 a remote and feeble nation and employed his talents in assisting the 
 sacred cause of national independence. And though, as all things 
 sublunary are imperfect, Chile is still far from enjoying all the ad- 
 vantages that she should derive from that blessing for which he 
 fought, — his part was done : the fleets of the oppressors were driven 
 from the shores of the Pacific ; and some principles established, and 
 some seeds of future good were sown, that will immortalise him as a 
 benefactor to mankind as well as a hero — things too often, alas ! 
 so widely different. But to return to our narrative. 
 
 On the morning of the 6th, a horrible massacre was committed 
 chiefly by the women of Callao on the boats' crews of the Mace- 
 donia. It was not believed that Lord Cochrane with boats alone 
 could have cut out the Esmeralda without the assistance of the 
 English ships ; and, as the people could not distinguish between the 
 English and North Americans, they fell on the boats' crews that had 
 
74 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 gone as usual to the market-place for fresh beef and vegetables, and 
 butchered the greater part of them. As soon as this was reported 
 at the castle, the governor sent out troops to protect the strangers, 
 and the few that escaped owed their lives to this precaution. The 
 admiral procured an exchange of prisoners on this occasion. 
 
 The same evening the Araucano carried the news to Ancon, where 
 it was received in the most enthusiastic manner by the army. On 
 the 8th the O'Higgins and Esmeralda also arrived at Ancon, where 
 again the army cheered the admiral, and were full of hopes that they 
 should now attack the town. Guayaquil had declared itself inde- 
 pendent ; the Numantian regiment had joined the liberating force. 
 The enemy's best ship was taken, and the moral effect of these 
 events, not to speak of the daily, though slight advantages gained by 
 several officers, were calculated not only to elevate the patriots and 
 to encourage their secret friends to declare themselves, but to dispirit 
 the enemy. But though every thing seemed to court him to action, 
 San Martin could by no means be induced to change his cautious 
 plans, and therefore on the 9th he proceeded to Huacho, still farther 
 from Lima, and, with the whole army, disembarked and fixed his 
 head-quarters at Supe, whence he proposed to detach one-half of his 
 army to Guayaquil, probably with a view to secure that province as 
 part of his future empire. This most imprudent scheme was how- 
 ever abandoned, and the general contented himself with causing the 
 troops to fall back from Chancay to Huaura, at the very time 
 when, in addition to the happy circumstances already mentioned, 
 Truxillo * had emancipated itself, and General Arenales had obtained 
 a decided victory over the royalists under General O'Reilly at 
 Pasco, on the 6th of December. | The troops soon began to feel the 
 bad effects of the unhealthy situation of Huaura, and nearly one- 
 
 • The province of Truxillo was declared free on the 29th of December by the Governor, 
 the Marques de Torre Tagle. 
 
 t The enemy's loss was 58 killed, 18 wounded, 343 prisoners, includino- 28 officers, 
 two pieces of artillery, 300 muskets, the banners, ammunition, &c. ; the rout was so 
 complete, that O'Reilly fled with only three lancers, the battle having lasted forty minutes. 
 Arenales lost one officer and five men killed, and twelve wounded. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 75 
 
 third of them died of fever during the many months they continued 
 there. 
 
 Meantime Don Tomas Guido and Colonel Luzuriago were de- 
 puted to Guayaquil to return the compliments paid to the liberating 
 chiefs by Escobedo, the chief of that city, who had offered all the 
 assistance of the rich province of which it is the capital, towards the 
 accomplishment of their designs. Other views were also in San 
 Martin's contemplation : the extraordinary successes of Bolivar in 
 the north had given rise to the idea that his indefatigable zeal might 
 lead him to the provinces of Peru. But it was by no means the wish 
 of San Martin that such an expedition should be so far successful 
 as to deprive him of any part of the empire he had now begun to 
 contemplate for himself. His deputies, therefore, represented that 
 on the fall of Lima, Guayaquil would become the principal port of 
 a great empire, that the establishment of the docks and arsenals 
 which San Martin's navy would require, must enrich not only the 
 individuals actually concerned in them, but the whole city ; whereas, 
 if Guayaquil were subdued by Bolivar, it would be considered only 
 as a conquered province, and of scarcely any importance to the 
 immense state of Columbia. The existing government was therefore 
 persuaded to form a militia, and to take every measure for keeping 
 out any Columbian invader. 
 
 This was not the only negotiation carried on from head-quar- 
 ters at Supe : a correspondence, voluminous enough for the whole 
 states of South America, took place between San Martin and the 
 viceroy, sometimes concerning the exchange of prisoners, sometimes 
 that of titles of honour, and now and then the liberator complains 
 of the petty abuse of the Lima newspapers, which complaints are 
 retorted by the viceroy. 
 
 Nor was the press of Supe idle ; besides the bulletins of the liberat- 
 ing army, edicts were published calling upon slaves to join the army, 
 and promising to pay their masters; and flattering proclamations 
 addressed to the European Spaniards. 
 
 Since the departure of the expedition from Chile, the director and 
 senate had been uniformly engaged in endeavours to increase the 
 
 L 2 
 
76 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 revenue : but they wanted the principles of poHtical economy, and 
 were never able to effect more than temporary supplies. They were 
 more successful in the other branches of government: the laws 
 concerning marriage were revised and placed on a more liberal foot- 
 ing than before. The police of the capital was improved, and gene- 
 rally speaking, a stricter execution of the laws provided for. The 
 southern provinces however had been disturbed by the activity of 
 Benevidies, a man of a ferocious character, who rendered himself 
 hateful, not only by his rigorous obedience of his orders from Spain 
 not to give quarter to Europeans found in arms in favour of the 
 patriots, but by extending the cruel practice to the natives them- 
 selves of all ranks. The atrocities on both sides were shocking to 
 humanity, and the scandalous manner in which the priests prostituted 
 Christianity to the purposes of policy and war is not among the 
 least revolting circumstances of the time* ; upon the whole, the end of 
 the year 1820 was far from being favourable on the southern frontier. 
 About this time, two circumstances occurred characteristic of the 
 times, but otherwise of no importance. An English vessel put into 
 San Carlos of Chiloe in distress, in order to refit and revictual ; 
 the governor seized the crew, alleging that Lord Cochrane and 
 most of the crews of the Chile squadron were English, and that but 
 for them the enemies of the king, his master, could never succeed. 
 The other circumstance seems to give countenance to the idea that 
 at some time and by some party, an imperial crown in South Ame- 
 rica had been offered to a Bourbon prince. Papers from Rio de 
 Janeiro had stated that a number of French ships of war had ar- 
 rived in the southern seas to convoy a great personage, whose views 
 were however, for the present, frustrated by the actual state of Buenos 
 Ayres. Shortly after the arrival of this report, several French ships 
 of war did actually double Cape Horn, and enter different harbours 
 in Chile, upon which the minister of marine applied by letter to the 
 
 * A figure of the Virgin was placed in a conspicuous situation ; the patriot flag was 
 presented to her, she shook her head ; — a Spanish flag was brought, tiie arms of the 
 figure instantly embraced it; and the omen was of course accepted by the multitude. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 77 
 
 French commodore, to know why they had come into the Pacific. 
 The answer calmed all their fears. In a very polite letter, M. Jurien 
 assured the government of Chile, that the only object of His Most 
 Christian Majesty for sending ships thither, was to form his young 
 naval officers, and survey those seas. 
 
 Meanwhile, the blockade of Callao was carried on vigorously by 
 Lord Cochrane ; on the 2d of December, 16 gun-boats came out of 
 the bay to attack the O'Higgins and Esmeralda, but after an action 
 of upwards of an hour they were obliged to retire, with loss. A 
 similar attempt was made, with the like success on the 26th, but 
 nothing farther occurred till the beginning of 1821, except the taking 
 of several prizes, chiefly laden with provisions. The month of Ja- 
 nuary was employed in a similar manner ; the squadron keeping up 
 a close blockade, and detachments of the army under Arenales, &c. 
 gaining slight advantages in the neighbourhood, but the main body 
 continuing totally inactive. 
 
 The month of February was every way more remarkable. Tn the 
 first place, (general Lacerna superseded Pezuela as viceroy of Peru, 
 by the will of the soldiery ; in the next, San Martin published, on 
 the 12th, a "Provisional regulation to establish the bounds of the 
 " territory actually occupied by the liberating army, and the form of 
 " administration to be observed until a central authority may be 
 " constituted by the will of the free cities." A few phrases of which 
 are worth transcribing, to show the style and spirit of the captain- 
 general's publications. " Charged with restoring to this vast portion 
 " of the American continent, its existence and its rights, it is one 
 " of my duties to consult, without restriction, every means which 
 " may contribute to that great work. Although victory should make 
 " a strict alliance with my arms, there would remain a perilous void 
 " in the engagements I have contracted if I, did not prepare in anti- 
 " cipation the elements of universal reform, which it is neither 
 " possible to perfect in one day, nor just to defer entirely under any 
 " pretext. The most brilliant successes in war, and the most glori- 
 " ous enterprises of the genius of man can only excite in the people 
 " a sentiment of admiration mingled with anxiety, if they do not 
 
78 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 " perceive, as their termination, the amelioration of their institutions, 
 " and an indemnification for their actual sacrifices. Between the 
 " shoal of premature reform, and the danger of leaving abuses un- 
 " touched, there is a mean whose amplitude is pointed out by the 
 " circumstances of the moment and the great law of necessity." 
 After a good deal more of the same kind, there follow twenty regu- 
 lations, in not one of which is a single evil removed ; but they all 
 relate to the appointment of new governors, and tax-gatherers, and 
 to his own full powers to rule ; and especially to punish those whose 
 political proceedings shall be offensive to him, or contrary to his views. 
 
 But the jealousy which had begun to intrigue against Lord Coch- 
 rane, even before his arrival, was now about to break out in a manner 
 highly disgraceful to many of the officers of the Chileno squadron, 
 and extremely injurious to the cause they served. Each, having 
 come out as an independent adventurer, conceived, notwithstanding, 
 that Chile had formally adopted the rules and regulations of the Bri- 
 tish service, that the ship he was appointed to was his own ; and that 
 his obedience to the admiral was in a manner optional, particularly 
 in matters concerning the officers of those ships. Such ideas neces- 
 sarily disturbed the discipline and good order of the service 5 and, 
 unfortunately, the supplies to the squadron were so scanty, both as 
 to war and sea stores, and clothing, and even victuals for the crews, 
 that there was always some ground for complaints, and always too 
 good a reason for overlooking improprieties, that might otherwise, 
 probably, have been checked and prevented from growing into seri- 
 ous evils. 
 
 On the 28th of January, the government, wishing to compliment 
 Lord Cochrane, Tesolved to change the name of the frigate Esmeralda. 
 They had already a Lautaro, an O'Higgins, and a San Martin, in the 
 squadron, and intended to have the Cochrane, but His Lordship chose 
 rather to call her the Valdivia, in commemoration of the taking of 
 that place ; on which the surgeon, purser, and two of the lieutenants, 
 wrote a most insolent letter to Lord Cochrane, stating that they had 
 no objection to the ship being called Cochrane, but they thought her 
 new name ought to have some reference to her captors, and not to 
 
INTRODUCTION. 79 
 
 be that of the man who had been the first tyrant in Chile. This was 
 followed up by other letters equally improper ; so that in order to 
 dissipate what was in reality a petty conspiracy, the admiral ap- 
 pointed these gentlemen to other ships, and substituted other officers 
 in the Valdivia. 
 
 Notwithstanding this unpleasant business, however, Lord Coch_ 
 rane had formed a plan, which doubtless would have succeeded but 
 for these cabals. Having carefully reconnoitred the bay of Callao 
 himself, he intended to go in with the San Martin, and all the boats 
 of the squadron, seize the ships and gun-boats, and turn all the 
 enemy's own guns upon the castles. The officers and crew of the San 
 Martin volunteered with three cheers for the service, and everything 
 was appointed for the execution of this spirited project, when, just as 
 it was to be carried into effect, Captain Guise declared he could not 
 serve unless he had his own officers back ; Captain Spry declared he 
 should stand by Captain Guise, and the whole squadron was in com- 
 motion. On the 23d, these two officers resigned their commissions 
 in the navy of Chile ; and on the 1st and 2d of March, a court-mar- 
 tial was held on the officers of the Valdivia, when, Michael, the sur- 
 geon, and Trew, the purser, were dismissed the service ; the lieu- 
 tenants, Bell and Freeman, with Kenyon, the assistant-surgeon, dis- 
 missed their ship ; and Captain' Spry was also dismissed his ship and 
 placed at the bottom of the list, by sentence of a court-martial. * 
 
 These persons, together with Captain Guise, immediately pro- 
 ceeded to San Martin to induce him to cause them to be reinstated, 
 and he accordingly sent them back to Lord Cochrane with a request 
 to that effect. To Captain Guise His Lordship offered his ship, and 
 to the lieutenants, commissions in other ships ; but they refused to 
 serve unless with their own captain, and by his order, and accordingly 
 withdrew altogether from the service. The admiral was grieved not 
 only at the occurrence which seemed to threaten the worst con- 
 sequences to the squadron, but at the interference of the commander- 
 in-chief in favour of these persons. Captain Guise's conduct seems 
 
 Captain Spry afterwards deserted. 
 
go INTRODUCTION. 
 
 to have been a renewal of that hostile spirit, which at Valparaiso had 
 instigated the contemptuous and insolent behaviour towards the 
 admiral, that disgraced him before the sailing of the expedition, but 
 which subsequent events seemed to have obliterated from the minds 
 of both. Captain Spry was a low-minded man, and, perhaps, even 
 then had in contemplation that treachery for which he was not long 
 afterwards so liberally rewarded. His cunning had obtained great 
 influence over Captain Guise, and he is believed to have been his 
 chief adviser. 
 
 The next occurrence worthy of notice is the second taking of Pisco. 
 That wretched place, after having been forced to maintain the patriot 
 army for fifty days, had again fallen into the hands of the Spaniards 
 who had severely punished the defection of the inhabitants. It was 
 retaken by 500 patriots, under Colonel Miller, on the 22d of March, 
 who collected the first day 300 horses for the use of the army, and as 
 many oxen, sheep, and mules. Lord Cochrane, who had accompanied 
 this little expedition, hoisted his flag on the 18th on board the San 
 Martin, leaving the O'Higgins and Valdivia to protect the troops at 
 Pisco, and returned to Callao, where he again attacked the gun-boats 
 with effect. Meanwhile General Arenales had obtained another 
 decided advantage over General Ricaforte and 2000 men. 
 
 Early in May a vigorous attack was made on Arica* ; but the land- 
 ing-place being strongly fortified, the troops disembarked a little to 
 the northward, and after the town had been bombarded for five days 
 the Spaniards left it; and a considerable booty, besides 120,000 
 dollars in money was collected. These successes of the patriots 
 induced the new viceroy to propose an armistice for three weeks to 
 General San Martin, who gladly accepted it as the forerunner, it was 
 hoped, of a pacific termination to a campaign wearisome to the 
 
 * Arica, the capital of a province of the name, is the southernmost port of Peru. The 
 mines of gold and of copper are extremely rich, but the want of water in their district and 
 indeed in the whole province, is an obstacle to working them properly. The valley 
 behind the town is fertile, and produces an immense quantity of red pepper. The town 
 has suffered severely from earthquakes, and in 1680, it was sacked by the notorious 
 Captain Sharpe, from which misfortune it never entirely recovered. There is a great 
 volcano in the eastern part of the province, from the side of which flows hot fetid water. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 81 
 
 invaders, and cruelly oppressive to the inhabitants of the country. 
 However, as General Lacerna was no more empowered than his 
 predecessor to acknowledge the absolute independence of the South 
 American colonists, the negotiation only served to gain a little 
 breathing time to both parties. 
 
 But the blockade had been maintained with such vigilance and 
 spirit by the squadron, that the viceroy found the city was no longer 
 tenable for want of provisions. The people had become clamorous, 
 and all hope of assistance from Spain was abandoned ; therefore, on 
 the 6th of July, Lacerna evacuated Lima, and the liberating force 
 was eagerly expected by the inhabitants to take immediate posses- 
 sion. Nevertheless, to the astonishment of both Peruvians and 
 Chilenos as well as that of the neutrals in the harbour, San Martin's 
 army made not the slightest movement towards the town until the 
 9th, when a small detachment was sent thither. * In the interval, 
 as all the troops were withdrawn and the government broken up, it 
 was apprehended that serious disordei's would take place in the city; 
 and Captain Basil Hall of his Britannic Majesty's ship Conway, sent 
 to offer the services of his seamen and marines to the cabildo, in 
 order to maintain tranquillity and to protect both the public and 
 private property. The general himself arrived at Callao in the 
 schooner Sacramento, on the 6th or 7th ; and having waited till one 
 detachment of his army was safely quartered in Lima, and a solemn 
 deputation from the city to invite him to take possession had been 
 sent to him, he landed and went thither quietly on the evening of 
 the 10th. 
 
 The first days were employed in publishing flattering proclam- 
 ations, and in those acts of self-praise and congratulation which 
 every general or army occupying a new territory is in the habit of 
 indulging in, but which San Martin carried farther than any com- 
 mander whose manifestoes I ever had occasion to see. Although he 
 
 * Among other patriotic papers printed at the time, there was a sort of comedy, repre- 
 senting the men and women of Lima all on the high road, looking anxiously for the 
 excercito Ubertador, and lamenting the dilatoriness which keeps it from blessing their sight. 
 
 M 
 
82 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 had passed the time since his arrival on the coast of Peru in total 
 inactivity, and although the capital had been reduced by famine 
 occasioned by the exertions of the squadron, aided by the civil dis- 
 sensions naturally arising, from great private distress, yet he takes on 
 himself the style and title of a conqueror, and, to read his official 
 papers, one might think he had won the city by hard fighting. 
 Callao, however, held out, though it was reduced to still greater 
 straits by the occupation of Lima. The squadron continued to 
 attack the forts and gun-boats on every opportunity ; and on the 
 24th, Lord Cochrane, having observed an opening in the chain which 
 secured the vessels, sent in Captain Crosbie with the small boats of 
 the squadron that night, who brought out the San Fernando, Milagro, 
 and Resolution, ships of war, besides several boats and launches, and 
 burned two other vessels. A few days before, the squadron had 
 suffered a severe loss in the San Martin which was wrecked at the 
 Chorillas, having gone thither with corn to be sold to the poor at a 
 low rate on the 15th July, and was totally lost on the 16th. * 
 
 But the exultation and ferment occasioned by the attainment of the 
 grand prize for which all the exertions of Chile had been made, 
 occupied all tongues and all eyes. On the 28th the independence of 
 Peru was solemnly sworn to ; but an incident happened that very 
 night, which, like the sitting of Mordecai the Jew in the king's gate, 
 poisoned the enjoyment of San Martin. Being at the theatre with 
 Lord Cochrane, the people received them with the loudest acclam- 
 ations : they gave San Martin all the epithets and titles that could 
 gratify him, except that of beave, which they constantly coupled 
 with Lord Cochrane's name ; an invidious distinction which he com- 
 plained of to His Lordship on leaving the theatre, who generoush- 
 made light of it, and applying the words addressed by Cromwell to 
 Lambert, which Lambert afterwards recollected as a prophecy, he 
 saidjf " Genera], they are only old Spaniards, who would shout in the 
 
 * This was prize corn belonging to the squadron, who cheerfully gave it up at the sug- 
 gestion of San Martin, who took all the credit of the timely supply, while it was literally 
 given by the ships. See the Gazettes and Proclamations of that date. 
 
 f Bishop Burnet's history of his own times. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 83 
 
 same manner if you and I were going to be hanged." To which he 
 replied, vehemently repeating the words several times, " Oh, I will 
 punish them in the most cruel manner." * From this moment his 
 measures against the old Spaniards were determined, although the 
 time was not yet arrived for completing his revenge. Nor were they 
 alone the objects of his anger. To the jealous, " trifles light as air 
 are confirmations strong as proofs. of holy writ;" and I have no doubt 
 that his jealousy of Lord Cochrane was increased to that fury which 
 afterwards broke out, in great measure by this circumstance. 
 
 On the 29th, the most solemn masses were performed in thanks- 
 giving for the deliverance of Lima from the Spaniards ; and San Martin, 
 a professed unbeliever, not content with a decent acquiescence in 
 the rites at which he was necessarily present, distinguished himself 
 by a zeal for all holy things, an energy of worship, and, above all, by 
 excessive veneration for the tutelar Saint Rosa f, which I think 
 rather prejudiced than favoured his cause, even among the clergy 
 themselves. But at this present juncture all means were to be re- 
 sorted to to conciliate all men ; the clergy were particularly courted. 
 A letter was written to the bishop to entreat him to use his good 
 offices to keep the people quiet, and to show them the benefits of the 
 new order of things. The Spaniards were flattered and assured of 
 personal protection, and those who chose to remain were promised 
 also the enjoyment of their whole property upon their soliciting or 
 purchasing letters of citizenship. The officers of the squadron were 
 caressed, and many of them flattered with assurances of honours, 
 rewards, and personal friendship from the general. 
 
 At length, on the fourth of August, the grand measure which all 
 these preparatives announced was carried into effect ; and San Martin 
 published a proclamation, declaring himself protector of Peru 
 with an authority absolute and undivided. In direct violation of his 
 
 * Je les traiterai de la maniere la plus feroce. — They were speaking French. 
 
 f At her church they show the dice with which she used to play when Christ came to 
 amuse her in person. This is one of the most harmless and decent legends concerning 
 her intercourse with the Saviour. 
 
 M 2 
 
84 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 former promises*, he tells the Peruvians that his ten years' experience 
 of revolutions had proved to him the dangers of assembling con- 
 gresses while the enemy still had footing in the country ; and that 
 therefore, till the Spanish forces were entirely driven out, he should 
 direct the affairs of Peru, though he sighed for a private station. 
 He named Garcia del Rio his minister for foreign affairs, Bernardo 
 Monteagado, minister of war and marine, and Torre Tagle that of 
 finance. The despotism was absolute : all old laws were annulled, 
 but nothing was substituted in their room but the protector's own 
 will ; and it was not long before that will displayed itself in acts 
 for which nothing can account but the intoxication occasioned by 
 absolute power. 
 
 No time was lost in transmitting the tidings of these transactions 
 to the director of Chile ; and perhaps San Martin thought, that by 
 sending him the four flags which Osorio had taken at Rancagua, and 
 which were found in the cathedral at Lima, he made up for that 
 breach of his oaths of fidelity to Chile and its government, which he 
 had now virtually committed by declaring himself an independent 
 chief f 
 
 Nor was this the only injury he meditated against the country he 
 had left. The squadron had now been a year in constant activity ; 
 scantily supplied at first with rigging and sails, and provisioned only 
 for a few weeks, nothing could have maintained it, but the good 
 conduct of the officers generally, and the activity and vigilance of 
 its commander. Sometimes making use of the powers given him to 
 commute custom-house duties into supplies for the fleet ; or, accord- 
 
 * See Appendix, for San Martin's proclamation before the squadron sailed fi-om Chile. 
 
 -j- This seems indeed to have produced great effect on the director, who, in his circular 
 letter pubHshed in me Gazette on the 25th August, 1821, congratulating the country on the 
 success of the army and squadron, and on the acquisition of a sister republic, dwells at great 
 length on the restoration of the flags in question. On the 30th of September they were 
 sent in solemn procession, under an escort, to Rancagua, and delivered to the municipality, 
 with a proclamation from the director. On the 2d of October, the anniversary of the 
 unfortunate rout of Rancagua, they were conveyed to the altar of N. S. da Carmen, the 
 protectress of the arms of Chile, and consecrated. The city presented a scene of festivity 
 for several days. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 85 
 
 ing to the same powers, granting licences to neutrals to trade on the 
 blockaded coast, on the same consideration ; at others, purchasing 
 from his own private funds, and those of the officers of the squadron, 
 the articles more immediately necessary; or seizing and converting 
 the enemy's stores to the use of the patriots ; he had thus long kept 
 the squadron afloat. But the time for which the greater part of the 
 seamen had engaged was now expired, and they began to be cla- 
 morous for their pay, more especially as the additional bounty of 
 a year's wages, which was promised to them on the fall of Lima, 
 seemed to have been forgotten. Lord Cochrane applied to San 
 Martin on this head, on the day on which he became protector ; 
 excuses were first made on the score of want of funds, although the 
 mint of Lima was in his hands ; but at length he declared that he 
 would never pay the squadron of Chile, unless that squadron were 
 sold to him by the admiral, and then the pay should be considered 
 as part of the purchase money. The indignation expressed by Lord 
 Cochrane on this occasion violently exasperated the new protector ; 
 but as Callao had not yet fallen, his passions remained under some 
 constraint, though his determination to possess the squadron was 
 probably strengthened. This determination prompted him, in order 
 to prevent the ships from withdrawing from the coast, to refuse all 
 supplies and provisions, (so that the crew of the Lautaro was abso- 
 lutely starved out, and obliged to abandon her,) in hopes of forcing 
 the officers and men to go over to him. 
 
 The day following. Lord Cochrane wrote a letter to the protector, 
 in which he asks him, " What will the world say, if the protector of 
 " Peru shall violate, by his very first act, the obligations of San 
 " Martin ; even although gratitude may be a private and not a 
 " public virtue? What will it say, if the protector refuses to pay the 
 " expenses of the expedition that has placed him in his present 
 " elevated station ? — and what will be said if he refuses to reward the 
 " seamen, who have so materially contributed to his success ?" Not- 
 withstanding this letter, and others still more urgent to the same 
 effect, nothing was done. The ships were left so destitute of sails, 
 rigging, and stores, that their safety was endangered ; the provisions 
 
86 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 were scanty, and consisted solely of old charqui * ; the men had no 
 spirits, and their clothes now were in the most wretched condition. 
 The admiral more than once represented that they were on the point 
 of mutiny : he himself remained on board to tranquillise them ; for 
 they now began to suspect that there had never been an intention 
 of paying them, and they threatened to seize the ships, and pay 
 themselves, by taking whatever vessels they found on the coasts. 
 On the fifteenth of August, however, alarmed by the representations 
 of Lord Cochrane, the protector renewed his promises of paying 
 the squadron as soon as he should raise money sufiicient, having 
 allotted a fifth of the customs for that purpose. That fifth, however, 
 was to be divided with the army ; and the sailors were too well 
 accustomed to the nature of divisions with the army, not to be still 
 further irritated by a promise that seemed but a mockery of their 
 sufferings. 
 
 But before I proceed with the affairs of the squadron, it will be 
 necessary to return to those of the army for the last time, because as 
 San Martin had now declared himself independent, and the liberating 
 army of Chile had become the protecting army of Peru, my design 
 is not to follow their history farther than as it is connected with the 
 concerns of Chile and its squadron. 
 
 On Lacerna's quitting Lima he retreated to Jauja, where he 
 formed a junction with the Spanish General Canterac ; and they 
 resolved, if possible, either to succour Callao, or at least to save 
 the treasure which had been deposited there to a vast amount. 
 Had San Martin continued the blockade of the fort by land, as he 
 certainly might have done, especially as the squadron continued ac- 
 tive in the bay, having, on the 15th of August, cut out two other 
 ships and a brig from within the booms, such a scheme would 
 have been hopeless ; but he had fallen back with his army under 
 the walls of Lima, and Canterac, profiting by the circumstance 
 made a forced march, and on the 10th of September, reached the 
 neighbourhood of Callao. San Martin's army was drawn up in order 
 
 • Dried beef. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 87 
 
 of battle. The brave General Las Heras and Lord Cochrane were 
 on horseback, with some hundreds of officers and private gentlemen, 
 eager to come to action ; the enemy's force was small compared to 
 the protector's army, and the general himself, as he called to the 
 two officers above-mentioned, seemed really animated with a sincere 
 desire of action, and a determination to engage ; but he gradually 
 cooled, wasted the morning in unimportant gossip, went to his 
 customary siesta, and then ordered the soldiers to go to dinner. 
 They however were resolved to exercise their sabres, and accordingly 
 charged a flock of sheep, killed them, and then obeyed the General's 
 latest orders, while the enemy, unmolested, proceeded to enter 
 Callao. It was on this occasion that Las Heras, after having in vain 
 urged the advantages of attacking Ganterac, broke his sword, and 
 vowed never again to wear the habit of that disgraceful day, * The 
 admiral, (it was the last interview he ever had with San Martin,) also 
 urged him, even at the last minute, and pointed out the way still left 
 to preserve his own honour and that of the army ; when he answered, 
 " I alone am responsible for the liberty of Peru," and retired. This 
 scene was followed up on the 15th by one equally disgraceful to the 
 general. Canterac's army retired from Callao, carrying with it the 
 treasure, and all the military accoutrements, without even an attempt 
 being made to stop them. 
 
 Meantime Lord Cochrane and San Martin had both been endea- 
 vouring to negotiate for the surrender of Callao, with La Mar the 
 governor. Lord Cochrane, intending to fulfil his promises, offered 
 to give safe conduct and personal protection to all, on condition of 
 delivering the forts to the fleet, giving up one-third of the Spanish 
 property, and paying passage money or freight to such ships as he 
 should provide, to transport them to any country. San Martin, 
 however, who had no intention of keeping his word, offered un- 
 limited and unconditional protection, both to persons and pro- 
 
 * He kept his word, and retired to Chile, where he lived in retirement till San Martin 
 fled thither in Oct. 1823, when Las Heras retired to Buenos Ayres. 
 
88 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 perty, on the individual's purchasing letters of citizenship. * Lord 
 Cochrane's proposals were therefore rejected, and his hopes of 
 obtaining thereby a sufficient sum for the payment of the seamen, 
 and the repair and refitting of his ships, were frustrated, f He 
 therefore resolved on a bold measure, but one which in the relative 
 circumstances of all parties appears to me to be perfectly just. It 
 must be remembered, as I have stated before, that the squadron had 
 been twelve months at sea in constant activity ; the men had received 
 neither pay nor clothing ; they had had no supplies of provisions but 
 what they had captured, either on shore or at sea ; some of the ships 
 were leaky, and all were in want of stores of every kind ; and, above 
 all, the crews, who were at least half English, complained of the want 
 of grog. The army, on the contrary, had been supplied with waste- 
 ful profusion, and all the honours and all the advantages of the cam- 
 paign had been bestowed on its soldiers ; its general had thrown off 
 his allegiance to the country to which both army and navy had 
 sworn to be faithful, and now wished to buy that fleet of its officers, 
 which was, in the first place, not theirs to dispose of, and which 
 they were bound to maintain for the Chilian government. San Mar- 
 tin had promised not only to pay but to reward the fleet ; but he had 
 failed to do either, and now denied his engagement to that purpose. 
 He had also claimed for his own use several of the prizes made by 
 the squadron. 
 
 Alarmed by the advance of Canterac's troops, San Martin had sent 
 all the money and bullion from the mint and treasury at Lima to 
 Ancon, and shipped it on board the transports, by way of safety. 
 
 * San Martin, after having gotten the old Spaniards into his power, exacted from them 
 one-half of their property as a means of securing the rest ; when they attempted to remove 
 or transport the remainder, it was seized, and the persons of the Spaniards were, with few 
 exceptions, imprisoned or murdered. 
 
 f A great number of Spanish fugitives, with their property, having taken refuge in the 
 vessels. Lord Lynedoch and St. Patrick, which were detained on that account. Lord 
 Cochrane permitted them to ransom themselves, applying the money to tlie supply of tlie 
 squadron. One or two, who preferred trusting to San Martin, wei'e afterwai-ds cruelly 
 treated, and deprived of all their property. 
 
INTRODUCTION. g9 
 
 Besides this treasure, there were other public monies, with consider- 
 able suras belonging to individuals ; and also, on board the Sacra- 
 mento, the protector's own private property in gold and silver, the 
 latter of which was in such quantity that the vessel threw out her 
 ballast to make room for it ; and the coined gold had loaded four 
 mules, not to speak of gold bullion.* 
 
 As soon as Lord Cochrane knew that so much public property was 
 on board the transports, he sailed for Ancon, where the Lautaro was 
 then lying with the transports, and seized the whole of the money, 
 excepting what was plainly proved to be private property f, and ex- 
 cepting also, the cargo of the Sacramento, which was left untouched. 
 
 The moment San Martin heard of the seizure, he employed every 
 means of flattery and threats to induce Lord Cochrane to give up the 
 public money, and to trust it in the hands of his commissioners, who, 
 in order to save his dignity, would pay the ships' companies in his 
 name; but to this Lord Cochrane of course refused to consent, 
 though, in hopes that the Protector would send a commissary on 
 board to attend to it, he deferred the payment until the men became 
 so discontented, having begun to desert for want of their pay, that 
 he felt he could no longer delay it. Meantime the forts of Callao 
 had surrendered to the republican flags of Peru and Chile ; and all 
 farther dread of danger, from the squadron being in a state to leave 
 the coast, being over, San Martin gave a reluctant consent to the 
 payment of the squadron out of the money taken at Ancon. The 
 ships' companies were immediately paid, and the officers, with the 
 exception of Lord Cochrane himself, who received nothing, had 
 their full arrears given them. 
 
 This, however, was not done without further struggles on San 
 Martin's part to gain possession of the money, or at least to revenge 
 the taking of it ; to gain the first end, he had sent Monteagudb to talk 
 to Lord Cochrane, well knowing that he was skilled to " make the 
 
 * The general's aide-de-camp who embarked this private property, loaded the return 
 mules with goods smuggled from an English vessel, the Rebecca. 
 
 -j- Even after he had the treasure on board, all that could prove their right by any writ- 
 ing or witness had their money restored, — this restitution amounted to 40,000 dollars. 
 
 JV 
 
90 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 worse appear the better cause ;" and then Lord Cochrane agreed, 
 that on condition of receiving necessaries for the ships, and particu- 
 larly anchors *, some portion of the bullion should be restored ; but 
 as the stores, &c. were refused, the money, amounting to 285,000 
 dollars was detained, and distributed as above stated ; regular ac- 
 counts being kept, and all being placed to the credit of the Chileno 
 government. The scheme for revenge was more successful. At 
 midnight, on the 26th of September, the very day on which the Pro- 
 tector had desired the admiral to make what use he pleased of the 
 money, San Martin's two aides-de-camp, Captain Spry f and Colo- 
 nel Paroissien, boarded the several ships of the squadron, and then, 
 for the first time, made known the secret instructions and full powers 
 o-ranted by Chile to the Protector concerning the squadron. Besides 
 this communication, they offered commissions, and held out the 
 prospect of honours, titles, and estates, to such as might desert 
 and serve under Peru. Then, finding that the admiral had discovered 
 their nocturnal visits, Paroissien insolently went to him, and held 
 the same language ; hinting that it was better to be admiral of a 
 rich country like Peru, than vice-admiral of so poor a province as 
 Chile, and attempting anew to gain or bribe him. Of those officers 
 who basely deserted their flag on these suggestions, most have been 
 punished by the disappointment of their hopes, — and all by the 
 contempt of both friends and enemies. The seamen were enticed to 
 enter the Peruvian service by every possible means ; and, while on 
 shore enjoying themselves after receiving their pay, were either bribed 
 or threatened into compliance. Nay, the faithful officers were put 
 into the guard-house for attempting to induce them to return to their 
 former ships. Thus the squadron, in bad repair and scantily sup- 
 plied, was half unmanned. Yet, under these circumstances, now that 
 Callao had surrendered, San Martin peremptorily ordered Lord 
 
 * Two that had been cut from the Esmeralda when she was taken, and one lost by the 
 O'Higgins in an attack on Callao, were then in San Martin's possession, — he refused 
 them. 
 
 f The same who had been dismissed his ship by sentence of a court-martial, and had 
 afterwards deserted. 
 
INTRODUCTION. gj 
 
 Cochrane to leave the coast of Peru, with all the vessels under his 
 command * ; on which order, communicated through Monteagudo, 
 Lord Cochrane wrote the- following letter to that minister, which I 
 insert because it corroborates facts which might otherwise appear in- 
 credible : — -f 
 
 On board the O'Higgins, Callao Bay, 28th Sept. 1821. 
 
 Sir, 
 
 I should have felt extremely uneasy had the letter you have ad- 
 dressed to me, by order of His Excellency the Protector of Peru, 
 contained the commands of the Supreme Chief to depart from the 
 ports under his dominion, without assigning his motives ; and I 
 should have been distressed indeed, had these motives been founded 
 in reason, or on facts ; but when I find that the order originates in 
 the groundless imputation, that I had declined to do what I had no 
 power to effect, I console myself that His Excellency the Protector 
 will be ultimately satisfied that no blame rests with me ; at all events, 
 I have the gratification of a mind unconscious of wrong, and glad- 
 dened by the cheering conviction, that, however facts may be dis- 
 torted through the refracting medium of sycophantic breath, yet 
 mankind who live in the clear expanse, view things in their proper 
 colours, and will do me the justice I deserve. 
 
 You address your argumentative letters to me, as if I required to 
 be convinced of your good intentions. No, Sir, it is the seamen who 
 are to be persuaded ; it is they who give no faith to professions after 
 they have once been disappointed. They care not whence the sup- 
 plies of the squadron come, whether from the pockets of the Spaniards, 
 in captured cattle and Pisco, as they have done, or from the treasury 
 of their employers ; they are men of few words, but decisive acts ; 
 they say, that for their labour they have a right to pay and food, and 
 that they will work no longer than while they are paid and fed. 
 
 * San Martin issued orders, knowing the state of the ships, that, at the ports of Peru 
 where they might touch, all supplies, even wood and water, should be refused. 
 
 f This letter was communicated to me at a time when I could not ask the admiral if it 
 was quite correct ; but I have reason to believe it is so, with the exception of such verbal 
 inaccuracies as may have occurred in translating it from the Spanish. 
 
 i\r 2 
 
92 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 This, Sir, is uncourtly language, unfit for the ear of high authority. — 
 Moreover, they urge that they have had no pay, whilst their fellow 
 labourers, the soldiers, have had two-thirds of their wages ; that they 
 are starved, or living on stinking charqui, whilst the troops are 
 fully fed on beef and mutton ; that they have had no grog, whilst 
 the others have had money and opportunity to obtain that beloved 
 beverage, and all else they desired. Such, Sir, are the rough grounds 
 on which an English seaman founds his opinion, and rests his rude 
 argument. He expects an equivalent for the fulfilment of his contract, 
 and when, on his part/ it is performed with fidelity, he is boisterous 
 as the element on which he lives, if pay-day is past, and his rights 
 are withheld. It is of no use, therefore, for you to make up an 
 account upon the correctness of which I can make no remark. 
 
 You seem, in the next paragraph of your letter, to express surprise 
 that when twenty days only have elapsed, we should again require 
 provisions ; but all Wonder will cease if you refer to my letters, and to 
 your own order, to supply twenty-days' provisions thirty-days ago. 
 As to your assertion regarding the gratuitous supply of Pisco, I have 
 to inform you that the charge for it was 1900 dollars, as appears by 
 my account, supported by receipts and vouchers received at Pisco, 
 and delivered to me by Captain Cobbet of the Valdivia, whose 
 veracity and integrity I will pledge against that of any of the most 
 honourable of your informants. In the meantime, on the delicacy of 
 your contradiction of my assertion, I shall abstain from remark, and 
 institute an enquiry, in order that whosoever has falsified the fact, 
 may be publicly exposed to the merited contempt of mankind. 
 
 You tell me. Sir, that it is in vain to refer to mv letters, statino- 
 the situation of the squadron to save my responsibility, because 
 these letters have been answered (and in fair words too you might 
 have added) ; but did I not warn you, that words were of no avail 
 against the brute force of disappointed men clamouring for their 
 rights ? Did I not ask you in person to speak to these seamen, 
 saying that I would co-operate with you as fiir as I could, and did 
 you not neglect to perform this duty ? How then can you assert 
 that I refused to acquiesce in the views of government ? 
 
INTRODUCTION. 93 
 
 In what communication, Sir, have I insisted on the disbursement 
 of 200,000 dollars ? I sent you an account of money due it is true *, 
 but, in my letter, I told you it was the mutinous seamen who de- 
 manded the disbursements, and that I had done all in my power, 
 though without effect, to restrain their violence and allay their fears. 
 You add, that it was impossible to pay the clamorous crews. How 
 then is it true (and the fact is indisputable), that they are now paid 
 out of the very money then lying unemployed at your disposal ? I 
 shall only add, that promise of sharing 20 per cent, of the customs 
 with the soldiers did not satisfy the minds of the sailors, knowing 
 the nature of the divisions already made. My warning you that they 
 were no longer to be trifled with was founded on a long acquaintance 
 with their character and disposition ; and facts have proved, and may 
 yet more fully prove, the truth of what I have told you. 
 
 Why, Sir, is the word " immediate" put into your order to go forth 
 from this port? Would it not have been more decorous to have 
 been less peremptory, knowing, as you do know, that the delay of 
 payment had unmanned the ships ; that the total disregard of all my 
 applications had left the squadron destitute of provisions, and that 
 the men were enticed away by persons acting under the authority of 
 the government of Peru ? That you yourself have given me no 
 answer to an official letter, dated the 23d, calling upon you to put a 
 stop to such unjustifiable proceedings ? Was it not enough to land 
 the supplies brought by the Montezuma, whilst the squadron for 
 which they were meant was in absolute want, without the insult of 
 placing guards on board and ashore, as if you felt a conviction that 
 the necessity to which you had reduced the squadron might warrant 
 the taking of food by force ? If so, why are matters pushed to this 
 extremity by the government of Peru ? 
 
 I thank you for the compliments paid me regarding my services 
 
 * The accounts of money due to the Chileno squadron contained items for wages, pro- 
 mised rewards, prize-money, payment for ships takeii and used by the Peruvian government, 
 and freight of vessels belonging to the squadron as transports, besides the price of sail-cloth, 
 cordage, and slops for the people. All this San Martin was bound to pay to the govern- 
 ment of Chile, which had fitted out the whole expedition. 
 
94 * INTRODUCTION. 
 
 since the 20th of August, 1820, which shall ever be devoted to the 
 country I serve. And I assure you that no abatement of my zeal 
 towards His Excellency the Protector's service took place until the 
 5th day of August, the day on which I was made acquainted with His 
 Excellency's installation, when he uttered sentiments in your pre- 
 sence that struck a chill through my frame, which no subsequent act 
 or protestation of intentions has yet been able to do away. Well 
 do I remember the fatal words he spoke, which I would to God had 
 never arisen in his thoughts. Did he not say, aye, did I not hear 
 him declare, that he never would pay the debt to Chile, nor the 
 dues to the navy, unless Chile would sell the squadron to Peru ! 
 What would you have thought of me as an officer, sworn to be 
 faithful to the state of Chile, had I listened to such language in cold 
 calculating silence, weighing my decision in the scale of personal 
 interest ? No, Sir, the promise that my " fortune should be equal 
 to that of San Martin," will never warp from the path of honour 
 
 Your obedient, humble servant, 
 
 Cochrane. 
 
 After this letter, little communication, and none of a friendly 
 nature, took place between Lord Cochrane and San Martin. His 
 Lordship continued the payment of the officers and crews, and now 
 that Callao had fallen, the great object for Chile being the taking or 
 destroying the two Spanish frigates Prueba and Venganza, the last of 
 the ships of that nation that remained in the Pacific ; he prepared to 
 follow them to the northward, and accordingly sailed for that purpose 
 on the sixth of October. * 
 
 It is now time to return to the domestic affairs of Chile. Bene- 
 vidies still kept up an active and cruel warfare in the south ; and 
 Jose Miguel Carrera, improved by the experience of eight years, 
 and thirsting for revenge on the destroyers of his brothers, was at the 
 
 * The squadron consisted now of O'Higgins, Captain Crosbie ; Valdivia, Captain 
 Cobbet ; Independencia, Captain Wilkinsoii ; Lautaro, Captain Worcester ; and the San 
 Fernando. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 95 
 
 head of a small but determined army, and had fought his way across 
 the continent of South America, making alliances with the Indians 
 and keeping up a correspondence with Benevidies by their means 
 as well as with numerous discontented persons in Chile. Benevidies 
 had met with various success, but upon the whole had lost ground. 
 The patriot commanders, of whom Freire was certainly the most 
 distinguished, had gradually closed in upon him, and though he 
 had incited the Indians to commit great ravages, and to burn the 
 farms and carry ojfF the produce of the southern provinces, he re- 
 ceived no such aid from them as could prevent his final destruction, 
 unless he received assistance from abroad, which the superiority of 
 the Chileno squadron rendered almost hopeless. 
 
 On the 31st of August, Carrera's army, reduced by its very victories, 
 and now consisting only of 500 soldiers, but embarrassed with a 
 number of women and other followers, was completely routed, 
 
 Carrera himself, his second in command Don Jose Maria Benevente, 
 with twenty-three other officers, were taken at the Punta del Medano, 
 and carried to Mendoza, where he and several of his principal officers 
 were shot in the public market-place, by, in my opinion, a piece of 
 the most unjustifiable cruelty and false policy. I refer to Mr. Yates's 
 paper in the Appendix for the reason of Benevente's safety, and the 
 particulars of the death of Jose Miguel ; the gazettes in which these 
 things were announced to the public, breathe a fierce and atrocious 
 spirit of revenge, disgraceful to the leaders of the nation and to the age. 
 
 Don Jose Miguel Carrera was only 35 years of age. His person 
 was remarkably handsome, and his countenance beautiful and pre- 
 possessing. I have heard that his eyes seemed even to possess a power 
 of fascination over those he addressed. Among all who have arisen 
 to notice in the struggle for South American independence, he was 
 undoubtedly the most amiable, his genius was versatile, his ima- 
 gination lively, and his powers great, where he chose to apply 
 them. I have heard that while at Montevideo, he wished to print 
 some papers for distribution, and not having the means to do so, 
 he shut himself up for weeks, and actually constructed a press, and 
 
96 INTRODUCTION, 
 
 printed his manifesto himself. His spirit was gay and cheerful, and 
 his body indefatigable ; but he had little prudence and no reserve, so 
 that he was as little to be trusted with the plans of others as de- 
 pended on in his own, which, however, were always conceived with 
 precision and energy, and bore directly on the point he aimed at ; 
 but then he proclaimed them too openly. He wanted education, 
 for he had neither principles nor reading to direct him ; and his 
 character altogether appears to me to resemble no one so much as 
 that of Charles the second's Duke of Buckingham. It is no wonder 
 therefore that he did not succeed in placing himself, or rather in 
 keeping himself at the head of any of the newly freed states of South 
 America. His love of pleasure led him into expenses which swal- 
 lowed up the means of either bribing or paying followers, and his 
 careless, easy nature prevented his securing those who might be 
 dangerous to him. 
 
 After his death, his principal followers and some of his nearer 
 connexions were put in close confinement, others were banished, 
 and some escaped to the woods and mountains, where they lived 
 precariously till they were either able to get to some friendly place, 
 or till the act of oblivion of September, 1822, allowed them to return 
 to their houses. 
 
 The fortune of Chile was thus delivered from the dangers arisino- 
 from that powerful and active family. The father had died shortly 
 after the execution of his other two sons, and now the last and 
 greatest of his house was gone. Of those bearing the same name, 
 Don Carlos, a quiet citizen, lived at his farm at Vina a la Mar, near 
 Valparaiso, without meddling in politics, and of his three sons, one 
 only survived, whose low habits and mean mind seemed to secure 
 him from either doing or experiencing evil. Of the other two, one 
 had perished early in the revolution, and the other had been killed 
 in an insurrection at Juan Fernandez, whither he had been banished. 
 
 The tranquillity of the state was still farther secured by the total 
 overthrow of Benevidies, in the month of December. This man 
 was the son of the inspector of the prison of Quirihue of Con- 
 
INTRODUCTION. 97 
 
 ception, and had been a foot soldier in the first army of the patriots ; 
 having been made prisoner by the royalists, he entered their army, 
 and was taken soon after by Makenna, who sent him to head-quarters 
 on the banks of the Maule, to be tried as a deserter : thence he 
 escaped, by setting fire to the hut in which he was confined, and 
 returned to the royalists, when he soon distinguished himself by his 
 talents, and bore an honourable rank in the army of Osorio at the 
 battle of Maypii. There he was again taken prisoner, and was con- 
 demned to death as a deserter, in company with many others : he fell 
 among the dead, but did not die as was supposed ; and in a romantic 
 way he sent to request an interview with San Martin, who appointed 
 to meet him in ihepla^a alone, and the signal of recognition to be three 
 sparks from the mechero. * Benevideis struck the signal, San Martin 
 presented his pistol in return ; Benevideis put it aside, and observing 
 him start, assured him, he did not wish to murder, but to serve him, 
 which he could do effectually by his local knowledge of the southern 
 provinces, and his personal acquaintance with the troops there. San 
 Martin accepted his services, but retained the dread of him, which 
 his sudden and ghastly appearance before him had excited ; and 
 therefore, although there was not the slightest ground for supposing 
 he meant to betray him, he began to suspect him, and attempted to 
 seize his person once more. But the spirit of Benevideis revolted at 
 this : being accused of treachery he turned traitor, if it can be called 
 so, and openly joined Osorio ; animated by a fierce desire of revenge, 
 which, once awaked, never slept in his bosom. Hence arose the 
 cruelties, and they are monstrous, with which he is charged. He 
 murdered his prisoners in cold blood ; and his great delight was to 
 invite the captured officers to an elegant entertainment, and after 
 they had eaten and drunk, march them into his court-yard, while he 
 stood at the window to see them shot. Some to whom he had pro- 
 mised safety he delivered over to the Indians, whose cruel customs 
 
 * The mechero is the aparatus for striking fire to light the segars, which every person 
 in Chile carries with him. 
 
98 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 with regard to prisoners of war he well knew ; and they were horribly 
 murdered. When General Prieto wrote to inform him of the fall 
 of Lima, and the hopelessness of his further perseverance in warfare, 
 he answered, that he would " struggle against Chile with his last 
 " soldier, even although it should be acknowledged by the king and 
 " the nation." He fitted out a privateer to cruize against every flag, 
 and so to provide himself with food and ammunition ; and at length, 
 on the 1st of February, 1822, finding he could hold out no longer, 
 he attempted to escape to some of the Spanish ports in a small boat, 
 but being obliged to put into Topocalma for water, he was recognised, 
 seized, and sent to Santiago, where, on the 21st, he was tried and 
 sentenced to death. 
 
 On the 23d he was dragged from prison, tied to the tail of a mule, 
 and then hanged in the palace square : his head and hands were cut 
 off, to be exposed in the towns he had ravaged in the south, and such 
 indignities offered to his remains as appeared more like the revenge 
 of savages than the punishment of a just government in the 
 nineteenth century. 
 
 However, though the director gave way to this execution, he forbid 
 any of the followers of Benevideis to be punished with death, as the 
 continental part of Chile was now free from enemies ; and there only 
 remained the troops under Quintanilla, who still held out in Chiloe. 
 
 It is difficult to imagine on what grounds a report was spread about 
 this time, that when Lord Cochrane sailed in pursuit of the enemy's 
 frigates towards the northern ports, he would never return to Chile. * 
 Possibly it might arise from the knowledge of the dreadful state of 
 his ships, in which no other commander would probably have ven- 
 tured to sea ; and that some hoped, while many dreaded, that they 
 would never again be heard of. However that may be, San Martin 
 made use of- the period of his absence to endeavour to ruin him in 
 
 * Judging by themselves, the propagators of the reports pretended to imagine tliat 
 having sent his family home in order that his children might be educated in England the 
 admu-al meant to seize on such Spanish property on the coast as would enrich him, and so 
 render him careless of the country he had engaged to serve. But they litUe knew him. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 99 
 
 the opinion of the government of Chile ; and sent his worthy depu- 
 ties, Colonel Pai'oissien (who owed every thing to Lord Cochrane) 
 and Garcia del Rio, to Chile, with a string of accusations, some of 
 them of the most ridiculous nature, and others, though of a deeper 
 colour, equally false and impossible with regard to His Lordship. 
 Cowardice, cruelty, and treachery, the vices of his own character, 
 San Martin did not venture to impute to him, so he charged him 
 with dishonesty and avarice ; and adduced as proofs, the demands 
 His Lordship had made in behalf of the seamen of the squadron, 
 and for supplies to the ships. * But the government did not 
 appear to believe the charges, though the dread of coming to hos- 
 tilities with San Martin kept them quiet for the present. Docu- 
 ments, in fact, existed in the public offices at Santiago which dis- 
 proved the whole of the direct charges against the Admiral. But the 
 latter part of the memorial presented by Paroissien and Del Rio, 
 calling on the Director to inflict condign punishment on Lord Coch- 
 rane for slights offered to the honour and dignity of the Protector of 
 Peru, lets us into the whole secret of His Excellency's motives in 
 attacking one whom the people had called brave and generous, while 
 San Martin was named only the fortunate. 
 
 Meantime the squadron had proceeded to Guayaquil ; and, not- 
 withstanding the usual opinion, that the river was dangerous, or 
 rather not navigable for large ships, unless they landed their guns at 
 the entrance, the admiral himself piloted the O'Higgins up to the 
 town, and astonished the inhabitants by appearing abreast of their 
 forts on the 18th of October, along with the Independencia, Valdivia, 
 Araucano, San Fernando, and Mercedes. They were extremely well 
 received, and exchanged salutes with the forts, f 
 
 Lord Cochrane then proceeded to repair and refit his ships, for 
 which purpose there could not have been a properer place. Timber 
 
 • These accusations were industriously circulated at Valparaiso, with some diversity in 
 the copies suited to the persons to whom they were shown. I have seen two varieties. 
 
 f J less 4 was the shallowest water going up. The squadron ' found seven gun-boats 
 and seven merchantmen in the harbour. 
 
 o 2 
 
100 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 of all kinds abounds there, and there were many excellent artificers. 
 The government countenanced and encouraged all his proceedings. 
 Public entertainments were given by both parties, and the most 
 friendly intercourse was kept up. 
 
 The expenses of all the repairs, as well as of revictualling the ships, 
 were defrayed by His Lordship, out of money that he had on board 
 belonging to himself and the squadron : they willingly applied it in 
 that way, trusting to be reimbursed by the government of Chile ; and 
 they were too eager to accomplish their object of lowering the last 
 Spanish flags flying in the Pacific to brook any delay. 
 
 The artificers wrought so diligently, that by the 20th of November 
 the ships were ready for sea. On Lord Cochrane's departure, the 
 people of Guayaquil complimented him with a poem in his honour, 
 illuminated with gold letters, and placed under a glass in an ebony 
 frame. His Lordship returned the compliment by an address to the 
 people of Guayaquil, which is as follows ; — 
 
 " To the worthy and independent Inhabitants of Guayaquil. 
 
 " The reception that the squadron of Chile has met with from you, 
 not only shows the generous sentiments of your hearts, but proves, if 
 such proof were necessary, that a people capable of asserting its inde- 
 pendence in spite of arbitrary power, must always possess noble and 
 exalted feelings. Believe me, that the state of Chile will be for ever 
 grateful for your assistance ; and more particularly the Supreme 
 Director, by whose exertions the squadron was created, and to whom, 
 in fact. South America owes whatever benefit she may have derived 
 from it. 
 
 " May you be as free as you are independent ! and may you be as 
 independent as you deserve to be free ! With the liberty of the press, 
 which is now protected by your enlightened government, which has 
 derived its extensive knowledge from that fount, Guayaquil can never 
 be enslaved. 
 
INTRODUCTION. IQl 
 
 " Observe the difference that a year of independence has produced 
 in public opinion. In those whom you then looked upon as enemies 
 you have discovered your truest friends ; and those that were esteem- 
 ed friends have proved to be your enemies. Remember the ideas 
 tiiat were received a short time since, concerning commerce and 
 manufactures ; and compare them with the just and liberal notions 
 you now entertain on these matters. Did you not, accustomed to 
 the blind habits of Spanish monopoly, believe, that it would be a 
 robbery to Guayaquil if her commerce were not limited to her own 
 merchants ? Were not all strangers forbidden by restrictive laws 
 from attending to their own business or interests, as if they had come 
 only for your benefit ? and you kept officers, seamen, and ships, for 
 your own commerce, without needing that of other nations. Now 
 you perceive the truth ; and an enlightened government is ready not 
 only to follow the public opinion in the promotion of your riches, 
 happiness, and strength, but to assist it by the glorious privilege of 
 disseminating, by means of the press, the just opinions of great and 
 wise men on political matters, without fear of the Inquisition, the 
 stake, or the faggot. 
 
 " It is very gratifying to me to observe the change that has taken 
 place in your ideas concerning political oeconomy, and to see that 
 you can appreciate and despise as it deserves the clamour of the 
 few that still perhaps desire to interrupt the general prosperity, 
 although I cannot believe that any inhabitant of Guayaquil can be 
 capable of placing his private interest in competition with the public 
 good. However, if such a one do exist, let us ask that monopolist, 
 if his particular profit is superior to that of the community, and if 
 commerce, agriculture, and manufactures are to be paralysed for him ? 
 
 " Enlightened Guayaquilenos ! cause your public press to declare 
 the consequences of monopoly, and affix your names to the defence 
 of your system : demonstrate that if the province of Guayaquil 
 contains 80,000 inhabitants, and that eighty of those are privileged 
 merchants,, the effects of the monopoly bear upon 9999 persons 
 out of 10,000, because the cottons, coffee, cocoa, tobacco, timber, 
 
102 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 and all the various productions of this beautiful and rich province, 
 cultivated by the 9999, must ultimately come to the hands of 
 the monopolist as the only purchaser of what they have to sell, 
 and the only seller of all they must necessarily buy ! Show that 
 the inevitable consequence of the want of competition will be, 
 that he will buy (and let him deny it if he can) the produce of the 
 country at the lowest possible rate, and he will sell his mer- 
 chandise to his 9999 fellow-citizens as dear as possible; so that 
 not only will his 9999 countrymen be injured, but the lands will 
 remain waste, the manufactures without workmen, and the inha- 
 bitants of the province will be lazy and poor from the want of a 
 sufficient stimulus. Teach that it is a law of nature, that ' no man 
 will labour solely for the gain of another.' 
 
 " Tell the monopolist that the method of acquiring general riches, 
 political power, and even his own private advantage, is to sell the 
 produce of the country as high, and foreign goods as low as possible ; 
 and that the only road to effect this truly desirable end is, to permit 
 a public competition. Let the supercargoes, masters, and agents of 
 the ships that wish to come, be permitted to introduce and sell their 
 goods to the best advantage ; let the merchants who bring capital, 
 or those who practise any art or handicraft, be permitted to settle 
 freely, and thus a competition will be formed which will give to 
 every one of the 9999 foreign articles at the lowest price, and will 
 sell the produce of this province at the very highest which the 
 market demanding it will allow. 
 
 " Then the land and fixed property will be worth four times as much 
 as it is now ; then the fine buildings on the banks of the river will 
 have their magazines full of the richest foreign and domestic pro- 
 ductions, instead of being the deposits of comparative poverty, and 
 the receptacles of filth and crime; then all will be activity and 
 energy, because the reward will be in proportion to the labour. 
 
 " Commerce being so facilitated, your spacious river will be filled 
 with ships of all nations ; your noble docks will display a line of 
 vessels building or repairing, either belonging to yourselves, or to 
 
INTRODUCTION. 103 
 
 the neighbouring friendly provinces and kingdoms. Both building 
 and repairing will be done for a fourth of what they cost now, from 
 the facility afforded by machinery, which till this time you have 
 never employed at all. Then will the monopolist be degraded and 
 shamed. Then he who thinks he knows all things, ignorant that he 
 knows nothing, will humble himself before his Creator, and bless the 
 day in which Omnipotence permitted the veil of obscurity which so 
 long hid the truth from your eyes under the despotism of Spain, the 
 abominable tyranny of the Inquisition, and the want of the liberty 
 of the press, which your government has now secured to you for 
 the instruction and happiness of the public, to be torn aside. 
 
 " Let the duties be as moderate as the government seems inclined 
 to make them, in order to promote the greatest possible consumption 
 of foreign and domestic goods for the convenience and the luxury 
 of the town ; then smuggling will cease, and the returns to the 
 treasury will increase ; and let every man be permitted to do as he 
 pleases in his own property, views, and interests, because every 
 individual will watch over his own with more zeal than senates, 
 ministers, or kings. Set an example by your enlarged views to the 
 New World ; and thus, as Guayaquil is by its situation the Central 
 Republic, so it will become the centre of the agriculture, commerce, 
 and riches of this portion of the globe. 
 
 " Guayaquilenos ! the liberality of your sentiments, and the justice 
 of your opinions and acts, are a bulwark to your independence and 
 liberty, more secure than armies and squadrons can afford. 
 
 " That you may pursue the road that will render you as free and 
 happy as the territory you possess is fertile and may be productive, 
 is the sincere wish of your obliged friend and servant, 
 
 " Cochrane." 
 
 I have translated this paper to show the,spirit in which Lord Coch- 
 rane dealt with the South American provinces. No petty intrigues, 
 or bargaining for power or personal advantages, which, situated as he 
 was, he might have commanded to any extent; but contenting 
 
2^04 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 himself with the advantages to be fairly derived from the service he 
 had engaged in, he did his utmost to enlighten the countries he 
 protected, and to teach them the principles of rational freedom. 
 
 I have now to relate his expedition to Acapulco, which will bring 
 the affairs of Chile and its squadron up to the date of my arrival at 
 Valparaiso, when the rest, to the beginning of 1823, will be given in 
 the course of the Journal. 
 
 Although the squadron left Guayaquil on the 20th November, it 
 was the 3d of December before it sailed from the river. The 
 necessity for getting speedily to sea in pursuit of the enemy's frigates 
 had, of course, precluded more than a temporary repair of the vessels, 
 and I find a notice in the log-book of the O'Higgins, that her leak 
 made three inches of water per hour. On the 5th, the admiral con- 
 tinued on his way, however, coasting the land and examining every 
 port and bay for the objects of his search. On the 19th, the ships 
 anchored in the bay of Fonseca to procure water, and to repair the 
 pumps of the O'Higgins, which were by this time worn out by 
 constant use. 
 
 The water first discovered proving too brackish for use, the boats 
 were despatched in search of springs, and, on the 21st, they dis- 
 covered good water eight miles from the first anchorage ; on the 
 25th the ships removed thither, calling the place Christmas Bay. 
 They set about burning the woods to make a road to the water, and 
 got it both abundant and good. Meantime the O'Higgins had got 
 two new pumps prepared, but the water had risen to such a height 
 in the hold, that the people were baling at all the hatchways ; and 
 though by the 26th her pumps were refitted, the after-hold and 
 bread-room were obliged to be cleared, and the provisions were 
 stowed in the hammock nettings. During all this time of difficulty 
 and distress, the admiral was first in all exertions to relieve the ship 
 and people, and the last in every thing like self-accommodation. 
 On one occasion, when every body had given up all for lost, and the 
 carpenter at length, with tears, declared he could do no more, Lord 
 Cochrane took his place, laboured himself till the pumps were brouo>ht 
 
INTRODUCTION. 105 
 
 to act, and inspired courage and spirit that brought about the means 
 of safety. But the crew were so exhausted with their incessant labour 
 of pumping and baling, that thirty men were borrowed from the 
 Valdivia, and twenty from the Independencia, to assist at the pumps ; 
 and having at length cleared the ship, on the 28th the squadron left 
 Fonseca bay. 
 
 On the 6th January, 1822, Lord Cochrane put into the bay of 
 Tehuantepec * for water, where, not far in-land, lie observed five 
 remarkable volcanoes : the district around is said to be fertile, and 
 the town of that name has a tolerable harbour, which, however, has 
 the inconvenience of a bar across the entrance. 
 
 On the 15th they hove-to again off a white island, where they 
 found plenty of fresh water ; and having refreshed and watered, pur- 
 sued their voyage on the 1 9th, and on the 29th anchored at Acapulco. 
 This town, which owes all the celebrity it ever had to the rich Manilla 
 fleets and Spanish galleons which used to anchor in its harbour, which 
 is spacious and safe, is now little better than a mean village. It has 
 a castle, however ; a parish church, and two convents. Its permanent 
 inhabitants are about 4000, which number is doubled on the arrival 
 of the now only annual ship from Manilla. At that time a great 
 fair is held, when the inhabitants of the country round assemble, 
 and remain some weeks at Acapulco for the purposes of trade. But 
 they return to their homes as soon as possible, to escape from the 
 fever which is peculiar to the place. The climate is hot, damp, and 
 unhealthy, notwithstanding the admission of the free air through the 
 famous ahra de San Nicolas, a passage opened through a mountain 
 for the purpose. After procuring some provisions, the squadron left 
 it on the 3d February, disgusted with the insolence, and, at the same 
 
 * Tehuantepec, taken by the Buccaneers, 1687. There were only 180 of them; they 
 marched 1 2 miles over-land ; took the city, which had a population of 6000 Spaniards and 
 40,000 negroes and Indians, well fortified, and an abbey also very strong. The Buccaneers 
 took the market-place, with the cannon of the walls ; carried the abbey, sword in hand ; 
 kept possession and plundered for three days ; and then retired in good order to the 
 ships. 
 
 P 
 
106 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 time, the meanness of the governor ; and having ascertained that the 
 two frigates had sailed for Guayaquil. 
 
 Lord Cochrane therefore began his voyage southward, which was 
 incomparably more irksome than that to the northward had been ; 
 for, in addition to the frequent and sudden gusts of wind on that 
 coast, the water was so scarce that they had to watch the thunder 
 showers and catch the rain as it fell in sails ; and this was all they had 
 for the ships' companies. Captain Crosbie told me he had often sat 
 in the quarter-boat with his wide hat on, to catch a good drink in 
 the brim of it, when it was so hot that a draught of cold water was 
 thought of as the highest luxury. All this time the leak in the 
 O'Higgins rather increased than lessened ; and, to aggravate their 
 misfortunes, on the 10th the Valdivia discovered a most dangerous 
 leak under her fore-chains, and began to make three feet water per 
 hour. On the 13th they thrummed a sail and passed it under her ; 
 but the weather being boisterous, they found it impeded their course, 
 and on the 16th took off the sail and frapping. 
 
 The Independencia being in good repair was ordered to remain on 
 this coast, to survey and also to watch the Spanish vessels that might 
 be hovering there. She put into the bay of San Jose for the purpose 
 of watering, salting beef, and making candles ; after which she pro- 
 ceeded with her survey, and did not arrive at Valparaiso till the 29th 
 of June. 
 
 In the meantime one of her lieutenants, two of her marines, and 
 two seamen, had been murdered on shore. 
 
 Lord Cochrane stopped in the bay of Tacaraes, near the river Es- 
 meralda, for provisions, and then proceeded, in company with the 
 Esmeralda, to Guayaquil, where a decided change in the temper of the 
 government had taken place. The agents of San Martin had arrived ; 
 and, partly by bribes, partly by threats, had brought the governor over 
 to their master's interest, and had excited a jealousy of Lord Coch- 
 rane, which, though his activity and spirit might have justified, his 
 experience of his character and conduct ought to have allayed. 
 Some attempts were made to annoy, and some to intimidate His Lord- 
 
INTRODUCTION, 107 
 
 ship ; but he sailed up to the forts, anchored abreast of them as be- 
 fore, and awed them into decency, if not civility. The Venganza he 
 found at Guayaquil ; and certainly had a right to consider her as his 
 lawful prize, having chased her from every other place, and forced 
 her into that port in such a state as to be obliged to surrender ; and 
 the Prueba in the same state had gone to Callao. But the agents of 
 Peru had tampered with the commanders of both the Venganza and 
 Prueba ; they promised them lands and pensions in Peru, if they 
 would give up the ships to that government, which they accordingly 
 did. So that San Martin thus tricked Chile of the prizes that 
 belonged to her squadron, and induced the captains of the Spa- 
 nish frigates to sell the ships to which they were appointed by their 
 government. However, Lord Cochrane, determined not to embroil 
 the country he served in any thing like hostilities with its neighbours, 
 sent Captain Crosbie on board the Venganza to take the command 
 for Chile and Peru jointly ; and on the representation of the govern- 
 ment of Guayaquil, left that frigate in the port under Guayaquil co- 
 lours, taking a bond that she should not be given up to any other 
 government whatever, without the express consent of Chile, under a 
 penalty of 8,000 dollars. But these South American governments 
 seem to laugh at contracts. This was shortly broken, and the penalty 
 has never beerj paid ; so that the officers and men of the squadron, 
 which pursued them at their own expense, having paid for the re- 
 pairs, stores, and provisions necessary to enable them to do so, have 
 not only never received the prize-money due for the taking of those 
 ships, but have literally been defrauded of the sums they spent in their 
 pursuit. The causes and consequences of this public dishonesty will 
 appear from some facts which will be hereafter stated. 
 
 The squadron put in at Guambacho, a little bay south of Guaya- 
 quil, to afford the Valdivia an opportunity of careening. She accord- 
 ingly repaired the larboard leak, which was the worst, and managed 
 to keep tolerably clear with the pumps, of the water made by the star- 
 board one. The ships then proceeded ; and on the 25th of April 
 
 p 2 
 
108 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 the O'Higgins and Valdivia reached Callao *, where they remained 
 until the 8th of May. On their arrival, San Martin made every pos- 
 sible effort to get Lord Cochrane into his power, but without effect. 
 Monteagudo went on board to wait on His Lordship. He assured 
 him of San Martin's high regard for him, entreated him to go ashore, 
 and that the minister, Torre Tagle, had prepared his own house for 
 his reception. He proposed that Lord Cochrane should take upon 
 him the title of admiral of the joint squadrons of Peru and Chile ; 
 which was only another means of getting possession of the Chileno 
 ships. He held out to him the prospect of making an immense for- 
 tune by the taking of the Philippine Islands, which San Martin con- 
 templated ; and, among other bribes, fitted well enough indeed to the 
 semi-barbarous taste of his employer, he talked to Lord Cochrane of 
 a diamond star of the Order of Merit which had been prepared for 
 him, and which, as well as a kind letter from San Martin, had been 
 withheld on the receipt of a letter which he had addressed the day 
 before, which was that of his arrival, to the minister of war. Lord 
 Cochrane's answer to all this was — That he could not and would not 
 accept office, title, or honours, from a government founded on the 
 breach of that faith which had promised the free choice of its con- 
 stitution to the people of Peru, and which was supported by tyranny, 
 oppression, and the violation of all laws : that he would hoist no 
 flag but that of Chile on board of her ships ; nor would he hoist his 
 on board the Prueba, because he would not deceive the government 
 of Peru. He thanked Torre Tagle for the offer of his house ; but had 
 resolved never to set foot in a land governed not only without law, 
 but contrary to law. And that as to fortune, his habits were frugal 
 and his means sufficient. 
 
 I have been the more particular in the account of this conference 
 because it took place on the 26th of April , six weeks after Garcia del 
 
 * When the Honourable Captain F. Soencer of HJo lvro;«,„* > u- ai 
 Lord Cochrane., flag, Hb Loiip i. iS ™ „"ble Srif I'";"' V' ""'"'1 
 «e« day, hi, g„„, being .ho««,, as i. was no. safe to be in Criitn'^Zl'''' 
 
INTRODUCTION. 109 
 
 Rio and Paroissien had laid their file of accusations against Lord 
 Cochrane before the government of Chile, and had demanded signal 
 vengeance on him in their employer's name. It sets the character 
 and conduct of San Martin in a light so odious as to gain full credit to 
 the idea, that he was the instigator of two attempts to assassinate the 
 admiral about this time, made by persons who contrived to get on 
 board the ship by stealth. One of these was an Englishman, who had 
 been for some time confined in the prison at Callao for murder of 
 an atrocious kind, and who was suddenly liberated, no one knew how 
 or why. This wretch, on being detected lurking about the ship, could 
 give no account of himself or his business ; and it was only known 
 that he was protected by San Martin. That Monteagudo should be 
 the willing agent in a scheme for trepanning Lord Cochrane for the 
 purpose of destroying him, no one who knows his character can 
 doubt ; and that both he and San Martin should use courteous pro- 
 mises to lure him ashore for the better and surer accomplishment of 
 their vengeance, those will believe who remember the fate of the pri- 
 soners of war who carried letters of recommendation to the governor 
 of San Luis, desiring they might be treated with every courtesy and 
 distinction, and feasted three or four days ; but that care was to be 
 taken they did not pass a certain wood ; and in that wood several, 
 one of whom was Col. Rodrigues, have disappeared, nor ever have 
 they been heard of since. 
 
 Lord Cochrane remained before Callao until the 9th of May : he 
 claimed, though in vain, the arrears of pay and prize-money due by 
 the Peruvian government to the Chileno fleet, and such stores and 
 provisions as were necessary. — The fear that possessed San Martin 
 during the time of the admiral's stay was ludicrous. He caused the 
 Prueba to be surrounded with booms and chains. Men were so 
 crowded into her that she could scarcely contain them every night, 
 and every thing was done to prevent a fate similar to that of the 
 Esmeralda ; but His Lordship is said to have sent word he did not 
 mean to take her, otherwise he would do it in spite of all precautions, 
 and that in midday too. 
 
IIQ INTRODUCTION. 
 
 On the 2d of June Lord Cochrane brought the O'Higgins and 
 Valdivia to Valparaiso. On the 4th, the following letters of thanks 
 and congratulation were addressed to him and the officers of the 
 squadron by the supreme government at Santiago ; and every thing 
 appeared as favourable to the interests of the squadron as they could 
 wish. 
 
 " Ministry of Marine, 
 " Santiago de Chile, 4th June, 1822. 
 
 " Most Excellent Sir, 
 
 " The arrival of Your Excellency in the city of Valparaiso with the 
 squadron under your command, has given the greatest pleasure to 
 His Excellency the supreme director ; and in those feelings of gra- 
 titude which the glory acquired by Your Excellency during the late 
 protracted campaign has excited, you will find the proof of that high 
 consideration which your heroic services so justly deserve. 
 
 " Among those who have a distinguished claim are the chiefs and 
 officers, who, faithful to their duty, have remained on board the 
 vessels of war of this State, a list of whom Your Excellency has ho- 
 noured me by enclosing. These gentlemen will, most assuredly, 
 receive the recompense so justly due to their praiseworthy constancy. 
 
 *' Please to accept the assurance of my highest esteem. 
 
 " JOAQUIM DE EcHEVERRIA. 
 
 " To His Excellency the Vice Admiral and Commander- 
 " in-chief of the Squadron, the Right Honourable 
 " the Lord Cochrane." 
 
 " Ministry of Marine, 
 " Santiago de Chile, 19th June, 1822. 
 
 " Most Excellent Sir, 
 
 " His Excellency the Supreme Director, being desirous of making 
 
 a public demonstration of the high services that the squadron has 
 
 rendered to the nation, has resolved, that a medal be struck for the 
 
 officers and crews of the squadron, with an inscription expressive of 
 
INTRODUCTION. HI 
 
 the national gratitude towards the worthy supporters of its maritime 
 power. 
 
 " I have the honour to communicate this to Your Excellency by 
 supreme command, and to offer you my highest respect. 
 
 (Signed) , " Joaquim de Echeverria. 
 " To His Excellency the Right Honourable the Lord Cochrane, 
 
 " Vice Admiral and Commander-in-chief, &c. &c. &c." 
 
 Lord Cochrane had now been two years and a half at the head of 
 the naval force of Chile ; he had taken; destroyed, or forced to sur- 
 render every Spanish vessel in the Pacific ; he had cleared the western 
 coast of South America of pirates. He had reduced the most im- 
 portant fortresses of the common enemy of the patriots, either by 
 storm, or by blockade ; he had protected the commerce, both of the 
 native and neutral powers ; and had added lustre even to the cause 
 of independence, by exploits worthy of his own great name, and a 
 firmness and humanity which had as yet been wanting in the noble 
 struggle for freedom. 
 

 JOURNAL. 
 
 His Majesty's ship Doris, Valparaiso harbour, Sunday night, April 2Sth, 
 1822. — Many days have passed, and I have been unable and unwilling 
 to resume my journal. To-day the newness of the place, and all the 
 other circumstances of our arrival, have drawn my thoughts to take 
 some interest in the things around me. I can conceive nothing 
 more glorious than the sight of the Andes this morning on ap- 
 proaching the land at day-break ; starting, as it were, from the 
 ocean itself, their summits of eternal snow shone in all the majesty 
 of light long before the lower earth was illuminated, when suddenly 
 the sun appeared from behind them and they were lost ; and we 
 sailed on for hours before we descried the land. 
 
 On anchoring here to-day, the first object I saw was the Chile 
 State's brig Galvarino, formerly the British brig of war Hecate., 
 
 Q 
 
^^^ JOURNAL. 
 
 the first ship my husband ever commanded, and in which I sailed 
 with him in the Eastern Indian seas. Twelve years have since passed 
 
 away ! 
 
 We found His Majesty's ship Blossom here. Her commander, 
 Captain Vernon, will, I believe, take the command of this ship 
 to-morrow. 
 
 The United States' ships Franklin and Constellation are also here. 
 As soon as Commodore Stewart saw the Doris appi-oach the harbour 
 with her colours half-mast high, he came to offer every assistance 
 and accommodation the ship might require ; and hearing that I was on 
 board he returned, bringing Mrs. Stewart to call on me, and to offer 
 me a cabin in the Franklin, in case I preferred it to remaining here, 
 until I could procure a room on shore. 
 
 Monday, 29th. — This has been a day of trial. Early in the morn- 
 ing the new captain's servants came on board to prepare the cabin 
 for their master's reception. I believe, what must be done is better 
 done at once. Soon after breakfast, Captain Ridgely, of the United 
 Sates' ship Constellation, brought Mrs. and Miss Hogan, the wife 
 and daughter of the American consul, to call and to offer all the 
 assistance in their power ; and told me, that the Commodore had 
 delayed the sailing of his frigate, the Constellation, in order that she 
 might carry letters from the Doris round Cape Horn, and would 
 delay it still farther if I wished to avail myself of the opportunity to - 
 return home immediately. I was grateful, but declined the offer. I 
 feel that I have neither health nor spirits for such a voyage just yet. 
 Immediately afterwards, Don Jose Ignacio Zenteno, the governor 
 of Valparaiso, with two other officers, came on board on a visit of 
 humanity as well as respect. He told me that he had appointed a 
 spot within the fortress where I may " bury my dead out of my 
 sight," with such ceremonies and honours as our church and service 
 demand, and has promised the attendance of soldiers, &c. All this 
 is kind, and it is liberal. 
 
 At four o'clock I received notice that Mrs. Campbell, a Spanish 
 lady, the wife of an English merchant, would receive me into her 
 
VAtPARAISO. 125 
 
 house until I could find a lodging, and I left the ship shortly after- 
 wards. 
 
 I hardly know how I left it, or how I passed over the deck where 
 one little year ago I had been welcomed with such different prospects 
 and feelings. 
 
 I have now been two hours ashore. Mrs. Campbell kindly allows 
 me the liberty of being alone, which is kinder than any other kind- 
 ness she could show. 
 
 April 30th. — This afternoon I stood at my window, looking over 
 the bay. The captain's barge, of the Doris, brought ashore the 
 remains of my indulgent friend, companion, and husband. There were 
 all his own people, and those of the Blossom and of the American 
 ships, and their flags joined and mingled with those of England and 
 of Chile ; and their musicians played together the hymns fit for the 
 burial of the pure in heart ; and the procession was long, and joined 
 by many who thought of those far off, and perhaps now no more ; 
 and by many from respect to our country : and I believe, indeed I 
 know, that all was done that the pious feelings of our nature towards 
 the departed demand ; and if such things could soothe such a grief 
 as mine they were not wanting. 
 
 But my mind has bowed before him in whose hand are the issues 
 of life and death. And I know, that I cannot stay long behind, 
 though my life were lengthened to the utmost bounds of human 
 being. And I trust, that when I am called to another state of 
 existence, I may be able to say, '• Oh Death, where is thy sting ? 
 " Oh Grave, where is thy victory ?" 
 
 May 6th. — I have been very unwell; meantime my friends have 
 procured a small house for me at some distance from the port, and 
 i am preparing to remove to it. 
 
 9th of Mat/, 1822. — I took possession of my cottage at Valparaiso ; 
 and felt indescribable relief in being quiet and alone. 
 
 By going backwards and forwards twice between Mr. Campbell's 
 and my own house, I have seen all that is to be seen of the exterior 
 of the town of Valparaiso. It is a long straggling place, built at the 
 
 Q 2 
 
IIQ JOURNAL. 
 
 foot of steep rocks which overhang the sea, and advance so close to 
 it in some places as barely to leave room for a narrow street, and open 
 in others, so as to admit of two middling squares, one of which is the 
 market-place, and has on one side the governor's house, which is back^ 
 ed by a little fort crowning a low hill. The other square is dignified 
 by the Iglesia Matrix, which, as there is no bishop here, stands in 
 place of a cathedral. From these squares several ravines or quebra- 
 das branch off; these are filled with houses, and contain, I should ima- 
 gine, the bulk of the population, which I am told amounts to 15,000 
 souls ; further on there is the arsenal, where there are a few slips for 
 building boats, and conveniences for repairing vessels ; but all appear- 
 ing poor ; and still farther is the outer fort, which terminates the port 
 on that side. To the east of the governor's house, the town extends 
 half a quarter of a mile or a little more, and then joins its suburb the 
 Almendral, situated on a flat, sandy, but fertile plain, which the re- 
 ceding hills leave between them and the sea. The Almendral ex- 
 tends to three miles in length, but is very narrow ; the houses, like 
 most of those in the town, are of one story. They are all built of 
 unburnt bricks, whitewashed and covered with red tiles ; there are 
 two churches, one of the Merced *, rather handsome, and two con- 
 vents, besides the hospital, which is a religious foundation. The Al- 
 mendral is full of olive groves, and of almond gardens, whence it has 
 its name ; but, though far the pleasantest part of the town, it is not 
 beheved to be safe to live in it, lest one should be robbed or murdered, 
 so that my taking a cottage at the very end of it is rather wondered 
 at than approved. But I feel very safe, because I believe no one 
 robs or kills without temptation or provocation ; and as I have nothino- 
 to tempt thieves, so I am determined not to pfovoke murderers. 
 
 My house is one of the better kind of really Chilian cottages. It 
 consists of a little entrance-hall, and a large sittingroom*'l6 feet 
 square, at one end of which a door opens into a little dark bedroom. 
 
 • The royal religious, and military order of the Merced was instituted by the kino 
 Don Jayme el Conqmstador, for the purpose of redeeming captives. 
 
a 
 
 
VALPARAISO. 117 
 
 and a door in the hall opens into another a little less. This is the 
 body of the house, in front of which, looking to the south-west, there 
 is a broad veranda. Adjoining, there is a servants' room, and at a 
 little distance the kitchen. My landlord, who deals in horses, has 
 stables for them and his oxen, and several small cottages for his 
 peons and their families, besides storehouses all around. There is a 
 garden in front of the house, which slopes down towards the little 
 river that divides me from the Almendral, stored with apples, pears, 
 almonds, peaches, grapes, oranges, olives, and quinces, besides pump- 
 kins, melons, cabbages, potatoes, French beans, and maize, and a few 
 flowers ; and behind the house the barest reddest hill in the neigh- 
 bourhood rises pretty abruptly. It affords earth for numerous beau- 
 tiful shrubs, and is worn in places by the constant tread of the mules, 
 who bring firewood, charcoal, and vegetables, to the Valparaiso mar- 
 ket. The interior of the house is clean, the walls are whitewashed, 
 and the roof is planked, for stucco ceilings would not stand, the fre- 
 quent earthquakes, of which we had one pretty smart shock to-night. 
 No Valparaiso native house of the middling class boasts more than 
 one window, and that is not glazed, but generally secured by carved 
 wooden or iron lattice-work ; this is, of course, in the public sitting- 
 room ; so that the bedrooms are perfectly dark : I am considered 
 fortunate in having doors to mine, but there is none between the 
 hall and sittingroom, so I have made bold to hang up a curtain, to 
 the wonder of my landlady, who cannot understand my finding no 
 amusement in watching the motions of the servants or visitors who 
 may be in the outer room. 
 
 May 10th. — Thanks to my friends both ashore and in the frigate, 
 I am now pretty comfortably settled in my little home. Every body 
 has been kind ; one neighbour- lends me a horse, another such fur- 
 niture as I require : nation and habits make no difference. I arrived 
 here in need of kindness, and I have received it from all. 
 
 I have great comfort in strolling on the hill behind my house j it 
 commands a lovely view of the port and neighbouring hills. It is 
 totally uncultivated^ and in the best season can afford but poor 
 
1 1 8 JOURNAL. 
 
 browsing for mules or horses. Now most of the shrubs are leafless, 
 and it is totally without grass. But the milky tribe of trees and 
 shrubs are still green enough to please the eye. A few of them, as 
 the lobelia, retain here and there an orange or a crimson flower ; 
 and there are several sorts of parasitic plants, whose exquisitely beau- 
 tiful blossoms adorn the naked branches of the deciduous shrubs, and 
 whose bright green leaves, and vivid red and yellow blossoms shame 
 the sober grey of the neighbouring olives, whose fruit is now ripen- 
 ing. The red soil of my hill is crossed here and there by great ridges 
 of white half marble, half sparry stone ; and all its sides bear deep 
 marks of winter torrents ; in the beds of these I have found pieces of 
 green stone of a soft soapy appearance, and lumps of quartz and coarse 
 granite. One of these water-courses was once worked for gold, but 
 the quantity found was so inconsiderable, that the propi'ietor was 
 glad to quit the precarious adventure, and to cultivate the chacra or 
 garden-ground which joins to mine, and whose produce has been 
 much more beneficial to his family. 
 
 I went to walk in that garden, and found there, besides the fruits 
 common to my own, figs, lemons, and pomegranates, and the hedges 
 full of white cluster roses. The mistress of the house is a near rela- 
 tion of my landlady, and takes in washing, but that by no means im- 
 plies that either her rank or her pretensions are as low as those of 
 an European washerwoman. Her mother was possessed of no less 
 than eight chacras ; but as she is ninety years old, that must have been 
 a hundred years ago, when Valparaiso was by no means so laro-e a 
 place, and consequently chacras were less valuable. However, she 
 was a great proprietor of land; but, as is usual here, most of it went 
 to portion off a large family of daughters, and some I am afraid to 
 pay the expenses of the gold found on the estate. 
 
 The old lady, seeing me in the garden, courteously invited me to 
 walk in. The veranda in front of the house is like my own, paved 
 with bricks nine inches square, and supported by rude wooden 
 pillars, which the Chileno architects fancy they have carved hand- 
 somely ; I found under it two of the most beautiful boys I ever saw, 
 
VALPARAISO. 119 
 
 and a very pretty young woman the grandchildren of the old lady. 
 They all got up from the bench eager to receive me, and show me 
 kindness. One of the boys ran to fetch his mother, the other went 
 to gather a bunch of roses for me, and the daughter Joanita, taking 
 me into the house gave me some beautiful carnations. From the 
 garden we entered immediately into the common sittingroom, 
 where, according to custom, one low latticed window afforded but a 
 scanty light. By the window, a long bench covered with a sort of 
 coarse Turkey carpet made here, runs nearly the length of the room, 
 and before this a wooden platform, called the estrada, raised about 
 six inches from the ground, and about five feet broad, is covered 
 with the same soit of carpet, the rest of the floor being bare brick. 
 A row of high-backed chairs occupies the opposite side of the room. 
 On a table in a corner, under a glass case, I saw a little religious 
 baby work, — a waxen Jesus an inch long, sprawls on a waxen 
 Virgin's knee, surrounded by Joseph, the oxen and asses, all of the 
 same goodly material, decorated with moss and sea shells. Near 
 this 1 observed a pot of beautiful flowers, and two pretty-shaped 
 silver utensils, which I at first took for implements of worship, and 
 then for inkstands, but I discovered that one was a little censer for 
 burning pastile, with which the young women perfume their hand- 
 kerchiefs and mantos, and the other the vase for holding the infusion 
 of the herb of Paraguay, commonly called matte, so universally 
 drank or rather sucked here. The herb appears like dried senna ; 
 a small quantity of it is put into the little vase with a proportion 
 of sugar, and sometimes a bit of lemon peel, the water is poured 
 boiling on it, and it is instantly sucked up through a tube about six 
 inches long. This is the great luxury of the Chilenos, both male 
 and female. The first thing in the morning is a matte, and the 
 first thing afler the afternoon siesta is a matte. I have not yet tasted 
 of it, and do not much relish the idea of using the same tube with 
 a dozen other people. 
 
 I was much struck with the appearance of my venerable neighbour ; 
 although bent with age she has no other sign of infirmity ; her walk 
 
][20 JOURNAL. 
 
 is quick and light, and her grey eyes sparkle with intelligence. She 
 wears her silver hair, according to the custom of the country, un- 
 covered, and hanging down behind in one large braid; her linen 
 shift is gathered up pretty high on her bosom, and its sleeves are 
 visible near the wrist : she has a petticoat of white woollen stuff, and 
 her gown of coloured woollen is like a close jacket, with a full-plaited 
 petticoat attached to it, and fastened with double buttons in front. 
 A rosary hangs round her neck, and she always wears the manto or 
 shawl, which others only put on when they go out of doors, or in 
 cold weather. The dress of the granddaughter is not very different 
 from that of a French woman, excepting that the manto supersedes 
 all hats, caps, capotes, and turbans. The young people, whether 
 they fasten up their tresses with combs, or let them hang down, are 
 fond of decorating them with natural flowers, and it is not uncom- 
 mon to see a rose or a jonquil stuck behind the ear or through the 
 earring. 
 
 Having sat some time in the house, I accepted Joanita's proposal 
 to walk in the garden ; part of it was already planted with potatoes, 
 and part was ploughing for barley, to be cut as green meat for the 
 cattle. The plough is a very rude implement, suchas the Spaniards 
 brought it hither three hundred years ago ; a piece of knee timber, 
 shod at one end with a flat plate of iron, is the plough, into which 
 a long pole is fixed by means of wedges ; the pole is made fast to 
 the yoke of the oxen, who drag it over the ground so as to do little 
 more than scratch the surface.* As to a harrow, I have not seen or 
 heard of one. The usual substitute for it being a bundle of fresh 
 branches, which is dragged by a horse or ox, and if not heavy enough, 
 stones, or the weight of a man or two, is added. The pumpkins, 
 lettuces, and cabbages, are attended with more care : ridges being 
 formed for them either with the original wooden spades of the 
 country, or long-handled iron shovels upon the same plan. The 
 
 * I recollect a bit of antique mosaic, I think, but am not sure, in the Villa Albani near 
 Rome, representing just such a plough, and so yoked; the oxen are represented kickin.. 
 as it stung by a gadfly. *=' 
 
VALPARAISO. 121 
 
 greatest labour, however, is bestowed on irrigating the gardens which 
 is rendered indispensable by the eight months of dry weather in th e 
 summer. A multitude of little canals cross every field, and the 
 hours for letting the water into them are regulated with reference to 
 the convenience of the neighbours, through whose grounds the com- 
 mon stream passes. One part of every chacra is an arboleda, or 
 orchard, however small, and few are without their little flower plot, 
 where most of the common garden flowers of England are cultivated. 
 The lupine both perennial and annual is native here. The native 
 bulbous roots surpass most of ours in beauty, yet the strangers are 
 treated with unjust preference. Roses, sweetpeas, carnations, and 
 jasmine are deservedly prized ; mignonette and sweetbriar are scarce, 
 and honeysuckle is not tp be procured. The scabious is called here 
 the widow's flower, and the children gathered their hands full of 
 it for me. 
 
 From the flower-garden we went to the washing-ground, where I 
 found a charcoal fire lighted on the brink of a pretty rivulet. On 
 the fire was a huge copper vessel full of boiling water, and swimming 
 in it there was a leaf of the prickly pear [Cactus Jicus Indicus), here 
 called fwma; this plant is said to possess the property of cleansing 
 and softening the water. Close by there stood a large earthen vessel, 
 which appeared to me to be full of soap-suds, but I found that no 
 common soap was among it. The tree called Quillai, which is com- 
 mon in this part of Chile, furnishes a thick rough bark, which is so 
 full of soapy matter, that a small piece of it wrapped in wool, moist- 
 ened, and then beaten between two stones, makes a lather like the 
 finest soap, and possesses a superior cleansing quality. All woollen 
 garments are washed with it, and coloured woollen or silk acquires 
 a freshness of tint equal to new by the use of it. I begged a piece 
 of the dry bark ; the inside is speckled with very minute crystals, and 
 the taste is harsh like that of soda. 
 
 In my walk home from the washing-ground, I had occasion to see 
 specimens both of the waggons and carriages of Chile. The wheels, 
 
 R 
 
122 
 
 JOURNAL. 
 
 axletree, carriage, all are fastened together without a single nail or 
 piece of iron. The wheels have a double wooden felly, placed so 
 as that the joints in the one are covered by the entire parts of the 
 other, and these are fastened together by strong wooden pins ; the 
 rest is all of strong wooden frame-work bound with hide, which 
 being put on green, contracts and hardens as it dries, and makes the 
 most secure of all bands. The flooring of both cart and coach con- 
 sists of hide ; the cart is tilted with canes and straw neatly wattled ; 
 the coach is commonly of painted canvass, nailed over a slight frame 
 with seats on the sides, and the entrance behind. The coach is 
 commonly drawn by a mule, though oxen are often used for the pur- 
 pose ; and always for the carts, yoked as for the plough. Oxen will 
 travel hence to Santiago, upwards of ninety miles, with a loaded 
 waggon in three days. These animals are as fine here, as I ever saw 
 them in any part of the world ; and the mules particularly good. 
 It is needless to say anything of the horses, whose beauty, temper, 
 and spirit, are unrivalled, notwithstanding their small size. 
 
 llth May. — This morning, tempted by the exceeding fineness of 
 the weather, and the sweet feeling of the air, I set out to follow the 
 little water-course that irrigates my garden, towards its source. 
 After skirting the hill for about' a furlong, always looking down on 
 a fertile valley, and now and then gaining a peep at the bay and 
 shipping between the fruit trees, I heard the sound of falling water, 
 and on turning sharp round the corner of a rock, I found myself in 
 a quebrada, or ravine, full of great blocks of granite, from which 
 a bright plentiful stream had washed the red clay as it leaped down 
 from ledge to ledge, and fell into a little bed of sand glistenino- with 
 particles of mica that looked like fairy gold. Just at this spot, where 
 myrtle bushes nearly choaked the approach, a wooden trough detained 
 part of the rivulet in its fall, and led it to the course cut in the hill 
 for the benefit of the cultivated lands on this side ; the rest of the 
 stream runs to the Santiago road, where meeting several smaller 
 rills, it waters the opposite side of the valley, and finds its way to the 
 
VALPARAISO. 223 
 
 shore, where it oozes through a sand-bank to the sea, close to a little 
 cove filled with fishermen's houses.* On ascending the ravine 
 a little farther, I found at the top of the waterfall, a bed of white 
 marble lying along on the sober grey rock ; and beyond it, half con- 
 cealed by the shrubs, the water formed a thousand little falls — 
 
 " Through bushy brake and wild flowers blossoming, 
 And freshness breathing from each silver spring, 
 Whose scattered streams from granite basins burst, 
 Leap into life, and sparkling woo your thirst." 
 
 But this valley, like all those in the immediate neighbourhood of 
 Valparaiso, wants trees. The shrubs, however, are beautiful, and mixed 
 here and there with the Chilian aloe {Pourretia Coarctata), and the 
 great torcTi thistle, which rises to an extraordinary height. Among 
 the humble flowers I remarked varieties of our common garden herbs, 
 carraway, fennel, sage, thyme, mint, rue, wild carrot, and several 
 sorts of sorrel. But it is not yet the season of flowers ; here and 
 there only, a solitary fuscia or andromeda was to be found ; — but I 
 did not want flowers, — the very feel of the open air, the verdure, the 
 sunshine, were enough ; and I doubly enjoyed this my first rural 
 walk after being so long at sea. 
 
 Friday, May 11th. — Three days of half fog, half rain, have given 
 notice of the breaking up of the dry season, and my landlord has 
 accordingly sent people to prepare the roof for the coming wet 
 weather. This has given me an opportunity of being initiated in all 
 the mysteries of Chileno masonry, or architecture, or whatever title 
 we may give to the manner of building here. The poorest peasants 
 live in what I conceive to be the original hut of every country, a 
 little less carefully constructed here, where the climate is so fine and 
 the temperature so equal, that, provided the roof is sufficient during 
 the rains, the walls are of little consequence. These huts are made 
 of stakes stuck in the ground, and fastened together with transverse 
 
 * This is the only rivulet near Valparaiso : the old maps and travels, therefore, which 
 represent the port as standing at the mouth of a river are wrong. Valparaiso is midway 
 between the mouths of the Aconcagua and of the Maypu. 
 
 R 2 
 
124 JOURNAL. 
 
 pieces of wood, either with soga or twine, made from the hemp of 
 the country, with the bark of a water tree not unhke the poplar, or 
 with thongs. Some have only a thick wattled wall of myrtle, or 
 broom ; others have the chinks in the wattling filled in with clay, 
 and whitewashed either with lime, — which the natives knew how to 
 prepare from beds of shells found in the country before the invasion 
 of the Spaniards, — or with a kind of white ochre, which is very fine, 
 and is found in pretty large beds in different parts of the coiintry. 
 The roofs are more solidly constructed, having usually over the 
 supporting rafters a layer of branches plaistered with mud, and 
 covered with the leaves of the Palma Tejera, or thatch palm, 
 which abounds in the valleys of Chile. Broom, reeds, and a long 
 fine grass, are also used for roofs. However poor the house, there is 
 always a separate hut for cooking at a little distance. 
 
 The better houses, mine for instance, have very solid walls, often 
 four feet thick, of unburnt bricks of about sixteen inches long, ten 
 wide, and four thick. These, like the mortar in which they are 
 bedded, are formed of the common earth, which is all fit for the 
 purpose in this neighbourhood. When a man wishes to build, he 
 digs down a portion of the nearest hill, and waters the loose earth till 
 it acquires the consistence of mortar ; a number of peons, or country- 
 men, then tread it to a proper smoothness and consistency; after 
 which a quantity of chopped straw is added, which is again trodden 
 till it is equally distributed through the mass, which is of course 
 more solid for the bricks. These bricks are formed in a wooden 
 frame, and then placed in the shade to dry, after which thev are 
 exposed to the sun to harden. After the walls are built they are 
 generally allowed to stand a short time to settle before the rafters 
 are laid on, and indeed the roof is a formidable weight. A very 
 thick layer of green boughs, leaves and all, is first fastened with 
 twine upon the rafters, whose interstices are pretty closely filled up 
 with canes ; a layer of mortar, or rather mud, of at least four inches 
 thick, is spread above that ; and in that mud are bedded round tiles, 
 whose ridge rows are cemented with lime-mortar, a thin coat of 
 
VALPARAISO. 125 
 
 which is spread over the coarser plaister, both without and within 
 the houses. 
 
 The brick buildings, and such huts as are plaistered within and 
 without over the wattled work, and tiled, are called houses; the 
 others are called, generally, ranchos. The word rancho is, however, 
 also applied to the whole group of buildings that form the farm- 
 steading of a Chilian peasant. Every thing here is so far back with 
 regard to the conveniences and improvements of civilised life, that if 
 we did not recollect the state of the Highlands of Scotland seventy 
 years ago, it would be scarcely credible that the country could have 
 been occupied for three centuries by so polished and enlightened a 
 people as the Spaniards undoubtedly were in the sixteenth century, 
 when they first took possession of Chile. 
 
 The only articles of dress publicly sold are shoes, or rather slippers, 
 and hats. I do not, of course, mean that no stuffs from Europe or 
 dresses for the higher classes are to be bought; because, since the 
 opening of the port, retail shops for all sorts of European goods are 
 nearly as common at Valparaiso as in any town of the same size in 
 England. But the people of the country are still in the habit of 
 spinning, weaving, dying, and making every article for themselves in 
 their own houses, except hats and shoes. The distaff and spindle, 
 the reel, the loom, particularly the latter, are all of the simplest and 
 grossest construction ; and the same loom, made of a few cross sticks, 
 serves to weave the linen shirt or drawers, the woollen jacket and 
 manteau, as well as the alfombra, or carpet, which is spread either 
 on the estrada, or the bed, or the saddle, or carried to church as the 
 Mussulman carries his mat to the mosque to kneel and pray on. 
 The herbs and roots of the country furnish abundance and variety of 
 dyes; and few, if any, families are without one female knowing in the 
 properties of plants, whether for dying or for medicine. The bark 
 of the Quillai is constantly used to clear and bring out the colours. 
 
 The dress of the Chilian men resembles that of the peasants of the 
 south of Europe ; linen shirts and drawers, cloth waistcoats, jackets, 
 and breeches with a coloured listing at the seams ; left unbuttoned at 
 
J2Q JOURNAL. 
 
 the knee, and displaying the drawers. In the neighbourhood of Val- 
 paraiso trowsers are fast superseding the short breeches, however. 
 White woollen or cotton stockings, and black leather shoes, are 
 worn by the decent class of men : the very lowest seldom wear stock- 
 ings ; and in lieu of shoes they have either wooden clogs or oxotas, 
 made of a square piece of hide bent to the foot, and tied in shape 
 while green ; the latter are sometimes put over shoes in riding 
 through the woods : the hair is usually braided in one large braid 
 hanging down behind, and a coloured handkerchief is tied over the 
 head, above which a straw hat is fastened with black cord. In some 
 districts black felt hats are used ; in others, high caps. When the 
 Chileno rides, which he does on every possible occasion, he uses as 
 a cloak, the poncho, which is the native South American garb : it 
 is a piece of square cloth, with a slit in the centre, just large enough 
 to admit the head, and is peculiarly convenient for riding, as it 
 leaves the arms quite free, while it protects the body completely. 
 A pair of coarse cloth gaiters very loose, drawn far up over the 
 knee, and tied with coloured listing, defend the legs ; and a huge 
 pair of spurs, with rowels often three inches in diameter, complete 
 the equipment of an equestrian. These spurs are sometimes of 
 copper, but the true pride of a Chileno is to have the stirrups, 
 and the ornaments of his bridle, of silver. The bridles are usually 
 made of plaited thongs, very neatly wrought ; the reins terminate 
 in a bunch of cords also of plaited thongs, which serves as a whip. 
 The bit is simple, but very severe. The saddle is a wooden frame 
 placed over eight or nine folds of cloth, carpet, or sheepskin ; and 
 over that frame are thrown other skins, dressed and dyed either blue, 
 brown, or black ; above all, the better sort use a well-dressed soft 
 leather saddle-cloth, and the whole is fastened on with a stamped 
 leather band, laced with thongs instead of a buckle. Some go to 
 great expense in their saddle-cloths, carpets, skins, &c. ; but the 
 material is in all nearly the same, and a saddled horse looks as if he 
 had a burden of carpets on his back. To the saddle is usually fas- 
 tened the laza or cord of plaited hide, which the Spanish American 
 
VALPARAISO. 127 
 
 colonists on both sides of the Andes throw so dexterously either 
 to catch cattle, or to make prisoners in war. The stirrups appended 
 to these singular-looking saddles are either plain silver stirrups, hav- 
 ing silver loops, &c. on the stirrup leathers ; or in case of riding 
 through woods on long journeys, a kind of carved box very heavy, 
 and spreading considerably, so as to defend the foot from thorns 
 and branches. Returning from a short walk to-day, I had a good 
 opportunity of seeing a group of horsemen, young and old, who had 
 come from the neighbourhood of Rancagua, a town near the foot of 
 the Andes, to the southward of Santiago, with a cargo of wine and 
 brandy. The liquor is contained in skins, and brought from the 
 interior on mules. It is not uncommon to see a hundred and fifty 
 of these under the guidance of ten or a dozen peons, with the 
 guaso or farmer at their head, encamping in some open spot near 
 a farm-house in the neighbourhood of the town. Many of these 
 houses keep spare buildings, in which their itinerant friends secure 
 their liquor while they go to the farms around, or even into town, 
 to seek customers, not choosing to pay the heavy toll for going into 
 the port, unless certain of sale for the wine. I bought a quantity 
 for common use: it is a rich, strong, and sweetish white wine, 
 capable, with good management, of great improvement, and infi- 
 nitely preferable to any of the Cape wines, excepting Constantia, 
 that I ever drank. I gave six dollars for two arobas of it, so that 
 it comes to about Sid. per bottle. The brandy might be good, but 
 it is ill distilled, and generally spoiled by the infusion of aniseed. 
 The liquor commonly drank by the lower classes is chicha, the regular 
 descendant of that intoxicating chicha which the Spaniards found the 
 South American savages possessed of the art of making, by chewing 
 various berries and grains, spitting them into a large vessel, and 
 allowing them to ferment. But the great and increasing demand 
 for chicha has introduced a cleanlier way of making it ; and it is 
 now in fact little other than harsh cyder, the greater part being 
 produced from apples, and flavoured with the various berries which 
 formerly supplied the whole of the Indian chicha. 
 
128 
 
 JOURNAL. 
 
 Ig^^. — One of my young friends from the Doris, some of whom 
 have been with me daily, has brought me some excellent partridges of 
 his own shooting. They are somewhat larger than the partridges in 
 England, but I think quite as good, when properly dressed, or rather 
 plucked ; but the cooks here have a habit of scalding the feathers 
 off, which hurts the flavour of the bird. There are several kinds of 
 birds here good to eat, but neither quail nor pheasant. They have 
 plenty of enemies : from the condor, through every variety of the 
 eagle, vulture, hawk, and owl, down to the ugly, dull, green parrot 
 of Chile, which never looks tolerably well, except on the wing, and 
 then the under part, of purple and yellow, is handsome. The face 
 is peculiarly ugly : his parrot's beak being set in so close as to be to 
 other parrots what the pug dog is to a greyhound. They are great foes 
 to the little singing birds, whose notes as well as plumage resemble 
 those of the linnet, and which abound in this neighbourhood. We 
 have also a kind of blackbird with a soft, sweet, but very low note ; 
 a saucy thing that repeats two notes only, not unlike the mockbird, 
 and that never moves out of the way ; swallows and humming-birds 
 are plenty ; and the boys tell me they have seen marvellous storks 
 and cranes in the marshes, which I shall take occasion to visit after 
 the rains. I know not if we are to believe that the aboriginal Chi- 
 lenos possessed the domestic fowl. At present they are abundant 
 and excellent, as well as ducks, both native and foreign, and geese. 
 Pigeons are not very common ; but they thrive well, and are made 
 pets of: — in short, this delightful climate seems favourable to the 
 production of all that is necessary for the use and sustenance of man. 
 
 Monday, May '20th. — This is but a sad day. The Doris sailed early, 
 and I feel again alone in the world ; in her are gone the only relation 
 the only acquaintance I have in this wide country. In parting between 
 friends, those who go have always less to feel than those who re- 
 main. The former have the exertion of moving, the charms of 
 novelty, or at least variety of situation, and the advantage that new 
 objects do not awaken associations connected with the subjects of 
 — - regret. Whereas the stationary person sees in each object a 
 
 our 
 
VALPARAISO. 229 
 
 memorial of those that are gone : the well-known voice is missed at 
 the accustomed hour, and the solitary walk becomes a series of re- 
 collections, which bring at least the pain of feeling that it is solitary. 
 Shakspeare, 
 
 " Who walked in every path of human hfe, 
 Feh every passion," 
 
 often expresses this feehng, but never, in my mind, more truly or 
 beautifully than when he makes Constance exclaim — 
 
 " Grief fills the room up of my absent child, 
 Lies in his bed, walks up and down with me ; 
 Puts on his pretty looks, repeats his words ; 
 Remembers me of all his gracious parts ; 
 Stuffs out his vacant garments with his form : — 
 Then have I reason to be fond of Grief." 
 
 In the course of the day, however, the kindly acts and expressions 
 of my new neighbours, and the friendly attentions of Commodore 
 and Mrs. Stewart of the American line-of-battle- ship Franklin, of 
 Baron Macau of His Catholic Majesty's ship Clorinde, and others, both 
 English and foreigners, persuade me that there are yet many kindly 
 hearts around me, and check the regrets I might otherwise indulge 
 in. Yet I cannot forget that I am a widow, unprotected, and in a 
 foreign land ; separated from all my natural friends by distant and 
 dangerous ways, whether I return by sea or land ! 
 
 22<^. — We have news from Peru, for the first time since my arrival, 
 I think. A body of General San Martin's army has been sur- 
 prised, and destroyed by the royalists. The Chileno squadron, under 
 Lord Cochrane, has returned to Callao, from its dangerous and diffi- 
 cult voyage to Acapulco, after chasing the two last remaining Spanish 
 ships into patriot ports, where they have been forced to surrender ; 
 and it is said that San Martin has offered most flattering terms of 
 reconciliation to Lord Cochrane. If I understand matters aright, 
 it may be possible for His Lordship to listen to them, for the sake 
 of the cause ; but, personally, he will surely never repose the slight- 
 est confidence in him. 
 
130 
 
 JOURNAL. 
 
 23d. — To-day, for the first time since I came home, I rode to the 
 port ; and had leism-e to observe the shops, markets, and wharf, if 
 one may give that name to the platform before the custom-house. 
 
 The native shops, though very small, appear to me generally cleaner 
 than those of Portuguese America. The silks of China, France, and 
 Italy; the printed cottons of Britain ; rosaries, and amulets, and glass 
 from Germany ; — generally furnish them. The stuffs of the country 
 are very seldom to be purchased in a shop, because few are made 
 but for domestic consumption. If a family has any to spare, it goes 
 to the public market, like any other domestic produce. The French 
 shops contain a richer variety of the same sort of goods ; and there 
 is a very tolerable French milliner, whose manners and smiles, so 
 very artificial compared to the simple grace of the Chileno girls who 
 employ her, would make no bad companion to Hogarth's French 
 dancing-master leading out the Antinous to dance. The English 
 shops are more numerous than any. Hardware, pottery*, and cot- 
 ton and woollen cloths, form of course the staple articles. It is 
 amusing to observe the ingenuity with which the Birmingham artists 
 have accommodated themselves to the coarse transatlantic tastes. 
 The framed saints, the tinsel snuff-boxes, the gaudy furniture, make 
 one smile when contrasted with the decent and elegant simplicity 
 of these things in Europe. The Germans furnish most of the glass 
 in common use : it is of bad quality to be sure ; but it, as well as 
 the little German mirrors, which are chiefly brought to hang up as 
 votive offerings in the chapels, answers all the purposes of Chileno 
 consumption. Toys, beads, combs, and coarse perfumes, are likewise 
 found in the German shops. Some few German artificers are also 
 estabhshed here, and particularly a most ingenious blacksmith and 
 farrier, one Frey, whose beautifully neat house and workshop, and 
 his garden, render him an excellent model for the rising Chilenos. 
 
 * A great deal of coarse china ware is brought by the English traders directly across 
 the Pacific. A few silks, crapes, and stuffs, with Indian muslins, also come here ; but 
 most of the fine articles go at once to Santiago, 
 
VALPARAISO. 131 
 
 English tailors, shoemakers, saddlers, and inn-keepers, hang out 
 their signs in every street ; and the preponderance of the English 
 language over every other spoken in the chief streets, would make 
 one fancy Valparaiso a coast town in Britain. The North Americans 
 greatly assist in this, however. Their goods, consisting of common 
 furniture, flour, biscuit, and naval stores, necessarily keep them 
 busier out of doors than any other set of people. The more elegant 
 Parisian or London furniture is generally despatched unopened to 
 Santiago, where the demand for articles of mere luxury is of course 
 greater. The number of piano-fortes brought from England is 
 astonishing. There is scarcely a house without one, as the fondness 
 for music is excessive ; and many of the young ladies play with skill 
 and taste, though few take the trouble to learn the gamut, but trust 
 entirely to the ear. 
 
 As to the market, meat is not often exposed in it, the shambles 
 being out of town in ,the Almendral, and the carcases are brought 
 into the butchers' houses on horseback or in carts. The beef, mutton, 
 and pork, are all excellent ; but the clumsy method of cutting it up 
 spoils it to the English eye and taste. A few Englishmen, however, 
 have set up butcheries, where they also corn meat; and one of them 
 has lately made mould candles as fine as any made in England, which 
 is a real benefit to the country. The common candles, with thick 
 wicks and unrefined and unbleached tallow, are, indeed, disgusting 
 and wasteful. 
 
 The fish-market is indifferently supplied, I think chiefly from indo- 
 lence, for the fish is both excellent and abundant. One of the most 
 delicate is a kind of smelt ; another, called the congrio, is as good as 
 the best salmon trout, which it resembles in taste ; but the flesh is 
 white, the fish itself long, very flat towards the tail, and covered with 
 a beautiful red-and-white marbled skin. There are excellent mullet, 
 which the natives dry as the Devonshire fishers do the whiting to 
 make buckhorn ; besides a number of others whose names, either 
 EngHsh or native, I know not. There is one which, if eaten quite 
 fresh, is as good as the John doree, to which it bears great external 
 
 5 2 
 
2^32 JOURNAL. 
 
 resemblance, but which is not eatable in a very" few hours.* The 
 shell-fish are various and good : clams, limpets, particularly a very 
 large kind called loco, and most admirable crabs quite round in 
 shape, are abundant. A large kind of muscle is frequently brought 
 from the southern provinces ; and the rocks of Quintero furnish the 
 pico, a gigantic kind of barnacle, the most delicate shell-fish, without 
 exception, I ever tasted. 
 
 With regard to the vegetables and fruit of the Valparaiso market, 
 they are excellent in their way ; but then the backward state of liof - 
 ticulture, as of every thing else, renders them much worse than they 
 might be. Here fruit will grow in spite of neglect ; and, though this 
 is not the season for green or fresh fruits, the apples, pears, and 
 grapes, the dried peaches, cherries f, and figs, and the abundance of 
 oranges and limes, as well as quinces, prove that culture alone is 
 wanting to bring almost every fruit to perfection. As to the kitchen 
 vegetables, the first and best are the potatoes, natives of the soil, of 
 the very first quality. Cabbages of every kind ; lettuces, inferior only 
 to those of Lambeth ; a few turnips and carrots, just beginning to 
 be cultivated here ; every kind of pumpkin and melon ; onions in 
 perfection, with their family of chive, garlic, and eschalot ; and I am 
 promised in the season cauliflower, green peas, French beans, celery, 
 and asparagus ; the latter grows wild on the hills. The French beans 
 are, of course, the very best ; as the ripened seed is the frijole here, 
 the faggioli of Italy, the haricot of France, and the caravansa of all 
 seafaring nations. 
 
 As to the poultry, it is good in itself; but a London poulterer would 
 be not a little shocked at the state in which it makes its appearance 
 at market. All these things are brought on mules or on horseback 
 to town. The fruit in square trunks made of hide, ingeniously plait- 
 ed and woven ; and the vegetables in a kind of net made also of hide, 
 which, indeed, serves for almost every purpose here : buckets, bas- 
 
 • See Frezier, for a better catalogue of the fishes. 
 
 f A single cherry plant was brought into Chile about the year 1590, whence all those of 
 Chile and Juan Fernandez have sprung. 
 
VALPARAISO. 233 
 
 kets, bags, doors, flooring, hods to carry mortar in, hand-barrows, 
 every thing, in short, is occasionally made of it. 
 
 Besides these articles of ordinary consumption, ponchos, hats, 
 shoes, coarse stuffs, coarse earthenware, and sometimes jars of fine 
 clay from Mellipilla, or even Penco, and small cups of the same for 
 the purpose of taking matee, are exposed for sale by the country 
 people ; who crowd round the stalls with an air of the greatest impor- 
 tance, smoking, and occasionally retiring to a line in the back- 
 ground, where the savoury smell and the crackling of the boiling fat 
 inform the passengers, that fritters both sweet and savoury are to 
 be procured ; nor are the cups of wine or aguardiente wanting to im- 
 prove the repast. But the greatest comfort to the market people is 
 a fountain of excellent water which falls from a hideous lion's mouth 
 in the wall of the government house, or rather of the little fort which 
 the governor inhabits, into a rude granite basin. There is no want 
 of water about Valparaiso ; but it is clumsily managed, as far as 
 relates to domestic comfort and to watering the shipping in the 
 harbour. The most convenient watering-place is supplied by a pretty 
 abundant stream that is led close to the beach ; but it passes by and 
 through the hospital, and there is consequently a prejudice against it. 
 Besides, I have heard that the water of this stream does not keep. 
 There is another which has not that defect, where a small sum is paid 
 for every vessel filled, whether large or small ; and I believe the 
 English ships of war usually fill their tanks there. 
 
 Returning from my shopping, I stopped at the apothecary's (for 
 there is but one), to buy some powder-blue, which, to my surprise, I 
 found could only be procured there. I fancy it must resemble an 
 apothecary's of the fourteenth century, for it is even more antique 
 looking than those I have seen in Italy or France. The man has a 
 taste for natural history; so that besides his jars of old-fashioned 
 medicines, inscribed all over with the celestial signs, oddly inter- 
 mixed with packets of patent medicines from London, dried herbs, 
 and filthy gallipots, there are fishes' heads and snakes' skins; in 
 one corner a great condor tearing the flesh from the bones of a 
 
X34 JOURNAL. 
 
 lamb ; in another a monster sheep, having an adscititious leg grow- 
 ing from the skin of his forehead ; and there are chickens, and cats, 
 and parrots, altogether producing a combination of antique dust and 
 recent filth, far exceeding any thing I ever beheld. — " England, with 
 all thy faults, I love thee still," Cowper said at home, and Lord 
 Byron at Calais. For my part, I believe if they had either of them 
 been in Valparaiso, they would have forgotten that there were any 
 faults at all in England. It is very pretty and very charming to read 
 of delicious climates, and myrtle groves, and innocent and simple 
 people who have few wants ; but as man is born a social and an im- 
 provable, if not a perfectable animal, it is really very disagreeable to 
 perform the retrograde steps to a state that counteracts the blessings 
 of climate, and places less comfort in a palace in Chile than in a 
 labourer's hut in Scotland. Well did the Spirit say, " It is not-good 
 for man to live alone." While I had another to communicate with, 
 I used to see the fairest side of every picture ; now I suspect myself 
 of that growing selfishness, that looks with coldness or dislike on all 
 not conformable to my own tastes and ideas, and that sees but the 
 sad realities of things. The poetry of life is not over; but I begin to 
 feel that Crabbe's pictures are truer than Lord Byron's. 
 
 Monday, May 21th. — Tempted by the fineness of the day, and a 
 desire to see wild trees again (for there are none but fruit trees in the 
 immediate neighbourhood of Valparaiso), I determined to take a 
 country ride, and to treat my maid with the same. The difficulty 
 was in mounting her, as I had but one side-saddle ; however she 
 managed to sit on one of the pillions of the countrywomen, 
 who ride on what we should call the wrong side of the horse, on little 
 saddles like those sometimes used for donkeys without pummels, and 
 having a back and sides like an ill-made chair, covered with coloured 
 velvet ; and we went boldly up the Sorra or Sierra, that backs the 
 town, by the Santiago road for a few miles, and then turned into a 
 delightful valley called the Caxon de las Palmas, being part of the 
 large estate of the same name depending on the Merced. For the 
 first half mile we descended a steep hill, not richer in herbs or shrubs 
 
VALPARAISO. 135 
 
 than those we had left on the great road ; but having reached a beau- 
 tiful little stream, that leaps from stone to stone, now forpiing minia- 
 ture cascades, and now little lakes among the short thick grass, the 
 shrubs became of higher growth ; and as we brushed through them, 
 the fragrance that exhaled from their leaves brought Milton's bowers 
 of Paradise to my mind — 
 
 « The roof 
 Of thickest covert, was inwoven shade ; 
 Laurel and myrtle, and what higher grew 
 Of firm and fragrant leaf: on either side 
 
 ■ — each odorous bushy shrub 
 
 Fenced up the verdant wall." 
 
 The varieties of laurel and myrtle are most conspicuous ; and there 
 are abundance of other trees and shrubs, most of whose leaves emit, 
 on being crushed, a spicy flavour. One of the largest and most 
 beautiful is the canela, or false cinnamon, which is used in medicine 
 by both Indians and Spaniards, and whose properties are very similar 
 to those of the real cinnamon of the East. * It is moreover an inter- 
 esting tree, as connected with the history and superstitions of the 
 natives. Under it the PaganChilenos performed their sacrifices to 
 their deities, and invoked Pillam, the supreme judge ; and I believe 
 that some tribes of the Araucanians still revere it. It is certain that 
 the branches of this tree, dipped in the blood of sacrifices, are used 
 to sprinkle and consecrate places of council ; and that such branches 
 are considered as tokens of peace, and delivered accordingly to am- 
 bassadors on the forming of any treaty, f It was here as the oak 
 was to the ancient Druids ; and its beauty, its fragrance, and its wide- 
 spreading shade, give to it in amenity what it wants of the grandeur 
 of the king of forests. 
 
 After riding some time, partly up the bed of the rivulet, partly 
 along its soft green margin and through its fragrant groves, we came 
 
 * For a descriptive catalogue of some of the most remarkable trees of Chile, I refer to 
 the Appendix. I know it is botanically deficient; but having been drawn up by order of 
 government for a particular purpose, I believe it to be authentic as far as it goes. 
 
 f e.g. That with the Spaniards in 1643. 
 
135 JOURNAL. 
 
 to an open space; where three or four picturesque cottages, with 
 gardens and a few fields, occupied a diminutive plain, enclosed by 
 steep woody mountains, where the palms that give name to the 
 valley first appeared. The gardens are pretty extensive, but are 
 chiefly occupied by strawberry beds. The fields are newly ploughed, 
 and the cattle were grazing on the lower slopes of the surrounding 
 hills : two or three palms rise from out the hedges of fruit trees 
 that border the little gardens ; they are different from any of the 
 tribe I have seen, and produce a nut of the shape of the hazel, but 
 much larger ; the kernel is like a cocoa-nut, and, like it, when young 
 contains milk ; the leaf is larger, thicker, and richer than that of the 
 great cocoa-nut palm, and therefore better adapted for thatching, to 
 which use it is commonly applied here, and accordingly receives the 
 name of Palma Tejera ; the lower leaves are cut annually, and not 
 above two or three of the upper ones left : by this means the tall 
 straight trunk becomes crowned with a peculiar capital before the 
 leaves branch off; and this is so similar to some of the capitals in the 
 ruins of ancient Egypt, that I could not help fancying that I beheld 
 the model of their solid yet elegant architecture before me. 
 
 This palm differs considerably from any I have seen in any part of 
 the world. The height of those I have seen when full-grown is from 
 fifty to sixty feet ; at about two-thirds of that height the stems 
 narrow considerably. The bark is composed of circular rings, knotty 
 and brown ; they are always upright, and exceed in circumference all 
 the palms I know, except the dragon tree : the spathe containing the 
 flower is so large, that the peasants use it to hold various domestic 
 articles ; and it is shaped so exactly like the canoes of the coast, that 
 I think it must have served as the model for building them. I have 
 not seen the flower, but, like most of the tribe, the male and female 
 flowers are produced on different plants ; and trees bearing the nuts 
 are more respected by the natives, who do not cut the leaves, or at 
 least do not so completely strip the trees of them as they do the 
 barren plants. Perhaps, however, the accident of a palm growing 
 within the limit of the fields may account for this, and that the 
 
VALPARAISO. 137 
 
 cutting the out-lying palms so close may injure them so as to prevent 
 the growth of the fruit. This tree, when it is old, that is, when the 
 people calculate that it may have seen a hundred and fifty years pass 
 by, is cut down; and, by the application of fire, a thick rich juice 
 distils from it, called here miel, or honey. The taste is between that 
 of honey and the finest molasses. The quantity yielded by each tree ' 
 sells for 200 dollars. Some other species of palms I know produce a 
 sort of sugar. The date tree is one ; but that, I remember, used to be 
 tapped for the saccharine juice in the East Indies. I mean to suggest 
 to some of my friends to try whether this tree, like the true cocoa-nut 
 and the palmetto of Adamson, as well as the cycas or todda-pana, 
 yields the toddy from which the best East Indian arrack is distilled. 
 Pedro Ordonez de Cevallos says the Indians call it Maguey, and 
 make honey, wine, vinegar, cloth, cord, and thatch from it. * 
 
 After stopping some time at the first group of palms, we rode 
 along the Caxon by the wood-cutters' paths, till stopped by the 
 thickets, following the course of the stream ; which sometimes flowed 
 through a smooth valley, and sometimes between mountains so steep 
 that the sun had not reached the bottom by noon-day, and the shrubs 
 were sparkling with white dew. On our return, we met the first 
 flock of sheep I had seen here. They are rather small ; the fleeces 
 appear fine and thick ; they fetch at present from two to three, or 
 even four reals, when very fine ; but just now the price of the whole 
 sheep would not exceed seven reals. I am happy to say, that during 
 my ride I saw several fields newly brought into cultivation : it is 
 painful to see the waste of fertile land here ; but the country wants 
 
 * Is this the honey which Cabezg, de Vacca found among the Guaranies in such plenty 
 when he crossed from St. Catherine's to Assumption over-land ? The bread made of pine 
 flour may have been plentiful, but not very agreeable. The nut fresh is larger, but like 
 the pine-nut of Italy : there are two kinds ; one like the chocolate-nut, the other longer, 
 paler, and shining ; both produced in great abundance in the Cordillera de los Andes. 
 The Chilian Agave is also described under the name of Maguey ; and, in the northern 
 provinces, its juices are converted into a kind of treacle and a fermented drink. The fibres 
 of the leaves make good canvass and cordage. I suspect this is the true Maguey. 
 
 T 
 
138 
 
 JOURNAL. 
 
 people. I believe the whole population of the states of Chile does 
 not equal that of London. But it is too early to judge of these things 
 yet. As it is, I am disposed to think highly of the temper and dis- 
 position of the natives. They are frank, gay, docile, and brave ; and 
 surely these qualities should go to the making of a fine people — a 
 nation that will be something. 
 
 May 30th. — I dined to-day in the port, with my very kind friends, 
 Mr. Hogan, the American consul, and his wife and daughters ; and met 
 Captain Guise, lately of the Chileno naval service, together with his 
 
 followers Dr. and Mr. . Captain Guise was exceedingly polite 
 
 to me, and appears to be a good-natured gentlemanlike man. I have no 
 doubt that, in the service, the technical and professional knowledge of 
 
 Dr. and Mr, has been of infinite service, and that they 
 
 have claims on the gratitude, to a certain degree, of all who love the 
 cause of independence ; but they neither possess the elevated tone 
 of mind necessary for leading men and influencing council, nor in- 
 formation for guidance by precedent. In short, I must look upon 
 them as adventurers,^ whose only aim has been to accumulate wealth 
 in these rich provinces, without either the philanthropic or the chi- 
 valrous views which I am persuaded have accompanied the hopes of 
 personal advantage in the minds of many of their fellow-labourers, in 
 the great struggle for independence. To all whose views have been 
 so bounded disappointment must be the consequence. Mere gold 
 and silver scarcely render individuals rich ; and nations they have 
 in many cases rendered poor. Hence, Chile and Peru, who only 
 possess money, and not money's worth, are far too poor to give ade- 
 quate rewards to their foreign servants ; and all that could rationally 
 be anticipated was the precarious chance of Spanish prize-money. 
 I feel convinced that the divisions that I hear have taken place in 
 the squadron have arisen from the disappointment of such hopes 
 too highly raised ; unless indeed, what I should shudder to think true, 
 any English officers expected that their service in Chile would be 
 only a kind of licensed buccaneering, where each should be master 
 
VALPARAISO. 139 
 
 of his own ship and his own actions, without rule or subordination. 
 But the government wisely foresaw that danger ; and the English 
 naval code was adopted, and rigid subordination established; the 
 supreme command confided to able, firm, and honourable hands ; and 
 I fondly trust, that the benefit of this sage measure will be perma- 
 nently felt. 
 
 By letters from Lima received this day, it appears that Lord Coch- 
 rane had not gone on shore in Peru * ; that he lies in Callao bay, 
 with his guns shotted ; and that we may soon expect him here. 
 
 I had an opportunity to-day of observing how carelessly even sen- 
 sible men make their observations in foreign countries, and on 
 daily matters concerning them. A physician, at dinner, mentioned 
 the medicinal qualities of the culen {Cytisus Arboreus f), and that 
 it would be worth while to bring it into Chile, or at least to the 
 neighbourhood of Valparaiso, to cultivate, for the purpose of ex- 
 portation. I was almost afraid to say, as I am a new-comer, that 
 the country people had shown me a plant they called culen ; butj 
 on venturing to tell the gentleman so, he said it could not be because 
 he never heard of it here. I went home, walked to the Quebrada, 
 found the rocks on both sides covered with the best culen, and the 
 inferior sort which grows much higher, not uncommon. Yet he is 
 a clever man, and has resided some years in the country. This 
 same culen is very agreeable as tea, and is said to possess antiscor- 
 butic and antifebrile qualities, the smell of the dried leaves is pleasant, 
 and a sweetish gum exudes from the flower-stalks. This gum is used 
 by shoemakers instead of wax ; and the fresh leaves formed into a 
 salve with hogs'-lard, are applied with good effect to recent wounds. 
 
 The mistakes about the culen put me in mind of Mrs. Barbauld's 
 admirable tale, in the " Evenings at Home," of " Eyes and no Eyes." 
 How much we are obliged to that excellent woman, who, with genius 
 
 * See page 108. of the Introduction to this part of the Journal, for the reasons of this, 
 f Frezier gives an excellent plate and description of it. See likewise the Appendix. 
 
 T 2 
 
140 JOURNAL. 
 
 and taste to adorn the first walks of literature, gave up the greatest 
 fame to do the greatest good, by forming the minds of the young, 
 and leading them to proper objects of pursuit. I am proud to belong 
 to the sex and nation, which will furnish names to engage the rever- 
 ence and affection of our fellow-creatures as long as viHue and liter- 
 ature continue to be cultivated. As long as there are parents to 
 teach and children to be taught, no father, no mother will hear with 
 indifference the names of Barbauld, Trimmer, or Edgeworth. Even 
 here, in this distant clime, they will be revered. The first stone is 
 laid ; schools are established, and their works are preparing to form 
 and enlighten the children of another language and another hemi- 
 sphere. t> 
 
 Friday, May 31st. — To-day I indulged myself with a walk which 
 I had been wishing to take for some days, to an obscure portion of the 
 Almendral, called the Rincona, or nook, I suppose because it is in a 
 little corner formed by two projecting hills. My object in going thi- 
 ther was to see the manufactory of coarse pottery, which I supposed 
 to be established there, because I was told that the ollas, or jars, for 
 cooking and carrying water, the earthen lamps, and the earthen 
 brassiers, were all made there. On quitting the straight street of the 
 Almendral, a little beyond the rivulet that divides it from my hill, I 
 turned into a lane, the middle of which is channelled by a little 
 stream which falls from the hills behind the Rincona, and after being 
 subdivided and led through many a garden and field, finds its way 
 much diminished to the sand of the Almendral where it is lost. 
 Following the direction, though not adhering to the course of the 
 rill, I found the Rincona beyond some ruined but thick walls, which 
 stretch from the foot of the hills to the sea, and which were once 
 intended as a defence to the port on that side : they are nothing now. 
 I looked round in vain for any thing large enough either to be a manu- 
 factory, or even to contain the necessary furnaces for bakmg the pot- 
 tery ; nevertheless I passed many huts, at the doors of which I saw 
 jars and dishes set out for sale, and concluded that these were the huts 
 
VALPARAISO. 141 
 
 of the inferior workmen. However on advancing a little farther I 
 found that I must look for no regular manufactory, no division of la- 
 bour, no machinery, not even the potter's wheel, none of the aids to 
 industry which I had conceived almost, indispensable to a trade so 
 artificial as that of making earthenware. At the door of one of the 
 poorest huts, formed merely of branches and covered with long grass, 
 having a hide for a door, sat a family of manufacturers. They were 
 seated on sheep-skins spread under the shade of a little penthouse 
 formed of green boughs, at their work. A mass of clay ready tem- 
 pered * lay before them, and each person according to age and abi- 
 lity was forming jars, plates, or dishes. The work-people were all 
 women, and I believe that no man condescends to employ himself in 
 this way, that is, in making the small ware : the large wine jars, &c. 
 of Melipilla are made by men. As the shortest way of learning is to 
 mix at once with those we wish to learn from, I seated myself on the 
 sheep-skin and began to work too, imitating as I could a little girl who 
 was making a simple saucer. The old woman who seemed the chief 
 directress, looked at me very gravely, and then took my work and 
 showed me how to begin it anew, and work its shape aright. AH this, 
 to be sure, I might have guessed at ; but the secret I wanted to learn, 
 was the art of polishing the clay, for it is not rendered shining by any 
 of the glazing processes I have seen ; therefore I waited patiently and 
 worked at my dish till it was ready. Then the old woman put her hand 
 into a leathern pocket which she wore in front, and drew out a smooth 
 shell, with which she first formed the edges and borders anew ; and 
 then rubbed it, first gently, and, as the clay hardened, with greater 
 force, dipping the shell occasionally in water, all over the surface, 
 until a perfect polish was produced, and the vessel was set to dry in 
 the shade. 
 
 Sometimes the earthenware so prepared is baked in large ovens 
 constructed on purpose ; but as often, the holes in the side of the hill, 
 
 * The clay is very fine and smooth, and found about nine inches or a foot fi-om the sur- 
 face;, it requires Uttle tempering, and is free from extraneous matter; the women knead 
 it with their hands. 
 
142 JOURNAL. 
 
 whence the clay has been dug, or rather scraped with the hands, 
 serve for this purpose. The wood chiefly used for these simple fur- 
 naces is the espinella or small thorn, not at all the same as- the espina 
 or common firewood of the country, which is the mimosa, whose 
 flowers are highly aromatic. The espinella has more the appear- 
 ance of a thorny coronilla. It is said to make the most ardent fire 
 of any of the native woods. The pottery here is only for the most 
 ordinary utensils ; but I have seen some jars from Melipilla and 
 Penco which in shape and workmanship might pass for Etruscan. 
 These are sometimes sold for as high prices as fifty dollars, and are 
 used for holding water. They are ornamented with streaks, and vari- 
 ous patterns, in white and red clay, where the ground is black ; and 
 where it is red or brown, with black and white. Some of the red jars 
 have these ornaments of a shining substance that looks like gold 
 dust, which is, I believe, clay having pyrites of iron ; and many 
 have grotesque heads, with imitations of human arms for handles, 
 and ornaments indented on them ; but, excepting in the forming of 
 the heads and arms, I do not recollect any Chileno vase with raised 
 decorations. * 
 
 * On the Peruvian vases procured from the tombs, there are many and various patterns 
 in reUef ; but I have not seen any modern Peruvian pottery. 
 
VALPARAISO. 143 
 
 It is impossible to conceive a greater degree of apparent poverty 
 than is exhibited in the potters' cottages of the Rincona. Most, 
 however, had a decent bed ; a few stakes driven into the ground, 
 and laced across with thongs, form the bedstead ; a mattress of wool, 
 and, where the women are industrious, sheets of coarse homespun 
 cotton and thick woollen coverlets form no contemptible resting- 
 place for the man and wife, or rather for the wife, for I believe the 
 men pass the greater part of every night, according to the custom 
 of the country, sleeping, wrapped up in their ponchos, in the 
 open air. The infants are hung in little hammocks of sheep- 
 skin to the poles of the roof; and the other children or rela- 
 tions sleep as they can on skins, wrapped in their ponchos, on 
 the ground. In one of the huts there was no bed ; the whole 
 furniture consisted of two skin trunks ; and there were eleven 
 inhabitants, including two infants, twins, there being neither father 
 nor man of any kind to own or protect them. The natural gentle- 
 ness and goodness of nature of the people of Chile preserve even 
 the vicious, at least among the women, from that effrontery which 
 such a family as I here visited would, and must, have exhibited in 
 Europe. My instructress had a husband,' and her house was more 
 decent : it had a bed ; it had a raised bench formed of clay ; and 
 there were the implements of female industry, a distaflP and spindle, 
 and knitting needles formed of the spines of the great torch-thistle 
 from Coquimbo, which grow to nine inches long. * But the hamlet 
 of the Rincona is the most wretched I have yet seen. Its natives, 
 however, pointed out to me their beautiful view, which is indeed 
 magnificent, across the ocean to the snow-capped Andes, and boasted 
 of the pleasure of walking on their hills on a holiday evening : then 
 they showed me their sweet and wholesome stream of water, and 
 their ancient fig-ti'ees, inviting me to go back " when the figs should 
 " be ripe, and the flowers looking at themselves in the stream." 
 I was ashamed of some of the expressions of pity that had escaped 
 
 * The more delicate spines of the lesser torch-thistle serve here for pins. 
 
144 JOURNAL. 
 
 me. — If I cannot better their condition, why awaken them to a 
 sense of its miseries ? 
 
 Leaving the Rincona, instead of going directly to the Alraendral, 
 I skirted the hill by the hamlet called the Pocura, where I found 
 huts of a better description, most of them having a little garden with 
 cherry and plum trees, and a few cabbages and flowers. In the 
 veranda of one of them a woman was weaving coarse blue cloth. The 
 operation is tedious, for the fixed loom and the shuttle are unknown j 
 and next to the weaving- of the Arab hair-cloths, I should conceive 
 that in no part of the world can this most useful operation be per- 
 formed so clumsily or inconveniently. At the further part of the 
 Pocura an English butcher has built a house that looks like a palace 
 here, to the great admiration of the natives. Immediately above, 
 on a plain which may be from 80 to 100 feet above the village, is 
 the new burying ground or pantheon, the government having wisely 
 taken measures to prevent the continuance of burying in or near the 
 town. The prejudice, howevei', naturally attached to an ancient 
 place of sepulture prevents this from being occupied according to 
 the intention of the projectors. Separated from this only by a wall, 
 is the place at length assigned by Roman Catholic superstition to 
 the heretics as a burial ground ; or rather, which the heretics have 
 been permitted to purchase. Hitherto, such as had not permission 
 to bury in the forts where they could be guarded, preferred being 
 carried out to sea, and sunk ; — many instances having occurred of 
 the exhumation of heretics, buried on shore, by the bigotted natives, 
 and the exposure of their bodies to the birds and beasts of prey. 
 
 The situation of this resting-place is beautiful ; surrounded by 
 mountains, yet elevated above the plain, it looks out upon, the ocean 
 over gardens and olive groves ; and if the spirit hovers over its mor- 
 tal remains, here at least it is surrounded witli " shapes and sights 
 " delightful." But I trust it is better employed than in watchin» the 
 frail and perishable creature of clay ; a task, alas ! but irksome, when 
 life itself is the reward, but how disgusting to a pure intelligence, 
 which, once freed from its sublunary fetters, must delight in its liberty 
 
VALPARAISO. 145 
 
 and its unchecked powers. Oh ! what, when the busy longing after 
 immortality is gratified, can have power to bring the spirit down to 
 earth ? Not, surely, a lingering fondness for its ancient dwelling ; — 
 no, it must be love, which feels like an immortal sentiment for some 
 kindred and congenial spirit that could prompt us to hover near till 
 that spirit joined us in our flight to eternity. I firmly believe that 
 no communication can take place between those once gone, and the 
 habitants of earth. But will not the happier friend be conscious of 
 the feelings and regrets of those he has left ; may he not watch over 
 them and welcome them at last to his own state ? There is nothing 
 contrary to reason in such a belief; and I think revelation encourages 
 it. And surely it is one means of reconciliation, — one source of 
 comfort to those who have closed the dying eyes of all that was best 
 and dearest. 
 
 It was twilight long before I reached home, and the evening had 
 become chill and gloomy ; and I sat down in my solitary cottage, and 
 thought of the hopes and wishes with which I had left England, and 
 almost doubted whether I, too, had not passed the bounds of life : 
 but such abstractions can never happily last long. The ordinary 
 current of existence rolls not so smoothly, but that at every turn 
 some inequality awakens consciousness ; and I roused myself to my 
 daily task of study, and of writing down the occurrences of the day. 
 
 I have often thought a collection of faithful journals might furnish 
 better food to a moral philosopher for his speculations, than all the 
 formal disquisitions that ever were written. There are days of hurry 
 and happy occupation, that leave also a hurry of spirits, that per- 
 mits but the shortest and most concise entries ; others there are, 
 where idleness and the self-importance we all feel, more or less, in 
 writing a journal, swell the pages with laborious trifling ; and some, 
 again, where a few short sentences tell of a state of mind that it 
 requires courage indeed to exhibit to another eye. A copied journal 
 is less characteristic : it may be equally true, it may give a better, 
 because a more rational and careful account of countries visited ; 
 and the copying it, may awaken associations and lead the writer to 
 
 u 
 
146 JOURNAL. 
 
 other views, — to descant with other feelings on the same occurrences. 
 And though there be no intentional variation, some shades of cha- 
 racter will be kept under by fear, some suppressed, it may be through 
 modesty, and there are feelings for others which will blot out many 
 more : yet the journal is true ; true to nature, true to facts, and 
 true to a better feeling than often dictates the momentary lines of 
 spleen or suffering. This truth I solemnly engage myself to preserve. 
 I cannot give, and I trust no one will demand, more. 
 
 June '2d. — A rainy morning, and feeling cold, yet the thermometer 
 not below 50° of Fahrenheit. While I was at breakfast, one of my 
 little neighbours came running in, screaming out " Seiiora, he is come ! 
 " he is come !" — " Who is come, child?" — " Our admiral, our great and 
 good admiral ; and if you come to the veranda, you will see the flags in 
 the Almendral." Accordingly, Hooked out, and did see the Chilian 
 flag hoisted at every door : and two ships more in the roads than there 
 were yesterday. The O'Higgins and Valdivia had arrived during 
 the night, and all the inhabitants of the port and suburbs had made 
 haste to display their flags and their joy on Lord Cochrane's safe re- 
 turn. I am delighted at his arrival, not only because I want to see 
 him, whom I look up to as my natural friend here *, but because I 
 think he ought to have influence to mend some things, and to pre- 
 vent others ; which, without such influence, will, I fear, prove highly 
 detrimental to the rising state of Chile, if not to the general cause 
 of South American independence. 
 
 My mind, for a time after I arrived, was not sufficiently free to 
 attend, with any degree of interest, to the political state of the coun- 
 try : yet a measure of vital importance is now pending. 
 
 On the first settlement of affairs after the battle of Chacabuco, 
 Don Bernardo O'Higgins had been chosen to preside over the nation, 
 under the title of Supreme Director of Chile. A senate was chosen 
 from among the respectable citizens to assist him, and a provisional 
 
 * Captain Graham was a very young midshipman in the Thetis when Lord Cochrane 
 was an elder one. Sir A. Cochrane was the captain. 
 
N 
 
 
VALPARAISO. 
 
 147. 
 
 constitution was adopted. The law of the land continued to be such 
 as the Old Spaniards had bequeathed it. The constitution gave equal 
 rights to all ; abolished slavery, limited the privileges of the mayor- 
 asgos, diminished the power and revenue of the church, and adopted 
 the English naval code for the regulation of its maritime affairs. But 
 three years and a half of internal peace and success in all distant 
 expeditions had given leisure to the northern provinces of Chile, and 
 particularly to the capital, to see and feel the inconveniences of the 
 actual form of government ; which was in fact a despotic oligarchy at 
 first, and, by the absence or secession of the members of the senate, 
 who were disgusted at the opposition they met with in a plan for 
 declaring their office perpetual and hereditary, the whole power had 
 been left in the single hands of the director : if he had had a spark of 
 ordinary ambition, he might have made himself absolute. It is 
 seldom that a successful soldier like O'Higgins has the sense to see, 
 and the prudence to avoid, the danger of absolute power : he, how- 
 ever, has had both ; and the senate being dissolved, he has convoked 
 a deliberative assembly for the purpose of forming a permanent con- 
 stitution. The members are to be named by him and his private 
 council, from among the most respectable inhabitants of each town- 
 ship in Chile. This assembly is to devise the means for forming and 
 securing a national representation ; and, till such representation can 
 be called together, to sit as a legislative body, for a period not ex- 
 ceeding three months, while the executive power still remains in the 
 hands of the director. * 
 
 If such an assembly should honestly do its duty, nothing could be 
 wiser than this measure. But chosen by the executive, and therefore 
 biassed not unnaturally in its favour, it appears to me, that every pos- 
 sible difficulty lies in the way of obtaining through that assembly an 
 effective representative government; and it might have been wiser, 
 and certainly, as the government is constituted, as legal, to have 
 issued a decree for electing representatives for the towns at once. 
 
 * See Gazeta Ministeriel de Chile, No. 44. torn. iii. 
 V 2 
 
148 JOURNAL. 
 
 These, as the people of the country increased and became enlightened, 
 would naturally add to their numbers, and the government would 
 grow along with the people. I am too old not to be afraid of ready- 
 made constitutions, and especially of one fitted to the habits of a 
 highly civilised people applied too suddenly to an infant nation like 
 this. Nothing here can be too simple ; perhaps, the director and 
 senate, or at most, the director with a principal burgess from each 
 town, to be changed annually, and representing the council of the 
 primitive kings or patriarchs, would for many years suit such a state 
 of society better than any more complicated form of legislature. 
 To this council should certainly be called the chiefs of the army and 
 of the navy. With so limited a population, boards for the regulation 
 of different departments of government must be worse than useless. 
 Neither the men nor the money can be spared for such purposes, and a 
 single accountable chief from each department would answer every end. 
 
 Here, where so few have received an education fit to become 
 legislators, the lawyers and the clergy must bear an undue propor- 
 tion to the rest. For the maritime town of Valparaiso a priest is 
 elected ; and the merchants, who will fill up the other places with 
 perhaps three or four soldiers, while there is no repi'esentative for the 
 navy, are men whose views have become contracted by their hitherto 
 confined speculations, and from whom, however well-intentioned, it 
 would be vain to expect any very enlightened proceedings. 
 
 I am interested in the character of the people, and wish well 
 to the good cause of independence. Let the South American 
 colonies once secure that, and civil liberty, and all its attendant bless- 
 ings, will come in time. 
 
 But I have been writing away the rainy morning, and indul^ina 
 in thoughts too much akin to those of Milton's conceited inhabit- 
 ants of Pandemonium. What have I to do with states or govern- 
 ments, who am living in a foreign land by sufferance, and who can 
 tell from experience 
 
 " How small of all that human hearts endure 
 The part that kings or laws can cause or cure !" 
 
VALPARAISO. 149 
 
 June 6th. — To-day the feast of the Corpus Domini was celebrated ; 
 and I went to the Iglesia Matriz with my friend Mrs. Campbell to 
 hear her brother Don Mariano de Escalada preach. We went at 
 9 o'clock : she had put off her French or English dress, and adopted 
 the Spanish costume ; I did so also, so far as to wear a mantilla 
 instead of a bonnet, such being the custom on going to church. 
 A boy followed us with missals, and a carpet to kneel on. The 
 church, like all other buildings here, appears mean from without ; 
 but within it is large and decently decorated : to be sure the Virgin 
 was in white satin, with a hoop and silver fringes, surrounded with 
 looking-glasses, and supported on either hand by St. Peter and 
 St. Paul ; the former in a lace cassock, and the latter in a robe 
 formed of the same block which composes his own gracious person- 
 age. As there was to be a procession, and as the governor was 
 to be a principal person in the ceremonies preceding it, we waited 
 his arrival for the beginning of the service until 1 1 o'clock ; so that 
 I had plenty of time to look at the church, the saints, and the ladies, 
 who were, generally speaking, very pretty, and becomingly dressed 
 with their mantillas and braided hair. At length the great man 
 arrived, and it was whispered that he had been transacting business 
 with the admiral, and transmitting to him, and the captains, and other 
 officers, the thanks of the government for their services. * But the 
 whispers died away, and the young preacher began. The sermon 
 was of course occasional ; it spoke in good language of the moral 
 freedom conferred by the Christian dispensation, and thence the 
 step was not far to political freedom : but the argument was so 
 decorously managed, that it could offend none ; and yet so strongly 
 urged that it might persuade many. I was highly pleased with it, 
 and sorry to see it succeeded by the ceremony of kissing the reliquary, 
 which seemed as little to the taste of Zenteno as might be, by the 
 look of ineffable disdain he bestowed on the poor priest who pre- 
 sented it. The procession was now arranged ; and my friend and I, 
 
 * See these letters in the Introduction, p. 110. 
 
250 JOURNAL. 
 
 to escape joining it, hurried out of church, and took a stand to see it 
 at some distance. As I saw the mean little train appear, — for mean 
 it was, though composed of all the municipal and military dignitaries 
 that could be collected, — I could not help thinking of the splendid 
 show which three years ago I saw on the day of the Corpus Domini 
 in Rome, and thinking how, in both cases, the " form of godliness 
 denied the power thereof," and as I knelt to the symbols of religion, 
 how widely different was that faith which worships God in spirit and 
 in truth. 
 
 There was a pretty part of the show, however, on the water : about 
 150 little boats and canoes, dressed with the national colours, and 
 firing rockets every now and then, rowed round the bay, and stopped 
 at every church, and before every fishing cove, to sing a hymn, or 
 chaunt. After accompanying them for some time, I went into 
 Mr. Hoseason's house, and there I found Lord Cochrane. I should 
 say he looks better than when I last saw him in England, although 
 his life of exertion and anxiety has not been such as is in general 
 favourable to the looks. — How my heart yearned to think that 
 when our own country lost his service, England, 
 
 " Like a base Ethiope, threw a pearl away 
 Richer than all his kind." 
 
 But he is doing honour to his native land, by supporting that cause 
 which used to be hers ; and in after-ages his name will be among 
 those of the household gods of the Chilenos. 
 
 On Lord Cochrane's arrival here from Lima, every body was of 
 course anxious to hear what he, and the officers of the squadron in 
 general, think and feel concerning the protectorate of Peru. His 
 Lordship, however, does not say any thing concerning the conduct 
 of San Martin ; but the officers are not so discreet : they universally 
 represent the present government of Peru as most despotic and 
 tyrannical, now and then stained by cruelties more like the frenetic 
 acts of the Czar Paul than the inflictions of even the greatest military 
 tyrants. I have a letter from an officer of the Doris, saying that an 
 elderly respectable woman in Lima, having imprudently spoken too 
 
VALPARAISO, 151 
 
 freely of San Martin, was condemned to be exposed for three 
 hours in the streets in a robe of penance ; and that as her voice had 
 offended, she was gagged, and the gag used was a human bone. She 
 was taken home fainting with a natural loathing, and died ! 
 
 There is now in this port a vessel, the Milagro, full of Spanish 
 prisoners, to whom San Martin had promised security and protection 
 for their persons and property. However, after paying half their 
 property for letters of naturalisation, and for permission to retain 
 the rest, and with it to leave Lima, they were seized and stripped 
 on the road to Callao, huddled on board the prison- ship, and are 
 now in the bay to be sent to the rest of the prisonex's at Santiago, 
 whose captivity is too probably for life, as they are only to be liber- 
 ated when Old Spain acknowledges the independence of her colonies. 
 These poor people have arrived without the common necessaries of 
 life, and leave has been refused to supply some of their most press- 
 ing wants ; — but Lord Cochrane has done it without leave. Would 
 that he could inspire these people with some of the humanities of 
 war as practised in Europe ! 
 
 Two agents of the Peruvian government are said to have arrived 
 in the Milagro, for the purpose of spying the state of Lord Cochrane's 
 ships, and perhaps of tampering with the officers, or the government 
 itself, to get them for Peru. It is given out, however, that they are 
 only agents for the prisoners ; it may be so, but the report shows 
 the opinions entertained of the honesty of the Protector of Peru. 
 
 The admiral is on the point of visiting the director at Santiago. 
 I do hope the government will set about doing him the justice of 
 repairing the ships : there is still enough for him to do. While the 
 royalists under Quintanilla continue to hold Chiloe, there will always 
 be a shelter and receptacle for reinforcements from Spain; and 
 though I believe it impossible that these provinces should ever again 
 be united to the mother country, yet the contest and the miseries 
 of civil war may be protracted. Besides, what is to protect the 
 long coast of Chile but its squadron ? 
 
 8^^. — I went to pay a visit to the wife of my landlord, who had 
 
152 
 
 JOURNAL. 
 
 often entreated me to go and take matee with her ; but my dread of 
 using the bombilla, or tube which passes round to every body for the 
 purpose of sucking it up, had hitherto deterred me. However, I 
 resolved to get over my prejudice, and accordingly walked to her 
 house this evening. It is built, I should think, something on the plan 
 of the semi-Moorish houses which the Spaniards introduced into this 
 country. Passing under a gateway, on each side of which are shops, 
 occupied by various owners, looking towards the streets, I entered a 
 spacious court-yard ; one side of which is occupied by the gate, and 
 into which the windows of the house look out. A second side of the 
 quadrangle appeared to be store-houses ; the other two, by their ja- 
 lousied windows, showed that the dwelling apartments were situated 
 there. In the entrance-hall the servants were sitting, or standing 
 loitering, for the working time of day was over; and they were look- 
 ing into the family apartment, where the women were lolling on the 
 estrada, or raised platform covered with carpet (alfbmbra), supported 
 by cushions, on one side of the room ; and the men, with their hats 
 on, were sitting on high chairs, smoking and spitting, on the other. 
 Along the wall by the estrada, a covered bench runs the whole 
 length of the room ; and there I was invited to sit, and the matee 
 was called for. 
 
 A relation of the lady then went to the lower end of the estrada, 
 and sat on the edge of it, before a large chafingdish of lighted 
 charcoal, on which was a copper-pot full of boiling water. The 
 matee cups were then handed to the matee maker, who, after putting 
 in the proper ingredients, poured the boiling water over them, ap- 
 plied the bombilla to her lips, and then handed it to me ; but it was 
 long ere I could venture to taste the boiling liquor, which is harsher 
 than tea, but still very pleasant. As soon as I had finished my cup 
 it was instantly replenished and handed to another person, and so 
 on till all were served,; two cups and tubes having gone round the 
 whole circle. Soon after the matee, sugar-biscuits were handed 
 round, and then cold water, which concluded the visit. The people 
 I went to see were of the better class of shopkeepers, dignified by 
 
VALPARAISO. 253 
 
 the name of merchants ; and holding a small landed estate under one 
 of the mayorasgos near the chacra where I reside. Their man- 
 ners are decent ; and there is a grace and kindliness in the women 
 that might adorn the most polished drawing-rooms, and which pre- 
 vents the want of education from being so disgusting as in our own 
 country, where it is generally accompanied by vulgarity. Here the 
 want of cultivation sends women back to their natural means of per- 
 suasion, gentleness and caresses ; and if a little cunning mingles with 
 them, it is the protection nature has given the weak against the 
 strong. In England a pretty ignorant woman is nine times in ten 
 a vixen, and rules or tries to rule accordingly. Here the simplicity 
 of nature approaches to the highest refinements of education; and a 
 well-born and well-bred English gentlewoman is not very different in 
 external manners from a Chilena girl. 
 
 June i2th. — After three days' rain, this morning is as fine " as 
 that on which Paradise was created." So I spent half of it in gar- 
 dening, half in wandering about the quebradas in search of wild 
 flowers ; and first, in the sandy lane near me I found a variety of the 
 yellow horned poppy, and the common mallow of England, besides 
 the cultivated variety with pink flowers ; vervain, two or three kinds 
 of trefoil, furniatory, fennel, punpernel, and a small scarlet mallow 
 with flowers not larger. These, with three or four geraniums, sorrel, 
 dock, the ribbed plantain, lucerne, which is the common fodder here, 
 and several other small flowers, made me imagine myself in an Eng- 
 lish lane. The new plants that first struck me were the beautiful 
 red quintral, which some call the Chile honeysuckle, from its fancied 
 resemblance to that shrub ; but it is scentless, and it is a parasite. 
 And a beautiful little flower, also a parasite, called here cabella de 
 angel, or angel's hair {Cuscuta). It has no leaves, but their place is 
 supplied by long semi-transparent stalks ; which, waving in the air 
 from the branches of the trees on which they have fastened, appear 
 like locks of golden hair, and have given name to the plant. The 
 flower grows in thick close clusters, and looks like white wax, with a 
 rosy tinge in the centre ; it is five-petalled, about the size of the single 
 
254 JOURNAL. 
 
 florets of lily of the valley, and very fragrant. Both these parasites 
 are considered by the natives as emollients, and are applied to 
 
 wounds. 
 
 I soon found myself beyond my own knowledge of plants, and 
 therefore took a large handful to a neighbour, reputed to be skilful 
 in their properties ; and, as I went in, thought on the beautiful passage 
 in the " Faithful Shepherdess," where Chlorine apostrophises the sim- 
 ples she has been gathering. 
 
 " Oh, you sons of earth, 
 You only brood, unto whose happy birth 
 Virtue was given ; holding more of nature 
 Than man, her first-born and most perfect creature ; 
 Let me adore you ! You, that only can 
 Help or kill nature, drawing out the span 
 Of life and breath, e'en to the end of time ; 
 You, that these hands did crop long before prime 
 Of day, give me your names, and next your hidden powers." * 
 
 And, first, the culen, whose virtues I have mentioned before, and 
 which I now learned was also a charm against witchcraft. The litri, 
 the leaves of which blister the hands, nay, so acrid is the plant, that 
 persons but passing by, have their faces swelled by it, and it is dan- 
 gerous to sleep in its shade. Nevertheless, a drink made from its 
 berries, is considered wholesome : the wood is hard as iron, and is 
 used for plough-shares. The algarobilla, a pretty small acacia, yields 
 a black dye, and common writing-ink is made from it. Quilo, a small 
 flowering trailing shrub, the flower is greenish-white, succeeded by a 
 berry, or rather seed, enclosed in a fleshy cup, divided into five seg- 
 ments, and exposing the seed ; the whole berry is of the size of a 
 currant, and of a pleasant sub-acid taste : the roots, when boiled, are 
 used to restore grey hair to its original colour. The floripondio, 
 [Datura Arborea,) whose beautiful funnel-shaped flower, milk white, 
 ten inches long and four broad, smells sweet as the sun goes down. 
 Some beautiful varieties of lady's slipper, [Calceolarea,) romarillo or 
 
 * 
 
 See " Faithful Shepherdess," Act II., for these, and the next tlurty-seven lines, for a 
 delightful descriptive catalogue of some of our English simples. 
 
VALPARAISO. 255 
 
 bastard rosemary, an infusion of which is drank to strengthen the 
 stomach. Palqui, the yellow and the lilac-flowered ; the last smells 
 like jasmine during the night, but is disagreeable after sun-rise : the 
 plant is hurtful taken inwardly, but useful as a lotion, for swellings 
 and cutaneous eruptions : it is chiefly used for making soap, as it 
 yields the finest ashes, and in the greatest quantities of any plant 
 here. Yerva Mora is a variety of solanum, a specific for complaints 
 in the eyes : there is a beautiful azure-blue variety, with deeply-in- 
 dented leaves. * Manzanilla, so called from its smelling of apples, 
 is a strong bitter, like camomile, and is used in the same manner. It 
 looks like camomile with the outer florets stripped off: the true 
 camomile is called Manzanilla de Castilla. The maravilla or shrubby 
 sunflower, grows abundantly on all the hills around, and affords ex- 
 cellent browsing for the cattle. Mayu f, whose pods furnish a dark 
 powder that makes excellent writing-ink. Pimentella, a kind of sage, 
 with splendid flowers but dull grey leaves, used for rheumatic pains. 
 The quillo quilloe, or white lychnis and tornatilla, a mallow, are 
 also used in medicine ; and I saw in the house bundles of dried 
 Cachanlangue, or lesser herb-centaury, which I was assured was a 
 sovereign remedy in spitting blood. Besides all these useful plants, 
 I had gathered the Flor de Soldado, (scarlet celsia,) the Barba de 
 Viejo, a shrub with a small aggregate flower growing in clusters, and 
 smelling like queen of the meadow, andromeda, and the lesser fuscia : 
 so that, considering that it is not yet the season of flowers, I had been 
 pretty successful. I am sorry I know so little of botany, because I 
 am really fond of plants. But I love to see their habits, and to know 
 their countries and their uses ; and it appears to me that the nomen- 
 clature of botany is contrived to keep people at a distance from any 
 real acquaintance with one of the most beautiful classes of objects in 
 nature. What have harsh hundred syllabled names to do with such 
 lovely things as roses, jasmines, and violets ? 
 
 * Such as Smith, m his botany, calls lyrate. See No. 59. in the plates of the leaves, 
 f Belongs to Linnaeus's natural order, Lomentacea, 
 
 x2 
 
, f.Q JOURNAL. 
 
 Wednesday, June Wth. — These few last days I have been less 
 alone. My friend Miss H. is staying with me, and we have had many 
 pleasant walks together ; and I have become acquainted with several 
 of the Chileno naval officers. Captain Foster, who was the senior 
 captain, has given up his command, and, it is said, has tendered his 
 resignation to the supreme government : he very kindly came the 
 other day to superintend the putting up a stove in my little sitting 
 room. I have hitherto used an open brasier, but, though very com- 
 fortable, the fumes of the charcoal must be hurtful ; but with a stove, 
 they pass oif through the funnel. Several houses have now English 
 stoves and grates, but the burning of coal is not yet very general. 
 English coal is of course dear, and the coal from the province of 
 Conception, which resembles the Scotch coal, is not yet worked to 
 a sufficient extent to supply the market. 
 
 Of the officers actually belonging to the squadron, I have seen 
 Captain Crosbie, Lord Cochrane's flag captain, a pleasant gentleman- 
 like young Irishman, brave as Lord Cochrane's captain ought to be, 
 and intelligent. Captain Cobbet, the nephew of Cobbet, with a great 
 deal of the hard-headed sense of his uncle, and also, if all physio- 
 gnomical presages are not false, endowed with no small share of his 
 selfishness, owes every thing, education and promotion, both in the 
 English navy and this, to Lord Cochrane, and has the reputation of 
 being an excellent seaman : I find him polite, intelligent, and com- 
 municative. But the person who seems peculiarly to possess the 
 information concerning all I want to know, is the physician of the 
 O'Higgins, Dr. Craig. Skill in his profession, good sense, rational 
 curiosity, and enthusiasm of character concealed under a shy exterior, 
 render him a more interesting person than ninety-nine in a hundred 
 to be met with on this side of Cape Horn ; and I feel peculiarly 
 happy in making his acquaintance. 
 
 It is not unpleasant to have one's solitude now and then broken 
 in upon by persons who, like these, have characters of their own ; but 
 there is a sad proportion in the English society here of trash. How- 
 ever, as vulgarity, ignorance, and coarseness, often disguise kindness 
 
VALPARAISO. 
 
 157 
 
 of heart, and as I have experienced the latter from all, it scarcely 
 becomes me to complain of the roughness of the coat of the pine- 
 apple while enjoying the flavour of the fruit. * Of many of these I 
 may say, — 
 
 " That still they fill affection's eye, 
 Obscurely wise and coarsely kind." 
 
 Yesterday a very interesting person sailed from hence for Lima, 
 Mr. Thompson, one of those men whom real Christian philanthropy 
 has led across the ocean and across the Andes to diffuse the benefits 
 of education among his fellow-creatures. He had spent some time 
 in Santiago, where, under the patronage of the supreme director, he 
 has established a school of mutual instruction on the plan of Lan- 
 caster. He has been in Valparaiso some time superintending the 
 formation of a similar school, to the maintenance of which part of 
 the revenue of a suppressed monastery has been appropriated. The 
 governor, with the Cabildo and military officers in procession, accom- 
 panied Mr. Thompson on the opening of the school, so that all the 
 importance was given it that was possible, and I am happy to say 
 with good effect. It is now, though so recent, well attended, and I 
 have met many of the country people bringing in their children in 
 the morning to go thither, f The immediate wants of Chile are 
 education in the upper and middling classes, and a greater number 
 of working hands. I ought, I suppose, to say productive labourers ; 
 but hands, both indirectly and directly productive, are wanting. Not 
 a hundredth part of the soil is cultivated, and yet it produces from 
 sixteen fold on the bare coast, to a hundred fold of wheat in the 
 upper country ; ordinarily sixty every where, and in some spots 
 ninety of barley, and so on of maize ; not to mention that the fruits 
 transplanted hither seem to have adopted the soil, and even to im- 
 prove in quality and in quantity in this favoured climate. 
 
 * Bishop Home, speaking of Dr. Johnson, says, that " to refuse to acknowledge the 
 merit of such a man on account of the coarseness of his behaviour, what is it but to 
 throw away the pine-apple, and to allege for a reason the roughness of its coat?" 
 
 f Mr. Thompson has been solemnly declared a free citizen of Chile by the government. 
 
2^g JOURNAL. 
 
 2Qih. — To-day, being anxious to procure a variety of scene for 
 my young friend, we walked to what is usually called the flower- 
 garden here, and I, at least, highly enjoyed the day. On reaching 
 the house of the mistress of the garden, we found her seated on the 
 brick bench before the door. She appears very old: her hair, which 
 fell in a single braid down her back, being perfectly grey. She is 
 tall and hale-looking, and soon summoned three of her five daughters 
 to receive us. The youngest of these appeared to be at least fifty, 
 tall, muscular, well made, with the remains of decided beauty, with 
 an elastic step and agreeable voice : they stepped forward bearing 
 carpets for us to sit on, and oranges to refresh us. The other two, 
 of scarcely less imposing appearance, joined us, ^nd invited us to walk 
 into the garden. As yet none of the cultivated flowers appear, but 
 the taste of these women has adorned their arboleda, or orchard, of 
 peach, cherry, and plum, with all the wild flowers of the neigh- 
 bourhood, some of which grow almost into the little stream that 
 runs through the grounds, and others twine up the stems of the fruit 
 trees now beginning to blossom. I wish, however, all this was more 
 neatly kept. Even Eve weeded her garden, and Adam was com- 
 manded to dress as well as to dig the ground. They showed us a 
 beautiful green spot, in a recess formed by two hills, where the 
 young and pretty Lady Cochrane used to bring her parties to dine, 
 and enjoy the country scenery. Her gaiety and liveliness seemed to 
 have produced a strong impression on the natives, who talk of her 
 with admiration and regret. On returning to the house we passed 
 through the more private garden, and I saw, for the first time, the 
 lucuma [AchrcBS Lucumo), a fruit rare here, but sufficiently abundant 
 in Coquimbo, and which flourishes well in Quillota. The seed, 
 which resembles a chesnut, is enveloped in a pulp, like the med- 
 lar in substance, and of an agreeable sweetish flavour. There is 
 also the chirimoya, (an Anonna, *) so famous in Peru ; it is a better 
 kind of custard apple, and the trees bear a strong resemblance to 
 
 * One of the coadunate of Linnseus's natural method. 
 
VALPARAISO. 159 
 
 each other. We found our old lady sitting where we had left her, 
 distributing advice and plants of various kinds to two or three women 
 and children, who had collected round her while we were in the 
 garden : 
 
 For herbs she knew, and well of each could speak, 
 
 That in her garden sipped the silvery dew. 
 Where many ajlotsoer displayed its gaudy streak 
 
 With herbs for use, and physic not a few. 
 Of grey renown, within whose borders grew 
 
 The tufted basil, pun-provoking thyme. 
 Fresh baum, and marigold of cheerful hue. 
 
 The lowly gill that never dares to climb ; 
 And more I fain would sing, disdaining here to rhyme. 
 
 Among the little girls were two fishermen's children with laver, 
 another sort of sea-weed, and several kinds of shell-fish for sale, 
 some of which I had never seen before ; and upon my saying so, my 
 young companion and I were asked to come some day to eat of them 
 dressed in the country fashion. It was too late to-day to prepare 
 any ; but we were so earnestly pressed to come back after our 
 intended walk to the Quebrada, farther on, and partake of the family 
 dinner, that I, loving to see all things, readily consented ; and 
 accordingly returned at two o'clock to the flower-garden house. 
 
 We found the mother sitting alone on the estrada, supported by 
 her cushions, with a small low round table before her, on which was 
 spread a cotton cloth, by no means clean. The daughters only 
 served their mother ; but ate their own meals in the kitchen by the 
 fire. We were accommodated with seats at the old lady's table. 
 The first dish that appeared was a small platter of melted marrow, 
 into which we were invited to dip the bread that had been presented 
 to each, the old lady setting the example, and even presenting bits 
 thoroughly sopped, with her fingers, to Miss H., who contrived to 
 pass them on to a puppy who sat behind her. I, not being so near, 
 escaped better; besides, as I really did not dislike the marrow, 
 though I wished in vain for the addition of pepper and salt, I dipped 
 my bread most diligently, and ate heartily. The bread in Chile is 
 
IQQ JOURNAL. 
 
 not good after the first day. The native bakers usually put suet or 
 lard into it, so that it tastes like cake ; a few French bakers, how- 
 ever, make excellent bread ; but that we had to-day was of the coun- 
 try, and assimilated well with the melted marrow. After this apetizer, 
 as my countrymen would call it, a large dish of charqui-can was 
 placed before us. It consists of fresh beef very much boiled, with 
 pieces of charqui or dried beef, slices of dried tongue, and pumkin, 
 cabbage, potatoes, and other vegetables, in the same dish. Our host- 
 ess immediately began eating from the dish with her fingers, and 
 invited us to do the same ; but one of her daughters brought us each 
 a plate and fork, saying she knew that such was our custom. How- 
 ever, the old lady persisted in putting delicate pieces on our plates 
 with her thumb and finger. The dish was good, and well cooked. 
 It was succeeded by a fowl which was torn to pieces with the hands ; 
 and then came another fowl cut up, and laid on sippets strewed with 
 chopped herbs ; and then giblets ; and then soup ; and, lastly, a bowl 
 of milk, and a plate of Harina de Yalli, that is, flour made from a small 
 and delicate kind of maize. Each being served with a cup of the 
 milk, we stirred the flour into it ; and I thought it excellent from its 
 resemblance to milk brose. Our drink was the wine of the country ; 
 and on going out to the veranda after dinner, apples and oranges 
 were offered to us. As it was not yet time for the old lady to take 
 her siesta, I took the opportunity of asking her concerning the belief 
 of the people of the country as to witches. There is something 
 in her appearance, when surrounded by her five tall daughters, that 
 irresistibly put me in mind of the weird sisters, and I felt half inclined 
 to ask what they were that " look'd not like th' inhabitants of earth, 
 and yet were on it." If I had done so, instead of asking the simple 
 question I did, my hostess could not have looked more shocked : 
 she crossed herself, took up the scapulary of the Merced, which she 
 kissed * ; and then said, " There have been such things as witches 
 
 * This scapulary is a bit of cloth or silk, on one side of which is embroidered a white 
 cross, on a red ground; and on the other, the arms of Arragon: this is hung round the 
 
VALPARAISO. 1^2 
 
 but it would be mortal sin to believe or consult them ; from which, 
 may our lady defend me and mine :" and little more was to be got 
 from her on that subject, though she launched out at great length 
 into a history of saints and miracles, wrought particularly against the 
 heretics ; especially the Russians, in favour of the faithful Spaniards. 
 I find, however, that witches here do much the same things as in 
 Europe ; they influence the birth of animals, nay, even of children ; 
 spoil milk, wither trees, and control the winds. It is scarcely thirty 
 years since the master of a trading ship was thrown into the prison 
 of the Inquisition for making a passage of thirty-five days from Lima, 
 a time then considered too short to have performed the voyage in 
 without preternatural assistance. The people here are so Spanish 
 in their habits, that it would be difficult for any one to detect what 
 portion of their superstitions, their manners, or customs, are derived 
 from the aboriginal Chilenos ; and it is particularly so to me, as I 
 have never been in Old Spain ; so that where the manners differ from 
 those of the peasantry in Italy, I am equally ignorant whether that 
 difference arises from the Spanish Moresco, or the Chileno ancestry 
 of the people. 
 
 The superstitions and the cookery of to-day are both decidedly 
 Spanish, though some of the materials for both are aboriginal Ame- 
 ricans : no bad type, I fancy, of the character of the nation. 
 
 24^^, St. John s day. — The balmy nucca drop* of the midnight, 
 between the eve of St. John and this day, seems to have fallen here : 
 all is gay and idle, every body walking about in holyday-clothes. I 
 am sorry, however, to find that the time of the Spaniards is talked 
 of with some little lingering regret. The present government, by 
 suppressing a great many of the religious shows, has ceitainly re- 
 neck, and put me in mind of the Brahminee thread. On the day of the Assumption, those 
 who have joined that Hermandad, or society, pay two reals, and one more monthly, for the 
 right of burial in the consecrated ground of the Merced. The scapulary is the receipt the 
 holy brothers give for the money received. 
 
 * The drop which falls from heaven, and stops the plague in Egypt. Persons under 
 the influence of witchcraft are freed by it, &c. &c. See all oriental tales, and though 
 among the latest, yet the lovehest, Paradise and the Peri. 
 
 r 
 
2g2 JOURNAL. 
 
 lieved the people from a heavy tax, but then it has curtailed their 
 accustomed amusements ; and in a climate such as this, where con- 
 stant labour is not necessary to support life, some consideration 
 ought to be had to the necessity of amusement for those classes, es- 
 pecially where purely mental entertainment is nothing. The festival 
 of St. Peter, peculiarly adapted to a maritime place, should not, I 
 think, have been abolished. On his day, his statue, kept in the 
 Iglesia Matriz, used to be solemnly brought out and placed in an 
 ornamented goleta, decked with flags and ribbons, and gilding, and 
 attendant images. The goleta, manned by fishermen, was rowed 
 round the harbour, followed by all the fishing boats and canoes. 
 Bands of music were stationed on each point bounding the bay ; and 
 when the goleta reached them, rockets and guns saluted it. 
 
 I have often admired the wisdom of Venice with regard to its 
 festivals ; there was scarcely one of the church that was not converted 
 into a national monument. On the feast of the Purification, was cele- 
 brated the seizure and recapture of the brides of Venice, under the 
 name of the Marias, which has furnished the subject of tales and poems 
 in all languages. The ceremonies of the last day of the carnival com- 
 memorated the suppression of an internal division in the city. But 
 among a thousand others, the greatest, in every sense, was that cele- 
 brated on the day of the Ascension, when the doge, proceeding in the 
 Bucentaur to the open sea, solemnly espoused the Adriatic, in com- 
 memoration of the triumphant return of the Doge Urseoli on the 
 day of the Ascension, after having subjected the whole of the Adriatic 
 to Venice.* It may be said, that to engraft the sacred feelings of 
 patriotism thus upon the stock of superstition, only fosters the latter ; 
 and that the enlightened policy of this age, ought to be superior to 
 the temporising spirit which such a union demands. But the people 
 are, perhaps, nowhere sufficiently enlightened to be altogether in- 
 
 * See the " Origine delle Feste Veneziane," by one whom I am proud to have seen and 
 known, whose knowledge, as displayed in her work, is the least of her merits, but whose 
 truly patriotic feeling for her ruined country must find an echo in every breast. Need I 
 add the name of Justina Renier Mxchiele? 
 
VALPARAISO. 263 
 
 sensible to show, to amusement, and to external associations. Is it 
 not, therefore, wise to turn these shows and associations to the account 
 of patriotism ? And is it not more probable that the superstition 
 will be forgotten, while the near and almost personal feelings that 
 belong to national triumph strengthen with time. Shakspeare un- 
 derstood the value of such associations, when he makes Harry the 
 Fifth say — 
 
 " Crispin Crispian shall ne'er go by, 
 From this day to the ending of the world, 
 But we in it shall be remembered." 
 
 And who in England has forgotten Agincourt ? But who, besides 
 the shoemakers, ever thinks of St, Crispin ? 
 
 Chile is so obviously a maritime country, shut up as she is to 
 landward, by the Andes from the eastern provinces, and the desert of 
 Atacama from those to the north, that I would, were I its legislator, 
 turn every feeling and passion towards the sea. St. Peter's day should 
 be a national and naval spectacle : I would distribute prizes to fisher- 
 men and boatmen ; I would bestow honorary rewards on officers ; I 
 would receive and answer petitions and representations from all con- 
 nected with the sea ; in short, I would, on that day, let them feel 
 that the protection of government went hand in hand with that of 
 religion over the most useful, and therefore the most favoured class 
 of Chileno citizens. 
 
 June 25ih. — I went with a party to the Lagunilla, a small fresh- 
 water lake formed from the waters of several little streams, and 
 divided from the sea only by a bank of sand : the road into the 
 valley of the lake is good, but the steepest I ever recollect riding. 
 On leaving Valparaiso, from which the lake is three leagues distant, 
 we found ourselves on a high table land, whence we enjoyed a mag- 
 nificent view of the central Andes on one hand, and the coast with 
 all its harbours and bays on the other. The little bay of the Lagunilla 
 is said not to be safe for ships, who always make it in coming from 
 the southward. At the bottom of the valley we found a Rancho, which 
 just now looks poor and miserable : but it is the poor time of year ; 
 
 r 2 
 
Ig4 JOURNAL. 
 
 the provisions laid up for the season are nearly exhausted, that is, all 
 but mere necessaries. Everything in the shape of luxury is gone j 
 and the peasant waits, not impatiently however, (for the Chilenos are 
 good-humoured and gay,) for the return of the season that brings his 
 apples to render his bread more palatable, and the green boughs to 
 refresh his sheds and his hedges, which, since the crop was taken oiF 
 his garden-ground, have gradually disappeared to feed his fire. We 
 had sent a mule laden with provisions to the spot, and some of our 
 party had shot some partridges, which were dressed at the Rancho. 
 Our tablecloth was spread in a pleasant green place, and we dined 
 within hearing of the little rill that murmurs down the valley, ren- 
 dering it green and fertile. A few fruit trees grew among the huge 
 blocks of stone, that in its winter fury it has washed from the neigh- 
 bouring mountain. It was the first party I had joined since my 
 arrival, and I had done it with reluctance, because I am scarcely yet 
 fit company for the young and the cheerful ; but I am glad I did so. 
 Fine weather, exercise, and agreeable scenery, must do good both to 
 mind and body ; 1 feel better than I had ever hoped to be when I first 
 landed on these shores. 
 
 As we returned, we perceived an English frigate, the Aurora, just 
 going into Valparaiso from Brazil ; she saluted Lord Cochrane's flag 
 as she entered. His Lordship himself is still in Santiago; the 
 world says, occupied in endeavouring to obtain from the justice of 
 the government the arrears of pay and prize money for the squadron. 
 Some of his friends, I think injudiciously, and I am confident untruly, 
 talk of him as interfering with the new government regulations to be 
 made. Others, perhaps better informed, represent his business to be 
 the refutation of the absurd charges brought against him by San 
 Martin.* These charges have proceeded from the basest motives : 
 envy of his reputation, jealousy of his actions, and fear of his re- 
 sentment ; besides the unwise anger occasioned by his esteeming it 
 " more honourable to show marks of open displeasure, than to en- 
 
 See p. 99. of the Introduction. 
 
VALPARAISO. 165 
 
 " tertain secret hatred," on the discovery of San Martin's infamous 
 designs against the state he had sworn to serve. These charges are 
 so frivolous, so mean, so paltry, so much what a thief at the foot of 
 the gallows would be apt to lay against an innocent man who had 
 offended him, that I have always felt that, in this case, to vindicate 
 the integrity and freedom from corruption of such a man, would be 
 an affront to his virtues.* 
 
 9nth. — I paid a visit to Madame Zenteno the governor's lady, a 
 pleasing, lively little woman, who received me very politely, and sent 
 for her husband, who came immediately, and seemed delighted to 
 display the English comforts of the apartment I was received in. An 
 English carpet, an English grate, and even English coals, were all 
 very agreeable on this cold raw day. Zenteno assured me that he 
 found a fire thus burned in an open stove was the best promoter of 
 conversation, and regretted the many years he had passed without 
 even guessing at its comforts. He is properly anxious to promote a 
 taste for the elegancies of civilised life ; but under any other circum- 
 stances, I should say that there was even a little affectation in his 
 great admiration for everything English. However, the people of 
 Valparaiso are indebted to him for considerable improvements in the 
 roads and streets ; and a plan for a new market-place, as soon as 
 the funds will permit, is to be carried into execution. These things 
 seem little to Europeans. But they forget that this Valparaiso, one 
 of the greatest ports on this side of the vast continent of South Ame- 
 rica, is little more in appearance than an English fishing town. 
 SiDMOUTH is a capital city in comparison. From the governor's house 
 I went to the jail, a strong uncomfortable building now empty. The 
 prisoners are transferred to the hospital of San Juan de Dios ; and 
 I am ashamed to say the Spanish prisoners from Lima, sent by San 
 Martin, are there also, along with the common felons. The Spaniards 
 were in so wretched a condition on their arrival, that the English 
 inhabitants, in order to save them from starving, have raised a 
 
 Aikin's translation of the life of Agricola.^ 
 
IQQ JOURNAL. 
 
 subscription; and one of the merchants daily sees their food dis- 
 tributed. 
 
 29th. — The Independencia, one of the Chileno squadron, came in 
 to-day. She was left by Lord Cochrane on the coast to the north- 
 ward, for the purposes of surveying, aiding the cause of indepen- 
 dence, and procuring provisions.* The Araucana had been left with 
 her, but while she was detached on a particular service to the Bay 
 of Lorero, the captain and others being on shore on duty, the mas- 
 ter, gunner, and boatswain mutinied, seized the ship, and having 
 landed all the Chilenos, and such English as would not join them, at 
 Dolores, they, with sixteen men, sailed, and have not since been heard 
 of. Forty- seven of the crew, under the captain, are preserved to 
 the service ; and it is remarkable that there was not a Chileno among 
 the deserters. 
 
 The Independencia has brought some good surveys, and in some 
 cases has been of use to the good cause, by encouraging the coast 
 towns to declare their adherence to the independent governments, in 
 whose territories they are situated. It is however to be regretted, 
 that the intemperate behaviour of one of the officers, for which in- 
 deed he atoned with his life, occasioned some disturbances, which 
 must, I fear, have a bad effect. 
 
 39th. — To-day 300 of the prisoners from Lima were sent off to 
 Santiago, some on foot, and others, whose age and infirmities ren- 
 dered it impossible for them to march, in waggons. Among the lat- 
 ter, one old man with thin grey hair was seated, and was heard to 
 apostrophise the sea, whose shores he was leaving, as the only road 
 to his native country ; and feebly lamenting, he sat carelessly on the 
 edge of the vehicle ; when, just as it turned to go up the first cuesta, 
 he fell and died on the spot, — it was not of the fall, but of a broken 
 
 * All the orders to procure provisions for the Chile squadron, most particularly enjoin 
 that they shall be duly paid for ; or in case of its not being possible to do so, to use force 
 only with regard to public property under Spanish colours, carefully respecting all private 
 claims. (See orders to Araucana, &c.) Such has been the constant practice of the squa- 
 dron, while under Lord Cochrane. 
 
VALPARAISO, 2g7 
 
 heart. His companions say, that, with the word Spain on his lips, he 
 died in the cart and then fell. These are things to make the heart 
 ache ; and the more painfully, as that the evil comes not from the 
 ordinary course of nature, wherein men's sufferings and trials come 
 proportioned to their strength, or from that high hand which is mer- 
 ciful as powerful ; but from man — man who preys upon his fellows ; 
 and who to cruelty adds hypocrisy, and commits his crimes in the 
 sacred name of virtue. * The story of these prisoners combines all 
 that is base and cruel, and cowardly ; but when was a cruel man 
 brave ! f 
 
 It is the festival of Nuestra Seiiora del Pilar La Avogada de los 
 Marineros. How could I do otherwise than observe it ? I went to 
 my old friend at the flower-garden, who is commonly called La Cha- 
 velita ; and, as I knew she intended being at the ceremony which 
 takes place at the church of the Merced, I obtained permission to 
 accompany her; and the afternoon was productive of considerable 
 amusement and information, which I could not have obtained without 
 such a companion. In the first place, I do not know if I should other- 
 wise ever have had courage to go into a ventana or wine-house, which 
 I did to-day. We arrived at the church-door too early ; and, after 
 walking up and down the space proposed for the procession, we went 
 to the said ventana, which is exactly opposite to the church. I ima- 
 gined, at first, that it was a private house belonging to a friend of 
 La Chavelita ; and the table at the door set out with fruit and cakes 
 for sale, seemed to me to be only a compliment to the festival. On 
 entering a very large room, with benches round three sides and a 
 brassero in the middle, I saw on the fourth side of the apartment, a 
 table covered with jugs and bottles, containing various kinds of liquor, 
 and glasses of different sizes by them. On one of the benches sat 
 two religious of the order of the Merced, with their long, full, white 
 robes with black crosses and enormous hats, smoking and talking 
 
 * We all remember the exclamation of Madame Roland, in passing the statue of 
 Liberty : " Oh Liberte ! que de crimes on commet en ton nom." 
 f See p. 88. of the Introduction. 
 
168 JOURNAL. 
 
 politics. The exile of the bishop ; the probable effect of the expect- 
 ed assembly on church affairs ; and some murmuring at the choice 
 of the provincial of the church of San Domingo, Don Celidon Mar- 
 ques, as deputy for Valparaiso, while the worthier brethren of the 
 Merced had been neglected, were their principal themes. Our en- 
 trance interrupted them for an instant ; when, after a few minutes 
 whispering, in which I now and then heard the words Viuda Inglez, 
 they resumed their politics ; and then, having finished their segars, 
 walked out. Meantime I had observed several elderly fat women 
 running about, and mixing various liquors, and carrying them into 
 several inner apartments ; some of these liquors I tasted. Little 
 spirits or wine was called for ; but several kinds of sherbet, the best 
 of which is Luca, were in great request. The Luca, is an infusion 
 of Culen, Canela wild cinnamon, with a little syrup, and is said to 
 be as wholesome as it is pleasant. The house shortly began to fill. 
 Company after company of young men arrived, and were shown into 
 different rooms, and I then found out where I was. Some parties 
 called for dinners of so many dishes, others for wine ; some for 
 sweet drinks and cakes, and music ; and all for segars. Some good- 
 looking girls now made their appearance, and with guitars entered 
 the rooms where music had been ordered. Soon we heard the sound 
 of singing and dancing, and I was quite satisfied that every body was 
 happy and merry, and left the place, persuaded that the evening 
 would be still gayer, and that the dances I had often seen among the 
 very common people in the smallest public-houses, as I rode through 
 the Almendral at night, are practised, though more privately, by the 
 decenter sort, in these more quiet houses. Gambling is very com- 
 mon here among the lower orders as well as among the gentry. 
 Every rude nation gambles ; every very refined people does the 
 same. The savage has in the intervals of hunting and makino- war 
 too much leisure ; life stagnates, he must have a stimulus — he gam- 
 bles. The gentleman of civilised society needs not hunt for his sub- 
 sistence ; and, if he does not do it for exercise, he also, to procure 
 that stimulus which seems necessary to existence, gambles. Com- 
 
VALPARAISO. 269 
 
 mercial speculations and war are only gambling on a larger scale. In- 
 tellectual pleasures alone supply sufficient stimulus to exertion and 
 excitement to curiosity, on which gambling to see the end principally 
 depends, and leave man the richer and better for the exercise. Seve- 
 ral games are played here so like the games of Europe, and of the 
 East, that they must of course have been imported by the Spaniards. 
 The sort of golf played on horseback in Persia, is played in the same 
 manner here. * Cards, dice, and billiards, are seen within doors ; 
 bowls and skittles, and flying kites, which is equally the sport of the 
 old and young, are exercised in the open air. One kind of bowls is 
 new to me. The space of placing is always under a shed. A frame 
 of wood being laid down, a floor of clay, about 30 feet long by from 
 15 to 18 feet broad, is very nicely laid, the frame-work rising about 
 six inches, or from that to a foot, round the whole ; a ring fixed on 
 a pivot and turning with the slightest touch, is placed about one-third 
 from the upper end of the floor ; the player seats himself on the frame 
 at the opposite end, and endeavours to send his bowl through the 
 ring without striking it. This is a very favourite game, and I am 
 persuaded that few of the neighbouring peons do not lose and win, 
 not only all their money, but even their clothes at it, half-a-dozen 
 times every year. 
 
 It was now time, however, to repair to the church. And there, 
 kneeling before the high altar, we heard the mass to our lady of the 
 glittering brow, and prayed for the safety of the living seamen, and for 
 the souls of those who were gone. I cannot and I will not think it 
 unlawful to join in such prayers ; and I never felt my devotion more 
 fervent : but I was soon roused from it to join in the procession, and 
 then, indeed, I felt my Protestant prejudices return. Our lady was 
 taken out dressed in brown satin, and jewels of value, and carried 
 towards the sea, through a lane formed of boughs of green myrtle and 
 bay. Here and there was a shrine at which she stopped, and a chaunt 
 
 s> ■ 
 
 * This is said to have been an Aboriginal game : till the arrival of the Spaniards, it was 
 played on foot ; but since the horse was introduced, every thing is done on horseback in this 
 country. 
 
 Z 
 
2Y0 JOURNAL. 
 
 was sung. Then, having thus visited San Josef, Santa Dolores, and 
 Santa Geltrudes, she was carried back at sunset to her own altar, and 
 the Ave Maria Stella was sung. The paltry decoration of the saints 
 here discovers, by daylight, the hideousness of the superstition : the 
 looking glasses and the toys are coarse and inelegant. Now, night 
 had come on, all this was hid, " Ave Maria Stella" brought back 
 Italy and that magic power, which even in her decrepitude throws 
 lustre over her, to my mind. How many a balmy evening I have 
 listened with delight to the voices singing Ave Maria in the modu- 
 lated tones of Italy, while Rome herself was hushed at the mo- 
 ment into religious, awful silence : all save the chaunt mingled with 
 the noise of the fountains. Of all the characters of the Virgin I love 
 this best : — 
 
 " Star of the dark and stormy sea, 
 
 Where wrecking tempests round us rave. 
 Thy gentle virgin form we see 
 
 Bright rising o'er the hoary wave. 
 The howHng storms that seemed to crave 
 
 Their victims, sink in music sweet; 
 And surging seas retreat to pave 
 
 The path beneath thy gUstering feet." 
 
 Ave Maria Stella. * 
 
 July 1st. — Late last-night His Majesty's ship Alacrity came in 
 from Lima, and brought me letters from my friends of the Doris. 
 She also brought intelligence concerning Lima, which confirms all 
 that we have heard of the hateful though plausible San Martin. It is 
 well known that the merchant Don Pedro Abadia, besides being one 
 of the richest merchants in South America, was also one of the most 
 enlightened, liberal, and respectable men. For this excellent person 
 San Martin had always professed the greatest friendship, and made 
 use of his knowledge and talents in the regulation of his custom- 
 houses and his taxes. But having obtained his end thus far, the 
 riches of Abadia excited his cupidity, and he proceeded by the basest 
 
 • From the beautiful translation of a Portuguese hymn, by my lamented fiiend Dr. 
 Ley den. 
 
VALPARAISO. 171 
 
 treachery to procure an excuse for arresting him. Knowing that an 
 immense property of Abadia's was in the hands of the royalists at 
 Pasco, San Martin instructed two monks to go to him and offer to 
 convey such letters to the commanders of the Spanish troops as 
 might, at least, prevent the absolute ruin of the property, which 
 chiefly consisted in mines, and in most expensive machinery which 
 he had imported from England, with the idea and the hope of im- 
 proving the country by the introduction of such machinery into it. 
 The monks of course betrayed Abadia. He was thrown into prison, 
 and tried before a tribunal instituted by San Martin. Yet, as his 
 letters had been strictly confined to the business of his estates and 
 machinery, he was acquitted, although the sentence was sent back 
 more than once for revisal. However, before he was liberated, he 
 was forced to pay an immense fine ; and his wife and children were 
 detained as hostages for his banishing himself to Panama, or some 
 place not nearer. He took refuge on board the Alacrity, and then 
 went into the Doris, where he won the esteem and regard of every 
 person on board both ships. San Martin has vulgarly been said 
 to drink : I believe this is not true ; but he is an opium eater, and 
 his starts of passion are so frequent and violent, that no man feels his 
 head safe. Every thing is given to the soldiers, therefore his govern- 
 ment is popular with them ; but it is precarious, and it is thought not 
 impossible that Lacerna, the royalist general, may recover Lima ; in 
 which case, it is expected that he will declare Peru independent, and 
 dismiss by fair means or foul the Exercito Libertador. It is true 
 that military despotism is the greatest curse under which a nation 
 can suffer. But it never lasts long. One change has been effected, 
 therefore the possibility of another is proved : the bands of tyranny 
 are slackened ; and the people will grow, and be educated, a little 
 roughly perhaps, but knowledge will advance ; and, as knowledge is 
 power, they will, at no distant period, be able to shake off the tyranny 
 both of foreign governments and domestic despots, and to compel 
 their rulers to acknowledge that they were made for the people, and 
 not the people for them. 
 
 z 2 
 
1^2 JOURNAL. 
 
 Juli/ 2d. — To-day, as I was standing on the hill behind my house 
 admiring the beautiful landscape before me, and the shadows over the 
 sea as the clouds rolled swiftly along, and sometimes concealed and 
 sometimes displayed the cliffs of Valparaiso, the scene was rendered 
 more grand by the firing a salute from the Aurora, the smoke from 
 which, after creeping in fleecy whiteness along the water, gradually 
 dilated into volumes of grey cloud, and mixed with the vapours that 
 lay on the bosoms of the hills. This salute was in honour of Lord 
 Cochrane, who had gone on board that frigate on his return from 
 Santiago. His Lordship rode down to my house in the evening to 
 tea. He tells me he has leave of absence for four months, with the 
 schooner Montezuma at his disposal, and that he means to go to visit 
 the estate in Conception decreed to him by the government long 
 ago ; but from which he has, as yet, derived no advantage, although 
 it is one of the most fertile of that fertile province. The truth is, it 
 is so near the Indians' frontier, and so exposed to their depredations, 
 that it has lain for some years unoccupied, and the produce has been 
 only in part gathered in. The bringing such an estate again into 
 cultivation would be a public much more than a private benefit. The 
 very example of so courageous an undertaking would do much ; and, 
 in a short time, it might be hoped that that delightful land, which has 
 suffered more than any of the other provinces, will once more be 
 what it was when Villa Rica was its capital, and when the author of 
 Robinson Crusoe, collecting the narratives of the English adventurers 
 of his day concerning the southern part of Chile, described this pro- 
 vince as the terrestrial paradise, and the inhabitants as beings worthy 
 to possess it. * 
 
 July 1th. — Yesterday morning I rode early to the port, on Lord 
 Cochrane's invitation, to join a party which was to sail with him in 
 the steam-vessel, the Rising-star, to his estate of Quintero, which lies 
 due north from this place about twenty miles, though the road by 
 land, being round the bay of Concon, is thirty. 
 
 See De Foe's New Voyage round the World. 
 
VALPARAISO. 173 
 
 Our company consisted of Don Jose Zenteno, governor of Val- 
 paraiso ; his daughter Seiiora donna Dolores ; the honourable Captain 
 Frederick Spencer, of His Majesty's ship Alacrity ; Captain Crosbie, 
 Captain Wilkinson, some other officers of the Patriot squadron with 
 whom I am not acquainted, besides some other gentlemen. The 
 admiral went on board with me about ten o'clock. The first thing 
 I did was to visit the machinery, which consists of two steam- 
 engines, each of forty-five horse power, and the wheels covered, so as 
 not to show in the water from without. The vessel is a fine polacre, 
 and was in great forwardness before Lord Cochrane came here, but 
 only arrived in these seas this year. It was with no small delight 
 that I set my foot on the deck of the first steam-vessel that ever 
 navigated the Pacific, and I thought, with exultation, of the triumphs 
 of man over the obstacles nature seems to have placed between him 
 and the accomplishment of his imaginations. With what rapture 
 would the breast of Almagro have been filled, if some magician could 
 have shown him, in the enchanted glass of futurity, the port of Val- 
 paraiso filled with vessels from Europe, and from Asia, and from 
 states not yet in existence, and our stately vessel gliding smooth and 
 swiftly through them without a sail, against the wind and waves, car- 
 rying on her decks a stronger artillery than he ever commanded, and 
 bearing on board a hero whose name, even in Peru and Chile, was to 
 surpass, not only his own, but those of his more famed companions, 
 the Pizarros. 
 
 The cruel policy of Spain with regard to these countries always 
 repressed any attempt at establishing a coasting trade, although the 
 shores of Chile abound with harbours most commodious for the pur- 
 pose. Hence, these harbours were either not surveyed or so erro- 
 neously set down in the published maps as to deter ships of all na- 
 tions, Spanish as well as others, from attempting them, and the whole 
 traffic is carried on over some of the most difficult roads in the world 
 by mules. For instance, the copper of Coquimbo, which in a direct 
 line lies only three degrees and a half from Valparaiso, is all con- 
 veyed by a very mountainous and stony road on the backs of mules ; 
 
174 
 
 JOURNAL. 
 
 while not a boat is employed for carriage. The enormous taxes laid 
 on water carriage under the name of port dues, &c. in Valparaiso, 
 and which bear more upon small vessels conveying even provisions 
 than any others, prevents not only the trade which should be a nur- 
 sery for the seamen of Chile, but also the cultivation of many fertile 
 tracts along the coast. The nearness of the mountains to the shore, 
 and their very abrupt descent, prevent the existence of very large 
 rivers or such as are navigable for any extent, but the mouths of the 
 smaller streams form little harbours, whence' the produce of their 
 astonishingly fertile banks being floated down from the interior might 
 be embarked with convenience. Yet I do not know one, where any 
 thing approaching to a coasting trade is encouraged. Hence, the coal 
 of Conception, though abundant and good, and worked within 300 
 miles, is dearer in Valparaiso than that brought from England. 
 Hence, too, the tracts of alluvial soil, washed from the nearer hills by 
 the winter rains, and kept fruitful by the fresh lakes which are formed 
 every where by those rains collecting in the valleys, are left uncul- 
 tivated, though fit for the production of every vegetable ; and now 
 these tracts only contribute to the summer grazing of the cattle ; 
 whereas, if applied to the culture of the more nourishing and pro- 
 ductive vegetables, sheep, concerning which the greatest difficulty 
 here is winter fodder, might be encouraged to any extent ; and the 
 wool, which is of excellent quality, would become a valuable article 
 of trade. But who will grow turnip or beet, when he must pay as 
 much for the harbour dues of a boat to carry it to market as the 
 whole culture has cost ? Or who will feed sheep when the wool, if 
 dyed or manufactured, pays a duty on exportation higher than the 
 price of cloths imported into the country ? I particularly recollect 
 that at Coquimbo, in the Copper-mine country, Don Felipe de Solar 
 paid more in duty upon some copper vessels that he was exporting 
 than the price of equally good and weighty articles imported from 
 Bengal. This is a direct and most oppressive tax on industry, and 
 by its effects retards the population of the country, as well as its 
 civilisation. These reflections were suggested naturally by the sight of 
 
VALPARAISO. 175 
 
 the little harbours and creeks of the shore as we passed rapidly along, 
 and by our situation on board the first vessel that has brought to these 
 seas the most complete triumph of the genius of man over the ob- 
 stacles presented by brute matter. I trust the time is not far distant, 
 when the Rising Star will not be the only steam-vessel on the coast, 
 and that the wise and benevolent views with which she was brought 
 out will be fulfilled. * Nothing can be better adapted for packets on 
 these coasts. The regular winds which now force ships out as far as 
 Juan Fernandez, in order to make a reasonable passage from Lima 
 to Valparaiso, are never so strong as to hinder the working of a 
 steam ship ; and the facility of communicatfon between these as well 
 as the intermediate ports would not only promote their commercial 
 interests, but be a means of security against the attempts of any 
 enemy these countries have to fear from abroad. As long as Europe 
 continues quiet, and until Spain recovers from the madness of civil 
 dissension, perhaps South America is safe enough from foreign inva- 
 sion : but if any of the powers that have not acknowledged the inde- 
 pendence of the states should go to war with Spain, who can say 
 whether, availing themselves of not having made that acknowledge- 
 ment, they might not be disposed to seize on some part of them as 
 provinces de jure belonging to the mother-country ; and I confess 
 that a French invasion (for I will not think England so wicked) 
 would be a most fearful misfortune to these rising states, and one 
 from which nothing but a naval force could defend them. 
 
 I had as much conversation with Zenteno as my yet imperfect 
 knowledge of Spanish would permit. He seems truly desirous of 
 the good of Chile ; but wonderfully unknowing in those things which 
 would most contribute to it. The morning, however, passed plea- 
 santly away ; and we sat down to a table which Europe and America 
 equally supplied with luxuries ; and amused ourselves, perhaps un- 
 
 * All the materials foi" two smaller steam-vessels were carried to Valparaiso ; but I find 
 that instead of constructing them properly on their arrival, the machinery has been left in 
 the warehouse which first received it, and the timber applied to the building a ministerial 
 trader, by which Zenteno and his partner have made large sums. — 1824. 
 
1>^Q JOURNAL. 
 
 seasonably, with the gluttony of the curate of Placilia, a village near 
 the mouth of the little river Ligua, which runs into the bay of Quin- 
 tero, and on whose banks lies the town of La Ligua, famous for its 
 pasture, and its breed of horses. The poor curate, who had on 
 various occasions been treated with English beer by his foreign 
 friends, now took Champagne for white beer, and drank it accordingly, 
 vowing he would grant absolution unconditionally for a hundred 
 years, to all who drank of such divine liquor, and would doubtless 
 have made a second Caliban of himself, and worshipped the bottle- 
 bearer, but for an accident that rendered us all a little grave. A 
 small bolt in the machinery gave way, principally from imperfect 
 fitting, as this was the first time the machinery had been fairly 
 tried in these seas ; and our voyage was stopped just as we were 
 nearly abreast of Quintero. The wind was a-head ; but we were so 
 near that it was voted almost by acclamation that we should go on, 
 and accordingly we trusted to the tide to take us into port. But — 
 
 • " foresight may be vain ; 
 
 The best laid schemes of mice and men 
 Gang aft agee." 
 
 The evening closed in, and it was a dull, raw, foggy night : those 
 not accustomed to the sea grew faint and weary. The curate, and 
 other partakers of the white beer, began to feel its effects, combined 
 with those of the motion of the vessel, now considerably agitated by 
 the waves, which began to rise obedient to a very fresh contrary 
 wind which had sprung up ; and all agreed to retire to rest. Shortly 
 after the strangers were in bed, the sails which had not been bent, 
 so sure had we been of making our passage, were got to the yards, 
 and the first thing that happened was, that the two chimneys belong- 
 ing to the engines went through the foresail. Then the wind and 
 weather increased, and the furniture began to roll about ; and at last, 
 in the morning, we found ourselves farther than ever from our place 
 of destination. However, breakfast gave us courage; and it was 
 determined to persevere a few hours longer : but the Weather grew 
 worse and worse ; the sky became blacker and blacker. 
 
VALPARAISO. 177 
 
 " Till in the scowl of heav'n each face 
 Grew dark as he was speaking." 
 
 So at length we bore up for Valparaiso, and landed there at two 
 o'clock to-day. 
 
 A great pleasure awaited us, and almost consoled us for the failure 
 of our expedition ; that is, if ever public news consoles one for pri- 
 vate disappointment. Mr. Hogan met me on the beach with the 
 joyful intelligence that the Congress of the United States had 
 acknowledged the independence of the Spanish American colonies 
 of Mexico, Columbia, Buenos Ayres, Peru, and Chile. This is indeed 
 a step gained, and so naturally too, as to be worth twenty, where 
 there could have been a suspicion of intrigue : but the United States, 
 themselves so lately emancipated from the thraldom of the mother- 
 country, are the natural assertors of the independence of their Ameri- 
 can brethren ; and the moral of the political history of the times would 
 have been less striking had any other state set the example. * 
 
 I dined at Mr. 's, and in the evening Lord Cochrane joined 
 
 our party, and we shortly after had a scene that I at least shall never 
 forget. His Lordship's secretary, Mr. Bennet, arrived from Santiago, 
 whither he had been on business, and brought with him Col. Don 
 Fausto del Hoyo. This gentleman had been taken prisoner by 
 Lord Cochrane at Valdivia ; and His Lordship had obtained from 
 the government a promise of generous treatment for the Colonel. 
 However, after the Admiral sailed, the same unjust and cruel restric- 
 tions were laid on him, as on all the other prisoners of war of every 
 rank. He was thrust into a dark dungeon, and there detained with- 
 out fire, without light, without books, as if the cruel treatment of 
 individual prisoners could have forced Old Spain to acknowledge the 
 independence of Chile ! He had now been liberated on parole by Lord 
 Cochrane's intervention ; and never, never, shall I forget the fervent 
 expression of acknowledgment, not in words indeed, with which he 
 
 • It was not until the 1 0th of August that we received the direct intelligence of the 
 vote of Congress for the acknowledgment of the independence of Chile, which was passed 
 by a majority of 191, against only one dissentient voice ; in the Senate, 37 ayes, 17 noes. 
 
 A A 
 
178 JOURNAL. 
 
 met his generous conqueror, nor the gentle and modest manner in 
 which they were received and put an end to by His Lordship. After 
 this had passed, I did not wonder that, notwithstanding our disap- 
 pointment in the steam-vessel. His Lordship appeared in better 
 spirits than I have yet seen him in. 
 
 July 9,th. — To-day, a young man born in Cundinamarca, but 
 brought up in Quito, came to stay with me, that I may put him in 
 the way of improving a great natural talent for drawing. He has 
 been long on board Lord Cochrane's ship, in I know not what capa- 
 city, and has displayed considerable taste in some sketches of cos- 
 tume, &c. The people of Quito pride themselves on retaining that 
 excellence in painting which distinguished their predecessors of the 
 time of Pizarro. Of course the Christian priests have introduced 
 European models and European practice ; but the talent for the 
 imitative arts is said to be inherent in all, or almost all the Quiteiios ; 
 and it is certain that the painters, whether of portraits or history, 
 that are to be met with in various parts of South America, are almost 
 universally Quiteiios. My scholar is gentle and persevering; rather 
 indolent ; possessed of good sense, and a strong poetical feeling. 
 If I had him in Europe, where he could see good pictures, and above 
 all, good drawings, I have no doubt but he would be a painter ; as 
 it is, seeing nothing much better than his own, there is little chance 
 of very great improvement. I have heard extravagant praises of 
 the pictures of various South American painters ; but these were 
 given by persons who probably never saw a first-rate picture in 
 Europe, especially as they often in the same breath extolled their 
 sculpture aiso to the skies. Now, on enquiry, I found that all the 
 sculpture practised here consists in carving the heads, hands, and 
 feet of the saints to be dressed : these are painted afterwards, and I 
 have no doubt give a strong impression of reality ; but that is not 
 sculpture. It perhaps may come near to Shakspeare's Hermione, 
 the maker of which " would beguile nature of her custom, so per- 
 fectly is he her dper But sculpture is not the ape, but the perfecter 
 of nature ; so I hear with distrust all these splendid accounts of the 
 
VALPARAISO. 179 
 
 pictures and sculpture by native hands that adorn the churches of 
 Quito and Lima. Such as I have seen here, in the ceiHng of the 
 Merced for instance, are well for the place ; and are evidently the 
 work of some of the Spanish monks, who have decorated their 
 churches with as much of splendour in the taste of Europe as their 
 circumstances would permit. The likenesses I have seen are cer- 
 tainly a degree better than the portraits of China, but they are equally 
 stiff; and though the Madonas have an air of grace something like 
 those ancient ones painted before the revival of art, they are ill 
 drawn, and, above every thing, the extremities are hardly defined 
 at all. I do not believe that there is a single painter, native or 
 foreigner, now in the whole of Chile. I am sorry that they have 
 something of more pressing importance than the fine arts to attend to. 
 
 July 1 0th. — Capt. breakfasted with me, and afterwards 
 
 was so kind as to accompany me in a round of calls, by way of re- 
 turning the visits of the English ladies here. It is curious, at this 
 distance from home, to see specimens of such people as one meets no 
 where else but among the Brangtons, in Madame D'Arblay's Ceci- 
 lia, or the Mrs. Eltons of Miss Austin's admirable novels ; and yet 
 these are, after all, the people most likely to be here. The country 
 is new ; the government unacknowledged by our own ; the merchants 
 are chiefly such as sell by commission, for houses established in 
 larger and older states ; and, as all Englishmen, from the highest to 
 the lowest, love to have their home with them, the clerks, who fall 
 naturally into these sort of employments, either bring or find suit- 
 able wives : therefore society, as far as relates to the English, is of a 
 very low tone. The sympathies of the heart, however, are as lively 
 here as in more polished circles ; and, while one turns one moment 
 in disgust from the man who familiarly calls his wife by one nick- 
 name, and his daughter by another ; yet the next, one looks at him 
 with respect as the benevolent receiver and comforter of the sick and 
 the dying, whose house has been the asylum, and his family the 
 attendants, of more than one of his countrymen, who have ended their 
 being thus far from their friends and native land. 
 
 A A 2 
 
IgO JOURNAL, 
 
 I6th. — We have had two shght shocks of an earthquake to-day. 
 The sensations occasioned by them are particularly disagreeable. In all 
 other convulsions of nature it seems possible to do, or at least attempt, 
 something to avert danger. We steer the ship in a storm for a port ; 
 our conductors promise to lead the lightning harmless from our 
 heads : but the earthquake seems to rock the very foundations of 
 the globe, and escape or shelter seems equally impossible. The phy- 
 sical effect too is unpleasant — it resembles sea-sickness. The fre- 
 quency of earthquakes here by no means renders the people insensi- 
 ble to their occurrence. In the streets of Valparaiso, I recollect 
 seeing them run out, fall upon their knees, and pray to all the saints. 
 Here, in the country, the peasants leave off work, pull off their hats, 
 beat their breasts, and cry Misericordia, and all leave their houses. 
 One of the shocks to-day lasted nearly a minute ; it was accompanied 
 by a loud noise, like the sudden escape of vapour from a close place. 
 It is said that earthquakes are most frequent about the beginning of 
 the rainy season. Some however, I know not on what data, have 
 fixed on the months of October and November as most liable to 
 them. Some writers have asserted, that the provinces of Copiapo 
 and Coquimbo are exempt from them ; yet twice within the last five 
 years Coquimbo has been totally destroyed, and Copiapo seriously 
 injured, and once nearly ruined. Nearly ninety years ago, during 
 one at Valparaiso, the sea overflowed the whole of the Almendral ; 
 and about the same period nearly one-third of Santiago, the capital, 
 was thrown down. 
 
 18^^. — The earthquakes have been followed by two days of inces- 
 sant rain ; but the thermometer, though it is mid-winter, has not 
 fallen below 50°. The rivulet between the Almendral and my gar- 
 den is so swollen, that there has been no communication with the 
 town these two days, and a man was drowned yesterday in attempt- 
 ing to cross it. There is a report, that this government will join the 
 Peruvian in an attack on Arica, where the royalists are again mas- 
 ters, and that the Admiral is to conduct the expedition. 'Tis not 
 probable. In the first place. His Lordship has returned to his coun- 
 
VALPARAISO. 181 
 
 try seat, having leave of absence for four months ; and in the next, 
 the ships of the Chileno squadron are in no state to go to sea ; and 
 as the officers and seamen have not been paid, it is scarcely possible 
 for the government to think of employing them. 
 
 22c?. — The wet weather continues, though with hours of sunshine 
 occasionally. I have been delighted with reading the first new books 
 I have seen in Chile ; Lord Byron's Foscari, Cain, and Sardana- 
 palus. He cannot write without stirring our feelings. Foscari has 
 in it passages that, though they perhaps owe some of their magic to 
 my actual situation so far from home, surely must touch every heart. 
 But who that has never left their sweet home except on an expedi- 
 tion of pleasure, can feel like me this passage — 
 
 " You never 
 Saw day go down upon your native spires 
 So calmly, with its gold and crimson glory ; 
 And, after dreaming a disturbed vision 
 Of them and theirs — awoke and found them not !" 
 
 The reading of these dramas has afforded me great enjoyment — 
 and 'tis the first for many a day. 
 
 July 2^th. — I went to the port to dine with my friends, the 
 
 H s, and while there received the account of the first meeting of 
 
 the constituent assembly, yesterday, which appears to me to have, in 
 one instance at least, taken on itself the duties of a legislative as- 
 sembly ; perhaps it is difficult to separate the two : there were 
 twenty-three members present, and seven absent. The Director went 
 in state to the chambers of the convention, and his arrival was an- 
 nounced by a salvo of artillery, without which nothing is done here. 
 He opened the session with a short speech, adverting to the mistakes 
 and untimely dissolution of the convention of 1810, and anticipating 
 a happier result from this. The members then proceeded to the 
 election of a president and vice-president ; when, amid cries of 
 " Viva la patria !" " Viva la convencion !" the Director presented a 
 memorial, which he entreated might be speedily read, and retired. 
 The paper contains a congratulatory address to the convention ; a 
 rapid sketch of the Director's political life ; advice as to the measures 
 
182 
 
 JOURNAL. 
 
 to be pursued, and a statement of the wants of the country ; con- 
 cluding with a resignation of his authority. 
 
 The whole memorial does the Director the highest credit, except- 
 ing the resignation. This constituent, or, as it is called, preparative 
 convention, surely is not comeptent to accept it. Indeed, the mem- 
 bers appear to be aware of it, for they have insisted on his resuming 
 his authority ; and after a long and learned speech from the vice-pre- 
 sident about the Romans, and the Carthageniaus, and the Phenicians, 
 a deputation waited on the Director, and conferring his office anew 
 upon him, paid him those compliments so justly due, on account of 
 his past administration. I think this transaction a mistake on both 
 sides ; the preparative convention, chosen by the Director himself, was 
 not the proper assembly into whose hands he could resign the au- 
 thority committed to him on the recovery of the freedom of Chile 
 after the day of Chacabuco, nor could he receive it anew from the 
 hands of that convention. But if an assembly, chosen by the people, 
 even in form, were to meet, then and there would these things be 
 properly done : I may be mistaken ; perhaps he understands his 
 countrymen. Of course, the meeting of the convention occasions a 
 great deal of gaiety among the women, and a great deal of specur 
 lation among the men. Some are fixing beforehand the new custom-- 
 house regulations ; some the number of old laws to be abrogated, 
 and the new to be enacted. Many are astonished that no direct pro- 
 vision is made for the navy of Chile, and the payment of both that and 
 the army, all being in arrears, so that neither soldiers nor sailors are 
 in a state to be depended on in case of necessity. But Chile is con- 
 sidered safe ; and the minister Rodriguez, acting, I presume, upon the 
 principle, that individual riches make public prosperity, is making 
 private speculations jointly with his friend Areas the merchant, and 
 purchasing with the government-money all the tobacco and spirits 
 now in the market, in contemplation of the heavy duties he means to 
 lay on these articles by the new reglamento. 
 
 July 30th. — As there are no places of public amusement for gen- 
 tlefolks at Valparaiso, the English, when they make a holyday, go in 
 
VALPARAISO. 1 83 
 
 parties to the neighbouring hills or valleys, and under the n ame of a 
 pic-nic, contrive to ride, eat and drink, and even to dance away most 
 gaily. I joined one of the soberer kind of these, and rode over a 
 good deal of ground with my younger friends ; sometimes over steep 
 rocks, sometimes through dingles and bushy dells, and here and there 
 through bits of meadow, where the finest mushrooms in the world 
 grow. The peach and cherry trees are in blossom, and all looks gay 
 and cheerful. Most of us went to the place of rendezvous in the 
 valley of Palms on horseback ; but some preferred the quieter convey- 
 ance of a Chile waggon, drawn by four noble oxen, who had to drag 
 the additional weight of an excellent dinner. The spot was at the 
 foot of a steep hill covered with myrtle : our canopy, hung something 
 like the draperies that Claude sometimes introduces in his landscapes, 
 was the striped and starred banner of the United States, whose con- 
 sul was the father of the feast ; and close by us flowed a rivulet of 
 sparkling water. The kind-hearted Chilena women of the neigh- 
 bouring rancho came round us, assisted in our little arrangements, 
 brought us flowers, and helped us to cut the myrtle of which we made 
 our seats. Some were very happy : but happiness is not of every- 
 day growth, and there are not many hands destined to pluck the 
 golden bough ; but it is always worth while to be cheerful, and I en- 
 joyed the day more than I thought three months ago I could have 
 enjoyed any thing. 
 
 August 2d. — Mr. Hogan brought Judge Prevost, the American 
 consul-general, who acts also in a sort of ministerial capacity, to visit 
 me. He is of the family of Prevost of Geneva, which has, although 
 retaining at home the first of the name *, given many respectable, 
 and some remarkable, citizens both to England and the United States. 
 He is warmly interested in the fate of Chile, and regards, with the 
 fondness which his own country and that of his father entitle him 
 to feel, this rising republic. But I am sure that he is wrong in en^ 
 deavouring to impress on the government that Chile has no business 
 
 • Professor Prevost. 
 
134 JOURNAL. 
 
 with ships of war, or of trade, for these hundred years to come, and 
 that she should hire the former, and employ foreign carriers in lieu 
 of the latter ; the interest of the nation which would in such case 
 be the gainer is so palpable, that I wonder it did not make the 
 Judge hesitate to offer or support it. But the simple-minded 
 Chilenos are no match for Genevese sagacity, united to North Ame- 
 rican speculation. 
 
 Ath. — A great deal of interest has been excited by the circum- 
 stances under which the captain of an American trading vessel has 
 committed suicide : two years ago he was shipwrecked in the neigh- 
 bourhood of Cape Horn, and made his way with one or two wretched 
 companions along the coast in his whale boat to this place, subsisting 
 on shell-fish and seals. He returned to North America, where he 
 had a wife and family, and employed the greater part of his property 
 in fitting out a whaler, with which he hoped to redeem his past 
 losses, and on board of which he once more entered the Pacific. 
 But at the end of a long cruize he put into Valparaiso without a 
 single fish ; and after walking about in a wretched state of despond- 
 ence for two or three days, he retired to his cabin, wrote to his family ; 
 and leaving instructions to have his body committed to the deep, he 
 shot himself ! 
 
 August 5th. — The news from the south is not of the most pleasant 
 nature : there has been a serious conspiracy at Valdivia; it was crushed 
 by stratagem. At some meeting, convened under I know not what 
 pretext, the whole of the ofiicers implicated were so placed as that 
 each should find himself by the person employed to seize him, and 
 they were all accordingly secured. Their fate is not yet determined. 
 The expedition headed by Beauchef, that was to have gone to Chiloe 
 under the protection of the Lautaro, has, on this and other accounts, 
 but chiefly for want of provisions, been now so long delayed that 
 there are no hopes of its proceeding this season ; and Quintanilla has 
 probably another year in which to display a loyalty like that of the 
 old knights of romance, rather than any thing one meets with in 
 modern days. Shut up in the little port of San Carlos, surrounded 
 
VALPARAISO. 185 
 
 hy a wild Indian enemy, threatened by the regular troops and ships 
 of Chile, with no communication direct or indirect from the mother 
 country ; he has never faltered for a single instant. 
 
 August 12th. — Mr. D came to breakfast, and to escort me to 
 
 Concon, a parish about fifteen miles from hence, lying on the great 
 river of Aconcagna, which flows from the pass of the Andes called 
 the Cumbre, and waters the fertile valley of Santa Rosa and the 
 garden-land of Quillota. The ride is pleasant, although most of the 
 road is so bad that it would scarcely be deemed passable in England ; 
 but I have seen worse in the Appenines. It winds in many places 
 along the edges- of precipices. From Valparaiso to Vina a la Mar, 
 upon the little river Margamarga, the scenery is the same as that 
 immediately about the port. Steep hills and rocks mostly covered 
 with flowering shrubs ; little cultivation except in the glens, which, 
 formed by the rivulets, open to the sea, and where gardens and patches 
 of barley surround every hut. The ocean is always in sight ; some- 
 times breaking at the foot of the high rocks we passed over, and 
 sometimes washing gently in upon the yellow sands at the mouth 
 of the streams from the cultivated valleys. At Vina a la Mar, a fine 
 estate belonging to a branch of the Carrera family, the scenery begins 
 to change. The plain there is wide and open, the vineyard and po- 
 trero very extensive; the shrubs assume almost the appearance of trees; 
 on the hills there are frequent plots of fine grass, where sheep and 
 cattle find abundant pasture ; and the palm here and there adorns 
 the sides of the vales. The near view is like some of the finest parts 
 of Devonshire ; but the hills of Quillota, over which the volcano of 
 Aconcagua, which forms a remarkable point in the central ridge of 
 the Andes, towers, render it unlike any thing in England, I might say 
 in Europe. The high mountains of Switzerland are always seen from 
 a point extremely elevated ; but here, from the sea-shore, the whole 
 mass of the cordillera rises at once, at only ninety miles' distance. 
 This gives a peculiarity to the landscape of Chile which distinguishes 
 it, even more than its warm colour, from any I have seen before. 
 The proprietor of Vina a la Mar is improving his estate in every 
 way ; miles of new fences are rising, thickets are disappearing, corn 
 
 B B 
 
186 
 
 JOURNAL. 
 
 is coming up in the valleys, and the best breed of sheep is beginning 
 to people the hills. All the digging of ditches, &c. is still done with 
 a wooden spade. I did indeed once see a man labouring in his gar- 
 den with the blade-bone of a sheep tied to a stick by way of a spade ; 
 and I have read that the ancient people of Chile ploughed their land 
 with the horns of goats and the bones of oxen.* 
 
 From Viiia a la Mar the country improves in picturesque beauty ; 
 and at length the lovely valley formed by the river opens at once, 
 bounded at either end only by the ocean and the Andes. 
 
 I found my friends Mrs. and Miss Miers, whom I was going to see, 
 busy on one of the hills digging for bulbous roots, which abound here. 
 I immediately joined them, and proceeded on foot towards their 
 house, which is near the river ; not too near, however, because the 
 winter floods often encroach largely on the neighbouring plain. 
 
 Mr. Miers came to Chile with a large apparatus for rolling cop- 
 per, with dies for stamping metal, and other machinery, which 
 are adapted only for a country in a much higher state of advance. 
 He has, however, converted some of his apparatus into excellent 
 flour mills, and has likewise set up some circular saws for the pur- 
 pose of sawing barrel-staves, there being abundance of wood fit for 
 the purpose in the neighbourhood. But the whole of Mr. Miers's 
 establishment is at least one hundred years too much civilised for 
 Chile. However, the very sight of saw mills and turning lathes, to 
 say nothing of the more complicated machinery, will do good in time: 
 I may regret that they are little likely soon to repay the spirited 
 individuals who brought them first here, — but they will do good. 
 
 After a very pleasant day spent in seeing things fit and unfit for 
 the present state of things in the country, and in admiring the various 
 sites and habits of many plants 1 have never before seen, Mr. and 
 Mrs. Miers rode with me to Quintero on the mornins of the 
 
 13th of August. — After fording the rapid river of Aconcagua in 
 three branches, the road for three leagues lies along a wild and deso- 
 late tract of sea-beach. On one hand are great sand hills, where no 
 
 * But there were no oxen in Chile before the Spaniards. 
 
QUINTERO. 187 
 
 green thing finds root, and which are high enough to exclude the view 
 of every other object ; on the other hand, a tremendous surf, which 
 permits not the approach of boat or canoe, beats unceasingly. Half- 
 way between Concon and Quintero, the great lake of Quintero com- 
 municates with the sea. In mild weather it only drains through the 
 sand ; at other times it breaks through its bar, and the ford is not 
 always safe. When we passed, it was covered with various kinds of 
 water-birds : the flamingo, with his rose-coloured bill and wings ; the 
 swan of Chile, whose feet are white, and his neck and head jet black ; 
 a brown bird, with wings like burnished bronze, and a head, bill, and 
 feet exactly resembling the Egyptian ibis ; and geese, water hens, 
 and all the duck tribe, innumerable. 
 
 On leaving the beach, we ascended a low hill, and immediately 
 entered a broad green forest walk, so level that it seemed to be the 
 work of art ; on either side brushwood between us and the taller trees 
 whose leaves breathed odours, gave shelter to flocks of wood pigeons, 
 ground doves, and partridges, among whom my old pointer, Don, 
 seemed bewildered with joy ; but every now and then, after a point, 
 looked back as if reproachfull}', because there was no gun of the party. 
 The south-west wind here bends the trees into the same figure as in 
 Devonshire, excepting where the gently undulating hills afibrd 
 shelter. 
 
 The house Lord Cochrane is building at Quintero is far from 
 being in the best or pleasantest part of the estate ; and it has the 
 great inconvenience of having no water near it. But had Quintero 
 become, as was once intended, the port for the ships of war, the new 
 house would have possessed every advantage of being not only near 
 the squadron, but of commanding a view of the whole. The bay of 
 Quintero, or rather the Heradura, is very beautiful ; better sheltered 
 from the fierce north winds than that of Valparaiso, better furnished 
 with wood and water in itself, and nearer to the supplies from Quil- 
 lota and the valley of Santa Rosa for provisioning ships. Some rocks, 
 very well known, lie off the mouth of the bay ; but within, excepting 
 in a very few places, the anchoring ground is good. The Dutch 
 circumnavigator, the famous George Spilberg, with his fleet, consist- 
 
 B B '2 
 
Igg JOURNAL. 
 
 ing of the Rising Sun, the New Moon, Venus, Hunter, Eolus, and 
 Lucifer, having tried in vain to water at Valparaiso, put into Quin- 
 tero, where he erected a half-moon battery, and sent his mariners 
 ashore to protect his people while wooding and watering. He calls 
 Quintero a port second to none for shelter, safety, fish, and water. 
 After him, our countryman Cavendish, and I think some of the buc- 
 caneers, attempted to settle here ; but the jealousy of the Spaniards 
 soon expelled them. 
 
 Looking from the house, just where the eye rests upon the grace- 
 ful sweep of the bay^ backed by the cordillera, a beautiful fresh-water 
 lake seems to repose within its grassy banks. Little hills rise from 
 it in every direction partially covered with brushwood, partly shaded 
 by groves of forest trees ; and herds of cattle may be seen, morning 
 and evening, making their accustomed migration from the wood to 
 the open plain, from the plain to the wood. 
 
 The house of Quintero is as yet but just habitable; great part of 
 it being unfinished. Like other houses in Chile, it is of one story 
 only. The rooms are placed in detached groups, and promise to 
 be very agreeable when finished. But who could think of the house 
 when the master is present ? Though not handsome, Lord Cochrane 
 has an expression of countenance which induces you, when you have 
 looked once, to look again and again. It is variable as the feelings 
 that pass within ; but the most general look is that of great benevo- 
 lence. His conversation, when he does break his ordinary silence, 
 is rich and varied ; on subjects connected with his profession, or his 
 pursuits, clear and animated ; and if ever I met with genius, I should 
 say it was pre-eminent in Lord Cochrane. 
 
 After dinner we walked to the garden, which lies in a beautiful 
 sheltered spot, nearly a league from the house. At the entrance lay 
 several agricultural implements, brought by His Lordship for the 
 purpose of introducing modern improvements into Chile, the country 
 of his adoption. The plough, the harrow, the spade, of modern 
 Europe, all are new here, where no improvement has been suffered 
 for centuries. Within the garden fence a space is devoted to raising 
 larch, and oak, and beech : the larch I should think peculiarly adapted 
 
QUINTERO. 189 
 
 to this climate. Vegetables unknown before here, such as carrot, 
 turnip, and various kinds of pulse, have been added to the stores of 
 Chile since his arrival. On returning to the house we looked over 
 various drafts of small vessels fitted to be employed in a coasting 
 trade ; and the evening to me passed more pleasantly than any since 
 I have been in Chile. 
 
 l^th. — Soon after breakfast we all mounted our horses, and rode 
 to the outer point of the Heradura, a peninsular promontory, where 
 the cattle of the estate were to be collected in order to be counted. 
 This sort of meeting is technically called a rodeo, and usually takes 
 place in the summer, or rather autumn ; when the young animals 
 are sufficiently strong to be driven to the corral, or place of ren- 
 dezvous, from the mountains and thickets where they were born. 
 All the tenants of an estate assemble on such an occasion ; and the 
 young girls are not backward to dress themselves gaily, and appear 
 at the corral. When the day of the rodeo is appointed, the men, 
 being all mounted, divide ; and each troop has a chief, under whose 
 orders it advances, keeps close, separates, or falls back, according 
 to the nature of the ground, — none is too rough, no hill too bold, 
 no forest too thick to pierce. In order to defend their arms and 
 legs from the bushes, they have curious leathern coverings, which 
 fasten at the hip, and defend the knee and lower leg entirely ; these 
 are generally of seal-skins worked very curiously, and are tied fantas- 
 tically with points. I have seen them as high-priced as fifteen 
 dollars. The leathers for the arms are- plainer. These men often 
 stay several nights with their dogs on the hills to bring in the cattle ; 
 and when collected, all stranger beasts are set apart for their owners, 
 and the estate cattle are marked. A rodeo is a scene of enjoyment : 
 there one sees the Chilenos in their glory ; riding, throwing the la9a, 
 breaking the young animals, whether horses or mules ; and some- 
 times in their wantonness mounting the lordly bull himself The 
 rodeo of to-day is not of so festive a kind :• it is merely to count 
 the cattle on the estate, which ought to be 2000 ; but of which, it 
 is feared, there has been a great neglect or waste, or loss, since 
 
190 
 
 JOURNAL. 
 
 Lord Cochrane last sailed from hence. But a few hundreds were 
 brought together to-day ; however, 'tis but the first, and as it is not 
 the regular season, probably there will be nearly the whole in a few 
 days more. The head vaccaros, or cowherds, ought, generally speak- 
 ing, to be born on the estate where their business lies. The haunts 
 of the cattle are so wide apart, and the country so little inhabited, 
 and so little travelled, that tracks and landmarks there are none, 
 and only experience can guide the vaccaro at the different seasons 
 to the different haunts of the beasts. His business is, besides attend- 
 ing at the rodeos, to bring them either to the plain or to the hill, 
 to feed or to browse, according to the season ; to portion them so 
 as to secure free access to water ; and to be watchful over the young, 
 whether calves, young horses, or mules. A real vaccaro is seldoni 
 off his horse ; and it may be doubted, if the human and the brute 
 parts of the centaurs were ever more inseparable than the vaccaro 
 and his steed. Each of these men has a certain number of cattle 
 committed to his charge, for which he is accountable to the land 
 steward. — One part of the ceremony of the rodeo is very agreeable 
 to the men concerned. About 12 o'clock to-day, one of the peons 
 was desired to laza a bullock ; which was immediately killed and 
 dressed for the public : the skin, however, belongs to the estate, and 
 was instantly cut up into thongs to make lazas, halters, and all man- 
 ner of useful things. 
 
QUINTERO. 291 
 
 Having spent the forenoon in riding to see the cattle, and plant- 
 ing fruit trees and strawberries in the garden, Mrs. Miers and I took 
 leave after dinner, and returned to Concon by way of old Quintero 
 House, most picturesquely situated near the lake, of which we had 
 seen the seaward end in riding along the beach. Some of the 
 scenery is very pretty, particularly about the house itself; but as we 
 coasted the lake towards the ocean, the vegetation began to give way 
 to sand, and we soon found ourselves going cautiously along a 
 formidable slope, where to have slipt would have precipitated us 
 into a very deep lake, and where the sand was of so loose a texture, 
 that to slip seemed almost inevitable. At length we reached the 
 sea-beach, and there found, that owing to the high wind and tide of 
 to-day, the barrier of the lake was burst ; and we had to search a long 
 time for a ford. At length, however, we got over safely ; but it was 
 not until dark that we crossed the river at Concon. The sagacity of 
 the horses, who, having once passed it, had no hesitation in choosing 
 the ford, carried us across with safety, though there is something 
 fearful in fording a deep and rapid river in the dark. The rushing of 
 the waters, the sensation of struggling owing to the resistance they 
 offer to the horses' -feet, the cry of a water-bird startled from its nest 
 on the margin, might easily become the shriek of the water sprite, 
 and his attempts to seize the traveller. Night, doubt, and fear, are 
 powerful magicians, and have done more to people the world of 
 fiction than half the romancers that ever lived. 
 
 I5th. — On returning from a long and pleasant walk we met 
 Captain F. S., and two other gentlemen, who had kindly ridden 
 from Valparaiso to escort me home. I was really sorry to leave my 
 kind hosts, who are so superior in knowledge and rational curiosity 
 to any family I have seen for a long time, that I have enjoyed 
 my visit more than I can say. We were three hours in reaching 
 my house, for the road, in many places, does not admit of fast riding ; 
 but a fine sunset, a beautiful view, and agreeable companions, made 
 up for the road and all its difficulties. 
 
 Valparaiso, August l^th. — I rode to the port to prepare for a 
 
J 92 JOURNAL. 
 
 journey I mean to make to Santiago. Now the rainy season is over, 
 I begin to be impatient to see the capital ; and though the distance is 
 only ninety miles, I must take beds as well as clothes, because the inns, 
 with the exception of that at the first stage, Casablanca, are not 
 provided with such things. Then I must have mules for my baggage ; 
 my own peon serves as a guide, and I mean to be part of three days 
 on the road. 
 
 While in town, I met Captain Morgell, late of the Chile States 
 brig Aranzagu, which sunk as^ they were endeavouring to heave her 
 down to repair. He left Guayaquil twenty-eight days ago; at which 
 time the place was actually in possession of Bolivar, who was making 
 common cause with San Martin, and had promised to send him 4000 
 men to aid in the final reduction of Peru. The people of Guayaquil, 
 influenced by agents from Lima, had been behaving very ill to the 
 Chile States vessels of war, and even threatened to fire on the 
 Aranza9U and Mercedes. But they have been kept quiet by Bolivar, 
 who, though he hates, and is jealous of foreigners, knows, that in the 
 present state of South America, it is impossible to do without them. 
 
 August 22d.- — I began my journey to Santiago. My companion 
 was the Honourable Frederick de Boos, midshipman belonging to His 
 Majesty's ship Alacrity ; and I took with me my maid and my peon, 
 with three baggage mules. We were escorted to the first post-house, 
 about twelve miles from Valparaiso, by a party of friends, male and 
 female, who had breakfasted with us. Instead of ascending the 
 heights of the port by the broad carriage road which Chile owes to 
 the father of the present Director, we followed the old rugged path, 
 which, being shorter, is still used by the woodcutters' mules, and 
 sometimes by the common baggage cattle. This by-way is ex- 
 tremely rugged, being every where cut through by the winter rains ; 
 which, collecting on the flat grounds above, pour down the hill, fur- 
 rowing deep channels in the soft red soil. Having once gained the 
 height, an immense plain, called the Llanos de la Peiiuela, extended 
 itself before us, with hills beyond, over whose tops the snowy Andes 
 appeared. Numerous streams, but none very lai'ge, cross this plain. 
 
ROAD To SANTIAGO. I93 
 
 and herds of cattle were grazing on it ; but it wants trees. At the 
 end of the plain there is a second post-house ; beyond which we en- 
 tered a winding road, through a hilly ridge that separates the Llanos 
 de la Peiiuela from those of Casablanca. The pastoral and pictur- 
 esque appearance of this pass reminded us of Devonshii-e, — the same 
 grassy hills, and small shaded streams, and groups of cattle. Beyond 
 the pass, a strait and perfectly flat road of about twelve miles leads 
 to Casablanca. The plain on either side is nearly covered with es- 
 pinella, or mimosa, whose fragrant sessile flowers just coming into 
 blossom perfume the whole atmosphere; and the earth is almost 
 carpeted with thrift, wood-anemone, Oenothera white blue and yellow, 
 star of Bethlehem, saxifrage, and an endless variety of mallows and 
 minute geraniums. But it is yet too early for the most beautiful 
 part of the Flora of Chile. 
 
 Casablanca is a mean little town, with one church, a governor, and 
 several justices, and sends a member to the convention. It is famous 
 for its butter and other products of the dairy ; but derives its chief 
 importance from being the only town on the road between the port 
 and the city, and also the place at which the produce, whether for 
 home consumption or exportation, from several neighbouring districts 
 is collected, before it proceeds either to the city or to Valparaiso. 
 One long street and a square constitute the town, but the greater 
 part of the population of the parish resides in the farms in the neigh- 
 bourhood. The square is not unlike a village green ; the little 
 church stands on one side, two inns and a few cottages and gardens 
 occupy the other three; and, in the centre, an annual bull-fight 
 takes place, on so diminutive a scale that the people of Santiago 
 thought it a fit subject for ridicule, and, accordingly, to the no small 
 annoyance of the natives, they brought out a farce on the stage 
 called the " Bull-fight of Casablanca." I do not know whether 
 Casablanca has any other literary claim to notice excepting, per- 
 haps, the chapter in Vancouver's Voyages where he mentions the 
 building of the houses precisely the same with that of Valpa- 
 raiso, and there, I think, says that his party taught the people 
 
 c c 
 
194 JOURNAL. 
 
 of Chile for the first time the use of brooms to sweep their houses ; a 
 slander which is greatly resented by the Chilenos, who are remarkably 
 neat in that particular, and who sweep their floors at least twice a day. 
 
 Captain the Honourable F. Spencer had kindly accompanied us 
 thus far. I felt little fatigue from the ride, which is only thirty miles, 
 but my poor maid was so fagged that I began to regret having brought 
 her, as we had only accomplished one-third of our journey ; however, 
 a good night's rest in beds so decent as to induce me not to unpack 
 our own for this night, an excellent dinner, and still better breakfast, 
 made us all so strong that there was no doubt of doing well when we 
 set off next morning. The inn is kept by an English negro, who 
 understands something of the comforts required by an Englishman, 
 and really presents a very tolerable resting-place to a traveller. 
 
 23d. — Capt. Spencer went with us to the Ciiesta de Zapata, a 
 very steep mountain, up which the road winds in such a manner 
 as to form sixteen terraces, one above the other, making a most 
 singular appearance, seen in perspective from the long straight road 
 which leads directly to it from Casablanca. The plain on this side 
 of the town appears much richer than what we passed yesterday ; 
 amidst the thickets of espinella clear spaces appeared belonging to 
 different dairy farms. The road-side is bordered with fine trees ; 
 maytenes, Chile willows, molle, and other evergreens, which became 
 more numerous as we approached the Cuesta, and formed groves 
 and woods in the deep glens into which it is broken. At the foot of 
 the hill Capt. Spencer left us, to my great regret ; for so agreeable 
 and intelligent a companion, delightful every where, is doubly valua- 
 ble at this distance from Europe. 
 
 I wonder that I have never heard the beauty of this road praised. 
 Perhaps the merchants who use it frequently may be ruminatino- on 
 profit and loss as they ride ; and our English naval officers, who take 
 a run to the capital for the sake of its gaieties, think too much of the 
 end for which they go to attend to the road which leads thither. It 
 reminds me of some of the very finest parts of the Appenines. The 
 undulating valley, called the Caxon de Zapata, that opened on our 
 
ROAD TO SANTIAGO. 295 
 
 reaching the height, its woody glens, and the snowy mountains beyond, 
 formed a very beautiful picture; the sky was serene, and the tempera- 
 ture delightful. In short, it might have been Italy, but that it wanted 
 the tower and the temple to show that man inhabited it : but here all 
 is too new ; and one half expects to see a savage start from the nearest 
 thicket, or to hear a panther roar from the hill. As soon as we could 
 prevail on ourselves to leave the beautiful spot which commanded the 
 view, we descended into the vale below, where we came to the post- 
 house, and rested our horses ; while doing so, the hostess obliged 
 us to walk in and sit down at her family dinner. The house is a 
 decent farm-house, and not by any means an inn, though the post 
 is stationed there. Our repast was the usual stew, charquican, of the 
 country, fresh and dried meat boiled together, with a variety of 
 vegetables, and seasoned with aji or Chile pepper, the whole served 
 up in a huge silver dish ; and silver forks were distributed to each 
 person, of whom, with ourselves, there were eight. Milk, with maize 
 flour and brandy, completed the dinner. At length, ourselves and 
 our horses being refreshed, we renewed our journey, our peon and 
 mules having gone on before ; and on leaving the Caxon, entered on 
 the long deep vale on which both Curucavia and Bustamante stand. 
 The first lies pretty widely scattered among its orchards at the foot 
 of a mountain, and on the margin of a broad stream called the Estero 
 of Curucavia, which issues out of a deep valley beyond, and the 
 fording passage of which is exactly at the most picturesque spot. 
 Bustamante is a hamlet, so named from the mayorasgo to whom it 
 belongs ; it lies under part of the ridge that forms the Cuesta de 
 Prado, and has little remarkable to recommend it. The post-house 
 is kept by a most civil and attentive old lady, who ^ave us very good 
 mutton and excellent claret for dinner, and a clean room to sleep in : 
 the floor is mud ; and in different corners posts are stuck so as to 
 form bed-places, on which we placed our matrasses, and slept 
 extremely well, my maid, as before, being the most fatigued of 
 the party, a proof that youth and health are not always the hardiest 
 travelling companions ; — she went to bed, while I remained up to 
 write and prepare every thing for to-morrow. 
 
 cc 2 
 
j^gg JOURNAL. 
 
 24th. — At seven o'clock we resumed our journey, in company with 
 the peon Felipe ; and about a mile from Bustamante, another peon 
 with baggage joined us without ceremony, and performed the rest 
 of the journey with us. As the new road over the Cuesta de Prado 
 makes a circuit of several miles, Felipe wisely determined on leading 
 us up the old mountain-path, which, but that we had been inured 
 gradually to the sight of precipices, might have appeared tremendous. 
 About half a mile from Bustamante we quitted O'Higgins's road, and 
 entered what is here called a monte or thicket * of beautiful under- 
 wood, and occasionally very large trees. The giant torch-thistle, 
 starting up here and there among the lower shrubs, gave a pictur- 
 esque peculiarity to the scene. About the centre of the monte, 
 a large clear space presented a pleasing picture : it was the resting- 
 place of a string of mules employed in carrying goods across the 
 Cordillera ; the packages were placed in a circle, two bales together, 
 and in the midst the masters and ani nals were reposing or eating, 
 as pleased them ; and at their little fire, close at hand, two or three 
 of the men were employed in cooking. We soon began to ascend 
 the sharp and rugged mountain, and could not help stopping every 
 now and then to admire the beautiful scene behind us, and to look 
 down into the leafy gulfs at our feet. Here and there the windings 
 of the road were marked by strings of loaded mules on their way to 
 the capital, and the long call of the muleteers resounding from the 
 opposite cliffs harmonised well with the scene. 
 
 At length we reached the summit, and the Andes appeared in 
 hoary majesty above a hundred ranges of inferior hills ; but we had 
 not yet come to the most beautiful spot ; that lies about three fur- 
 longs from the junction of the old and the new roads of the Cuesta 
 de Prado. Looking to one side, the long valleys we had passed 
 stretched out into a distance doubled by the morning mist, through 
 which the surrounding hills shone in every variety of tint ; on the 
 other hand, lies the beautiful plain of Santiago, through which the 
 
 * The application of the word Monte arose, it seems, in the plains of Buenos Ayres, 
 which are so flat, that wherever there is a grove, the distaiit eifect is in truth that of a hill. 
 
CUESTA DE PRADO. — PUDAGUEL. 197 
 
 road is discernible here and there. The high hills which surround 
 the city, and the most magnificent range of mountains in the world, 
 the Cordillera of the Andes, now capped with snow, shooting into 
 the heavens, with masses of cloud rolling in their dark valleys, pre- 
 sented to me a scene I had never beheld equalled. In the fore- 
 ground there is a great deal of fine wood ; and had there been water 
 in sight, the landscape would have been perfect. 
 
 At the foot of the Cuesta, on the city side, we were happy to find 
 an excellent breakfast of broiled mutton after our long ride ; and we 
 rested both ourselves and our horses for some time. The road from 
 thence to the next stage, Pudaguel, is over a hot sandy plain, sprinkled 
 with mimosas, and rendered hotter by the reflection of the sun from 
 the arid surface. Pudaguel is a post on the banks of the lake of 
 Pudaguel, which terminates at this point. It is vulgarly imagined 
 that the river Mapocho, on which the city of Santiago is built, runs 
 thus far, and here sinks through the gravel and sand to reappear by 
 seven mouths on the other side of the mountain San Miguel, whence 
 it flows into the vale of the Maypu, falling into that river near Melli- 
 pilla ; but the lake of Pudaguel does not communicate with the Mapo- 
 cho, it is fed by the streams of Colinas and Lampa. The Mapocho, 
 much diminished by the canals taken from it for irrigation, does dis- 
 appear somewhere in the plain of Maypu ; and the water of the beau- 
 tiful fountain from San Miguel, being of the same sweet, light, and 
 clear quality as that of the Mapocho, is called by that name until it 
 joins the white and turbid Maypu. It is such accidents as these which 
 the poetical Greeks delighted to adorn with the rich fabulous ijnagery 
 which spreads a charm over all they deigned to sing of. How much 
 more beautiful is the scenery round the banks of Pudaguel, than the 
 dirty washing-place that marks the fountain of Arethusa in Syracuse ! 
 And yet, when I stood there actually hearing and seeing vulgar Sici- 
 lians, surrounded by mean squalid houses and with nothing more 
 sacred than a broken plaster image of the Virgin, my imagination, 
 longing from youth to see where " Divine Alceus did by secret 
 sluice steal under-groun4 to meet his Arethuse," soon encrusted the 
 
2^98 JOURNAL^ 
 
 rock with marble, and restored the palaces, and the statues, and the 
 luxury of that fountain which once deserved the praise or the re- 
 proach of being the most luxurious spot of a luxurious city. Here 
 Pudaguel sinks in lonely beauty unsung, and therefore unhonoured. 
 
 The view from the pass of Pudaguel is most beautiful. Looking 
 across the river, whose steep banks are adorned with large trees, the 
 plain of Santiago stretches to the mountains, at whose foot the city 
 with its spires of dazzling whiteness extends, and distinguishes this 
 from the other fine views in Chile, in which the want of human 
 habitation throws a melancholy over the face of nature. 
 
 Three miles beyond Pudaguel, we met Don Jose Antonio de Cota- 
 pos, whose family had kindly invited me to stay in their house while 
 I was at Santiago ; and though I had dechned it, fancying I should 
 be more at liberty in an English inn, my intentions were overruled, 
 when I was met a few miles farther on by M. Prevost, who told me 
 the ladies would be hurt if I did not go to their house, at any rate in 
 the first instance. This was hardly settled, before I saw two car- 
 riages with Madame de Cotapos and three of her remarkably pretty 
 daughters, who had come to meet me and carry me into the city. 
 The latter I declined, not liking, dusty as I was, to enter their carriage. 
 I therefore rode on, and was received most kindly by Dona Merce- 
 dita, a fourth daughter, whose grace and politeness equals her beauty. 
 After a little rest, and having refreshed myself by dressing, I was 
 called to dinner ; where I found all the family assembled, and several 
 other gentlemen, who were invited to meet me, and do honour to the 
 feast of reception. The dinner was larger than would be thought 
 consistent with good taste ; but every thing was well dressed, thouo-h 
 with a good deal of oil and garlic. Fish came among the last things. 
 All the dishes were carved on the table, and it is difficult to resist the 
 pressing invitations of eveiy moment to eat of every thing. The 
 greatest kindness is shown by taking things from your own plate and 
 putting it on that of your friend ; and no scruple is made of helping 
 any dish before you with the spoon or knife you have been eating 
 with, or even tasting or eating from the general dish without the 
 
SANTIAGO. 1 99 
 
 intervention of a plate. In the intervals between the courses, bread 
 and butter and olives were presented. 
 
 Judging from what I saw to-day, I should say that the Chilenos are 
 great eaters, especially of sweet things ; but that they drink very little. 
 
 After dinner we took coffee ; and, as it was late, every thing passed 
 as in an English house, except the retiring of most of the family to 
 prayers at the Ave Maria. In the evening, a few friends and rela- 
 tions of the family arrived, and the young people amused themselves 
 with music and dancing. The elder ones conversed over a chafing- 
 dish, and had a thick coverlet spread over it and their knees, which 
 answers the double purpose of confining the heat to the legs, and 
 preventing the fumes of the charcoal from making the head ache. It 
 is but lately that the ladies of Chile have learned to sit on chairs, 
 instead of squatting on the estradas. Now, in lieu of the estrada, 
 there are usually long carpets placed on each side of the room, with 
 two rows of chairs as close together as the knees of the opposite par- 
 ties will permit, so that the feet of both meet on the carpet. The 
 graver people place themselves with their backs to the wall, the 
 young ladies opposite ; and as the young men drop in to join the 
 tertulla, or evening meeting, they place themselves behind the ladies ; 
 and all conversation, general or particular, is carried on without cere- 
 mony in half whispers. 
 
 When a sufficient number of persons is collected ttje dancing- 
 begins, always with minuets ; which, however, are little resembling 
 the grave and stately dance we have seen in Europe. Grave, indeed 
 it is, but it is slovenly ; no air, no polish, nothing in which the famous 
 Captain Nash of Bath would recognise the graceful movements of the 
 rooms, where he presided so long and so well. The minuets are fol- 
 lowed by allemandes, quadrilles, and Spanish dances. The latter are 
 exceedingly graceful ; and, danced as I have seen them here, are like 
 the poetical dances of ancient sculpture and modern painting ; but 
 then, the waltz never brought youth, and mirth, and beauty, into such 
 close contact with a partner. However, they are used to it, and I 
 was a fool to feel troubled at the sight. After all the dancing was 
 
200 JOURNAL. 
 
 over, and the friends had retired, the gates were shut carefully, the 
 family went to their principal meal — a hot supper ; and, as I never 
 eat at night, I retired to my room highly pleased with the gen- 
 tle and kind manners, and hospitable frankness of my new friends, 
 and too tired to think of any thing but sleep. It was so long since 
 I had heard a watchman that I could scarcely believe my ears, when 
 the sound of " Ave Maria purissima las onzes de noche y sereno^^ 
 reached me as I was undressing, and awakened many a remembrance 
 associated with 
 
 " The bellman's drowsy charm, 
 
 Tq bless the doors from nightly harm." 
 
 ^bth. — My first object this morning was to examine the disposi- 
 tion of the different apartments of the house I am in ; and first I went 
 to the gate by which I entered, and looked along the wall on either 
 hand in vain for a window looking to the street. The house, like all 
 those to which my eye reached, presented a low white wall with an 
 enormous projecting tiled roof: in the centre a great portal with 
 folding gates, and by it a little tower called the Alto, with windows 
 and a balcony at the top, where I have my apartment ; and under 
 it, close by the gate, is the porter's lodge. This portal admits one 
 into a great paved quadrangle, into which various apartments open : 
 those on either hand appeared to be store-rooms : opposite, are the 
 sala or drawing-room, the principal bed-room, which is also a public 
 sitting room, and one or two smaller public rooms ; behind this band 
 of building there is a second quadrangle laid out in flower-plots, 
 shaded with fruit trees, and of which a pleasant veranda makes part. 
 Here the young people of the family often sit, and either receive 
 visits or pursue their domestic occupations. Round this court or 
 pateo, the private apartments of the family are arranged ; and behind 
 them there is a smaller court, where the kitchen, offices, and servants' 
 apartments are placed, and through which, as in most houses in San- 
 tiago, a plentiful stream of water is always running. 
 
 This disposition of the houses, though pleasant enough to the in- 
 habitants, is ugly without, and gives a mean, dull air to the streets 
 
SANTIAGO. 201 
 
 which are wide and well paved, having a footpath flagged with slabs 
 of granite and porphyry ; and through most of them a small stream 
 is constantly running, which, with a little more attention from the 
 police, might make it the cleanest city in the world : it is not very 
 dirty ; and when I recollect Rio Janeiro and Bahia, I am ready to 
 call it absolutely clean. 
 
 The house of Cotapos is handsomely, not elegantly furnished. 
 Good mirrors, handsome carpets, a piano by Broadwood, and a rea- 
 sonable collection of chairs, tables, and beds, not just of the forms of 
 modern Paris or London, but such, I dare say, as were fashionable 
 there little more than a century ago, look exceedingly well on this 
 side of the Horn. It is only the dining-room that I feel disposed to 
 quarrel with : it is the darkest, dullest, and meanest apartment'in the 
 house. The table is stuck in one corner, so that one end and one 
 side only allow room for a row of high chairs between them and the 
 wall; therefore any thing like the regular attendance of servants is pre- 
 cluded. One would almost think that it was arranged for the purpose 
 of eating in secret ; and one is led to think, especially when the 
 great gates close at night before the principal meal is presented, 
 of the Moors and the Israelites of the Spanish peninsula, jealously 
 hiding themselves from the eyes of their Gothic tyrants. 
 
 My breakfast was served in my own room according to my own 
 fashion, with tea, eggs, and bread and butter. The family eat nothing 
 at this time of day ; but some take a cup of chocolate, others a little 
 broth, and most a matee. The ladies all visited me on their way to 
 mass ; and on this occasion they had left off their usual French style 
 of dress, and were in black, with the Mantilla and all that makes a 
 pretty Spaniard or Chilena, ten times prettier. 
 
 About noon, M. de la Salle, one of the Supreme Director's Aides 
 de Camp called, with a polite compliment from His Excellency, wel- 
 coming me to Santiago. By this gentleman I sent my letters of 
 introduction to Dona Rosa O'Higgins ; and it was agreed that I should 
 visit her to-morrow evening, as she goes to the theatre to-night. 
 
 D D 
 
202 JOURNAL. 
 
 Soon after dinner to-day, Mr. de Roos and I accompanied Don 
 Antonio de Cotapos and two of his sisters to the plain on the south- 
 west side of the town, to see the Chinganas, or amusements of the 
 common people. On every feast-day they assemble at this place, 
 and seem to enjoy themselves very much in lounging, eating sweet 
 puffs fried on the spot in oil, and drinking various liquors, but espe- 
 cially chicha, while they listen to a not disagreeable music played on 
 the harp, guitar, tambourine, and triangle, accompanied by women's 
 voices, singing of love and patriotism. The musicians are placed in 
 waggons covered with reeds, or regularly thatched, where they sit 
 playing to draw custom to little tables, placed around with cakes, 
 liquors, flowers, which those attracted by the songs buy for them- 
 selves ' or the lasses they wish to treat. Some of the flowers, such 
 as carnations and ranunculuses, are extravagantly dear : half a dollar is 
 frequently asked for a single one, and a yellow ranunculus, with petals 
 tipped with crimson and a green centre, is worth at least a dollar, in 
 order to make a present of. Men, women, and children, are passion- 
 ately fond of the Chinganas. The whole plain is covered with parties 
 on foot, on horseback, in caleches, and even in carts ; and, although for 
 the fashionables, the Almeida is most in vogue, yet there is no want 
 of genteel company at the Chinganas * : every body seemed equally 
 happy and equally orderly. In so great a crowd in England, there 
 would surely have been a ring or two for a fight ; but nothing of the 
 kind occurred here, although there was a good deal of gambling and 
 some drinking. In the evening I joined the family Tertulla, where 
 the usual music and dancing and gossip went on ; and I found that 
 even in Chile the beauty and dress of one young lady is criticised by 
 another just as with us. And now I think of it, I am sure I never 
 saw so many very pretty women in one day, as I beheld to day : 1 am 
 not sure that any were of transcendant beauty, but I am quite sure I 
 did not see one plain. They are generally of the middle size, well 
 made, and walk well, with fine hair and beautiful eyes, as many 
 
 * See Frezier. 
 
SANTIAGO. 203 
 
 blue as black, good teeth, and as for their complexion, — the red 
 and white. " Nature's own pure and cunning hand" never laid on 
 finer, — but, alas! " liberal not lavish is kind nature's hand;" and these 
 pretty creatures have generally harsh rough voices, and about the 
 throats of some there is that fulness that denotes that goitres are 
 not uncommon. 
 
 26th. — This morning, on looking out soon after day-break, I saw 
 the provisions coming into town for the market. The beef cut in 
 quarters, the mutton in halves, was mounted on horseback before a 
 man or boy, who, in his poncho, sat as near the tail of the horse as 
 possible. Fowls in large grated chests of hide came slung on mules. 
 Eggs, butter, milk, cheese, and vegetables, all rpde, no Chileno con- 
 descending to walk, especially with a burden, unless in case of dire 
 necessity ; and as the strings of beasts so laden came along one way, I 
 saw women enveloped in their mantos, and carrying their alfombras 
 and missals, going to mass another. 
 
 The cries in the streets are nearly as unintelligible as those in 
 London, and, with the exception of Sweep and Old Clothes, concern 
 the same articles. Judge Prevost came in soon after breakfast 
 and settled my mode of paying my respects to Dona Rosa O'Higgins 
 in the evening. It appears that to walk even to a next-door neigh- 
 bour on occasions of ceremony is so undignified, that I must not 
 think of it, therefore I go in a chaise belonging to the family where 
 I live, and two of the ladies will accompany me. This last proposal 
 I own startled me. They are of one of the best families here ; but 
 a daughter was married to a Carrera : they were all partizans of Car- 
 rera, and more than one have been implicated in conspiracies against 
 the present government : nay, it is said against the Director's life ; 
 and I know that no intercourse of a friendly nature, notwithstanding 
 the good-natured wishes of Mr. Prevost, has as yet taken place be- 
 tween the palace and the house of Catapos. If I am the means of 
 spreading peace, so much the better, though I perhaps would rather 
 know openly the use to be made of me. 
 
 D D 2 
 
204 JOURNAL. 
 
 I walked out to see the Plaza : one side is occupied by the palace 
 which contains the residence of the director, the courts of justice, 
 and the public prison. The building is from its size extremely hand- 
 some, but it is as yet irregular, because when the directorial palace 
 was added money was scarce, yet all the lower story corresponds 
 with the Doric order of the rest, and may be raised upon whenever 
 the government is rich enough. The west side of the square is oc- 
 cupied by the unfinished cathedral, also Doric, the bishop's palace, 
 and a few inferior buildings : the south side has an arcade in front of 
 private houses, the lower stories of which are shops, and under the 
 arcade are booths something in the style of the bazars of modern 
 London. On moonlight nights this arcade is exceedingly gay. It 
 is the fashion then for ladies to go shopping on foot ; and as every 
 booth has its light, the scene is extremely pretty ; the fourth side 
 is filled up by mean houses, one of the best of which is the Eng- 
 lish inn. We passed several other public buildings which are, gene- 
 rally speaking, handsome, the Doric order being almost universally 
 adopted ; yet the streets have a mean air, owing to the dead walls of 
 the private houses. 
 
 After dinner, Mr. de Roos and I walked to the Tacama and the Al- 
 meida. The Tacama is a strong mound of masonry built to defend 
 the city from the floods of the Mapocho, which, though now a mere 
 rivulet stealing its way in a narrow -channel in the midst of a wide 
 bed of pebbles, is twice a year an ungovernable flood. The winter 
 rains and the melting of the snows being the seasons when it rolls its 
 mighty flood across the plain, and but for the Tacama would over- 
 flow the greater part of the city. The Almeida is within the 
 Tacama : it is a charming walk, bordered with rows of willow trees, 
 and commanding delightful views. From thence we followed a 
 narrow street to the fort on the little rock of Santa Lucia, whicli 
 should be the citadel of Santiago. It rises in the midst of it, or 
 nearly so, and commands it, and there are now in fact two little 
 batteries on its opposite extremities. As we went we could not but 
 admire the huge blocks of granite that nature seems to have disposed 
 
SANTIAGO. 205 
 
 here as in sport ; now forming caverns and now overhanging the road ; 
 and reminding us of the loosened mountains with which the ancient 
 Caciques used to overwhelm their invaders. From Santa Lucia, we 
 discovered the whole plain of Santiago to the Cuesta de Prado, the 
 plain of Maypu stretching even to the horizon, the snowy Cordillera, 
 and beneath our feet the city, its gardens, churches, and its magnificent 
 bridge all lit up by the rays of the setting suri, which on the city, the 
 plains, and the Prado produced such effects as poets and painters have 
 described. But what pen or pencil can impart a thousandth part of 
 the sublime beauty of sunset on the Andes ? I gazed on it 
 
 - ■ " till the place became 
 
 Religion, and my heart ran o'er 
 In secret worship." 
 
 What had St. Isidore's bell to do, to awaken one from such contem- 
 plation to look on his petty church under a huge dark cloud, whence 
 issued a long and solemn procession of monks and priests performing 
 the first of a nine days' prayer to their patron Isidore, and jointly with 
 Saint James, patron of the city, for rain ? 
 
 I wish that superstition had not gone farther than assigning a guar- 
 dian to each country, city, and individual ; there is something so 
 soothing in the feeling that a superior being is watching over us, 
 and ready to intercede for us with the great Judge of all. The 
 light-hearted Athenian had his Minerva, the sturdy Roman his Jupiter 
 the greatest and the best, England even yet keeps her George, and 
 why not St. lago her James, the mirror of knighthood, and Isidore, 
 the husbandman ? I entered into conversation with a woman on the 
 rock, who told me that dry weather is considered as unwholesome 
 here, and that people's bodies dried up like the earth without rain, 
 therefore there was much need of the interference of the saints to 
 keep sickness as well as dearth from the city. She said also that 
 fever and pains in the throat came from the dry weather. If this 
 is not prejudice, it is curious. 
 
 We came home to dress for the palace, where we went accompa^ 
 nied by Judge Prevost, Madame Cotapos and her second daughter, 
 
206 
 
 JOURNAL. 
 
 Mariquita, a young woman more cultivated than is usual here. The 
 ladies both apologised for appearing .in cotton stockings and coarse 
 black shoes, by saying that it was in consequence, of a vow made 
 during a severe illness of the old gentleman, Don Jose Miguel Cota- 
 pos, by which they had obliged themselves to wear such stockings and 
 shoes a whole year, if his life was granted to their prayers. If I 
 smiled at the superstition of this, the affection whence it proceeded 
 was too respectable to permit me to laugh ; and I was well aware of 
 the extent of the merit of the vow, as there is nothing in which a lady 
 of Chile is so delicate as the choice of her shoes. Madame Cotapos 
 whispered to me that the torment hers had occasioned was such that 
 she had been obliged to slip a little cotton wool into them to save 
 her feet. Luckily she did not understand me, as I could not help 
 muttering Peter Pindar's words, " I took the liberty to boil my peas." 
 Mariquita performs her vow, however, without reservation of any kind. 
 On arriving at the palace, we walked in with less bustle and attend- 
 ance than I have seen in most private houses : the rooms are hand- 
 somely but plainly furnished ; English cast-iron grates ; Scotch car- 
 pets ; some French china, and time-pieces, little or nothing that 
 looked Spanish, still less Chileno. The Director's mother Dona 
 Isabella, and his sister Dona Rosa, received us not only politely but 
 kindly. The Director's reception was exceedingly flattering both to 
 me and my young friend De Roos. His Excellency had passed se- 
 veral years in England, great part of which time he spent at an aca- 
 demy at Richmond in Surrey. He immediately asked me if I had 
 ever been there, enquired after my uncle Mr., now Sir David 
 Dundas, and several other persons of my acquaintance, by name, 
 and asked very particularly about his old masters in music and other 
 arts. I was very much pleased with the kindliness of nature shown 
 in these recollections, and still more so when I saw several wild- 
 looking little girls come into the room, and run up to him, and 
 cling about his knees, and found they were little orphan Indians 
 rescued from slaughter on the field of battle. It appears that 
 the Indians, when they make their inroads on the reclaimed 
 grounds, bring their wives and families with them ; and should a 
 
SANTIAGO. 207 
 
 battle take place and become desperate, the women usually take 
 part in it. Should they lose it, it is not uncommon for the 
 men to put to death their wives and children to prevent them 
 from falling into the hands of the enemy, and indeed till now 
 it was only anticipating, by a few minutes, the fate of these wretched 
 creatures ; for quarter was neither given nor taken on either 
 side, the Iridians in the Spanish ranks continuing their own war 
 customs in spite of their partial civilisation. The Director now 
 gives a reward for all persons, especially women and children, saved 
 on these occasions. The children are to be educated and employed 
 hereafter as mediators between their nations and Chile, and, to this 
 end, care is taken that they should not forget their native tongue. 
 The Director was kind enough to talk to them in the Araucanian 
 tongue, that I might hear the language, which is soft and sweet ; 
 perhaps it owed something to the young voices of the children. One 
 of them pleased me especially : she is a little Maria, the daughter of a 
 Cacique, who, with his wife and all the elder part of his family, was 
 killed in a late battle. Doiia Rosa takes a particular charge of the 
 little female prisoners, and acts the part of a kind mother to them. 
 I was charmed with the humane and generous manner in which she 
 spoke of them. As to Doiia Isabella, she appears to live on her son's 
 fame and greatness, and looks at him with the eyes of maternal love, 
 and gathers every compliment to him with eagerness. He is modest 
 and simple, and plain in his manners, arrogating nothing to himself; 
 or, if he has done much, ascribing it to the influence of that love of 
 country which, as he says, may inspire great feelings into an ordinary 
 man. He conversed very freely about the state of Chile, and told 
 me he doubted not but that I must be surprised at the backwardness 
 of the country in many things, and particularly mentioned the want 
 of religious toleration, or, rather, the very small measure of it which, 
 considering the general state of things, he had yet been able to grant, 
 without disturbing the public tranquillity ; and he seemed a little 
 inclined to censure those Protestants who wished prematurely to force 
 upon him the building a chapel, and the public institution of Pro- 
 
208 JOURNAL. 
 
 testant worship ; forgetting how very short a time it is since even 
 private liberty of conscience and a consecrated burial-place had been 
 allowed in a country which, within twelve years, had been subject to 
 the Inquisition at Lima. He spoke a good deal also of the necessity 
 of public education, and told me of the Lancasterian and other schools 
 lately established here, and in other to'^ns in Chile, which are cer- 
 tainly numerous in proportion to the population. 
 
 Several other persons now joined the party, among whom was 
 a Colonel Cruz ; whom the Director particularly introduced as the 
 intended new governor of Talcahuana, and recommended me to his at- 
 tention during the journey I mean to make shortly to the southward. 
 The military men who came in afterwards were some of them French- 
 men, but they did not appear to me to be of the most polished of their 
 countrymen : they sat in dead silence, while some of the members of 
 the cabildo, i. e. the municipal chamber of Santiago, discussed various 
 questions of policy connected with the projected constitution ; till 
 Dona Rosa, finding the conversation likely to become exclusively 
 political, proposed to Dona Mariquita to play some French music, 
 which she instantly did, without book, extremely well, having a fine 
 ear and an excellent finger ; and I had time to look at the persons 
 round me. The Director was dressed, as I believe he always is, in 
 his general's uniform ; he is short and fat, yet very active : his blue 
 eyes, light hair, and ruddy and rather coarse complexion, do not bely 
 his Irish extraction ; while his very small and short hands and feet 
 belong to his Araucanian pedigree. Dona Isabella is young-looking 
 for her years, and very handsome, though small. Her daughter is 
 like the Director, on a larger scale. She was dressed in a scarlet satin 
 spencer and white skirt, a sort of dress much worn here. The Chileno 
 men are an uglier coarser race, as far as I have seen, than the women, 
 who are beautiful, and, what is more, lady-like : they have a natural 
 easy politeness, and a caressing manner that is delightful ; but then 
 some of their habits are disagreeable ; for instance, a handsome fat 
 lady, who came all in blue satin to the palace to-night, had a spitting- 
 box brought and set before her, into which she spat continually, and 
 
SANTIAGO. 209 
 
 SO dexterously, as to show she was well accustomed to the manoeuvre. 
 However, the young ladies, and all who would be thought so, are 
 leaving off these ugly habits fast. 
 
 At about ten o'clock we left the palace, and found our young 
 people at home still engaged in their minuets. I sat with them a short 
 time, and then came to my alto to write the journal of this my second 
 day in Santiago, with which I am very well pleased. 
 
 21th. — Visited Dona Mercedes de Solar, whose father, Juan 
 Henriques Rosalis, was one of the members of the first junta of the 
 revolutionary government in 1810. She is a very pretty, and very 
 polished woman ; seems well acquainted with French authors, and 
 speaks French extremely well. I found her sitting in the bed- 
 room, which, as I have noticed, is often used as a drawing-room ; 
 she was surrounded by some lovely children, and had with her 
 some pretty nieces ; .books and needlework were on a small French 
 table by her, and before her was a large chafingdish of well-burnt 
 charcoal. The dish was of massy silver, beautifully embossed, set in 
 a frame of curiously inlaid wood ; and there was a wrought silver 
 spoon to stir the coals with. I have seen several of the same kind 
 before ; but it seemed here in keeping with the rest of the room, 
 and the persons. The stately French bed, the open piano, the guitar, 
 the ormoulu time-piece, the ladies, the children, the books, the work, 
 and the flowers in French porcelain, with the rich Chilian brassiere, 
 into which perfume is now and then cast, made a charming picture, 
 which, lighted as it was from a high window behind me, I heartily 
 wished in proper hands to copy. I would not have changed the 
 purple pelisse of the mother, setting off her white and rather full 
 throat, or even the pale looks of little Vicente, for all the invention's 
 of all the painters that ever tricked out interiors with fullest effect. 
 I have a particular interest in Vicente, besides his being a clever 
 child. He came with me in the Doris from Rio, whither he had 
 gone in the Owen Glendower. He suffered from cold in coming 
 round the Horn, and I had him with me in the cabin as much as 
 circumstances would permit. One day we were speaking of the 
 
 E E 
 
21Q JOURNAL. 
 
 newly discovered South Shetland*, and of the wreck of the Spanish 
 line-of-battle ship which had been found there, — a ship which had 
 been bound to Chile with troops, but had never been heard of. The 
 boy was listening eagerly, and then looked at me, — " Mirad la For- 
 tuna de Chile," said he ; " when the tyrants send ships to oppress her, 
 God sends them to wreck on desert coasts." I trust, the stuff he is 
 made of will not be spoiled by the constant intercourse he has with 
 the French who frequent his father's house ; Don Felipe de Solar 
 being general agent for all French vessels arriving in Chile. This 
 is, I believe, an illiberal feeling, but I cannot help it ; there are some 
 things, which, like faith, do not depend upon the will, and this is 
 one of them. Perhaps I envied the French authors their place on 
 Madame Solar's table, and would have liked to have seen the Rape 
 of the Lock there, rather than the Lutrin. 
 
 In the evening we rode to the quinta of the .Canonico Erreda by 
 the Almeida, and so to the north-east. The house is spacious and 
 pleasant ; the garden delicious : little water-courses, led in quaintly- 
 figured canals among the flower-beds, maintain a never failing suc- 
 cession of all the sweetest and rarest flowers, — the violet and wall- 
 flower, the carnation and ranunculus ; and there are delicious oranges, 
 of which we ate no small number ; and limes, and a large peach- 
 orchard, and a vineyard, and cows, and a dairy, and all manner of 
 rural wealth and comfort. 
 
 From the Canonico's we rode by the olive grove with the thickest 
 shade of olive trees on one hand, and on the other long orchards 
 of cherry, peach, apple, and pear, all now in blossom ; and crossing 
 two or three enclosures at each gate of which we were sure to meet 
 some one to open it, and as surely some one to beg, — a practice 
 nobody seems ashamed of here, — we reached the Canada, formerly 
 only a marshy suburb of the town ; but O'Higgins is causing it to 
 be drained, and cleared, and planted with trees, so that it will soon 
 exceed the Almeida in beauty, as it does in extent. The water, 
 
 * New South Shetland should rather be called a re-discovery : Raleigh was there, and 
 hanged some mutineers on the coast. 
 
SANTIAGO. 21 1 
 
 instead of overflowing, is now conveyed in a regular canal, with 
 shrubs on each side, and gravel walks for foot passengers, and wider 
 roads for carriages and horses ; about one third of this is done, and 
 the rest is in progress. 
 
 2^th. — St. Austin's Day. I am no favourite with the saint, for 
 he has been thwarting me all day long. But all things in order. 
 Early in the morning I heard a bell ringing exactly like that which 
 on winter evenings in London announces the approach of " muf- 
 fins ;'' I looked out, and saw first, a boy ringing the said bell, then 
 another with a bundle of candles : all the people in the streets 
 pulled off their hats, and stood as if doing homage. Then came a 
 dark blue caleche, with glories and holy ghosts painted on it, and 
 a man within dressed in white satin, embroidered with silver and 
 coloured silk. In front sat a man with a gilt lanthorn ; behind, 
 people with umbrellas. I asked what it was, and was told it was the 
 Padre Eterno. The expression sounds indecent to a protestant ; 
 it is holy to a Spaniard, who must think that such indeed is the Host 
 on its way to a dying person ; — such in fact was the procession 
 I saw. This was the only thing that happened before the disappoint- 
 ments occasioned by St. Austin began. The first of these occurred 
 when I went with Mr. de Roos to see the Lancasterian school ; we 
 found, the boys all gone to Mass in honour of St. Austin, and the 
 school shut : we proceeded to the national printing-office ; the doors 
 were shut, and the printers at Mass. Thence we went to the chamber 
 of the Consulada, hoping to be present at a session of the convention : 
 but the members were at Mass. Then despairing of seeing any 
 public place or people, I thought I would draw ; so repaired to the 
 Playa, where I had been promised a balcony to sketch from : but the 
 master had gone to Mass, and taken the keys in his pocket ; so I 
 went home, resolving to do better in the afternoon, and began to 
 sketch the inner pateo of the house : but, being a holiday, numerous 
 visitors came, and little was done. 
 
 After dinner I took fresh courage, and set off with Madame Cota- 
 pos and her daughters to visit the nunnery of St. Austin : but it had 
 
 E E 2 
 
a-,^ JOURNAL. 
 
 been the festival of their saint ; and what with that and the vigil, 
 the lady abbess and her nuns were so fatigued, having been singing 
 all day and part of the night, that they could not receive us. The 
 note containing this disagreeable news reached us when we were all 
 dressed and ready for walking ; so we went to visit the ladies Godoy, 
 in whose house Judge Prevost lives. These ladies are near relations 
 of Madame Cotapos, and are extremely lively and agreeable. We 
 sat chatting in the inner pateo or garden, which looks like every 
 thing romancers and travellers tell us is Moorish ; and had matee 
 brought to us by some pretty little Indian girls, very nicely dressed ; 
 and then we adjourned to the house, which has lately assumed in 
 its fire-places, and other comforts, a very European air. We had 
 a little music here, and then walked home ; my friends as usual with- 
 out hats or veils, and in their satin shoes. 
 
 In the intervals between the disappointments occasioned by St. 
 Austin, I went into the large and handsome church formerly belong- 
 ing to the Jesuits, where the troops were assembled to hear Mass ; 
 and their military music joined to the solemn organ had a fine effect. 
 I also went into the cathedral, having put on a mantilla for the pur- 
 pose, as bonnets are not allowed to appear in church. The interior 
 of the building is very handsome, though unfinished. There is some 
 rich plate, particularly a fine chased altar-piece. 
 
 Wth of August, 1822. — A party, consisting of Judge Prevost, who 
 is always ready to promote my wish of seeing every thing curious in 
 Chile, Mr. de Roos, Dona Mariquita Cotapos, Don Jose Antonio Co- 
 tapos, and some young Englishmen, rode out to see the Salta de 
 Agua, the only remaining work of the ancient Caciques in the neigh- 
 bourhood. We crossed tlie handsome stone bridge built by Ambrose 
 O'Higgins over the Mapocho ; and, after passing through the suburb 
 La Chimba*, we proceeded to the powder-mills, now in a ruined state. 
 They were wrought by water ; the machinery clumsy and dangerous, 
 the mixture being pounded in stone mortars instead of ground. 
 These works, which had cost the government of Old Spain a prodi- 
 
 * The Chimba is famous for an excellent brewery, and for curing bacon. 
 
Zn^'iVh^a I'X YAw ' Fi-n>l.--i 
 
 gAILTA ID)3E A^tDTAo 
 
 Ziin.l.i/i.I'i'J'llsJii'd. by /■■"uinuiji &: Cf gc J. Murray. !'^7i2.JS24. 
 
SANTIAGO. 213 
 
 gious sum of money, were destroyed by the Carreras, in the retreat 
 before Osorio, in 1814, and have never been re-established, although 
 much wanted. We found part of the ground about the mills occu- 
 pied by Mr. Goldsegg, an ingenious artist, formerly employed in 
 Woolwich warren, but who came here with his wife and family, after 
 the peace, in order to make rockets for the expedition against Callao. 
 By some fatality his rockets failed, and he has been living on here 
 in hopes of employment. But the mercantile speculations of the 
 minister Rodriguez have diverted the funds that should repair public 
 works and repay public artificers into such very diflPerent channels, 
 that I fear poor Goldsegg, with all his merit, will add one to the 
 many victims of disappointed hope. 
 
 From the powder-mills the road continues along a low rich plain, 
 watered by numerous artificial streams, and surrounded by hills ; at 
 the foot of one of the steepest of these, we beheld the water of the 
 Salta (Leap) leaping from cliff to cliff, from the summit, sometimes 
 concealed by tufted wood, and sometimes shining in the midday sun. 
 Those who have seen the Cascatelle of Tivoli, have seen the only 
 thing I remember at all to be compared to this ; but there is no villa 
 of Mecaenas to crown the hill, no Sybil's temple to give the charm of 
 classic poetry to the scene. I was a few minutes apart from my com- 
 panions ; and, as a dense cloud rolled from the Andes across the sky, 
 I could, in the spirit of Ossian, have believed, that the soul of some 
 old Cacique had flitted by ; and, if he regretted that his name and 
 nation were no longer supreme here, was not ungratified at the sight 
 of the smiling cultivated plain his labours had tended to render fruit- 
 ful ; nor, it may be, of me, as one of the white children of the East, 
 whence freedom to the sons of the Indians was once more to arise. 
 However that may be, the cloud passed, and my good horse began 
 to make way up one of the steepest pieces of road any four-footed 
 thing, except a goat, ever thought of climbing ; so that I began to 
 think I had a good chance of being drowned in one of the water- 
 courses, after having crossed the ocean. However, a short time 
 brought both horse and rider safe to the top of the cliff, about two 
 hundred and fifty feet or thereabouts, more rather than less, of actual 
 
214 JOURNAL. 
 
 height above the knoll where we first saw the Salta, and where there 
 is a little village. Here I dismounted, and by the assistance of two 
 of my friends, stepped across one of the water-channels to have a per- 
 fect view of the work, and of the fall below. We had not descended, 
 perceptibly, since we left Santiago ; yet, though we had climbed the 
 steep cliff of the fall, we found ourselves still on the plain of the city ; 
 having between it and us a very high hill, whose base is uneven, so 
 that the north side rests below the fall, and the south side above it. 
 On either side, the country appears to the eye perfectly level. The 
 river Mapocho flows from the Andes through the upper plain ; the 
 lower one is without a natural stream, but the land is evidently better 
 than that above. The Caciques observing this, cut channels through 
 the granite rock, from the Mapocho to the edge of the precipice, and 
 made use of the natural fall of the ground to throw a considerable 
 stream from the river into the vale below : this is divided into numer- 
 ous channels, as required ; and the land so watered is some of the 
 most productive in the neighbourhood of the city. The Indian 
 chiefs, instead of one large channel, have dug three smaller ones, 
 directing them to the centre of the vale, and to the sides of -the hills 
 on either hand, so as to fertilise the whole district ; an advantage as 
 great to the admirer of picturesque beauty as to the cultivator. To 
 the beautiful artificial waterfalls praised by travellers, I must add 
 this, which is quite as rich in natural beauty as Tivoli ; and as 
 singular, as a work of early art, as the channel by which the Velinus 
 falls into the Nar. I appreciate the work of the Caciques the 
 better for having seen that of the Roman consul ; and only regret 
 that I am not a poet to immortalise these beautiful waters which 
 precipitate themselves into the vale below, and reappear in 
 sparkling rills to fertilise the plain beyond. , We left the fall with 
 regret to return to the city, or rather to go to it by a very different 
 road. We proceeded over a plain completely covered with shino-le, 
 and only here and there a clump of some low sweet shrubs, of which 
 the horses are very fond. This is the winter channel of the Mapo- 
 cho, which covers the land far and near with its waters, and rolls 
 these pebbles over it. 
 
SANTIAGO. 21 5 
 
 Half way between the Salta and the city, we stopped at a quinta 
 belonging to the brother of Madame Cotapos, or, as I ought properly 
 to call her, Doiia Mercedes de Cotapos. This gentleman, Don Hen- 
 riquez Lastra, the ex-director of Chile, is at present entirely removed 
 from public life, and devotes himself to the cultivation of his farm or 
 hacienda, and to making various experiments for the improvement of 
 the wines of the country. He has succeeded in making a wine little 
 if at all inferior to champaign ; and his ordinary wine, in which he has 
 pursued the Madeira method, is like the best vino Unto of TenerifFe. 
 In general the wines here are sweet and heavy. His fields appear to 
 me to be in excellent order ; and all about the farm looks more like 
 European farming than any thing I had seen in this country. Don 
 Henriquez was not at home when we arrived, but we were most 
 kindly welcomed by his lady, who is of the family of Izquierda de 
 Xara Quern ada. She was in the midst of her eight fine children, 
 instructing some, and working for others. The house is small, but 
 new building is going on sufficient to double its size ; and the prin- 
 cipal rooms are to be built with chimneys, and English grates are to 
 supersede brasseros : these steps towards improvement are great in 
 this country, which has hitherto remained, of all others, the most 
 backward, partly from political, partly from moral and physical causes 
 peculiar to itself. The ex-director soon came in : he appeared to be 
 a plain sensible man, of simple but courteous manners ; and, very 
 soon, in his conversation I discerned a polish that here must have 
 been acquired from books, and a strength that the circumstances 
 of an active life engaged in such a revolution as has taken place 
 may well have produced. Yet I should think him a slow man, and, 
 perhaps, not gifted with that readiness and presence of mind calcu- 
 lated to meet extraordinary occurrences which are absolutely neces- 
 sary for public men at such a time. The present study of Don 
 Henriquez is small, and might excite a smile in a London or Parisian 
 statesman, accustomed to all the luxuries of labour ; but the new 
 house will give room to a larger library, directed by the same good 
 sense that has hitherto preferred useful to ornamental learning. 
 
216 JOURNAL. 
 
 The luncheon at Don Henriquez's was all the produce of the farm. 
 Sausages as good as those of Bologna ; bread of his own wheat, as 
 white as that made of the Sicilian grain ; butter that the dairies of 
 England might have been proud of; and of the wines I have spoken 
 already, I was delighted with the visit in every way ; the hospitality 
 of the house, and the improvements going on, which must all tend to 
 the good of the country. 
 
 Soon after we reached home, I received a magnificent present of 
 fruit and flowers from Doiia Rosa O'Higgins. The fruit was water- 
 melons, lucumas, oranges, and sweet limes, no others being as yet in 
 season ; and the flowers, of all the finest and rarest. They were ar- 
 ranged on trays, covered with embroidered napkins, and borne on 
 the heads of servants in the full dress of the palace livery ; one out 
 of livery entering first to pay me a compliment from the lady. At 
 night the young ladies Cotapos, and their brother, Don Jose Antonio, 
 danced for me the cuando, a national dance. It is performed by two 
 persons, and begins slowly like a minuet ; it then quickens according 
 to the music and the song, which represent a sort of loving quarrel 
 and final agreement ; the skill of the dancer consisting in holding his 
 body steady, beating the ground with inconceivable quickness with 
 his feet in a measure called zapatear {to shoe). Doiia Mariquita played 
 and sung the song which she herself has adapted to the music, the 
 ordinary verses being love verses, which she does not choose to sing, 
 bemg proper for the gentleman to sing to his partner. But there are 
 several songs to the cuando ; and in the country where Sancho 
 Pan9a's language is spoken, it is to be supposed that some are 
 burlesque. * 
 
 * First Cuando. 
 
 Anda ingrata que algun dia 
 Con las mudanzas del tiempo, 
 Lloraras como yo lloro, 
 Sentiras como yo siento. 
 
 Cuando, cuando, 
 
 Cuando, mi vida cuando. 
 
SANTIAGO. 
 
 217 
 
 30^^. — Santa Rosa's day, which is kept as a great festival here : 
 first, because Santa Rosa is a South American saint ; and secondly, 
 because it is the day of His Excellency the Director's sister. Every 
 body of course called at the palace to leave cards of compliment. 
 I am in no state of spirits for public amusements ; but in a new 
 country they are always to be observed, as they indicate more or less 
 surely the genius of the people : I therefore determined to take a 
 box at the theatre to-night ; and accordingly, after taking matee with 
 the ladies Izquierda, I went with my friends to the play at Santiago. 
 On one side of the square, between the palace of the Consulado 
 and the Jesuits' church, a gate in a low wall admitted us to a square, 
 in which there is a building that reminded me of a provincial tem- 
 porary theatre ; but the earthquakes of Chile apologise for any 
 external meanness of building but too satisfactorily : the interior is 
 far from contemptible ; I have seen much worse in Paris. The stage 
 is deep, the scenery very good, but the proscenium mean. On the 
 green curtain, there is wrought in letters of gold — 
 
 Cuando sera esa dia 
 De aquella feliz Man ana, 
 Que nos lleveii a los dos, 
 El chocolate a la Cama." 
 
 There is another of this class, of which I have not caught the Spanish words ; but the 
 lover asks the lady, when, when she will call his mother hers, and his sister hers : the 
 first lines, however, are the same. 
 
 Second Cuando. 
 
 " Cuando, cuando, 
 Cuando yo me muere. 
 No me Uoren los parientes, 
 Lloren me las Alembiques, 
 Donde sacan Aquardientes, 
 A la plata me remito, 
 Le demas es boberia, 
 Andar con la boca seca, 
 E la bariga vacia." 
 These are both favourites with the Chinganas, and used to be not unacceptable to all 
 classes, till within these very few years. But the opening the ports of South America, 
 by permitting a free intercourse with strangers, has rendered the taste of the higher ranks 
 more nice. 
 
 F F 
 
21 g JOURNAL. 
 
 " Aqui es el espejo del vertud y del vicio, 
 Mirados en el y pronunciad juicio." 
 
 The Director's box is on the right hand of the stage, it is handsomely 
 fitted up with silk of the national colours, blue, red, and white, bor- 
 dered with gold fringe. Opposite is the box of the Cabildo, a little 
 less handsome, but decorated with the same colours. The theatre is 
 a very favourite amusement here, and most of the boxes are taken by 
 the year, so that it was by favour only that I obtained one to-night : 
 the theatre was quite full, and the general beauty of the women was 
 particularly conspicuous on the occasion. Shortly after we were 
 seated, the Director and his family, including the little Indian girls, 
 came in. I am so accustomed to see respect paid to the actual 
 sovereign of a country, that I instantly rose and courtesied, and was 
 quite abashed to see that I was the only person in the house who did 
 so : however, it passed for a particular compliment, and was parti- 
 cularly returned. The national hymn was then called for and sung, 
 and played as is usual before the beginning of the piece. One party 
 of ladies became conspicuous, by sitting down, turning their backs, 
 and talking loud during the playing of the hymn, — a piece of gross 
 and imprudent impertinence, that would have been tolerated no 
 where but under the good-natured eye of the Director O'Higgins. * 
 
 * On the 20th of September, 1819, the national hymn, of which the following is the 
 first verse and chorus, was published by authority of government, and ordered to be suno- 
 at the theatre before every play. There are ten verses, all good ; but it is too long. 
 
 " Ciudadanos, — el amor Sagrado 
 De la Patria os convoca a la lid : 
 Libertad es el eco de alarma 
 La divisa triumfar o morir. 
 
 " El cadalso, 6 la antigua cadena, 
 Os presenta el soberbio Espaiiol : 
 Arrancad el puiial al tirano, 
 Quebrantad ese cuello feroz. 
 
 " CoRo. — Dulce Patria, recibe los votes 
 Con que, Chile en tus aras juro, 
 Que 6 la tumba serais de los libres, 
 O el asilo contra la opresion," &c. 
 
SANTIAGO. 
 
 219 
 
 The actors have one good quality, — they speak very plainly ; but they 
 are very tame, and rather seem to be repeating a lesson, than either 
 speaking or declaiming : the piece may be to blame for this. It was 
 " King Ninus the Second ;" but I cannot recollect any king of that 
 name who ever had a tragical story of the kind belonging to him : 
 and I have no books here, and no literary ladies, or even gentlemen, 
 so I must rest in ignorance ; though, if I remember right, there is 
 something like the history of Zenobia in the plot : however, there is 
 a great deal of love and murder in it. 
 
 The farce was the " Madmen of Seville." The graciosa of the piece 
 a beggar, has by some accident got into the bedlam of the city, and 
 the amusement consists in the different tricks played to him by the 
 patients of the hospital, who each insist on taking him as a com- 
 panion. I was half sorry not to be able to join in the excessive 
 mirth apparently caused by the piece, but I was rather glad when it was 
 over : we all enjoyed some ices very much, which were brought into 
 the box ; and we were not the only persons who regaled themselves 
 in the same manner, though I think sweetmeats and wine seemed to 
 be the favourite refreshments. The gallery is appropriated to the 
 soldiers, who enter gratis. 
 
 Saturday, August S\st. — Having ascertained that there was no 
 saint in the way to prevent us, Mr. De Roos and I set out once more 
 this morning to see what we could of the city ; and meeting Mr. Pre- 
 vost, we availed ourselves of his polite offer of showing us the mint. 
 It is, indeed, a magnificent building, — I was going to say, too mag- 
 ficent for Chile, till I recollected that it was erected by the Spanish 
 government chiefly for the assay and stamping of the product of those 
 rich mines, which the mother country long considered as the only 
 objects to be attended to in her American dominions. The building 
 is of a single range of fine Doric three-quarter columns and pilasters, 
 which cover two stories ; i. e. the public works below, and the houses 
 of the officers above. On entering a handsome gate, another interior 
 building, like the cell of a temple, of the same order, presents itself; 
 and there the treasury, and mint, and assay office are situated. The 
 
 F r 2 
 
220 JOURNAL. 
 
 machinery is clumsy beyond what I could have imagined, and the 
 improvement talked of is to be on a French model ; v^rhich will be 
 more expensive than one of Boulton's, and, compared with it, is as 
 the old hammer for striking coin is to the screw dies now used here. 
 The greater part of the coin still current in Chile is of rough pieces 
 of silver, weighed and cut in any shape, and struck with the hammer, 
 and far ruder than any I had seen before. This mode of coining is, 
 however, now discontinued ; and the scarcely less tedious method of 
 first punching the metal, and then placing each piece by hand in the 
 screw, has taken place of it. The assay department, however, is in a 
 better, i. e. a more modern state ; but I am too sorry a chemist to be 
 able to give a proper account of it. I understand government has it 
 in contemplation to issue a coinage of low value, which will be of 
 great advantage to the people. I have often been struck with the 
 inconvenience of the want of small coin here. There is nothing in 
 circulation under the value of a quartillo, or quarter of a real, which, 
 if the dollar be worth four shillings and sixpence, is more than three 
 half-pence ; and quartillos are not coined here, and are so scarce, that 
 I have only seen three since April : consequently we may call the 
 smallest common coin the medio, or near threepence halfpenny; a 
 sum for which, at the price of bread and beef here, a whole family 
 may be fed. What then is the single labourer to do ? This evil, 
 great as it is, has occasioned a greater. In order to accommodate 
 purchasers with a quantity under the value of a medio, or quartillo, 
 the owners ofpulperias (a kind of huckster's shops) give in exchange 
 for dollars or reals promissory notes : but these notes, even where 
 the article bought is half a dollar, and the note for half, the pulperia 
 man will not discount in cash, but in goods ; so that he makes sure 
 of the poor man's whole coin, besides the chance that a peasant, who 
 does not read or write, may lose or destroy the note itself. Many 
 and rapid fortunes have been made by these notes, and the loss to 
 the poor has amounted to more than any one of the government 
 direct taxes. This has not been overlooked by some of the great 
 merchants connected with the minister here ; and a number of retail 
 shops have been set up at their expense, though under the names of 
 
SANTIAGO. 221 
 
 inferior agents. And this is probably one of the reasons for the delay 
 of the very necessary coinage of small money. 
 
 From the mint we went to the Consulado, where I meant to have 
 been at the very beginning of the sitting. I had previously asked 
 the Director if there was any objection to a woman going thither. 
 He told me his mother and sister had gone on the first day, and that 
 it was open to strangers ; but in case the unusual appearance of a 
 lady should startle the members, he would speak to the President. 
 Mr. De Roos and I went thither, unhappily without any person to 
 tell us who was who. However, we knew that the President was 
 Albano, the deputy from Talca, and the Vice-president Camillo Hen- 
 riquez, the editor of the " Mercurio de Chile," and an occasional poet. 
 
 We entered just as the house was passing a resolution, that in dis- 
 cussing the project of laws, the consent of two-thirds of the members 
 should be necessary for the passing each article. There were not 
 above twenty members present, and about half a dozen lookers-on 
 besides ourselves. The chamber is a very fine one, from its great 
 size. At one end is the President's seat, under a very handsome 
 canopy of blue, red, and white, enriched with gold. When the 
 Director appears this is his place, and the President sits on his right 
 hand ; the Deputies sit on benches close to the wall on either side, 
 the Secretaries and Vice-president at a table immediately before the 
 President, and the spectators on benches like those of the members, 
 only at a greater distance from the President. After all, I thought it 
 was a strange position for an English woman and an English mid- 
 shipman to be assisting at the deliberation of a national representative 
 assembly in Chile. But what in Addison's time would have been 
 romance, is now, every day, matter of fact. I was in the Mahratta 
 capital while it was protected by an English force ; I have attended 
 a protestant church in the Piazza de Trajano in Rome ; I sat as a 
 spectator in an English court of justice in Malta : and what wonder 
 that I should now listen to the free deliberations of a national repre- 
 sentative meeting in a Spanish colony? Perhaps the world never 
 experienced so great a change as in the last thirty-five years: that all 
 should have been for the better, no one, who reflects on the imperfect 
 
222 
 
 JOURNAL. 
 
 State of humanity, will believe ; but I will hope that most of these 
 changes have bettered the general condition of human nature. How 
 long I might have gone on musing I do not know, if the Vice-Pre- 
 sident and Secretary had not interrupted the silence that followed 
 the resolution passed when we entered, by reading the report of it to 
 the President, who having approved of it, the house proceeded. The 
 President then read a message from the Director, submitting to the 
 assembly the propriety of sending envoys to different foreign states, 
 and desiring them to appoint proper salaries. This gave rise to a 
 lively discussion of a much freer tone than I had expected in so 
 young a convention, especially one appointed by the executive power 
 alone. To the expediency of sending the envoys there was no 
 opposition ; but on the appointing salaries there were several ques- 
 tions ; — first, could it be done before the actual revenue of the 
 country was ascertained and reported to the convention ; and next, 
 could a grant of money be made for a new purpose while the army 
 was so greatly in arrear (upwards of 18,000 dollars) ? They might 
 have added the navy also. The speech of the President on opening 
 the business, and also his reply to the proposed amendment request- 
 ing that the public accounts should be looked into before funds were 
 allotted for such a purpose, were extremely clever, and delivered with 
 the ease and eloquence of a man accustomed to speak in public : he 
 is a priest. The discussion was very warm, but carried on with great 
 decorum^ the members, in their ordinary dresses, standing up in their 
 places ; and when two rose at once, he that first caught the President's 
 eye had the preference. 
 
 I was very much gratified with my visit to the convention, and 
 withdrew from it with hopes of a speedier and firmer settlement of a 
 regular government here than I had hitherto allowed myself to 
 entertain. 
 
 It seems to me, that the progress made is astonishing ; but 1 
 believe that men, like other articles, arise when there is a demand 
 for them. There are elements in Chile for the formation of a state ; 
 but education is wanting before that which essentially constitutes a 
 state will be found ; i.e. — 
 
SANTIAGO. 223 
 
 " Men, high-minded men — 
 Men who their duties know; 
 But know their rights, and knowing dare maintain." 
 
 Hitherto a strong feeling of resentment against past tyranny, on 
 the part of Spain, has urged them on : but their ideas still continue 
 essentially Spanish ; and time and education are still wanting to 
 develop and form the Chileno national character. 
 
 On returning home I found Doiia Isabella and Dona Rosa O'Hig- 
 gins waiting to see me ; though I had been assured it was impos- 
 sible they should call at the house of Cotapos. But, now that there is 
 not one of the Carreras left, and that that faction is believed to be at 
 an end, it is surely the business of those at the head of the affairs of 
 Chile to buy golden opinions of all sorts of men ; and I have no 
 doubt but that they are glad I am here as an excuse to call without 
 the formalities of reconciliation. 
 
 In the evening I went to the palace, and had a great deal of con- 
 versation with the Director, especially concerning the early part of 
 the revolution, in which he has borne so conspicuous a share. Men- 
 tioning the. scarcity of arms, while the patriot army occupied the 
 banks of the Maule, he said that the people had often no arms but 
 the yokes of their oxen, with which they fought the royalists hand to 
 hand. He himself, among other expedients, had a wooden cannon 
 made, bound round with green hide, which stood four discharges 
 and then burst. I engaged him to speak of his own part in public 
 affairs, which he did modestly and freely ; until several gentlemen 
 entering, the conversation became general. It turned upon the 
 affairs of the Libertador Simon Bolivar, and the reception of the 
 Spanish deputies in the Caraccas ; deprecating the idea of listening 
 to any terms not founded on the acknowledgment of the independ- 
 ence of Spanish America. 
 
 I left the palace early, and then walked across the square to see 
 the evening shopping in the arcades, which is quite as pretty a scene 
 as I expected it to be : every little bench has its candle or lamp ; the 
 best wares are displayed ; and, as it is a sort of dressed lounge, the 
 ladies look particularly well. This place is beautiful by day, but by 
 
224 JOURNAL. 
 
 moonlight is still more so, — the defects are less seen, the beauties 
 more observed. At night the shadows cast by the far-projecting 
 roofs prevent our noticing the lowness of the houses ; but the wide 
 streets, and handsome public buildings, and, above all, the lofty 
 mountains, which tower above every thing, and which, although at 
 least twenty miles hence, seem actually to touch the city, appear to 
 the greatest advantage. ' 
 
 Sunday, Sept. \st, 1822. — I went this evening with my friends to 
 the house of the ladies Godoy, where we found M. Prevost, and about 
 a dozen other persons, apparently waiting for us to take a walk into 
 the country. Accordingly we set off, the elder ladies in caleches, 
 the rest of us on foot, to the plain where the Chinganas usually are. 
 But, alas ! no Chinganas were there. The city is making a nine- 
 days' rogation to St. Isidore for rain ; and the amusements of the 
 common people are hushed by way of assistance. However, though 
 the musicians' waggons are banished from the plain, there is the 
 usual quantity of frying, roasting, and codling, going on at the fruit- 
 stalls, and at least as much drinking ; and the people gaping about, 
 seemingly wondering what St. Isidore and the rogation have to do 
 with the singing-women, who must to-day lose their accustomed reals 
 and medios. However they take it quietly, and say, " To be sure the 
 gardens want rain, and the padres know best how to pray." When 
 all our party had reached the plain, we walked towards one of the 
 prettiest parts of it, and there we found that the servants of the house 
 of Godoy had laid carpets, and set chairs and cushions for the party ; 
 and, at little tables adjoining, they were making tea and matee with 
 milk, and had fruits and cakes for the party. As soon as we were 
 seated, Doiia Carmen Godoy presented us each with a flower ; she 
 is remarkably lively, and had some pleasant thing to say to each. 
 The cavaliers began to serve the ladies, and we passed an hour very 
 pleasantly, and then walked about among the people, observing their 
 different dresses and games. The young ladies are not allowed by 
 custom to take the arm of a cavalier, although they waltz and dance 
 with them. Some few fair Chilenos are beginning to break through 
 this rule ; but our young ladies continue to be exceedingly punctil- 
 
SANTIAGO. 225 
 
 ous. The people of Chile, in their taste for rural amusements, put 
 me in mind of what we are told of the inhabitants of the happy valley 
 of Cashmeer, who spend their days and moonlight nights in skiffs, 
 floating about their lovely lake, or wandering in the flowery islands 
 that adorn it. A Chileno family knows no pleasure greater than a 
 walking or riding party into the country ; a matee taken in a garden, 
 or on the brow of a hill under some huge tree ; and all ranks seem 
 sensible to the same enjoyment. At sunset we all adjourned to the 
 Casa Cotapos, where the young people sung and danced to a late 
 hour. 
 
 In the forenoon, Don Camilo Henriques, the deputy from Valdivia, 
 and the last month's secretary to the convention, called ; he is clever 
 and agreeable : with him was Dr. Vera, a man of literature and a 
 poet. He has the talent of extemporary versification, if what I hear 
 be true, in as great a degree as Metastasio ; and it is also said that 
 his written poetry is as polished. This gentleman is a perfect Albino : 
 his hair, eyes, and complexion, all are like those we sometimes see 
 in Europe ; but his intellect is far from partaking of the weakness 
 which has generally been observed to accompany the physical pecu- 
 liarity of the Albinos : on the contrary, it is above the common rate 
 of his countrymen ; indeed I may say more, Dr. Vera would figure 
 as a literary man in Europe. He is lately released from the discom- 
 fort of a goitre : his was remarkably large, so much so indeed as to 
 threaten him with suffocation, when a friend advised him to bathe it 
 with Cologne water. This he did diligently several times a day, and 
 the swelling is now so decreased that he wears a neckcloth like an- 
 other man ; and I did not perceive that he had a goitre till I was told 
 of it. Nobody pretends to account for this cure : I write it as he 
 relates it. 
 
 2rf Sept. — At ten o'clock Mr. Prevost, Mr. de Roos» Dona Mari- 
 quita, Don Jose Antonio, and I, set off to see the baths of Colinas, 
 about ten leagues or a little more from the city. The first three 
 leaoues of road are on that which leads to Mendoza, and lie along 
 a plain, for the most part stony, with the exception of a little rise, 
 called the Portesuelo or Gap, by which we passed between two hills 
 
 6' G 
 
226 JOURNAL. 
 
 to another part of the plain ; the part near the city is covered prin- 
 cipally with garden grounds, irrigated from the Salta de Agua : be- 
 yond the Portesuelo, we came to a very extensive hacienda belong- 
 ing to one of the Izquierdas, where every thing was in preparation 
 for the annual rodeo. The scenery of a cattle farm, being like that 
 of our forest lands at home, is much more picturesque than any other ; 
 but it is wilder, and gives less the air of civilisation. We passed 
 along by the foot of a high mountain projecting immediately from 
 the Andes for about four leagues more, and then entered the Gar- 
 gana, or gorge of the mountain in which the baths are situated. The 
 approach to it is marked by wider channels of floods, now partially 
 dried, higher trees, and more varied though confined scenery. We 
 had passed in the morning several farm-houses ; at one of which we 
 had stopped to rest, and get refreshments. The farm servants being 
 all about, gave an air of liveliness and interest. But now we lost 
 sight of all marks of habitation, and proceeded along the gorge 
 by a narrow path made with some labour, but scarcely safe for five 
 or six miles, when we came to the baths. Nothing can be more 
 desolate than their appearance now, and perhaps the dulness of the 
 day contributed to that effect. Midwinter still reigns ; no grass 
 enlivens the red mountain side; but here and there an evergreen 
 shrub, with its spiry buds still closely folded, overhangs the valley 
 below. A bright beautiful stream breaks its way down the whole 
 vale, and the sources of this are the celebrated baths. From under 
 the living rock, several copious springs gush out at a temperature 
 not below 100° of Fahrenheit. The water is perfectly limpid, and 
 without peculiar taste or smell, but is said to acquire both if bottled 
 up a few hours. Over the fountain heads, two little ranges of brick 
 buildings, each divided into several rooms (three I think in one, and 
 four in the other, or three in each), are built to protect the baths from 
 rain or from dust : the water is lodged in hollows of the rock, with 
 a brick facing, in which there is a square outlet to permit it to run 
 out freely ; so that through each basin there is a constant stream 
 passing, and not communicating with any other. The quantity of 
 hot water is so great, that on flowing out of the baths, with the 
 
COLINAS. 
 
 227 
 
 addition of one small branch, it forms the river Colinas, which has a 
 meandering course of upwards of thirty leagues, and feeds the lake 
 of Pudaguel. Adjoining to the baths are three long ranges of build- 
 ings, each containing ten or twelve apartments, and a general veranda 
 along the front of the whole ; and these furnish the accommodation 
 for the bathers who frequent Colinas in the summer, that is, from 
 November till June. ^Tlie waters are considered good for rheuma- 
 tism, jaundice, scrofula^ and all cutaneous diseases. One range of 
 buildings is for the accommodation of the poorer sort, and there 
 the rooms are about six feet by seven ; and into each a whole family 
 will creep ; having first built a shed for a kitchen in some contiguous 
 spot. The rich are accommodated in the same manner, only that 
 their rooms are larger, some of them being fifteen feet square. But 
 whUe at Colinas, people live chiefly out of doors ; for then the 
 mountain side is beautiful with flowers, and the woods are dry and 
 shady. The little chapel occupies the prettiest spot in the valley ; 
 but now it is shut up, neither priest nor parishioner being tempted 
 to winter here among the snow and barrenness. So in the first week 
 in June or ' earlier, the patients withdraw, the doors are shut up, 
 the priest takes the key of his chapel, and all is left in solitude. 
 
 )||''^.' 
 
228 JOURNAL. 
 
 We seated ourselves in one of the verandas, and ate the luncheon 
 we had brought with us ; and I was so cold that I was glad to drink 
 the warm water from the spring with my wine, and warm my hands 
 in it. While the horses were getting ready, Doiia Mariquita and 
 I had the curiosity to enter one of the rooms which we found open, 
 and dearly we paid for our curiosity ; for we were instantly covered 
 with myriads of fleas, who I suppose had had no fresh food for 
 several months, for they attacked us so unmercifully, that I thought 
 I had some violent eruption on my skin. After we had mounted 
 and reached the little knoll behind the chapel, I stood a moment 
 to look back at the tenantless houses, deserted fane, bare bleak 
 banks, and now darkly lowering clouds ; so different from the cheer- 
 ful character which I have been told belongs to it in summer, when 
 the sick and old who come in quest of health and vigour, bear a 
 small proportion to the young and strong who come in search of 
 pleasure or beauty, which last the Colinas waters are firmly believed 
 to bestow : but though Doiia Mariquita and I applied them to our 
 faces, we were not sensible of any change ; and so had no fairy tales 
 to tell after our journey. As soon as we quitted the gorge, instead 
 of pursuing the road back to the city, we turned to the right ; and 
 after a gallop of three leagues arrived at the village of Colinas, 
 the first stage from St. lago to Mendoza, and about halfway between 
 the city and the famous field of Chacabuco. 
 
 About half a mile beyond the church of Colinas is the hacienda 
 of Don Jorge Godoy, with whose lady and daughter I am well ac- 
 quainted. There we were to sleep, and so return home in the morn- 
 ing. We found the old gentleman sitting at his door after the fa- 
 tigues of the day in his cap and slippers, and poncho. He very rarely 
 goes to town, but resides here with his nephew, like a patriarch in 
 the midst of his husbandmen. It began to rain heavily, to the credit 
 of St. Isidore, as soon as we got into the house ; and we congratu- 
 lated ourselves on being sheltered from the storm, and having the 
 comfort of a* huge brassero of coals, and sheepskins laid under our 
 
COLINAS. 229 
 
 feet while we took matee, more refreshing still than tea after a day's 
 journey. 
 
 In due time a most plentiful supper appeared, beginning with 
 eggs in various forms, followed by stews and ollas of beef, mutton, 
 and fowls, and terminated by apples ; to which full justice was done, 
 from the egg to the apple, as well as to Don Jorge's wines. 
 
 September Sd. — This morning the sun rose clear and bright, and 
 discovered the Andes, and even the nearer hills, completely covered 
 with snow which fell last night, while it rained below. Before break- 
 fast we were shown the storehouses of the farm. First, the granary, 
 now nearly emptied of its wheat : on one part of the spare floor a 
 well-dried hide was spread, and on it fresh beef for immediate use, 
 accoi'ding to the fashion of the country, cut in strips about three 
 inches wide, the bones being thrown away. There were, besides, 
 hanging round thongs of every kind, and layas, and bands all ready 
 for use. Within the granary was a second dispense, hung round with 
 tallow candles ; on the floor, there were many hundred arobas of 
 tallow in skins, ready for sale ; and, in one corner, I saw a heap of 
 skimmings, i. e. the refuse fat after the melting of the suet for tallow. 
 This, I find, is what the peons use, instead of butter or oil, to enrich 
 their cookery, and it is as necessary to them as ghee to an East 
 Indian. In another place, were the yokes and goads for the oxen, 
 and the spades for the diggers of water-channels, &c. ; these are of 
 very hard wood, with a long handle, the use of iron spades being, as 
 yet, confined to the gardens near the city and places near the port, 
 where foreigners have made them common. A side-door in the 
 storehouse admitted us into a square court ; on one side of which is 
 the butchery, where, in the proper season, that is, late in autumn, 
 the beasts are slaughtered for hides, tallow, and charqui. At present 
 it looks like an unfinished shed ; in the season it is covered with 
 green boughs, in order that the animals, and all about them, may be 
 kept cool. On one side of the square is a melting-house for the 
 tallow. The pots are made of clay upon the estate ; they are two 
 inches and a half thick. Next to the melting-house is the shed with 
 
230 JOURNAL. 
 
 furnaces for boiling the lees, which they put into the wine to hasten 
 the fermentation ; and beyond, a still of the simplest kind for making 
 brandy. From sixteen lo twenty labouring families live, on the 
 estate, and twice or thrice that number of hired peons are employed 
 at different seasons, when there is a press of work. The wages of 
 these are high, not from the high price of food, but from the want of 
 hands. 
 
 The low population of Chile, notwithstanding the natural fruit- 
 fulness of the soil, and a climate favourable to human life, is not 
 wonderful. The grants of land to the first Spanish, settlers still re- 
 main, for the greater part, unrevoked. These are so extensive, that 
 between Santiago and Valparaiso three superior lords, or mayorasgos, 
 possess the soil. Now the original proprietors, intent only on the 
 procuring of the precious metals, the only thing then looked for in 
 this country, cultivated no more of the land than was sufficient for 
 the supplying their household with necessaries : this cultivation, 
 scanty as it was, was performed by encomiendas, or duty-work, done 
 by the Indians ; and this was a species of slavery highly unfavourable 
 to the advance of population. In the first year of the revolution, 
 duty-work and slavery were utterly abolished. Servants are now 
 paid, and they are beginning to have houses of their own, with little 
 gardens. Yet still much duty-work is done, in fact, by the peons 
 and half Indians on every estate, although it may not be strictly 
 legal : but what are the poor to do ? They must take their shelter 
 and their food from some employer, and the employer will often 
 exact from his servant labours beyond the law. Government has it 
 now in contemplation to empower mayorasgos to sell small portions 
 of their lands, and to grant either long or perpetual leases, by which 
 means the soil will fall into the hands of those who have a personal in- 
 terest in it, and population will grow with the means of supportino- it. 
 
 On our return from the farm-yard we found an excellent breakfast 
 awaiting us, and our horses brought in from the clover (lucern) field 
 to be saddled while we ate ; and then returned to Santiago, which we 
 reached about one o'clock. 
 
SANTIAGO. 231 
 
 I spent the evening in my room, where the young ladies came 
 occasionally to me ; and Mr. De Roos, Don Jose Antonio, and Don 
 Domingo Reyes, spent the evening. Don Domingo is a grave, 
 well-informed, liindly person, to whom I am obliged for much of the 
 knowledge I have of the country, both historical and physical. His 
 father was secretary to Don Ambrose O'Higgins, and to several other 
 captains-general ; he was even so to Osorio, in the interval between 
 the battle of Rancagua and that of Chacabuco, after which he emi- 
 grated. But his conduct had always been so honest and honourable 
 that all parties trusted him, and none disliked him. He was there- 
 fore recalled, his property restored, and himself employed. The 
 character of Don Domingos is one formed by the times : a pre-emi- 
 nent point in it is love for the father he has seen so tried. And he 
 is pious, — I should say almost to superstition, did I not know what a 
 life he has seen ; yet he is quietly cheerful, and actively kind to his 
 friends, and possesses a most alFectionate disposition. My friend 
 Don Antonio has neither the knowledge, nor intelligence, nor cul- 
 tivation of Reyes ; but he is good-natured and kind-hearted. He 
 takes half a dozen matees when he first rises, smokes segars all -day, 
 goes to his counting-house I believe regularly, and at night loves to 
 dance cuandos, and sing, and play the guitar better elsewhere than at 
 home ; all this is not very unnatural, and moreover not inconsistent 
 with the character of a Chile beau : to-night he sung and played very 
 pleasantly several of the songs with which the young gentlemen of 
 Chile serenade their loves ; a custom at least as prevalent here as in 
 Italy. After all, the most beautiful thing of the kind in the world is 
 Shakspeare's own, " Hark, the lark at heaven's gate sings ;" which 
 puts to shame all other minstrelsy to ladies sleeping, or waking in the 
 hope of hearing music. 
 
 Thursday, Sept. 6th. — A large party, consisting of the v/hole of the 
 Cotapos family, and a number of others, amounting to thirty, includ- 
 ing Mr. Prevost, Mr. De Roos, and myself, spent a day in the country. 
 The ladies who did not ride went in carretons, small covered vehicles 
 of the country, in which they sit on carpets and cushions. The ser- 
 
232 
 
 JOURNAL. 
 
 vants and provisions were in another, thatched at the top exactly like 
 a cottage. The whole party was collected in the pateo of the Casa 
 Cotapos, and set off by nine o'clock, as gay as youth, health, and a 
 resolution to be pleased, could make them. I should say us; for, at 
 least in the resolution to be pleased, I equalled the rest. 
 
 After a short pleasant ride of about five miles to the eastward, we 
 reached Nnuiioa, a pleasant village, where the bishop has a seat, and 
 where, a chacra having been lent us for the purpose, we spent a most 
 agreeable -day. The place is exceedingly pretty, being full of gardens 
 and orchards, and surrounded by corn-fields ; and the rich back- 
 ground of mountains on every side, especially the cold snowy Andes, 
 set off the flowery fields of Nnuiioa to the greatest advantage. 
 
 Doiia Mariquita and I, with two or three others, among whom was 
 Doria Mariquita's father, Don Jose Miguel de Cotapos, a most gen- 
 tlemanlike old^ man, in his poncho of plain Vicunha wool of the 
 natural colour, and his broad hat, his silver-mounted bridle, stirrups, 
 &c., rode off to a casita about two leagues farther on. — I should 
 have described our party. Don Jose Miguel was not the only man in 
 a poncho, or rather few went without, though several of the young 
 men had tied theirs round their waists, instead of wearing them over 
 their shoulders. Most had Chileno saddles, with all manner of car- 
 pets and skins upon them. All the ladies had English saddles ; the 
 greater number of female riders had coloured spencers, and long white 
 skirts with close bonnets and flowers ; two had small opera-hats and 
 feathers, and beautiful silk dresses : only my maid and I had sober 
 riding-habits. We looked like some gay cavalcade in a fairy tale, 
 rather than people going to ride soberly on the earth ; and I was 
 sorry that I could not sketch the figures. Here Mariquita in scarlet 
 and white, and a becoming black beaver bonnet; there Rosario with 
 a brown spencer, flowing white skirt, straw bonnet, and roses not so 
 gay as her cheeks ; then Mercedes Godoy and another Mercedes, 
 with feathers gracefully waving in the wind, reining up their managed 
 horses, and their silks glittering in the sun : and by their sides the 
 merry Erreda-with his green frock ; Jose Antonio with his poncho 
 
SANTIAGO. 2S3 
 
 of turquois blue, striped with flowers ; and De Roos with his grey 
 silk jacket and sunny British countenance. While Reyes and some 
 of the graver men attended the carretons, where the elder ladies were 
 all dressed in gala habits. Such was the show at Nnuiioa, when our 
 small party determined to ride on to the Casita de Gana, the most 
 elevated dwelling in the neighbourhood. The road to it is very 
 beautiful, between fields of corn and olive gardens, and through a 
 pretty hamlet ; whence a lane, bordered by willows just coming into 
 leaf, leads to the casita. It is a small house, decorated with coloured 
 paper and prints, and only calculated for a few days' summer resi- 
 dence. It is so high on the slope of the cordillera that the master 
 can always command snow to cool his drink ; and he has two unfail- 
 ing springs crossing his orchard. The view from hence is very fine : 
 several villages and rich corn land are in the fore-ground ; then the 
 city, with Sta. I^ucia and San Cristoval, and the adjacent hills, which 
 in other countries would be mountains ; beyond that the plain, ter- 
 minated by the Cuesta de Prado, now capped with snow. 
 
 On our return to the Nnunoa we found our friends busy dancing 
 to the quita. They had procured two musicians to hire, and were 
 engaged in minuets, and Spanish country-dances, perhaps the most 
 trraceful in the world. But what most delighted me were the 
 cuando and samba, danced and sung with more spirit than the city 
 manners allow ; yet still decorous. Dancing can express only two 
 passions, — the hatred of war, and love. Even the grave minuet de la 
 cour will, by its approaching, retiring, presenting of hands, separating, 
 and final meeting, express the latter; how much more the rustic 
 dance that gives the quarrel and reconciliation ! This it is which 
 makes dancing a fine art. The mere figures of dances where more 
 than two are concerned, such as vulgar French or English dances, 
 have as little to do with the poetry of dancing as the inventors of 
 patterns for printed linens have to do with the poetry of painting. 
 My Chilenos feel dancing ; and even when they dance a Scotch reel, 
 they contrive to infuse a little of the spirit of the muse into it, 
 
 H IT 
 
234 JOURNAL. 
 
 The dancing was interrupted by dinner, after which a new talent 
 was displayed by some of my friends. Doiia Mariquita was first 
 called on for a toast : she gave one in four couplets of graceful poe- 
 try adapted to the occasion and the company, with an ease that 
 showed she was accustomed to extempore composition. This was 
 followed by several others, some really witty from the gentlemen ; 
 and the young people of both sexes who possessed this charming 
 talent exercised it when called on, equally without shyness and with- 
 out ostentation. 
 
 In the evening I undertook to make tea for the dancers ; after 
 which we rode back to the city as gay a cavalcade as ever entered it, 
 and the day was ended by a tertulla at the Casa Cotapos. 
 
 5th September. — Visited several persons, English and Chileno. I 
 say nothing of the English here, because I do not know them except 
 as very civil vulgar people, with one or two exceptions, Mr. B., for 
 instance, commonly called Don Diego ; he has lived many years here 
 since the revolution, and says he has never met with injustice or un- 
 kindness in the country : he knows it better than most persons. 
 Mr. C. has gone through much, — has I may say been a party in 
 the southern war, lending his money, horses, and ships to the patriot 
 cause ; and he, I think, seems to possess the clearest ideas concerning 
 the state of Chile of any man I have met with. And there are se- 
 veral very good people, some acting the fine gentleman, others 
 playing the knave, just as it happens in other places ; only I do wish 
 that some more of the better specimens of English were here, for 
 the honour of our nation and the benefit of Chile. 
 
 ^,th. — I went early to the national printing-office, which is creditable 
 enough to the little state ; but the types are very scanty. I doubt 
 if they could print a quarto of four hundred pages. I bought the 
 gazettes from 1818 to the present time; nothing was printed here 
 before. I also got some laws, rules, and songs. Under the old 
 Spanish government I believe Chile had no press at all, but am not 
 quite sure ; nor could I learn. But every thing necessary was printed 
 
SANTIAGO. 235 
 
 at Lima ; i. e. every thing that the Viceroy, the Archbishop, and the 
 Grand Inquisitor chose to promulgate. 
 
 In the afternoon we went to visit the nuns of St. Augustin's. 
 Thank God, by the new regulations the convents have all become so 
 poor, that there is good hope the number will soon diminish. These 
 nuns are old and ugly, with the exception of one, who is young,has sweet 
 eyes, and is very pale ; a dangerous beauty for a cavalier : she moved 
 my pity. The old ladies gave us matee, the best I have tasted, made 
 with milk and Chile cinnamon ; and the cup was set in a tray of 
 flowers, so that both taste and smell were gratified. This convent 
 is one of the finest in Chile, having seven quadrangles : we saw 
 through the parlour into one of them, where, in the centre of a pool, 
 there is the ugliest Virgin that man ever cut in stone, intended to 
 spout water from her mouth and breast ; but she is now idle, as the 
 fountain is under repair ; and the masons, with half a dozen soldiers 
 to guard them or the nuns, were busy round the pool. During the 
 short time I remained at the grate, I heard more gossip than I have 
 done for months, and perceived that the recluses continue to take a 
 lively interest in the things of this wicked world. I was not sorry 
 when summoned to go to another place ; and having left a golden 
 remembrancer with the good ladies, I accompanied Mr. Prevost and 
 Mr. de Roos to the public library. There may be about ten or 
 twelve thousand volumes lodged for the present in the college ; but 
 the convent of San Domingo having offered its library to the state, 
 these books are to be transfen-ed thither as soon as rooms are ready, 
 and the whole will then be open to the public. The librarian is Don 
 Manuel de Salas y Corbalan, a polite and well-informed man, who 
 showed me a beautiful Cluverius, and told me he prided himself on 
 the collection of voyages, travels, and geography. Law fills up half 
 the shelves ; and there is a great proportion of French, but little 
 English, and of that little Vancouver's Voyage is best known; because 
 as it has slandered Chile, they are all too angry here not to point it 
 out to all visitors. I met in the library the deputy Albano, whom I 
 
236 JOURNAL. 
 
 had seen as president of the Convention, and with whom I had an 
 hour's pleasant conversation. In passing by the law-shelves he said, 
 *' Here is the plague of Chile : thirty seven thousand of these ordi- 
 " nances are still in force, and there are at least thrice the number 
 " of commentaries on them. The Chilenos are extremely litigious ; 
 " it is honourable to have a pleyto ; and yet a pleyto often lasts for 
 " years, and ruins more families than all the other catises of ruin, 
 " except gambling, put together." Albano hopes to effect some 
 establishment analogous to that of our justices of the peace, to 
 obviate the evil of arbitrary imprisonments, which are frequent here. 
 He mentioned with respect a royal decree of 1718, for the guidance 
 of the judges of districts in Spanish America, and seemed to wish 
 that it might be adopted here as the basis of the civil administration. 
 
 I was so pleased with the President's discourse, that I was quite 
 sorry to be reminded that I had already encroached on the com- 
 plaisance of the librarian, and that the ladies Godoy expected me to 
 take matee. To th^m L went, however, and met pretty Madame 
 Blanco, the wife of the former Rear-admiral of Chile, now San 
 Martin's naval commander-in-chief. She is gay and pleasing. 
 
 8^^.. — i bought my roan horse Fritz : he has white feet, and two 
 blue eyes ; is tall and strong, and never carried a woman in his life : 
 but I wanted to give my pet Charles some rest, so thought twenty 
 dollars not too much ; therefore I gave it at once, mounted Fritz 
 without ceremony, and rode to the Director's chacra with Mr. de 
 Roos, to pay a forenoon visit. We were not allowed, however, to 
 leave it before dinner. We found the ladies sitting in their garden, 
 with their little Indian girls playing about them. This place is called 
 the Conventilla, and belonged to the Franciscan friars, who long ago 
 began building close to it a church to Our Lady, and collected money 
 from every passenger for the completion of the chapel ; which, how- 
 ever, never made any progress, notwithstanding the large sums that 
 were levied in this manner on the public. The Director, therefoi'e, 
 bought all the ground, and bargained with the friars for their church ; 
 
SANTIAGO. 2^^ 
 
 SO that he has caused that imposition to cease : besides, his purchas- 
 ing, building, and planting to the extent he is doing, gives people 
 confidence in the stability of the government ; and that confidence 
 of itself will contribute to the stability it looks to. This is rather 
 a remarkable day in Chile : Rodriguez the bishop, who has long 
 been an exile on account of his political principles, and his inter-, 
 ference in state matters, has at length been recalled. A few days 
 since he came privately to his lodge at Nnunoa; and to-day he made 
 his first public appearance in the cathedral. Before that ceremony 
 he waited on the Director, who congratulated him on his return to 
 his diocese, telling him he trusted that he would henceforth remem- 
 ber that the advancement of the age and of public opinion demanded 
 a more liberar feeling and action in ecclesiastical matters, than was 
 the case formerly ; that he trusted to His Lordship's good sense to 
 shape his conduct accordingly : but that while he was Director of 
 Chile, neither pope nor priest should possess temporal power, or a 
 right of exemption from the civil and criminal jurisdiction of the 
 country. The bishop then proceeded to take fresh possession of the 
 see, with what appetite he might ; and performed a solemn Mass 
 himself in the cathedral on the occasion. His restoration has given 
 satisfaction to many of the devout, who have languished for their 
 spiritual pastor ; to numerous private connections, by whom the 
 bishop is beloved ; and more than all, to the families of persons exiled 
 for political crimes, because seeing the greatest of these recalled, they 
 may entertain hopes of the restoration of others. * 
 
 Fortunately for us there were no strangers but ourselves j and the 
 
 * A few days before I came to Santiago, the festival of St. Bernardo, the Director's 
 patron, was . celebi-ated. It had been the old Spanish custom for the captains-general of 
 the province to grant some boon on their birth-days or saints'-days ; and this year the 
 Director was entreated to mark his feast by the recall of the exiles. He answered, *' No :" 
 I am but a private citizen, and have no business to distinguish my day ; but if you apply 
 to the Convention to mark the 18th of September, the anniversary of your independence, 
 by such an act of grace, I will support the request with all the power and all the influence 
 I possess." 
 
^38 
 
 JOURNAL. 
 
 Director readily led the conversation to the affairs of Chile, and to 
 the events of his own life. * Of the recent affairs in Peru (the dis- 
 placing Monteagudo, &c.) he expressed himself with regret, consider- 
 ing that minister's conduct, and the consequences of it, as a stain on 
 the good cause. I wish I had dared to hint, that a conduct as bad, 
 though in a different way, in Rodriguez, his own minister, was pro- 
 ducing effects at least as vexatious here. 
 
 We walked a good deal about the gardens, and amused ourselves 
 for some time with a fine telescope ; through which the Director 
 pointed out to me many farms on the plain of Maypu, in the line 
 of the canal of irrigation which he has made since he was Director, 
 where all was formerly barren, and behind whose thickets robbers 
 and murderers concealed themselves, so that the roads were unsafe. 
 These ruffians have now disappeared, and peaceful farms occupy the 
 crround. From the garden we went in to dinner, where all was plain 
 and handsome. English neatness gave the Chileno dishes every thing 
 I had ever thought wanting in them. Dona Isabella, Dona Rosa, 
 Dona Xaviera the Director's niece a beautiful young woman, and 
 one aide-de-camp, besides ourselves, formed the whole party. The 
 little Indians had a low table in the corner, where the little daugh- 
 ter of the Cacique presided ; and where they were served with as 
 much respect as Dona Rosa herself. The entrance of some strangers 
 after dinner put an end to all confidential intercourse ; and I then 
 walked about the house with Dona Isabella. The ladies' bed-rooms 
 are neat and comfortable every way. The Director, when here, 
 sleeps on a little portable camp-bed ; and to judge by his room, is 
 not very studious of personal accommodation. At sunset we re- 
 turned to town, and at the same time His Excellency's family went 
 thither also to attend the opera, which Dona Rosa never misses. 
 Their equipage is English ; and though plain, handsome. 
 
 * By his permission, I have made use of this conversation in the sketch of the History 
 of Chile. 
 
SANTIAGO. 239 
 
 Monday, September 9th. — This morning, Doiaa Rosario, Don Jose 
 Antonio, Mr. de Roos, and I, attended by ray peon Felipe, left the 
 city on a little expedition to the hacienda of Don Justo Salinas, a son- 
 in-law of my host. The road lies over the plain of Maypu, which is 
 perfectly level between the city and the river, a distance of from twenty 
 to thirty miles ; and this is the part newly fertiUsed by the Director's 
 canal, which waters the land formerly barren between the Mapocho 
 and Maypu. The old. Spanish government had at one time the same 
 object in view ; but after spending a large sum in preparation for the 
 water-courses, nothing was done. The republic has laid out 25,000 
 dollars on the main canal ; and by selling the land at a nominal valu- 
 ation, a small annual quitrent only being payable, but requiring 500 
 dollars for the water sufficient for a large farm, has repaid itself, or 
 rather I should say, has raised a large sum, — near 200,000 dollars, I 
 am told. The proprietor of each farm is bound to face his part of 
 the canal with stone, and to maintain the water-course. The crops 
 are looking very fine all along the plain ; the soil seems to me to be 
 a light vegetable mould mixed with sand, and full of pebbles, as if it 
 had been long under water : these pebbles are larger and more irre- 
 gular on the plain than in the beds of the Mapocho or Maypu, ex- 
 cepting where the latter, in the very midst of its channel, has lodged 
 or uncovered rocks of considerable size. Midway between the city 
 and the river, one of the little ranges of hills which cross the plain 
 at right angles with the Andes, and seem to connect the inferior 
 rido^es of the Prado and others with the grand cordillera, runs across 
 the road, sinking completely into the plain before it reaches the 
 mountain. The pass between the last little cone of this range and 
 the main part is called the Portesuelo of St. Austin de Fango ; and 
 just at its entrance there are a few cottages, surrounded by some little 
 orchards watered by an old cut from the Maypu, the sight of which 
 was quite refreshing after a fifteen miles' ride without a variety. 
 Fifteen miles more, very nearly as monotonous, brought us to the ford 
 of the rapid and turbid Maypu. This river flows out of the Andes, 
 
240 JOURNAL. 
 
 where there is a pass called the Portillo, little practised, because the 
 sides are so steep as to afford no escape from the avalanches that con- 
 tinually roll down from above. It is, however, shorter than that by 
 the Cumbre, and is often passable when the latter is not. I am told 
 that the scenery in that deep valley, where the rapid flood breaks its 
 way over a rugged bed, and makes frequent falls, is truly sublime ; and 
 were the season favourable, I should be tempted to go half a day's 
 journey into it. The passage of the Maypu is exceedingly dangerous 
 during the floods, and must be at times impassable, if I may judge by 
 the depth of the banks on either side, which cannot be much less than 
 forty feet ; and the space between them must be nearly a quarter of a 
 mile. Within this great bed the river now divides itself into several 
 channels, which are all easily forded, the main branch indeed being 
 deep and rapid : over this there is a bridge of the ancient Indian 
 construction, which is used when the river is not fordable. It con- 
 sists of upright poles, fixed at both sides of the stream ; and across 
 these thongs of hide are stretched, and these again interlaced with 
 others, so as to make a swinging bridge, suspended now as it seems 
 in mid air. This simple bridge is removed during the great floods, 
 and replaced as soon as the ordinary passage is opened. On the 
 north side of the river there is not a tree, and the eye ranges over 
 an immense space without a rising ground of any kind ; on the south 
 side, the country is richer, and more cultivated, particularly at 
 Viluco ; near which is the village and the chapel of Maypu, the parish 
 church of an immense district. Viluca is an estate belonging to the 
 Marques la Rayna, one pf the richest men in Chile : it is worth about 
 25,000 dollars a year, and is in a high state of cultivation ; a wall two 
 full leagues in length separates it from the road, and I was really 
 weary of it. The walls for enclosures here are formed of clay beaten 
 hard into wooden frames fixed on the spot, and removed when filled 
 to the end of the former piece, and filled again ; so that when it is 
 done, the wall looks as if of giant bricks. At length we came to a 
 piece of bad muddy road on the banks of the little river Paine, which 
 
t3 
 
 ^ 
 
ANGOSTURA DE PAINE. 241 
 
 runs rapidly from a projecting branch of the cordillera, which ad- 
 vances here so as almost to meet the Cerro de Penigue, and forms the 
 narrow pass, or Angostura de Paine, commonly called here 1' Angostura, 
 through which the road leads to Rancagua. From Paine, where there 
 is a post-house, the road is bordered on each side with magnificent 
 trees, chiefly maytenes ; and country-houses and rich plantations take 
 place of the wide and wild plain we had passed. One of the finest 
 estates belongs to the hospital of San Juan de Deos, and is rented by 
 one of the Valdezes ; and there we turned off the main road to 
 follow the course of a beautiful river which flows out of the pass, 
 and is therefore commonly called the Rio de I'Angostura. We 
 passed some haciendas of Erreda's and Solar's, and then arrived at 
 that of Salinas, where we were most kindly received by both master 
 and mistress : she is the eldest daughter of my host and hostess, the 
 widow of the unfortunate Juan Jose Carrera, who I trust has found 
 in her second marriage some compensation for the sufferings endured 
 during the first. She has one of the most beautiful faces I ever 
 beheld : an eye both to entreat and to command ; and a mouth 
 which neither painter or sculptor, in his imagined Hebes or Graces, 
 could equal. Hei' age is now only twenty-five; her countenance 
 would say seventeen ; and as I stood a moment entranced by her 
 beauty, and remembered her story, I doubted whether I had not 
 suddenly dreamed of things that romances only had hitherto brought 
 me familiar with. Don Justo is a fine well-looking young man, two 
 years younger than his wife. They were not a little delighted to 
 see their brother and sister; but their welcome was almost as kind 
 to Mr. de Roos and me. 
 
 The evening was excessively cold, a brisk wind from the mountain 
 having set in ; and we all crowded round the brassero, which was 
 placed in the corner of a very pretty drawing-room, till supper was 
 served, about nine o'clock ; and we were complimented on having 
 ridden well, as the distance from the city is upwards of fourteen 
 leagues, which we had done in nine hours with the same horses, 
 
242 JOURNAL. 
 
 including two hours' rest, which we had given our steeds, and some 
 time wasted in mending my stirrup, which broke on the road. 
 
 10^^. — Breakfast in Chile is usually at a latish hour, and con- 
 sists sometimes of soup, or meat and wine ; but every body takeig 
 matee or chocolate at their bed side. Dona. Ana Maria, aware how 
 different our customs are, sent tea, bread and butter, and eggs, to my 
 room, for Mr. de Roos and me. I ought to describe the house. The 
 outer door opens into the principal bed-room, which is the common 
 sitting-room. On one side is a dressing-closet, and the nursery 
 for the two little boys ; on the other, the drawing-room ; and beyond 
 that the dining-room, a light cheerful apartment. A veranda runs 
 along the front ; and from it other apartments enter, such as Salinas' 
 own room, and bed-rooms for guests. Dona Rosario and I occupied 
 one, and Don Jose Antojiio and Mr. de Roos another. But the 
 privacy of bed-rooms is not respected in Chile as in England ; so I 
 find an additional advantage in my habit of rising early, as it anti- 
 cipates intrusion. Great part of the day is passed in the veranda j 
 and I do not wonder at it, the air is so pleasant and the view so fine. 
 In the course of the day I saw almost the whole farm ; and first I 
 went into the vineyards. The principal one is two quadras, about 
 the sixth of a mile, square : the vines are supported on stakes, and 
 are pruned down to five feet in height. The soil between the rows 
 is not annually loosened, as in Italy, but only once in twenty or 
 thirty years the roots are laid open and trimmed. From the vine- 
 yard we proceeded to the orchard, where there are walnuts, peaches, 
 plums, apricots, pears, and cherries, only beginning to blossom ; be- 
 cause, besides that we are now nearly a degree farther to the south, 
 we are nearer the mountain here, and moi'e exposed to the chilly 
 winds. From the orchard we went to look at the cows, which are 
 very fine ; the calves are beautiful. But the dairy is very ill managed 
 here : with sixteen fine milch cows they do not make twelve pounds 
 of butter a week ; nay, sometimes not above half that quantity ; 
 and the quantity of cheese is inconsiderable, though both the butter 
 
ANGOSTURA DE PAINE. 243 
 
 and cheese are exceedingly good. The sheep are very fine ; their 
 fleeces are good, and the wool is of a very long staple, and each 
 fleece fetches at least three reals. The shearing time is October. 
 I also saw a sheep from the Pehuenches with five horns, no two of 
 which seemed to form a pair. Hanging up before the door, there 
 was a young stuffed jaguar, commonly called the Chile lion, an inha- 
 bitant of the hills here, and very destructive among the sheep and 
 the young cattle ; but I believe it never meddles with man. Don 
 Justo gave me the paw of a large one, which measures six inches 
 across, and must have belonged to a very formidable brute. The 
 cellars are fitted up with earthen jars sunk into the ground, in the 
 same manner as the Jesuits tell us the Indians of the interior prac- 
 tised with their chicha jars. Into the smooth clay floor the jars are 
 sunk nearly to the middle. Each cellar contained about sixty jars, 
 every one holding twenty-five arobas : they are made of clay from 
 the neighbouring hills, and four reals for each aroba they contain 
 is the price. When the must is to be converted into wine, one aroba 
 of boiling grape-juice is poured into every four arobas of must, to 
 hasten the fermentation ; the delicacy of making wine consisting in 
 never allowing the juice actually to boil, but to stop it just on the 
 point, lest it should communicate an empyreumatic taste to the wine. 
 The jars are luted up for a season to ripen the liquor; which, 
 when ready, is put into skins, for the merchant. I tasted several 
 sorts of wine and must to-day, most of them very good ; and the 
 brandies exceedingly pleasant, though the stills are rudely con- 
 structed. In the fields here wheat yields an hundred-fold ; barley 
 seventy-fold. The ground is used one year for corn, and two for 
 grazing ; lucern being the artificial grass sown. However, some 
 natural kinds of fodder grow spontaneously after the corn. The 
 most pleasant to the cattle, of these, is the alfilerilla, so called from 
 the shape of its seed : it is the musk geraneum, indigenous in Eng- 
 land as well as here ; and is said to communicate a pleasant flavour 
 to the flesh of the animals who feed on it at certain seasons. Ano- 
 ther favourite plant of the cattle is the cardoon, or large eatable 
 
 // 2 
 
244 JOURNAL. 
 
 thistle ; and it is in season at the end of the dry weather, when it 
 is doubly valuable. I like the thistle heads so well myself, either as 
 salad or stewed, that I am not surprised at the complaints I have 
 heard that the cattle break down hedges to seek them. In the country 
 here, the flies that surround the cow-litter are caught and preserved 
 for their fragrance. 
 
 In the evening, a certain Don Lucas, who happened to be on a 
 visit at Don Justo's, played the guitar, and sung several Guaso songs, 
 and danced several dances of the country, especially one called the 
 Campana, which I had never seen, with spirit and glee. Folding the 
 edges of his poncho over his shoulders, he seized his guitar ; then 
 leading out one of the ladies, he danced, ogled, played, and sung all 
 at once, in most grotesque style. The campana, indeed, is a pas 
 seul, and the words of the song about as significant as " Hey diddle 
 diddle, the cat and the fiddle." However they served to excuse the 
 grimaces of Don Lucas, whose face is as grotesque as Grimaldi's, to 
 which it bears some resemblance. 
 
 The words of " La Campana' are as follow. 
 
 " Al mar mi avojasa por una rosa, 
 Pero le temo al agua che e peligrosa, 
 Repiquen las campanas con el esquilon, 
 Che si no hai barajo con el corazon, 
 Pescado salado desecho ya un lado, 
 Repiquen las campanas de la catedral. 
 Por ver se te veo hermosa deidad, 
 Un clavel que me distes por la ventana, 
 En una jara de oro lo tertgo in agua, 
 Repiquen las campanas de la catedral." 
 
 I believe this song, like Yankee Doodle, is capable of being length- 
 ened ad irifinitum by the singer. 
 
 After the dancing was over Don Lucas seated himself in the corner 
 of the room on a low ottoman, and once more tuned his guitar to 
 accompany his voice in some ballads and tristes, which owed more 
 to the words and manner than to the voice ; one of them, though 
 abounding with conceits, struck me as being very pretty : — 
 
ANGOSTURA DE PAINE. 
 
 " Triste. 
 
 " Llorad corazon llorad, 
 Llorad si tienes porque, 
 Que no es delito in un hombre, 
 Llorar por una Muger. 
 
 " Llora este cielo sereno, 
 Marchitando sus colores. 
 La tierra Llora en vapores, 
 L'agua que abriga en su seno, 
 Llora el aroyo, mas Ueno, 
 Se espera esterilidad, 
 
 Y las flores con lealdad, 
 Le Uoren de varios modos, 
 Pues Ahora que Uoren todos. 
 
 Llorad corazon llorad." 
 
 " Llora el prado a quien destine, 
 El cielo una esteril suerte, 
 El arbol mas duro vierte, 
 Sus lagrimas en racine. 
 Llora pues se se examina, 
 Todo insensible que ve, 
 Una mal pagada fe, 
 
 Y si lo insensible llora, 
 Llorad corazon ahora. 
 
 Llorad que tienes porque. 
 
 " Llora I'ave su huerfandad, 
 Mirando a su dueno ausente, 
 El jirguerUlo inocente, 
 Llora su cautividad. 
 El pesco llora limpidad, 
 D'el que le prende, y el hombre, 
 Llore porque, mas tu asombres, 
 Pues en estremo tan raro, 
 No es culpo en ellos eS claro. 
 
 Que no es delito in un hombre. 
 
 " Llora el bruto y no es dudable. 
 Que llora pues es pasible, 
 Quando sente lo insensible, 
 
 Y llora aun lo vegetable, 
 Llora todo lo animable, 
 Porque puede padecer, 
 
 Y se el hombre ha de tener, 
 Sentido mas exquisito, 
 Conio sera en el delito. 
 
 Llorar por una Muger." 
 
 245 
 
246 JOURNAL. 
 
 Don Justo has the best memory for verses of any person I know, 
 and repeated more songs than I can remember, or than Don Lucas 
 could sing. It is one of the necessary accomplishments of a young 
 Chileno cavalier ; so he who cannot sing his song in their country 
 parties, may at least tell his story. 
 
 Not very long ago Don Justo was dangerously ill at his father-in- 
 law's house at Santiago ; and of course there were vows made for him 
 by all the family, and especially his sisters-in-law, with whom he is a 
 great favourite. On the day he was pronounced out of danger, Jose 
 Antonio and the girls all assembled under his window, and the guitar 
 being tuned to an air of Mariquita's composition, she first sang her 
 congratulations, and then followed each of her sisters with a verse, 
 and a chorus of the four in the name of the rest of the household, all 
 of Mariquita's composition. Their tenderness overcame the sick 
 man, and he burst into tears ; when Jose Antonio with readiness 
 quickened the measure, and parodied the lines in his own person so 
 gracefully that the tears dried, and from that time Salinas began to 
 recover rapidly. The fashion and talent of occasional versifica^ 
 tion of course the Spaniards brought with them from Old Spain. 
 Who does not remember the beautiful stanza sung in praise of Pre- 
 fiosa by Clement and Andrew, in Cervante's beautiful tale of La 
 Gitanilla ? We were all astonished at the lateness of the hour when 
 we separated ; but verse and song, and Ana Maria's beautiful coun- 
 tenance and sweet voice, were excuse enough, if excuse we needed. 
 
 11th of September. — Descriptions are very often totally untrue ; 
 whence is this ? One should think nothing could be so simple as to 
 describe that which we have seen with attention. However not one 
 person in a hundred succeeds in giving to another a true idea of what 
 he has seen. I had a proof of this to-day. We went to see the lake 
 of Aculeo : I had heard it described as round, and deep in hills, 
 and still as Nemi ; and, to increase the wonder, that it was salt 
 as the sea. None of all this is true : it is irregular and winding, 
 with sunny islands in it ; some steep mountains overhang it, but the 
 margin oftener slopes gently, and affords pasturage to numerous 
 

 4 
 
LAKE OF ACULEO. 247 
 
 cattle, and its little valley opens to the eastward, on which side it 
 sends forth its stream to swell the river of the Angostura. The road 
 from Don Justo's to Aculeo is beautiful, through woods and fertile 
 plains, surrounded by mountains watered by numerous streams, and 
 enlivened by several good country-houses ; round each of which a 
 vill.age of peons is generally collected, like the large English farm 
 homesteads. 
 
 The scenery of the lake reminded me of that around the Lago 
 Maggiore ; the snowy Andes, rich banks, and bright islands, even 
 the very climate, seemed those of Northern Italy. We stopped a 
 moment at a small house on -the side of the lake where there is 
 usually a boat to be had, but she was under repair. The estate be- 
 longs to one of the La Raynas, and the fish from the lake forms a 
 considerable portion of the income from it. 
 
 Dona Ana Maria, Doiia Rosaria, and Jose Antonio, chose to re- 
 main at the cottage. Mr. de Roos and myself, attended by the two 
 peons, rode two, leagues farther up the right bank of the lake, having 
 first tasted the water, which we found to be perfectly sweet and fresh. 
 I had never seen such forest scenery out of Europe as we passed 
 thi*ough on our ride ; and then there was the peculiar fragrance of 
 the Chile woods, sometimes from the boughs of the aroma,, now in 
 blossom, sometimes from the crushed leaves, over which we. trod. 
 But this lovely scene is quite solitary ; one small fishing house, on an 
 island, alone tells that man has any part in it. But the eagle soars 
 over it, and the swan, and all the meaner tribe of aquatic fowls, brood 
 on it. Consideration for our horses induced us to return, after 
 making' one sketch, to our friends at the cottage, where we found 
 dinner awaiting us ; and then every body went to sleep, — even I did 
 so for a few minutes. On the estrada lay the ladies ; the gentlemen, 
 on the saddlecloths and ponchos, slept the hot hour under the shadow 
 of a tree j and the owners of the cottage each in her separate bed : one 
 of these is a woman of about fifty-five, who is the best horse-breaker 
 in the country, and many an untractable colt is brought to her to 
 tame. At three o'clock every body was roused to take matee, and 
 
248 JOURNAL. 
 
 about four o'clock we rode homewards, the distance being four long 
 leagues. The tints on the mountains were beautiful to-night, — from 
 almost black purple to the purest rose-colour ; and there were some 
 sudden and deep sounds from the eastward, that might have been the 
 falls of avalanches, or the voice of some of the half-extinguished 
 volcanoes in the neighbourhood. 
 
 Don Justo met us about a mile and a half from the house, and on 
 our arrival at the door we found two strange cavaliers. One was 
 
 E , whose gay cheerful spirit makes him welcome every where. He 
 
 introduced to us a man, dressed in the coarsest decent dress of the 
 country, by the title of Juan de Bonaventura ; a farmer on his own 
 estate, and a good man, though unfortunately a tonto, i. e. a half-witted 
 clown. When we entered the house, and I saw the tonto by the full 
 light, I thought that nature does indeed sometimes play the huswife, 
 in bestowing such a form and such features on one without a mind. 
 However, we assembled and took tea, after having changed our riding 
 dresses ; and Mr. de Roos, Dona Rosario, and Don Lucas, formed 
 one group on the ottoman in the corner, where Don Lucas's guitar 
 and songs made them very merry. Don Jose Antonio and Don Justo 
 were not with us, Don Justo not being well. Doiia Ana Maria and I, 
 therefore, sat at the table, where she had her work and I my drawing, 
 
 with E and the tonto. We talked of all manner of things, and 
 
 now and then, from civility, I appealed to the handsome fool, whose 
 answers were more like Shakspeare's Touchstone than those of any 
 fool I have met : and still I wondered at such a gracious outside, 
 where " every god had seemed to set his seal," coupled with so weak 
 a mind. It made me quite melancholy, and I was glad to go to supper ; 
 where Don Lucas's buffooneries furnished a natural laugh, while 
 those forced by the tonto are melancholy ; and I went to bed actually 
 sad. 
 
 \2th. — On rising to-day, I found that Don Lucas had set off, in 
 the fog and rain, for the city, without taking leave of us ; so adieu to 
 our dancing. I employed the morning in writing up my journal, 
 going into the dairy, and making enquiries concerning the tonto. 
 
ANGOSTURA DE PAINE. 249 
 
 about whom I could receive no satisfaction. At twelve o'clock the 
 mist cleared away ; and in the afternoon Don Justo, Dona Ana Maria, 
 Rosario, Mr. de Roos, and I, rode to a hill in the neighbourhood to see 
 a lovely view over the plain of Maypu, and to take our matee and 
 chat till sunset. I may repeat, a thousand times over, 'tis the loveliest 
 day I have seen ; for, in the fresh untouched scenes of nature, each 
 succeeding one is lovelier than the last. The star-like flower beneath 
 my feet, the magnificent purple shrub that bent over the cliff hun- 
 dreds of feet above the nearest resting-place, and where Salinas clung 
 like a wild roe as he grasped the splendid plant ; the pinnacle on 
 which the skins were spread, where Ana Maria and Rosario, — two 
 creatures more lovely than the flowers about them, — reclined while 
 the matee was brought in silver cups ; — all, all were beautiful ; and we 
 talked till many a story of living people was told, that romancers 
 would be glad to possess. Dona Ana Maria's first husband was, as I 
 knew long before, Juan Jose Carrera. * After his death, her brother 
 Jose Antonio crossed the Andes to Mendoza, and brought her home 
 to her family, where she lived for a time in utter seclusion. 
 At nineteen years she had seen her husband at the head of the 
 government of his country, or, at least, only second to his brother ; 
 she had twice followed him across the Andes as a fugitive ; she had 
 shared his prison ; she had begged for him ; she had seen him expire, 
 locked in his youngest brother's arms, on the scaffold ; — what wonder 
 that she was dear to the surviving Carrera ! What wonder that he 
 wrote to her in that confidential cipher which had nearly cost her her 
 life ! Some of his letters were intercepted ; and she was imprisoned 
 in the convent of the Augustine nuns in Santiago. But I will write 
 down this part of her history, as nearly as I can, in the words of her 
 mother, addressed to me some days ago : — " On Ana Maria's return 
 ^' from Mendoza we found her health so impaired by her sufferings, 
 '■ that we hurried her into the country, whither poor Miguel and I 
 M accompanied her. I was speedily recalled to town on Mariquita's 
 
 See Introduction, p. 24i. ; and Mr. Yates's paper in the Appendix. 
 
 K K 
 
250 
 
 JOURNAL. 
 
 " account, who had a very dangerous fever. On the very day of the 
 " crisis of her illness, an officer from the senate arrived, demanding 
 " our eldest daughter. My husband went to the Director, represent- 
 " ing the wretched state of the family, and especially the delicate 
 " state of my Aha Maria. But he was told that it was an affair of 
 " state, and she must appear ; so I left Mariquita with her sisters, 
 " and set off with the officer to fetch my daughter. 
 
 " We brought her to town ; she was taken before the senate, and 
 " there the letter written by Jose Miguel was shown her *, and she 
 " was desired to read it. She answered, that she did not know the 
 " cipher, and therefore could not. One of the court reminded her, 
 " that she had often used a cipher in her letters to her husband while 
 " he was imprisoned at Mendoza. She who, till then, had not heard 
 " her husband's name without convulsions, now seemed inspired with 
 " courage from above. ' Yes,' she said, ' we did occasionally write a 
 " line in cipher. Could we expose our intimate concerns to the 
 " strangers who, we knew, read our letters ere they reached us ? Or 
 " could we bear the coarse laugh of the guard-room, where they were 
 " read, at the effusions of our tenderness ? But when ye took from 
 " me the letters and papers of my martyred husband, ye took from 
 " me also the key of that cipher, and I know no other.' One of the 
 " senators, looking sternly at the beautiful girl, said, — ' Does Dona 
 " Ana Maria choose to have the words martyred husband inserted into 
 " the minutes of her examination ?' She answered, ' I have said, and 
 " I do say, martyred husband.^ The examiners then told her, that 
 " unless she read the letters in question to the council there assembled, 
 " she should be shut up in a convent. Her reply still was — ' I cannot, 
 " I know not the cipher. And if the letter were addressed to me, of 
 " which you have no proof, does another person's act in addressing 
 " me make me a criminal ? There are, alas ! other women, and other 
 " widows of my name and family, to whom it might well have been 
 
 * This letter was really written to her, and treated not of schemes and purposes, so 
 much as hopes, for the subversion of the actual government. It was highly imprudent — 
 perhaps worse. 
 
ANGOSTURA DE PAINE. 251 
 
 " directed. Besides, if it be criminal to correspond, have you proof 
 " that I have written, or replied to, or any way acknowledged, the 
 " letters of Don Jose Miguel ? Or is it wonderful, that in the 
 " desolation of his house, he should write to and condole with his 
 " martyred brother's wife ?' She was that day questioned no farther, 
 " but sent to the Augustine nuns, whence she was twice led to be re- 
 " examined ; but she never varied her answers. After tliis, her health 
 " becoming daily more delicate, her mother and youngest sister were 
 " allowed to attend her in the convent, which they did for five 
 " months." — After which the Director himself caused her to be 
 liberated, I believe at the instance of Mr. Prevost. Some persons 
 consider her as really implicated in a state intrigue. Her family 
 look on her as a suffering angel. 
 
 While she was confined in the convent, she became intimate with 
 a most interesting young person, whose misfortunes, of a different cast 
 from her own, had induced her to retire thither for life. Her husband 
 had been won over from the patriot to the royal cause, at an age 
 when principles can rarely be fixed ; — he had been faithful to it. 
 He was taken in battle, and imprisoned rather as a deserter than an 
 honourable enemy. She, being at. that time at Talcahuana, and near 
 her first lying-in, resolved to join her husband ; and so set out with 
 one faithful female servant, on foot, and with so little money, as to be 
 dependant for the greater part of the road, 500 miles, upon the 
 hospitality of her countrymen ; to whom her name, indeed, was not 
 indifferent. She reached Santiago; — a relation received her kindly. 
 She bore her infant, sending daily to the prison to know how her 
 husband was, and had always an answer of comfort. One morning 
 she heard a volley, and then another, of small arms — she was seized 
 with a shivering : she enquired after her husband ; she was told, 
 " He is out of prison, and will never be molested more." She asked 
 no farther, but rose from her bed as soon as she was able, and retired 
 to the Augustines. She was right, — he was shot that morning : his 
 child had died. In her solitude she was sometimes visited by her 
 friends, and her brother Justo Salinas was among the number. 
 
 K K 2 
 
252 JOURNAL. 
 
 Sometimes he saw with her Ana Maria, the widow of Carrera. The 
 young naturally feel for the young. He heard her story, — as who in 
 Chile did not ? — and told it to his mother, an aged lady, who lived in 
 the country, at the house we are now staying at. 
 
 When Dona Ana Maria was released from her honourable prison in 
 the Augustines, she found her brother Don Miguel labouring under 
 a severe infirmity ; and as she was banished from Santiago, and 
 ordered to live at the country-house she had inherited from her 
 husband, she proposed that he should accompany her thither for the 
 benefit of bathing in running water ; which, I observe, is considered 
 here as a specific for many complaints. Ana Maria's tender attention 
 to this brother attracted the observation of her neighbours, more espe- 
 cially of the lady of Salinas, who insisted on her removing to her house, 
 where the waters were purer and the stream stronger. She accord- 
 ingly accompanied Don Miguel to Salinas. Don Justo arrived some 
 time after : — need I say she was invited to make Salinas hers ? I am 
 not sure that all this was talked or told to-night ; but this discourse 
 made out some parts of a story which I longed to know more com^ 
 pletely, and which, even now, wants some links of the chain. 
 
 The sun at last summoned us to leave our mountain station ; and 
 we descended by a winding rocky path and through a wood, where 
 the branches often threatened to impede our progress. On such oc- 
 casions Salinas, who, like every Chileno, travels with his forest knife, 
 drew it, and quickly cut the overhanging boughs ; and we reached 
 
 home just as E with his tonto again made his appearance at 
 
 the door. The parties in the evening were much as last night ; E 
 
 and Jose Antonio occasionally taking Don Lucas's place, with Dona 
 Rosario, and Mr. de Roos. There was something in the tonto's 
 appearance to-night that led me to notice him more particularly than 
 before ; and I purposely led the conversation to points connected 
 with farming, with the state of the roads in the country, and the 
 practicability of going to Conception alone in a few weeks ; and at 
 length the answers became more and more rational, till I was half 
 convinced that the tonto was an assumed character : when E came 
 
ANGOSTURA DE PAINE. 253 
 
 up, and said something aloud, calling him by name, and the answer 
 
 was so completely that of an idiot, that I turned to E to avoid 
 
 more discourse with the unhappy creature. I spoke of Santiago and 
 the Director, which I have not done here on account of Doiia Ana 
 Maria ; and of the 18th of September, the approaching anniversary 
 of the independence of the country ; and asking him if he, as captain 
 of militia, would not be on parade with the lancers, again I saw the 
 tonto's eyes fixed on me, with an intelligence and an expression that 
 interested me anew, and I thought that perhaps his state of mind 
 was owing to some misfortune sprung out of the civil war ; so I talked 
 on, and mentioned more especially the Director's promise of backing 
 any request to be made to the Assembly for a general amnesty for 
 all persons held criminal for political opinions, and recal to all exiles. 
 There was something in the faces of all that induced me to repeat 
 this distinctly again ; and then I went on with the drawing I was 
 
 about, and E went away : I then heard the tonto speak about 
 
 me in a whisper to Doiia Ana Maria, who answered him in the same 
 tone, and then she spoke to me ; and the conversation led me to say 
 to the tonto, " And why should not you, who live in the country and 
 have your farm, be happy as any of us ?" He answered quickly ; and 
 this time his voice and language corresponded with the dignity of 
 his figure and his fine features — "/happy with farms, and peons, and 
 cattle ! — No ! for years I was wretched, and the first moment of 
 happiness I owe to you." — "Indeed !" said I. " Then you are not what 
 you seem ?" — He started up and stretched himself to his full height, 
 and his eye flashed fire. — "No,— 1 will no longer play this fool's 
 part ; it is unworthy the son of Xabiera, the nephew of Jose Miguel 
 Carrera. I am that unhappy exile Lastra, reduced to fly from desert 
 to desert, to hide me in caves, and to feed with the fowls of the air, 
 till my limbs are palsied and my youth is wasted ; and my crime has 
 been to love Chile too well. Oh, my country ! what would I not suffer 
 for thee !" I had been immoveable during this burst of feeling : but 
 now I rose astonished, as I believe all present were ; not indeed at 
 the disclosure, — for only de Roos besides myself had any thing to 
 
254: JOURNAL. 
 
 learn, — but at Lastra's making it. However, I went up to him and 
 gave him my hand, and desired he would come to see me in San- 
 tiago, like himself, after the 18th. This restored us to our ordinary 
 state of cheerfulness, and the rest of the evening was occupied in 
 giving and receiving details concerning the wanderer's life. He had 
 been taken in arms for Carrera, and imprisoned — and the prison in 
 Chile is cruel. He had escaped, and was consequently outlawed. For 
 years he has lived in the desert ; now and then entering the town in 
 the disguise of a common peon, to hear of his friends, or to obtain 
 some assistance from them; sometimes living in villages where he 
 was unknown ; and then hastily escaping those who had discovered 
 his retreat, and sought to betray him ; and occasionally, as now, 
 venturing from hiding-places in the woods at nightfall to sup with 
 his friends, but retiring without sleeping. At one time he had been 
 so long exposed to the damp in the rainy season, that he was laid up 
 with rheumatism for two months in a cave ; and had it not been for 
 the fidelity of a little boy who brought him food daily, he must have 
 perished : and this was the exile's life. And thus years have passed 
 of the life of one of the best educated, most accomplished young 
 men in Chile ! When we separated for the night, I felt sorry that 
 we were to leave the hacienda of Salinas in the morning, without 
 at this time knowing more of the tonto. * 
 
 September Wth. — We left the hacienda of Salinas in a thick drizz- 
 ling fog to ride to Melipilla, one of the chief towns of Chile, about 
 twenty leagues from I'Angostura de Paine. We crossed the river at a 
 beautiful spot, where the branch from the pass receives another equal 
 in depth and clearness, and which I imagine to be the Paine itself. 
 They meet in a little grassy plain, where there are some very fine 
 timber ti'ees scattered irregularly, and bounded to the north by the 
 fences of the magnificent corn-fields of Viluco. The fog shut out all 
 the mountains, and whatever is peculiar in the landscape of Chile ; 
 
 • Before I left Chile, I had the pleasure of shaking hands with him, — restored to his 
 family and friends. 
 
[=3 
 
 H 
 
viLucA. 255 
 
 so that the scene reminded me of some of those quiet rich views we 
 have in the heart of England, — a few sheep grazing on the green 
 banks, and cattle spotted like our Lancashire cows, added to the like-* 
 ness. Coming suddenly tO such a place gives one a feeling not 
 unlike that of the sailors who found the broken spoon, marked 
 " London," in Kamschatka ; I could scarcely persuade myself that I 
 had not been often and familiarly at the place before. 
 
 Four leagues from the farm of Salinas lies the house of Viluca, 
 which is one of the most remarkable in the country : it belongs to 
 the Marques la Rayna, and is a princely establishment, kept in ex- 
 cellent order. The chaplain presides in the house, and there is 
 always an establishment of servants ; so that travellers are always 
 welcomed, whether the master be there or not. There are a certain 
 number of rooms appointed for their accommodation, and a table is 
 kept for them ; so that, known or imknown, the stranger is at home at 
 Viluca. The house is good and substantial, and well furnished, though 
 plainly for the country : the garden is a jewel in its kind ; the walks 
 and alleys are paved in mosaic ; the parterres laid out in every fan- 
 tastic shape, and each has its little run of water round it ; the centre 
 of each has also its pyramid, or urn, or basket, nicely clipped, of rose- 
 mary just in blossom ; and all around wall-flowers, pinks, ranunculuses, 
 and anemones : over-head, the orange, lime, lemon, and pomegranate, 
 form a shade ; and along by the house, birds of all kinds have their 
 appropriate cages, with living plants within. This garden opens to 
 a wide alley of trellis-Work, over which vines are led as a shade ; and 
 on either hand are orchards of fruit trees and vineyards. From the 
 gardens we went to see the granaries, the slaughter-houses, and the 
 drying lofts for hides and charqui ; which are all upon a grander scale, 
 and more carefully kept, than any thing I have seen as yet. The 
 cattle on this estate is computed at 9000 head ; last year 2000 were 
 killed, and the hides sold in one lot to an English merchant at twenty- 
 two reals a piece. Some complaint is made that, since the beginning 
 of the civil war, the number of cattle in Chile is greatly decreased, 
 and the blame is laid on the war. The evil, so far as it is an evil. 
 
256 JOURNAL. 
 
 may perhaps be justly charged on the war ; but the waste in the 
 management of the dairy and butchery is still such, that I think the 
 number might bear a much further diminution without producing 
 any" distress, — nay, that the country would be benefited by it. In 
 Padre Ovalle's time, nothing but the tongues and ribs of their oxen 
 were used ; the rest was thrown into the sea on the coasts, or on the 
 bone-heap in-land for the vultures. Even now the heads in some 
 places, in all the bones, when the main part of the flesh is cut off, 
 are thrown out, excepting where there are foreigners to make soup ; 
 the hearts and livers are also thrown away ; so that nearly a quarter of 
 the food which an ox would furnish in Europe is lost here, not to 
 mention that the horns, hoofs, and bones are utterly wasted. But the 
 war is not the only cause of the diminution of the number of the 
 cattle ; — a great deal more land is now brought into cultivation 
 for corn j the people eat more bread ; they have a large demand 
 for the provisioning the foreign ships and fleets in the Pacific, and 
 they export more grain ; consequently more land is enclosed, and 
 those who formerly derived their whole income from cattle have 
 discovered that it is more profitable to grow a certain proportion 
 of corn. 
 
 We had scarcely left Viluca when the day began to clear. I never 
 beheld any thing finer than the gradual opening of the clouds, now 
 rolling far below the summits of the mountains and seeming to fill 
 up their valleys, and now curling over their tops and dispersing in 
 the air. At a short distance from the house of Viluca we came to a 
 ford of the Maypu, much more difficult than that we passed before. 
 The gravelly bed of the river here spreads at the foot of a mountain 
 nearly a mile, but the stream itself occupies but a small portion. 
 We crossed six great branches ; four of which took the horses to the 
 girths, and one was so rapid that some of the animals were fright- 
 ened, and began to give way ; but the example of the rest encouraged 
 them, and we crossed happily. Above and below the ford, where 
 the stream is all in one, it is impossible to attempt crossing : a guide 
 is quite necessary in travelling in Chile on account of the rivers. 
 
ROAD TO MELIPILLA. 25*7 
 
 which are very rapid, and whose fords are perpetually changing. 
 About five leagues beyond the ford, we came to the beautiful village 
 of Longuien, where the road lies between a mountain and two little 
 knolls that project from it : the place is very populous, and seems 
 thriving. The hills on both sides abound with projecting rocks, 
 whose heads form platforms, each occupied by its cottage and garden ; 
 all the fences and ditches are in excellent order, and we even found 
 well-hung gates. Through one of these we passed, and ascended the 
 highest of the two knolls above mentioned, on the very summit of 
 which is the house of Tagle, the first president of the convention ; 
 it is a mere country lodge, with some pretensions to taste ; but it is 
 chiefly delightful for its view, extending all over the rich valley 
 through which the Maypu flows. On one hand lies the high ridge 
 of the mountains of St. Michael ; on the other, that of which Cho- 
 colan — stupendous, if the Andes were not in sight — is the highest 
 peak. There is little corn in this part of the country, but that little 
 is fine ; and the vines and olives are few. The chief produce between 
 this place and Melipilla being butter, cheese, hides, tallow, and 
 charqui ; the banks of the Maypu are entirely occupied by pasture 
 lands. We sat nearly an hour at Longuien to rest our horses, and 
 to eat a luncheon we had brought with us. While we were thus 
 occupied, we saw in the fields below the whole business of the rodeo 
 going on in a corral just beneath the house ; the separating and 
 marking the cattle, and taking up the calves from the mothers. 
 
 From Longuien to the town of San Francisco de Monte the road 
 lies through a thicket of the espina or yellow scented mimosa, which 
 afibrds not only the best fuel in the country, but shelter for the cattle, 
 without injuring the quality of the grass beneath. Near San Fran- 
 cisco we crossed the Mapocho, afi;er its re-appearance from the hills 
 of St. Michael's, on its way to join the Maypu ; it really is a beauti- 
 ful stream, and I do not wonder at the favour with which it is 
 regarded on account of the sweetness, clearness, and lightness of its 
 waters. A number of asequias or leads are taken from it here for 
 
 L L 
 
258 JOURNAL. 
 
 mills, for irrigation, and for drinking. About a league from San 
 Francisco we passed the Indian village of Talagante, distinguished 
 by its three beautiful palm trees, the first I had seen for a long time. 
 It was one of the early settlements formed by the Franciscans, but 
 was transferred to the management of the Jesuits, on whose fall the 
 spiritual affairs of the Cacique and his people reverted to the Fran- 
 ciscans, and the temporal matters to the captain of the district. The 
 most remarkable building on entering San Francisco is the house, 
 formerly that of the Jesuits, now belonging to the Carreras, whose 
 chief property lay in this district. We did not stop, though I was 
 inclined to do so, in this pretty little town, as the day was far spent, 
 and we had still several leagues to ride. The populous suburbs of 
 San Francisco reached a long way, and the country improved in rich- 
 ness as we advanced. At Payco, about two leagues from Melipilla, 
 there are some of the finest dairies in the country ; and there I 
 observed some remarkably fine forest trees by a little stream that, 
 flowing across the road, enters an almost impervious thicket of molle, 
 the sweet scent of which filled the evening air. We had now ridden 
 fifty-four miles, and our horses as well as ourselves began to be a 
 little eager to get to the end of our journey : the evening began to 
 close, and a thick drizzling rain made our entrance to Melipilla as 
 disagreeable as might be ; and to mend the matter, the person on 
 whom I had depended for lodging was absent. Cold, and hungry, 
 and tired, we then had to seek a shelter. That was soon found ; but 
 the house was large, and cold, and empty. However the neighbours 
 seemed willing to lend what accommodation they had; and, by the time 
 Doiia Rosario and I had made a seat of our travelling cloaks, we had 
 a panful of coals, and hopes of a supper. Meantime, however, Don 
 Jose Antonio had enquired out a more comfortable house, where we 
 found fire ready, and were chiarmed by the appearance of an estrada, 
 covered by a comfortable alfombra ; on which we gladly sat, at the 
 invitation of a pleasant-looking woman, and took matee while supper 
 was preparing. The mistress apologised for the supper on the score 
 
MELIPILLA. 259 
 
 of the shortness of the time allowed for preparation, but our hunger 
 would have relished a much worse ; there was excellent roast beef, 
 a stewed fowl, good bread, and a bottle of very tolerable wine. The 
 beds appeared to embarrass Mr. de Roos more than any thing : but I 
 am an old traveller, and our Chileno friends are used to the sort of 
 thing ; so my young Englishman made up his mind to our all passing 
 the night within the same four walls. An excellent matrass, with all 
 proper additions, was laid on one end of the estrada for Dona Rosa- 
 rio and me ; and across the foot of our couch the skins and carpets 
 of the saddles furnished forth Mr. de Roos, while another of the same 
 kind served Don Antonio. I thought of the " Sentimental Jour- 
 ney," and placed a parcel of high-backed chairs, and spread the long 
 skirt of my riding-habit between Rosario and me and our companions, 
 — a work of supererogation, if all slept as soundly as I did, which I 
 presume they did, because when I rose at day-break I found them 
 all still ; so I crept into a little closet, where potatoes and wool had 
 been kept, and where I had contrived a dressing-room ; so that I was 
 ready to receive two strangers, who walked into the room before any 
 of the rest were stirring, and seating themselves without ceremony, 
 began to question us about ourselves and our journey. I soon found 
 that one of these was an Englishman, who had belonged to a whaler 
 which foundered off Juan Fernandez. He is now at the head of a 
 large soap and candle manufactory here, belonging to a gentleman 
 of Chile. This is a favourable situation for such a business, both on 
 account of the tallow, and of the facility of procuring ashes and 
 charcoal : by-the-bye, I saw them making charcoal near Longuien. 
 The pieces of wood are cut about two feet long, then laid in a trench 
 covered with earth, and so burned. I suppose this to be a wasteful 
 process. Were not the discouragement of all coasting trade so great 
 here, Melipilla might be immensely rich : it is only ten leagues from 
 the mouth of the Maypu, where there is the safe little harbour of 
 Saint Augustin ; where the cheese, butter, charqui, hides, tallow, 
 soap, and earthenware might be shipped for every port of Chile. 
 
 ix 2 
 
2QQ JOURNAL. 
 
 But as it is, all these articles find their way by the expensive and 
 circuitous in-land roads of Santiago, Casa Blanca, and Valparaiso. It 
 is to be regretted, that the old Spanish principles still regulate all 
 these things, to the great injury of foreign commerce and the utter 
 destruction of internal traffic. 
 
 I fancy the Melipillans had never seen an Englishwoman before, 
 the court of our house being absolutely crowded with men, women, 
 and children ; among whom I found that my close cap and black 
 dress made me pass for a nun of some foreign order. I went out 
 and spoke to them, and explained who I was, and we were soon re- 
 lieved from all but those w ho insisted on staying to admire the rubio, 
 (fair man,) as they called Mr. de Roos, whose golden locks and bright 
 complexion are objects of universal admiration here. The fore-court 
 of our lodging is surrounded by workmen's sheds of different de- 
 scriptions ; so that when the family requires a job done, the workman 
 and his tools are hired for the day or the week, and he finds his 
 workshop fitted up. The back-court is open to a very good garden, 
 and there the kitchen and other out-houses are situated. After 
 breakfast we went out to see the town, which is built on the same 
 plan ,as Santiago ; that is, all the streets perfectly straight at right 
 angles. Nearly in the centre is the Iglesia Matriz, on one side of a 
 considerable square ; another side is occupied by the house of the 
 governor Don T. Valdez, and the barracks adjoining. The govern- 
 ment house, like every other in the town, has a dull air ; because 
 towards the squares and streets, there is only a dead wall with a large 
 gate, the house being within a court. And Melipilla is peculiarly 
 sombre ; because, excepting the public buildings, which are white- 
 washed, they are all of the natural colour of the clay of which the 
 unburnt building-bricks are formed. Melipilla has still its annual 
 bull-fights, which are held in the great square ; but it has no other 
 place of public amusement, not even a public walk. The church of 
 St. Austin and that of the Merced are the only ones besides the 
 great church ; but there are a few private chapels belonging to the 
 
MELIPILLA. 261 
 
 principal houses in the town. Besides the manufactures of soap and 
 earthenware, a great many of the finer kinds of ponchos and alfom- 
 bras are wove; as the wool in the neighbourhood is very fine, and 
 the plain abounds with drugs for dying. The weaving is managed 
 with great skill, but the loom is the most clumsy I ever beheld ; and 
 most of the work is done without a shuttle at all. 
 
 In the evening we went to the chacra of Don Jose Funsalida, to 
 see the pits whence the fine red clay used in the famous pottery of 
 Melipilla is taken. Overlooking the plain eastward from the town, 
 there is a long high perfectly flat bank of great extent ; and there, 
 under a layer about two feet thick of black vegetable mould, lies the 
 red clay, almost as hard as stone. Of this the fine red water-jars, and 
 the finest vessels for wine, as well as jars for cooking and many other 
 uses, are made. The plain beyond the clay bank is covered with 
 large ovens for baking the wine-jars, and alembics for distilling ; not 
 that there is any large manufactory for them, but every peasant here 
 makes jars, and the richest and most skilful of course has most 
 trade ; and, of all the ovens we saw, not more than three belonged 
 to any one man. 
 
 There is no difference between the method of pottery practised 
 here and that at Valparaiso in making the coarsest ware, excepting 
 that I think more pains is taken in kneading the clay. I went to one 
 of the most famous female potters, and found her and her grand- - 
 daughter busy polishing their work of the day before with a beau- 
 tiful agate. There I saw the black clay of which they make small 
 wares, such as matee-cups, waiters, and water-jars, often wrought 
 with grotesque heads and arms, and sometimes ornamented with the 
 white and red earths with which the country abounds. The large 
 wine-jars and alembics are made by men, as the work is laborious ; 
 especially as no wheel is used, or indeed known, in the country. The 
 small ware is still often baked in holes in the earth, the large vessels 
 in ovens ; where indeed they are often made, the workmen forming 
 the jars where they are to be baked. 
 
262 
 
 JOURNAL. 
 
 The furnace is built a little under-ground, yet so as to admit a free 
 current of air ; the flooring is about eight feet square, and the whole 
 18 feet high. These are of picturesque forms, and, scattered over 
 the plain, gave me the idea of antique tombs : on one hand the river 
 was flowing majestically past the town, and beyond it Chocolan, with 
 light evening clouds hanging round its sides, and woods burning in 
 different places near the summit ; to the east the Andes, at about the 
 same distance that Mont Blanc is from Geneva, are seen at the end 
 of a long valley, whose boundary mountains sink into nothing before 
 the « Giant of the Western Star." 
 
 Shortly after we returned from our walk, some young women 
 neatly dressed, with their long hair braided hanging down their 
 backs, and natural flowers placed in it, came and seated themselves 
 under the window and played on their guitars, singing at the same 
 time some verses welcoming us to Melipilla. We then invited them 
 to enter, and they sat with us till a late hour, singing ballads and 
 tristes, and dancing various dances ; the newest and most fashionable 
 being the Patria, with suitable words not ill adapted to the times. 
 
 15th September. — This morning Dona Rosario and her brother 
 went to early Mass, while Mr. de Roos and I prepared all things for 
 beginning our journey back to Santiago. So we left Melipilla quite 
 
6=1 
 
SAN FRANCISCO DE MONTE. 263 
 
 satisfied, that, in its present statej there is httle interesting in it ; and 
 also, that it might be one of the most flourishing cities of South 
 America. Its potteries, ah-eady considerable, might be rendered 
 infinitely more profitable ; its manufactures of ponchos and carpets 
 infinitely increased, because its wool and its dyes are excellent and 
 inexhaustible. Hemp, of the very finest quality, abounds in the 
 flat lands near it. Its dairies are the best in this part of Chile ; and 
 its charqui, hides, and all other produce depending on its cattle, 
 might be, more easily as well as advantageously, disposed of from its 
 port of St. Austin's, only thirty miles off; to which every thing 
 might go by water, though the rapidity of the stream would prevent 
 boats from re-ascending the Maypu. Melipilla might derive another 
 advantage, which is not mean in Chile, from the existence of the 
 medicinal wells in its neighbourhood, at the spot where the Poangui 
 falls into the Maypu. People crowd thither in the bathing season to 
 be very uncomfortable in huts at the spot, while it would be very 
 easy for the town of Melipilla to keep comfortable and well-supplied 
 houses and baths for their accommodation. I have been told, that 
 the waters of the Poangui are warm in the morning and cold at night. 
 This is so contrary to experience and reason, that, as I have not tried 
 them myself, I suspect that there is as great a mistake as in the case 
 of the saltness of the lake of Aculeo. We had no intention this day of 
 going farther than San Francisco de Monte, where there is a tolerable 
 house for travellers, kept by an old servant of a relation of the Cotapos. 
 As soon as we arrived there, the gentlemen rode off to visit a relation 
 of our companions, while Doiia Kosario and I remained to perform 
 rather a more careful toilette than we had been able to do at Melipilla. 
 The house we were in is, in all senses, a pulperia, combining the 
 characters of a huckster's shop and an alehouse. The host has some 
 Indian and some African blood in his veins, and is a shrewd in- 
 genious man. He has set up a proper loom for weaving ponchos, 
 by which means he produces more work in a week than the weavers 
 of Melipilla in a month. His wife spins and dyes the wool ; and by 
 this trade, and the profits of their shop, they earn a very decent live- 
 
264 JOURNAL. 
 
 lihood. As soon as I had changed my dress I went out to walk round 
 the Httle town, whicli I found laid out with great neatness ; and 
 admired the gardens and fields, though I could perceive that San 
 Francisco had once boasted inhabitants of a higher class than those I 
 saw. The best houses are shut up, and there was an air of decay in 
 their immediate neighbourhood. They did belong to the Carreras. 
 The heiress, Doiia Xaviera, is now living as an exile at Monte Video. 
 I went towards the Pla9a, where there are the church and convent of 
 the Franciscans, and several extremely good houses. I was attracted 
 by a great crowd at the door of one of these. The mounted guasos 
 were standing by with their hats off, and every body seemed as if 
 performing an act of devotion. I was a little astonished when I 
 arrived at the centre of the crowd, to which every body made way for 
 me, to find nine persons dancing, as the Spaniards say, con mucho 
 compels. They were arranged like nine-pins, the centre one being a 
 young boy dressed in a grotesque manner, who only changed his place 
 occasionally with two others, one of whom had a guitar, the other a 
 ravel. The height and size of limb of the dancers might have belonged 
 to men, the apparel was female ; and I thought I had been suddenly 
 introduced to a tribe of Patagonian women, and enquired of a by-, 
 stander whence they came, when I received the following information 
 concerning the dancers and the dance. — When the Franciscans first 
 began the conversion of the Indians in this part of Chile, they fixed 
 their convent at Talagante, the village of the palms which we passed 
 through the other day, their proselytes being the caciques of Talagante, 
 Yupeo, and Chenigue. The good fathers found that the Indians were 
 more easily brought over to a new faith, than weaned from certain su- 
 perstitious practices belonging to their old idolatry ; and the annual 
 dance under the shade of the cinnamon, in honour of a preserving 
 Power, they found it impossible to make them forget. They therefore 
 permitted them to continue it ; but it was to be, performed within the 
 convent walls, and in honour of Nuestra Senhora de la Merced, and 
 each cacique in turn was to take upon him the expense of the feast. 
 On the removal of the convent to its present station the dance was 
 
SAN FRANCISCO DE MONTE. 265 
 
 allowed in the church ; and the dancers, instead of painted bodies, and 
 heads crowned with feathers, and bound with the fillet, — still thought 
 holy, — are now clothed completely in women's dresses, as fine as they 
 can procure : and as the priests have much abridged the period of 
 the solemnity, they are fain to finish their dance in the area before 
 the church, where they are attended with as much deference as in the 
 temple itself. After having performed this duty, the dancers, and as 
 many as choose to accompany them, repair to the Cacique's house, 
 where they are treated with all the food he can command, and drink 
 till his stock of chicha is exhausted. I considered myself very fortunate 
 in having met with these dancers, and pleased myself with the idea 
 that they were the descendants of the Promaucians, who had resisted 
 the Incas in their endeavours to subdue the country, and who, after 
 bravely disputing its possession with, the Spaniards, being once 
 induced to make a league with them never deserted them. 
 
 I was lucky too ixi the person to whom I applied for information. 
 He is a deformed, but sprightly-looking man, who acts the double 
 part of schoolmaster and gracioso of the village. While we sat at 
 dinner to-day he entered to pay his compliments, and began a long 
 extempore compliment to each of us in verse, in a manner at least 
 as good as that of the common improvisatori of Italy. For this I 
 paid him with a cup of wine ; when he began to recite a collection 
 of legendary and other verses, till, heated I presume by the glasses 
 handed to him by our young men, his tales began to stray so far 
 from decorum that we silenced the old gentleman, and sent him to 
 get a good dinner with the peons. 
 
 Mr. de Roos and I had a great wish to have gone to the Cacique 
 of Chenigufe, to see even at a distance the triennial feast ; but we 
 found it was too far to walk, and we could not think of taking out 
 the horses, who had to travel onward in the morning to Santiago ; 
 we therefore were forced to content ourselves with a visit to the 
 Cacique of Yupeo, whose village joins San Fancisco de Monte. We 
 found that His Majesty— must I call him ?— was absent, probably at 
 the feast at Chenigue. His wife received us very kindly : she is a 
 
 M M 
 
266 JOURNAL. 
 
 fine-looking intelligent woman ; and when we entered, she was sit- 
 ting on the estrada with a friend and one of her daughters, while 
 another, a most beautiful girl, was kneading bread. The house is of 
 the simplest description of straw ranchos, though large and commo- 
 dious. The gardens and fields behind it are beautiful, and in the 
 highest order, maintained by the labour of the Cacique, his two sons, 
 and his Indians ; over whom he still exercises a nominal jurisdiction, 
 and possesses the authority of opinion, not less powerful here than in 
 more civilised nations. As the land is all supposed to be his of 
 right, he receives a small voluntary contribution in produce, by way 
 of acknowledgment, for each field. Two-thirds of his village have 
 been taken from him during the two last generations ; so that now 
 the Cacique is but a shadow. He talks of going, attended by a score 
 of his best men, to the capital, to talk face to face with the Director, 
 and to free himself from the interference of the commandants of 
 districts, who vex him in every way. There is no difference what- 
 ever between the language, habits, or dress of these Indians, and 
 other Chilenos, — a few customs only distinguish them ; so completely 
 have they assimilated with their invaders, who, on the other hand, 
 have borrowed many of their usages. 
 
 On our return from the Cacique's, where our visit was acknowledged 
 as a favour, and much regret that he himself had missed the oppor- 
 tunity of receiving English people in his house, and showing us how 
 he had improved it *, we entered another Indian cottage, to return 
 a staff which the mistress of it had kindly lent us to assist in crossing 
 a muddy pool on the road. There we found a woman very ill with 
 ague, and another consumptive ; and I learn that these complaints 
 are common, owing to the undrained marshes below the town. I 
 should think the mud floors and the straw walls of the cottages, which 
 cannot keep out the keen frosty winds from the Andes, must be 
 equally injurious. 
 
 In the evening, Doiia Dolores Ureta and her very pleasing daugh- 
 
 * He has actually made windows in it. 
 
TALAGANTE. 
 
 267 
 
 ters came to visit us. It was to this lady's house that the young 
 men had ridden in the morning. She apologised for her husband's 
 absence, on account of a severe indisposition. I have seldom seen 
 a more pleasing ladylike woman, and her daughters are quite worthy 
 of her. I was really glad of her presence, and the countenance I de- 
 rived from it in my lodging. It being Sunday night, the principal 
 room, which I thought was ours, filled with persons of all classes and 
 sexes, and the usual amusements began. First, the gracioso, with his 
 staff in the middle of the floor, performed a number of antics, and 
 made speeches to every person present. He then sent for his harp, 
 and played, while all manner of persons danced all sorts of dances. 
 Dona Rosario and I, seated on our bed, with our visitors by us, saw 
 as much or as little as we pleased of the holiday evening of a pul- 
 peria. These scenes, however, are only delightful in description. 
 Le Sage, or Smollet, might have woven a charming chapter out of 
 Doiia Josefas' inn ; but, like certain Dutch pictures, the charm is in 
 the skill of the representation, not the scenes themselves. I was 
 really sorry when Dona Dolores left us ; but I believe the company 
 took it as a hint to depart, for we saw no more of them. Shortly 
 after we had seen the ladies to their carriage, we discovered that a 
 large house in the neighbourhood was on fire, and thither every body 
 flocked : the night was intensely cold ; and as soon as I had heard 
 that there were no inhabitants to be injured by the conflagration, I 
 returned to the house, having a slight pain in my side. 
 
 \6th Sept. — We left San Francisco by Talagante, intending to go 
 close by the mountain of San Miguel, to the farm where the new 
 Mapocho comes by several copious springs from under-ground. We 
 stopped at the Cacique's to pay our compliments, and bought some 
 small jars and platters of red clay, ornamented with streaks of earth, 
 to which iron pyrites give the appearance of gold dust. Talagante 
 is a very populous village, and the women at every hut appear to be 
 potters. The men are soldiers, sailors, carriers, and some few hus- 
 bandmen ; a fine, handsome, that is, well-made race, with faces very 
 
 M M 2 
 
268 JOURNAL. 
 
 Indian. We had scarcely left it a league, when I was obliged to 
 lag a little behind the party by a violent cough, and then I broke a 
 small blood-vessel.* It was some time before I could rejoin my 
 friends ; and then there was great consternation among them, as we 
 were at least ten leagues from home. I proposed to them to ride 
 on, and leave me to proceed slowly with the peon : this they refused 
 to do ; and the hemorrhage increasing, I felt pleased that they 
 remained with me. I had nothing with me to stop the bleeding, 
 and I longed for water ; on which Don Jose Antonio recollecting a 
 spring not far off, he and Mr. de Roos rode off to it, and filling the 
 little jars we had brought with us, we put some orange-peel into it, 
 and whenever the cough returned I took a mouthful. I found I 
 dared not speak, nor ride fast ; so at a foot's pace we went on to San- 
 tiago. I had two very serious attacks before I reached the city, but, 
 on the whole, I cannot say I suiFered much ; it was a delightful day, 
 and the scenery was beautiful and grand. We crossed the plain of 
 Maypu farther to the westward, and nearer the scene of the great 
 action than before. The ground was covered with flowers, and flocks 
 of birds were collected round them. I thought if it were to be my 
 last ride out among the works of God, it was one to sooth and com- 
 fort me ; and I did not feel at all depressed. I may think, with more 
 ease than most, of my end, detached as I now am from all kindred. 
 
 A few miles before we reached home Mr. De Roos rode on, and 
 having told Dona Carmen what had happened, she ordered my maid 
 to have fire, warm water, and my bed prepared. Mr. De Roos also 
 found Dr. Craig, who came immediately, and as I was almost with- 
 out fever and very well disposed to sleep soundly, the accident of 
 the day promised to be of little consequence. 
 
 11 th. — Lettei's from Valparaiso announce the arrival of the Doris, 
 and that my poor cousin Glennie has taken possession of my house, 
 being in a state of health that gives little hope of his recovery. He 
 
 * I was the more vexed at the accident, as it prevented my seeing the coming out of 
 the Mapocho, if it be indeed that river. 
 
Drawn "by Mana Grahsan 
 
 Engraved by Edw* Findea. 
 
 v;5fmJS]E'JC ©IT SAH 'HSOMnK^f©© l-oAJe^TlKAd^r© ICSIE (DffiUIHdlSc 
 
 Zt>n/io7l.IilhlMhrd by L.'ih!/'!.in SC"^ > ,\fuyn,y. /-.AynJ, !,\'.-}4. 
 
SANTIAGO. 269 
 
 broke a blood-vessel in consequence of over-exertion at Callao, and 
 is obliged to invalid, as the surgeon thinks the voyage round the 
 Horn, whither the ship is bound, would be fatal. It is very dis- 
 tressing to me not to be able to go instantly to Valparaiso to receive 
 him, but 1 am confined to bed mvself. I have also kind letters 
 from Lord Cochrane, enclosing an introduction to General Freire, 
 in case I should ride down to Conception, as I intended, from hence : 
 but proposing the better plan of going by sea in the Montezuma, 
 when His Lordship himself goes. Alas ! I can do neither ; and I fear 
 I must give up my hopes of visiting Peru, as well as going to the 
 south of Chile. My own slight illness I should think nothing of, 
 but the poor invalid at Valparaiso must have all my time and 
 attention. 
 
 ISth. — The anniversary of the independence of Chile. The first 
 thing I heard after a long sleepless night was the trampling of horses ; 
 and I got out of bed and went to the balcony, whence I saw the 
 country militia going to the ground where the Director is to review 
 them all. They are in number about 2000 ; armed with lances, 
 twenty feet long, of cane, headed with iron. The men are dressed 
 in their ordinary dress, with military caps and scarlet ponchos ; and 
 the different divisions are distinguished by borders or collars, or some 
 other trivial mark. I have heard many jests upon the discipline of 
 the red cloaks ; but B., who knows them well, says, " True, they 
 may on parade mistake ei/es right for eyes left, but at the battle of 
 Maypu they never mistook the enemy ;" and, in truth, on that day, 
 when the regular troops had begun to give ground, they are said to 
 have turned the fortune of the day. They are admirable horsemen, 
 as indeed eveiy country-bred Chileno is. They ride like centaurs, 
 seeming to make but one person with their horse ; and I have seen 
 them wrestle and fight on horseback as if they had been on foot. I 
 I was glad the Casa Cotapo stands so directly in the way of the exer- 
 cising ground. The only compensation I can have for not being 
 present at the national rejoicing is the seeing the troops pass. I 
 
270 JOURNAL. 
 
 thought of young Lastra, and am charmed to learn that the decree 
 of amnesty has this day passed, which will restore him and many 
 others to their families. 
 
 To day the bishop performed Mass in the cathedral, for the first 
 time since his restoration. The ladies have been visiting and com- 
 plimenting each other ; and the streets, both last night and to-night, 
 were illuminated. I felt low and ill all day. 
 
 21st of Sept. — The good-natured inhabitants of Santiago have all 
 testified, in some way or other, their sympathy with my sufferings ; 
 from the Director, who sent M. De la Salle with a very kind letter, 
 in his own name and that of the ladies, to the poor nuns I had visited, 
 who sent me a plate of excellent custard, made according to one of 
 their own private recipes. Reyes has been constant in his visits, and 
 has procured me a plan of the city, and an account of the most 
 remarkable indigenous trees, with permission to copy both. 
 
 24ith. — I have been better, and am much worse. My friend Mr. 
 Dance, from the Doris, arrived the day before yesterday with letters 
 from every body on board, and a better account of poor Glennie. 
 
 Mr. B — has interested himself to procure a comfortable caleche 
 
 for me to travel to the port, as I am anxious to get home, and am 
 not able to think of riding thither. Nothing can be more truly kind 
 than Dona Carmen de Cotapos and all her daughters, since I first 
 became their guest, and especially since my illness. Mr. Prevost 
 too has been unwearied in his friendly attentions ; but what can I 
 say of my good and skilful physician Dr. Craig, that can acknow- 
 ledge my obligations sufficiently ? As to my own sea friends, their 
 affectionate care is only what I depended on. 
 
 I have been grieved since I came back from Melipilla by the state 
 of a beautiful and amiable girl, which has arisen from a misunder- 
 stood spirit of devotion. Before I went away she was gay and cheer- 
 ful, the delight of her father's house. Her music and her poetry, 
 and her reading aloud while others worked, formed the charm of her 
 home. But her mother, though a clever woman, is a bigot ; and 
 
SANTIAGO. 271 
 
 Maria's mind, of a high and lofty nature, is pecuHarly susceptible of 
 religious impressions. Under these, the tender-conscienced girl, to 
 punish herself for an attachment not favoured by her house, which 
 she still felt, though at her parents' bidding she had given up its 
 object, resolved to go for ten days to a Casa de Exercisio. There, 
 under the guidance of an old priest, the young creatures who retire 
 thus are kept praying night and day, with so little food and sleep 
 that their bodies and minds alike become weakened. All the inter- 
 vals between the Masses, which are of the most lugubrious chants, 
 are passed in silence ; no voice is heard above a whisper, and the 
 light of heaven is scarcely admitted. A young married woman who 
 went in with Maria came out even gayer than she entered ; doubtless 
 her heart had rested on her husband and their home. But what was 
 to occupy the thoughts and affections of the girl whose best feelings 
 were to be crushed ? Could she harbour there 
 
 " A wish but death, a passion but despair ?" 
 
 And she has returned as it were to earth, — on it, but not of it. 
 The sight of friends throws her into fits of hysterical weeping ; and, 
 only prostrate before the altar, and repeating the Masses of her house 
 of woe, does she seem soothed or calmed. Such are the effects of 
 the house of exercise. I might have thought that my young friend's 
 peculiar disposition alone had caused this ; but I know a youth who 
 was, I am told, once all that parents could wish, — accomplished and 
 enlightened, and possessed of honour and spirit. He is now little 
 better than a drivelling idiot. He went into a house of exercise a 
 man, — he came out of it what he is. Oh ! if I had power or in- 
 fluence here, I would put down these mischievous establishments. 
 Even when they do not cause, as in this instance, a derangement of 
 the intellect, they are nurseries of bigotry and fanaticism. To have 
 been in one is a source of vanity, to conform to the sentiments in- 
 culcated there a point of conscience ; and as it is easier to be a bigot 
 than a virtuous man, great laxity of conduct is permitted, so the spirit 
 
272 JOURNAL. 
 
 is bent to maintain the church, and to persecute, or at least keep 
 down, those who are not of it. 
 
 . It was not without regret that on the 28th September I left 
 Santiago, where I have been so kindly received, and where there is 
 still much new and interesting to see. I do hope to return in 
 summer, when I mean to cross the mountain by the Cumbre pass *, 
 visit Mendoza, and return by the pass of San Juan de los Patos ; by 
 which the great body of San Martin's army entered the country in 
 1816. However, in the meantime I must gain a little more health, 
 and a great deal more strength. I am scarcely sorry that I was 
 obliged to travel in a caleche for once. All our party assembled after 
 passing the toll-house, and other necessary ceremonies at the house of 
 Loyola, the owner of the caleche, about a league from Santiago, on 
 the plain called the Llomas ; and then, sick as I felt, I could not help 
 laughing at the " set out" In the first place, there was the calisa, a 
 very light square body of a carriage, mounted on a coarse heavy axle, 
 and two clumsy wheels painted red, while the body is sprigged and 
 flowered like a furniture chintz, lined with old yellow and red Chinese 
 silk, without glasses, but having striped gingham curtains. Between 
 the shafts, of the size and shape of those of a dung-cart, was a fine 
 mule, not without silver studs among her trappings, mounted by a 
 handsome lad in a poncho, and armed with spurs whose rowels were 
 bigger than a dollar, and with a little straw hat stuck on one side. 
 On each side of the mule was a horse, fastened to the axle of the 
 wheel,' each with his rider, also in full Chile costume. Then there 
 was Loyola's son as a guide, handsomely dressed in a full guaso dress, 
 mounted on a fine horse : with him Mr. Dance and Mr. Candler, of the 
 Doris, also in the same dress ; my young friend de Roos having left 
 us some days before on the expiration of his leave of absence. Last, 
 though by no means least, in his own esteem, was my peon Felipe, 
 with his three mules and the baggage, accompanied by another peon 
 
 * The barometer gives 12,000 feet as the greatest height of the pass at the foot of the 
 volcano of Aconcagua, where that river flows to the west, and that of Mendoza to the east. 
 
VALPARAISO. 273 
 
 with the relay horses for the calisa. When seated in the chaise I 
 observed how the horses were harnessed. A stout iron ring is fixed 
 to the saddle, and a thong passes from the axle-tree to that ring, so 
 that it serves as a single trace, by which the horse drags his portion 
 of the weight on one side. Occasionally they change sides, to relieve 
 the cattle. On going down any little declivity the horses keep wide of 
 the carriage, so as to support it a little ; and on descending a mountain 
 they are removed from the front, and the thongs are brought back- 
 ward from the axle-trees and fastened to rings in the fore part of the 
 saddles ; and the horses serve not only instead of clogs to the wheels, 
 but support part of the weight, which might otherwise overpower the 
 mule in 'the descent. The season is considerably advanced since we 
 went to the city ; the plains are thickly and richly covered with grass 
 and flowers ; the village orchards are in full leaf and blossom, and 
 the pruning of the vines is begun. The horses, and other animals, 
 are once more sent into the potreros to grass, and spring comes to all 
 but me. Mine is past, and my summer has been blighted ; yet hope, 
 blessed hope ! remains, that the autumn of my days may at least be 
 more tranquil. 
 
 I suffered a great deal the two first days on the road, but the third 
 I felt sensibly better, and fancied myself almost well ; when, at the 
 first post-house from Valparaiso, I found Captain Spencer, with half- 
 a-dozen of my young shipmates, whom he had good naturedly brought 
 out to meet me, and among them poor Glennie. We all made a 
 cheerful luncheon together, and then rode to Valparaiso ; my maid 
 mounting her horse, and Glennie taking her place in the calisa. 
 
 At home I found Mr. Hogan, and several other friends, waiting to 
 welcome me. And truly I have seldom enjoyed rest so much as this 
 night, when both mind and body reposed, as they have not done 
 since I knew of Glennie's arrival in bad health. 
 
 October 1st. — I find that the affairs of the squadron are much 
 worse than when I left the port : the wages are yet unpaid, and the 
 crews of the ships are becoming clamorous for money, for clothing, 
 and all other necessaries. Discontent is spreading wide, and, as usual, 
 
 iV Iff 
 
274 JOURNAL. 
 
 directed against every object and every person, with or without 
 reason. Even Lord Cochrane, after all his exertions and sacrifices 
 both for the state and the squadron, has been made the object of a 
 malicious calumny, which, indeed, he has condescended to disprove 
 most convincingly; but which is, nevertheless, mortifying, as coming 
 directly from individuals who have been benefited and trusted by him 
 and the country they serve. This calumny charges him with having 
 made a private advantageous bargain for himself, and having already 
 received from the government the greater part of the money destined 
 for the pay of the whole squadron. I have been much pleased by a 
 letter written to him by the lieutenants of the squadron on the occa- 
 sion, dated only yesterday, and of which a copy has been obligingly 
 given me by one of those signing it. 
 
 " May it please Your Excellency, 
 
 " We, the undersigned officers of the Chile squadron, have heard 
 " with surprise and indignation the vile and scandalous reports tend- 
 " ing to bring Your Excellency's high character into question, and to 
 " destroy that confidence and admiration with which it has always 
 " inspired us. 
 
 " We have seen with pleasure the measures Your Excellency has 
 " adopted to suppress so malicious and absurd a conspiracy, and 
 " trust that no means will be spared to bring its authors to public 
 " shame. 
 
 " At a time like the present, when the best interests of the squa- 
 " dron, and our dearest rights as individuals, are at stake, we feel 
 " particularly indignant at an attempt to destroy that union and con- 
 " fidence which at present exists, and which we are assured ever will, 
 " while we have the honour to serve under Your Excellency's 
 " command. 
 
 " With these sentiments, we subscribe ourselves 
 
 " Your Excellency's most obedient humble servants. 
 
 (Signed) " P. O. Grenfell, Lieut. Commanding Mercedes, 
 " And all Officers of the Squadron." 
 
VALPARAISO. 275 
 
 The reports alluded to, though apparently caused by the thought- 
 lessness of an indifferent person, tend so directly to the accom- 
 plishment of the ends of a certain party in the state, that one 
 cannot help connecting them. The jealousy entertained against the 
 Admiral by those whose genius quails before his, strengthened by 
 the suspicions to which foreigners are universally exposed, is now 
 more at liberty to rage, because the great object of destroying the 
 mother country's maritime power in the Pacific is accomplished. 
 And this jealousy has been ingeniously fostered by subordinate per- 
 sons, interested in getting rid of what has been felt to be an English 
 interest here, particularly by some of the agents of the United States, 
 who have made common cause with San Martin and his agents. 
 Could the creatures of this party separate Lord Cochrane from the 
 squadron in any way, their great object would be easily accomplished ; 
 and for this end the present juncture is favourable. The sufferings 
 and poverty of the squadron in general are hard to bear ; and to 
 make the officers and men believe that the Admiral had made a 
 favourable arrangement for himself, neglecting them, was a direct 
 means of destroying that confidence and union which has constituted 
 hitherto the strength of the squadron. For this time the design has 
 failed ; but who can say how long the present calm may last ? 
 
 2^. — As my own health is far from being strong, and my poor 
 invalid requires every moment's attendance, I cannot go out in search 
 of news, therefore 1 take it all at once as it is brought to me ; and 
 to-day I have been almost overwhelmed with details about the new 
 regulations of trade, the taxes to be laid on, and the monopolies of 
 the minister Rodriguez, and his partner Areas. In addition to the 
 spirits and tobaccos they long ago purchased with the government 
 money, they have now bought up the cottons, cloths, and other arti- 
 cles of clothing, and only their own agents or pulperie-men are able 
 to procure such for any customer. This, added to the want of a small 
 coin, and the use of notes for three-pences, only payable, or rather 
 exchangeable, for goods from their own shops, is a severe grievance, 
 and will, of course, at once retard civilisation and rob the revenue ; 
 
 N N 2 
 
276 JOURNAL. 
 
 for it will drive the people back to their habits of wearing nothing 
 but their household stuffs, and thereby afford less leisure for agri- 
 culture, thence less food, and consequently check the now increasing 
 population ; at the same time that, by discouraging the use of foreign 
 stuffs, the import duties must fail. Are nations like individuals, who 
 never profit by each other's experience? and must each state have its 
 dark age ? 
 
 I have received many visits in the course of the day to congratulate 
 me on my return, the most and the kindest from my naval friends ; 
 and I am particularly flattered by Lord Cochran e's coming with 
 Captains Wilkinson and Crosbie, and Mr, H. E. to tea. Before I 
 could give it to them, an incident truly characteristic happened : we 
 were obliged to wait while a man went to catch a cow with the lafa 
 on the hill, to procure milk. After what I had seen of the manage- 
 ment of the dairy at M. Salinas', I could not wonder, and had 
 nothing to do but sit patiently till the milk arrived, and my guests 
 being older inhabitants of the country than I am, were equally re- 
 signed ; and the interval was filled with pleasant conversation. 
 
 Qih. — The exorbitant duties, not yet formally imposed but an- 
 nounced, on various English goods, have induced Capt. Vernon, of 
 H. M. ship Doris, to go to Santiago ; and, if possible, procure some 
 mitigation of the duties, or at least a less vexatious regulation with 
 regard to the manifesto. I wish our government would acknowledge 
 the independence of the states of South America at once; and send 
 proper consuls or agents to guard our trade, and to take from it the 
 disgrace of being little else than smuggling on a larger scale. How 
 easily might it have been settled, for instance, that the brute metals 
 of this country should be legal returns for the manufactured goods 
 of Europe, India, and China; instead of, as now, subjecting them ro 
 all the losses and risks of smuggling : for, as they are the only 
 returns the country can make to Europe, they will find their way 
 thither ; and the attempt to confine them is as absurd as that ancient 
 law of Athens which forbade the selling of the figs of Attica, lest 
 
VALPARAISO. 
 
 277 
 
 a stranger should buy and eat of what was too delicious for any 
 but an Athenian palate. 
 
 This new reglamento is not the only point on which some state 
 ferment seems about to arise. The Director had appointed General 
 Cruz to supersede General Freire as governor of Talcahuana and 
 chief of the army of the south ; but the soldiers have refused to 
 receive him, or to permit Freire to leave them, and are become as 
 clamorous for their pay as the sailors are. Some pohticians here do 
 not scruple to attribute ambitious thoughts to Freire, and to accuse 
 him of being the instigator of the clamours of the soldiers : but the 
 true cause is in the bad faith of the government in refusing to pay 
 up their arrears ; in neglecting to provide any compensation for the 
 sufferings and losses of the people of Conception, who have under- 
 gone more than those of any other province during the war of the 
 Revolution ; and in tyrannically attempting to ruin every port in 
 Chile but that of Valparaiso, for the sake of monopolising the com- 
 merce of the country. 
 
 As to the squadron, the men talk of seizing the ships if they are 
 not paid forthwith ; and it is given out that their officers will stand 
 by them. But these reports are built rather on the provocations to 
 take the law into their own hands, than on any expressions of the 
 parties themselves. 
 
 8^A. — My- pleasure in receiving the visits of several of my friends 
 to-day, has been sadly damped by the increased sufferings of poor 
 Glennie. These sufferings have met with sympathy however, if not 
 relief, in a quarter from which I scarcely looked for it ; namely, from 
 La Chavelita, the old lady of the flower-garden, who appeared about 
 four o'clock with a bundle of herbs, carried by a little serving boy, 
 and stalking into the room with great dignity, her tall figure rendered 
 still taller by a high-crowned black hat, she seated herself by the 
 bedside, and began to question the patient as to his disease : she then 
 turned to me, and told me she had brought some medicines, one of 
 which she would administer immediately ; and in order to prepare 
 it desired me to procure some warm brandy. This being done, she 
 
278 JOURNAL. 
 
 produced from her leathern pocket a piece of cocoa grease, and dipping 
 it into the brandy, began to anoint G.'s shoulders with it, harangue- 
 ing all the time on the intimate connection between the shoulders 
 and the lungs, and saying that whoever wished to cure the latter 
 should begin by cooling the former. Having operated for a quarter 
 of an hour, she suffered the patient to lie down ; and taking a bundle 
 of cachanlangue {herb centaury) from the boy, desired me to infuse 
 half of it in boiling water, and give the tea occasionally ; and the other 
 half was to be placed in a glass of spirits, and the shoulders to be 
 occasionally whipped with it. She assured me that the pulse would go 
 down and the hemorrhage cease by degrees, by constant use of the 
 herb. She also gave me a bundle of wild carrot, of which she di- 
 rected me to make a tisane, well sweetened, to be drank occasionally, 
 and then, having given a history of similar cases cured by her pre- 
 scriptions, to which she sometimes adds an infusion of the leaves of 
 vinagrillo {yellow wood-sorrel, with a thick fleshy leaf), she took 
 leave. 
 
 9^^.-^ One cannot attend to private concerns two days together. 
 This morning I learn that the squadron is in such a state from want, 
 that a delegate has been sent to the supreme government ; and that 
 the captains serving in the Chileno ships have addressed a serious 
 letter to it, setting forth their claims, their sufferings, and the injustice 
 done them. * In- other respects, things are quieter ; and it seems 
 as if patience were allowing time for the effect of the remon- 
 'strances. 
 
 Lord Cochrane and Captain Crosbie came in the evening ; and as 
 we never talk politics while drinking tea and eating bread and 
 honey, we had at least one pleasant hour without thinking of go- 
 vernments, or mutinies, or injustice of any kind, — a rare blessing 
 here, when two or three are together. There are so few people here, 
 and all those are so directly interested in these matters, that it is not 
 
 * See Appendix for this remonstrance, communicated to me shortly after it was for- 
 warded to government by one of the captains ; and also for the letter on the same sub- 
 ject addressed to the Admiral by the lieutenants of the squadron. 
 
VALPARAISO. 2Y9 
 
 wonderful nothing else should be talked of; but I, who am only a 
 passenger, sometimes sigh for what I enjoyed this evening — a little 
 rational conversation on more general topics. 
 
 Captain Vernon returned this night with a copy of the reglamento 
 in his pocket. I hear it is so inconsistent, that it will defeat its own 
 purpose. 
 
 ISth. — Every one has been electrified to-day by the sudden ar- 
 rival of General San Martin, the Protector of Peru, in this port. 
 Since the forcible expulsion of his minister and favourite, Montea- 
 gudo, from office by the people of Lima*, while he himself was 
 absent visiting Bolivar at Guayaquil, he had felt some alarm concern- 
 ing his own security ; and had, it is believed, from time to time de- 
 posited considerable sums on board of the Puyrredon, in case of the 
 worst. At length, at midnight on the 20th September, he embarked, 
 and ordered the captain to get under weigh instantly, although the 
 vessel was not half manned, and had scarcely any water on board. 
 He then ran down to Ancon, whence he despatched a messenger to 
 Lima, and his impatience could scarcely brook the necessary delay 
 before an answer could arrive : when it did come, he ordered the 
 captain instantly to sail for Valparaiso ; and now gives out here, that 
 a rheumatic pain in one of his arms obliges him to have recourse to 
 the baths of Cauquenes. If true, " 'tis strange, 'tis passing strange." 
 
 lA^th. — Reports arrive this morning that San Martin has been 
 arrested; and that having endeavoured to smuggle a quantity of gold, 
 it is seized. 
 
 Noon. — So far from San Martin being arrested, two of the Direc- 
 tor's aides-de-camp have arrived to pay him compliments, — besides, 
 the fort saluted his flag. 
 
 Many persons, knowing Lord Cochran e's sentiments with regard 
 to the General, and that he looks on him both as a traitor to Chile 
 and a dishonest man, made little doubt but that His Lordship would 
 arrest him. Had he done so, I think the government would have 
 
 * 25th July, 1822. 
 
280 
 
 JOURNAL. 
 
 gladly acquiesced. But the uprightness and delicacy of Lord Coch- 
 rane's feelings have induced him to leave him to the government 
 itself. 
 
 Night. — The Director's carriage is arrived to convey San Martin 
 to the city; General Priete and Major O' Carrol are also in attendance; 
 and thqre are four orderlies appointed, who are never to lose sight of 
 him. Some think by way of keeping him in honourable arrest, 
 others, and I am inclined to be of the number, that real or affected 
 fear for his life, while in the port, occasions the constant attend- 
 ance of such a train. The General himself persists in saying that 
 his visit to Chile is solely on account of his rheumatic arm, and at 
 first sight it seems hard not to allow a man credit for knowing the 
 motives of his own actions. But one of the penalties of conspicuous 
 station is to be judged by others. 
 
 " Oh, hard condition ! and twin-born of greatness, 
 
 Subject to breath of ev'ry fool." Henry V. 
 
 15th of October. — After a very busy day spent in seeing and 
 taking leave of my friends of the Doris, who are to sail to-morrow, I 
 was surprised, just as I had taken leave of the last, at being told that 
 a great company was approaching. I had scarcely time to look up 
 before I perceived Zenteno, the governor of Valparaiso, ushering in 
 a very tall fine-looking man, dressed in plain black clothes, whom he 
 announced as General San Martin. They were followed by Madame 
 Zenteno and her step-daughter, Dona Dolores, Colonel D'Albe and 
 his wife and sister, General Priete, Major O'Carrol, Captain Tor- 
 res, who I believe is captain of the port here, and two other gentle- 
 men whom I do not know. It was not easy to arrange the seats of 
 such a company in a room scarcely sixteen feet square, and lumbered 
 with books and other things necessary to the comfort of an Eu- 
 ropean woman. At length, however, my occupation of much 
 serving, being over, I could sit, and observe, and listen. San 
 Martin's eye has a peculiarity in it that I never saw before 
 but once, and that once was in the head of a celebrated lady. 
 
VALPARAISO. 281 
 
 It is dark and fine, but restless ; it never seemed to fix for above a 
 moment, but that moment expressed every thing. His countenance 
 is decidedly handsome, sparkling, and intelligent ; but not open. His 
 manner of speaking quick, but often obscure, with a few tricks and 
 by-words ; but a great flow of language, and a readiness to talk on 
 all subjects. 
 
 I am not fond of recording even the topics of private conversation, 
 which I think ought always to be sacred. But San Martin is not a 
 private man ; and besides, the subjects were general, not personal. 
 We spoke of government ; and there I think his ideas are far from 
 being either clear or decisive. ' There seems a timidity of intellect, 
 which prevents the daring to give freedom and the daring to be des- 
 potic alike. The wish to enjoy the reputation of a liberator and the 
 will to be a tyrant are strangely contrasted in his discourse. He has 
 not read much, nor is his genius of that stamp that can go alone. 
 Accordingly, he continually quoted authors whom he evidently knew 
 but by halves, and of the half he knew he appeared to me to mistake 
 the spirit. When we spoke of religion, and Zenteno joined in the 
 discourse, he talked much of philosophy ; and both those gentlemen 
 seemed to think that philosophy consisted in leaving religion to the 
 priests and to the vulgar, as a state-machine, while the wise man 
 would laugh alike at the monk, the protestant, and the deist. Well 
 does Bacon say, " None deny there is a God but those for whom it 
 maketh that there were no God;" and truly, when Iconsider his actions, 
 I feel that he should be an atheist if he would avoid despair. But 
 I am probably too severe on San Martin. His natural shrewd sense 
 must have led him to perceive the absurdity of the Roman Catholic 
 superstitions, which here are naked in their ugliness, not glossed 
 over with the pomp and elegance of Italy ; and which from state 
 policy he has often joined in with all outward demonstrations of 
 respect : and it has been observed, that " The Roman Catholic 
 system is shaken off with much greater difficulty than those which 
 are taught in the reformed churches ; but when it loses its hold of 
 the mind, it much more frequently prepares the way for unlimited 
 
 o 
 
232 JOURNAL. 
 
 scepticism." And this appears to me to be exactly the state of 
 San Martin's mind. From religion, and the changes it has un- 
 dergone from corruptions and from reformations, the transition 
 was easy to political revolutions. The reading of all South Ame- 
 rican reformers is mostly in a French channel ; and the age of 
 Louis XIV. was talked of as the direct and only cause of the French 
 revolution, and consequently of those in South America. A slight 
 compliment was thrown in to King William before I had ventured 
 to observe, that perhaps the former evils and present good of these 
 countries might in part be traced to the wars of Charles V. and his 
 successor, draining these provinces of money, and returning nothing. 
 A great deal more passed, ending in a reference to that advance of 
 intellect in Europe which in a single age had produced the invention 
 of printing, the discovery of America, and begun that reformation 
 that had bettered even the practice of Rome herself Zenteno, glad 
 to attack Rome, and to show his reading, exclaimed, " And well did 
 her practice need reform ; for she would have crowned Tasso, and 
 did crown Petrarch, but imprisoned Gallileo." Thus taking the 
 converse of Foscolo's true and admirable doctrine, — that the exact 
 sciences may become the instruments of tyranny ; but never poetry^ 
 or history, or oratory. 1 was glad of the interruption afforded by the 
 entrance of tea to this somewhat pedantic discourse, which I never 
 should have made a note of but that it was San Martin's. I apo- 
 logised for having no matee to offer ; but I found that both the 
 General and Zenteno drank tea without milk, with their segars in 
 preference. But the interruption even of tea, stopped San Martin 
 but for a short time. Resuming the discourse, he talked of physic,- 
 of language, of climate, of diseases, and that not delicately ; and 
 lastly, of antiquities, especially those of Peru ; and told some verv 
 marvellous stories of the perfect preservation of some whole families 
 of ancient Caciques and Incas who had buried themselves alive on 
 the Spanish invasion : and this brought us to far the most interesting 
 part of his discourse, — his own leaving Lima. He told me, that, 
 resolved to know whether the people were really happy, he used to 
 
VALPARAISO. 283 
 
 disguise himself in a common dress, and, like the caliph Haroun 
 Alraschid, to mingle in the coffee-houses, and in the gossipping par- 
 ties at the shop doors; that he often heard himself spoken of; and 
 gave me to understand, that he had found that the people were now 
 happy enough to do without him ; and said that, after the active life 
 he had led, he began to wish for rest; that he had withdrawn from 
 public life, satisfied that his part was accomplished, and that he had 
 only brought with him the flag of Pizai'ro, the banner under which 
 the empire of the Incas had been conquered, and which had been 
 displayed in every war, not only those between the Spaniards and 
 Peruvians, but those of the rival Spanish chiefs. " Its possession" 
 said he, " has always been considered the mark of power and authority ; 
 I HAVE IT NOW ;" and he drew himself up to his full height, and 
 looked round him with a most imperial air. Nothing so character- 
 istic as this passed during the whole four hours the Protector 
 remained with me. It was the only moment in which he was him- 
 self The rest was partly an habitual talking on all subjects, to 
 dazzle the less understanding ; and partly the impatience to be first, 
 even in common conversation, which his long habit of command 
 has given him. I pass over the compliments he paid me, somewhat 
 too profusely for the occasion ; but of such we may say, as Johnson 
 did of affectation, that they are excusable, because they proceed from 
 the laudable desire of pleasing. Indeed, his whole manner was most 
 courteous : I could not but observe, that his movements as well as his 
 person are graceful ; and I can well believe what I have heard, that 
 in a ball-room he has few superiors. Of the other persons present, 
 Colonel d'Albe and the ladies only volunteered a few words. It was 
 with difficulty that, in my endeavours to be polite to all, I forced a 
 syllable now and then from the other gentlemen. They seemed as 
 if afraid to commit themselves ; so at length I left them alone, and 
 the whole discourse soon fell into the Protector's hands. 
 
 Upon the whole, the visit of this evening has not impressed me 
 much in favour of San Martin. His views are narrow, and I think 
 selfish. His philosophy, as he calls it, and his religion, are upon 
 
 00 2 
 
284 JOURNAL. 
 
 a par ; both are too openly used as mere masks to impose on the 
 world ; and, indeed, they are so worn as that they would not impose 
 on any people but those he has unhappily had to rule. He certainly 
 has no genius ; but he has some talents, with no learning, and little 
 general knowledge. Of that little, however, he has the dexterity to 
 make a great deal of use ; nobody possesses more of that most useful 
 talent, " Vart de se faire valoir" His fine person, his air of supe- 
 riority, and that suavity of manner which has so long enabled him 
 to lead others, give him very decided advantages. He understands 
 English, and speaks French tolerably ; and I know no person with 
 whom it might be pleasanter to pass half an hour : but the want of 
 heart, and the want of candour, which are evident even in con- 
 versation of any length, would never do for intimacy, far less for 
 friendship. 
 
 At nine o'clock the party left me, much pleased certainly at hav- 
 ing seen one of the most remarkable men in South America ; and 
 I think that, perhaps, in the time, I saw as much of him as was pos- 
 sible. He aims at universality, in imitation of Napoleon ; who had, 
 I have heard, something of that weakness, and whom he is always 
 talking of as his model, or rather rival. * I think too that he had 
 a mind to exhibit himself to me as a stranger ; or Zenteno might 
 have suggested, that even the little additional fame that my report 
 of him could give was worth the trouble of seeking. The fact cer- 
 tainly is, that he did talk to-night for display. 
 
 \6th.. — I have lost this day all my best known friends. Captain 
 Spencer is gone to Buenos Ayres across the Andes : the Doris 
 has sailed for Rio de Janeiro ; and I feel her departure the more, 
 from the situation of my poor invalid. Of all who once made that 
 ship interesting to me, none but poor G. remains with me ; and of 
 the rest how probable it is that I may have lost sight of most of 
 them for life ! 
 
 \''ith. — Mr. Clarke called on his way to the city, and brought me 
 San Martin's farewell to Peru. It is as follows : — 
 
 * In his closet at Mendoza, his own portrait was placed between those of Napoleon 
 and the Duke of Wellington. 
 
VALPARAISO. 285 
 
 " 1 have been present at the declaration of the independence of 
 " the states of Chile and of Peru. The standard which Pizarro 
 " brought hither to enslave the empire of the Incas is in my power. 
 " I have ceased to be a public man : thus I am rewarded with usury 
 " for ten years of revolution and war. 
 
 " My promises to the countries where I have made war are ful- 
 " filled, — to make them independent, and to leave them to the free 
 " choice of their government. 
 
 " The presence of a fortunate soldier (however disinterested I may 
 " be) is terrible to newly constituted states ; and besides, I am 
 " shocked at hearing it said that I desire to make myself a sovereign. 
 " Nevertheless, I shall always be ready to make the last sacrifice for 
 " the liberty of the country ; but in the rank of a simple individual, 
 " and no other. 
 
 " As to my public conduct, my countrymen, as in most things, 
 " will be divided in their opinions : their posterity will pronounce 
 " a true sentence. 
 
 " Peruvians ! I leave you an established national representation : 
 " if you repose entire confidence in it, sing your song of triumph ; if 
 " not, anarchy will devour you. 
 
 " May prudence preside over your destinies ; and may these crown 
 " you with happiness and peace ! 
 
 " Jose de San Martin. 
 
 » Pueblo Libro, Sept. 20th, 1822." 
 
 If there be any thing real in this, if he really retires and troubles 
 the world no more, he will merit at least such praise as was be- 
 stowed on 
 
 " The Roman, when his burning heart 
 Was slaked with blood of Rome, 
 Threw down his dagger, dared depart 
 
 In savage grandeur home: 
 He dared depart in utter scorn 
 Of men that such a yoke had borne." 
 
 For indeed he has not " held his faculties meekly;" but yet he has 
 done something for the good cause ; — and oh ! had the means been 
 
236 JOURNAL. 
 
 righteous as the cause, he would have been the very first of his 
 countrymen : but there is blood on his hands ; there is the charge 
 of treachery on his heart. 
 
 He is this day gone to Cauquenes, and has left the port not one 
 whit enlightened as to the cause of his leaving Peru. It is probably 
 like the retirement of Monteagudo, a sacrifice of his political exist- 
 ence in order to save his natural life. * 
 
 I think Lord Cochrane went either to day or yesterday to Quintero. 
 The Valparaiso world would have rejoiced in some meeting, some 
 scene, between him and San Martin : but his good sense, and truly 
 honourable feelings towards the country he serves, have prevented this. 
 If San Martin is unfortunate, and forced to fly his dominion. His 
 Lordship's conduct is magnanimous ; if it be only a ruse de guerre 
 on San Martin's part to save himself, it is prudent, and will leave 
 him at liberty to expose the Protector as he deserves. 
 
 Monday the 21sif. — During these last few days Valparaiso has enjoyed 
 nearly its ordinary state of dull tranquillity. It seems the convention 
 had, notwithstanding the express wish of the executive, rejected the 
 reglamento in toto ; but their vote being sent back for revision, its 
 operation is to be suspended for a few months. 
 
 My poor invalid continues suffering, though the kindness of my 
 neighbours and the advance of the season enable me to procure for 
 him all the little comforts which can amuse his mind, or gratify his 
 still delicate appetite. Milk is very abundant at this season ; green 
 peas are come in ; a friend sends us asparagus from the city ; and 
 the strawberries are just ripe. It is the custom here, when this ele- 
 gant fruit first comes in, to tie it up in bunches, with a rose, a pink, 
 or a sprig of balm ; and these little bunches, laid on the evergreen 
 leaves of mayten, shaded with sprigs of the same, and laid in little 
 wicker baskets, are brought by the rosy-faced children, from all the 
 gardens within ten miles, to the port for sale. I have known a real 
 
 * See Lord Cochrane's letter, and Lima Justificada. 
 
VALPARAISO. 287 
 
 given for a single strawberry on their first ripening, but now a real 
 will purchase more than two persons could eat. 
 
 26th. — The Lautaro arrived from Talcahuana under most uncom- 
 fortable circumstances : she has had a serious mutiny on board, occa- 
 sioned by the want of food and other necessaries while in the south ; 
 and the officers themselves felt so severely the same evils, that they 
 could not restrain the men, as in any other case they might have 
 done. As soon as the ship went to a neighbouring port, where she 
 could procui'e provisions, the people returned to their duty ; and the 
 captain and officers would fain have passed over the whole thing, but 
 the mutiny was already reported to government, and it is said that it 
 is determined to punish some of the ringleaders. I trust, however, 
 that in their justice they will remember mercy, and think of the wants 
 that exasperated the crew and their good conduct afterwards. 
 
 We learn that Lord Cochrane is gone to the city on business con- 
 nected with the squadron ; and as he is said to be living with the 
 Dii'ector, it is hoped that at length the government will do justice in 
 its naval department. 
 
 October Slst. -^ This month has been a most important one for 
 Chile. The government has promulgated its new constitution and its 
 new commercial regulations, neither of which appear to me to an- 
 swer their purpose. 
 
 The reglamento, or commercial regulation, begins by a long pre- 
 amble, addressed by the minister of the interior to the convention 
 on laying before it the rules drawn up by a committee composed 
 partly of ministers and partly of merchants : I understand not much 
 of these things ; but there are passages so opposite to common sense, 
 that a child must be struck with them. The three first sections 
 concern the establishment and subordination of custom-house officers, 
 of whom some are to be stationary and some ambulatory ; the latter 
 are to be obeyed wherever they are met, on the hills, in the road, or 
 out of it, in all weathers. They are to have a copper badge about 
 the size of a crown-piece, which they are to wear concealed ; and yet 
 if they stop a cargo in the midst of the widest plain, or in the worst 
 
288 
 
 JOURNAL. 
 
 weather, that cargo must be opened, and is not to be removed till 
 proper officers are fetched to watch it to the nearest station, to see 
 whether it contains smuggled goods, or whether a piece of cotton 
 runs a yard more or less than the manifest ; for now, every bale must 
 have the precise number of yards specified as well as pieces. By 
 this regulation many sorts of goods must be destroyed, most injured ; 
 and in case of rain, the sugars, for instance, taken from the backs of 
 mules and examined in the open road, must be damaged, if not lost. 
 This clumsy attempt at exactness must of course soon be put an 
 end to. 
 
 The sixth section declares Valparaiso to be the only free port of 
 Chile, thus doing a manifest injustice to all the others ; a declaration 
 too, highly imprudent, considering the jealousies on the subject that 
 have always existed in the south, and those that have occasionally 
 appeared at Coquimbo. The lesser ports, as Concon, Quintero, &c. 
 are absolutely closed against all foreign vessels ; and native ships 
 have some hard restrictions imposed on them, such, for instance, as a 
 prohibition to touch at those ports on their arrival from foreign 
 countries. Besides Valparaiso, foreign ships are allowed to touch 
 at Coquimbo, Talcahuana, and Valdivia ; also San Carlos de Chiloe, 
 when it is conquered; and, with a government licence, they may 
 go to Huasco and Copiapo, but solely for the purpose of taking in 
 copper. 
 
 All foreign vessels touching in any of these ports must pay four 
 reals per ton, excepting whalers, who pay nothing : native ships 
 coming from abroad to pay two reals per ton ; but if employed in 
 coasting, nothing : for pilotage, anchorage, and mooring, all vessels 
 with one mast pay five dollars ; with two masts, ten dollars ; with 
 three masts, fifteen dollars. National ships or foreign whalers, not 
 trading, to pay one half of the above duties. 
 
 The seventh section confines the legal and free passes of the Andes 
 to one ; namely, that by the valley of Santa Rosa. So that those of 
 San Juan de los Patos, the pass of the Portillo, and that of the 
 Planchon, are shut up : this is not the way to civilise a country. 
 
VALPARAISO. 289 
 
 And, moreover, all cargoes must pass through Mendoza, and receive 
 a certificate there, or they will not be allowed to enter Chile. All 
 this is followed by the narrowest and most vexatious rules for mani- 
 fests, for trans-shipments, for land-carriage, &c. that the ingenuity of 
 man has devised, bearing alike upon foreigners and natives, merchants 
 and husbandmen. 
 
 The most curious thing in the whole production is the notice in the 
 preamble of the twelfth section concerning importations. The duties 
 on all these are so high, as in many cases to amount to a prohibition, 
 with the view of protecting home-manufactures, forgetting that, except- 
 ing hats and small beer, there is not a single manufactory established 
 in Chile ; for we can hardly call such the soap-boiling and candle- 
 dipping of the country. And because a man in Santiago has actually 
 made a pair of stockings in a day, no more foreign stockings are to 
 be introduced ; so that the ladies must learn to knit, or go barefoot ; 
 for it is hardly to be hoped that the one pair manufactured per day 
 will supply even the capital. Better take a few Manchester stockings 
 until he of Santiago has a few more workmen employed. As there 
 are literally no Chilian cabinet-makers, the prohibitions of foreign 
 chairs and tables will send the young ladies back to squatting on the 
 estrada ; and as it must be some years, perhaps centuries, before they 
 will raise and weave silk here, or manufacture muslins, we shall have 
 them clad in their ancient woollen manteaus ; and future travellers 
 will praise the pretty savages, instead of delighting in the society of 
 well-dressed and well-bred young ladies. The passage which I allude 
 to is so curious I must copy it, for the benefit of those of my friends 
 who wish to form a just estimate of the wisdom of the Chileno legis- 
 lature in these matters. 
 
 After noticing that these regulations must lead either to an increase 
 of the public funds, or to an entire cessation of all importations, 
 which the minister very properly contemplates as the most probable 
 result, he says, " Would to God that these regulations may bring 
 « about the day when we shall see the total products of our 
 " custom-houses, as far as relates to foreign goods, reduced to a 
 
 p p 
 
290 JOURNAL. 
 
 " cipher ! Then should we see the true rising-star of our prosperity. 
 ". Our fertile soil abounds in productions of all sorts, and we need 
 "but little from abroad. On whichever side we look, Nature is 
 " overflowing, and only wants funds, talents, activity, industry. Yes, 
 " I repeat, — let that day arrive, our exports will augment, and ira- 
 *' portation will decrease ; and in a happy hour may the receipts of 
 " the treasury decrease with them," &c. &c. &c. This, for a state 
 yet in infancy, with a bare million of inhabitants, and those half 
 savages, and which produces, ready made, that metal from its hills 
 which may purchase the manufactures of the world, is perhaps as 
 exquisite a specimen of the perversion of principles, and of their 
 misapplication, as it is possible to conceive. The discourses of Men- 
 tor in Telemachus would be just as applicable. Chile for a long 
 period ought not to spare people to manufacture any thing beyond 
 necessaries ; she wants hands to till the ground, to dig the mines, 
 to man the ships, which she must have if she will have any thing. 
 Her raw production, her staple commodity, is gold, or the equally 
 valuable copper ; and it grieves one to see a parcel of rules well 
 enough for a ready-civilised country in Europe, — where the niggard 
 earth yields not wherewithal to trade, and all must be laboured and 
 fashioned, and the gold and silver must be made with men's hands, — 
 adopted here, where every circumstance is diametrically opposite. 
 
 This is quite enough of the reglamento for me. I have no pa- 
 tience for custom-house registers, and manifests, and invoices, and un- 
 derstand them as little as I like them. Besides, I have nothing to 
 do with them, except as they are here part of an essay towards go- 
 verning a new state by no means as yet prepared for them. 
 
 I remember the time when I should as little have thought of read- 
 ing the reglamento of Chile, as I should of poring over the report 
 of a committee of turnpike roads in a distant country ; and far less 
 should I have dreamed of occupying myself with the Constitucion 
 Politica del estado de Chile. But, times and circumstances make 
 strange inroads on one's habits both of being and thinking; and I have 
 actually caught myself reading, with a considerable degree of interest, 
 the said Political Constitution. It was promulgated on the 23d of this 
 
VALPARAISO. 291 
 
 month, and is but newly printed; and in order to print it the 
 public journals were stopped; as there are neither types nor workmen 
 enough, — though I believe the chief deficiency is in the latter, — to 
 print gazettes and a constitution at once. 
 
 The constitution is divided into eight sections ; and these into 
 chapters and articles, as the subject requires. It begins by asserting 
 the freedom and independence of Chile as a nation, and with defin- 
 ing the limits of the territory, fixing Cape Horn as its southern point, 
 and the desert of Atacama as its northern boundary ; while the 
 Andes to the east, and the ocean to the west, form its natural limits. 
 It claims besides, the islands of the archipelago of Chiloe, those of 
 Mocha, of Juan Fernandez, and Saint Mary. The second chapter of 
 the first section concerns those who may be called Chilenos : 1st, 
 those born in the country ; 2d, those born of Chilian parents out of 
 it ; 3d, foreigners married to natives after three years' residence ; 
 4th, foreigners employing a capital of not less than 2000 dollars 
 who shall reside for five years. All Chilenos are equal in the eye of 
 the law ; all employments are open to them ; they must all contribute 
 their proportion to the maintenance of the state. 
 
 The second section declares the religion of the state to be the 
 Catholic Apostolic Roman, to the exclusion of all others ; and 
 that all the inhabitants must respect it, whatever be their private 
 opinions. 
 
 The third section declares the government to be representative, 
 and that the legislative power resides in the Congress, the executive 
 in the Director, and the judicial in the proper tribunals. All are 
 citizens who, being Chilenos, are of twenty-five years of age, or who 
 are married ; and, after the year 1833, they must be able to read and 
 write. Persons shall lose their right of citizenship who, 1st, are na- 
 turalised in other countries ; 2d, accept employment from any other 
 government ; 3d, are under any legal sentence not reversed ; 4th, 
 remain absent from Chile, without leave, more than five years. These 
 rights are suspended, 1st, in case of interdiction, or of moral or 
 physical incapacity ; 2d, insolvents ; 3d, defaulters to the public 
 
 p p 2 
 
292 JOURNAL. 
 
 funds ; 4th, hired servants ; 5th, those who have no ostensible 
 means of livelihood ; 6th, during a criminal process. 
 
 The fourth section contains sixty-two articles, and concerns the 
 powers and divisions of the Congress, which is to consist of two 
 chambers, — the Senate, and the Chamber of Deputies. The Senate, 
 or court of representatives, is to consist of seven individuals, chosen 
 by ballot by the deputies ; four of whom, at least, must be of their 
 own body ; and the ex-directors, the ministers of state, the bishops 
 having jurisdiction within the state, or, failing them, the head of the 
 church for the time being; one minister of the supreme tribunal of 
 justice ; of three military chiefs, to be named by the Director ; of the 
 directorial delegate of the department where the Congress sits ; of a 
 doctor from each university ; and of two merchants, and of two landed 
 proprietors, whose capital shall not be less than 30,000 dollars. 
 These to be named by the deputies. The members will thus not be 
 less than twenty, the president being the oldest ex-director. This 
 senate is to sit as long as the term of the Director's power, i. e. six 
 years ; and if he be re-elected, it may continue to sit. 
 
 The Chamber of Deputies is annual, the elections being made by 
 lists, allowing one deputy for about 15,000 souls. All citizens above 
 twelve years old are eligible as electors, and such military men as do 
 not command troops of the line ; as deputies, such as, besides the 
 above qualifications, have landed property to the amount of 2000 
 dollars, or are natives of the department where they are elected. The 
 Congress is to meet for three months every year, on the 18th of 
 September ; and an oath is required from the deputies, to be taken 
 before the Director and Senate, in the following form : — " Do you 
 " swear by God and your honour to proceed faithfully in the dis- 
 " charge of your august functions, dictating such laws as shall best 
 "conduce to the good of the nation, political and civil liberty, private 
 " safety and that of individual property, and to the other ends for 
 " which you are assembled, as set forth in our constitution ?" — " Yes, 
 " I swear." — "If you do this, God enlighten and defend you ; if not, 
 " you must answer to God and the nation." 
 
 The fifth section of the constitution contains sixty-one articles. It 
 
VALPARAISO. ggo 
 
 concerns the executive power ; and first, the Director, who is declared 
 to be elective, and that the office is incapable of becoming hereditary. 
 The direction is to last six years, and the Director may be re-elected 
 once for four more. He must be a native of Chile, and have resided 
 in it the five years immediately preceding his election. He must be 
 above twenty-five years of age, and he must be elected by both Cham- 
 bers of the Congress, by ballot. Two-thirds of the votes shall suffice 
 to elect a Director. The election made by the Convention this year 
 of the present Director shall be considered as the first. 
 
 In case of the death of the Director while the Congress is not sitting, 
 the Director shall, on the 12th of February, the 5th of April, and the 
 18th of September, deposit in a box, with three several keys, to be 
 kept by several persons, a paper sealed and signed, containing the 
 names of the Regency who arq to take charge of the government, 
 until his successor be appointed in Congress. As the Senate is per- 
 manent, it will co-operate with the Regency in calling together the 
 Deputies, as an extraordinary meeting of Congress, which shall sepa- 
 rate as soon as the business of the election is over. 
 
 The Director is declared head of the army and navy. He has full 
 powers to treat with foreign nations, and to make peace and war. 
 Together with the Senate, he is to present to the bishoprics, and all 
 other ecclesiastical dignities and benefices. He has the command of 
 the treasury. He is to appoint ambassadors, to name the ministers, 
 and secretaries of state, and to name also the judges of circuits. He 
 may pardon or commute punishments. 
 
 After setting forth these powers and privileges, there are a few 
 articles that look like restrictions ; but as I see no means of enforcing 
 them, they act rather as the fear of punishment in another world 
 does on too many sinners here, than as real limitations to absolute 
 authority. 
 
 There are three ministers of state. 1. The Secretary for Foreign 
 Affairs ; — 2. Of the Home Department ; — 3. Of War and Marine. 
 If the Director pleases he may give two of these offices to one per- 
 son. These ministers lie under a limited responsibility, i. e. no re- 
 sponsibility at all. 
 
294 JOURNAL. 
 
 The sixth section of the constitution relates to the internal govern- 
 ment of the state. The ancient Tntendencias are abolished, and the 
 country is divided into departments and districts. In each depart- 
 ment there shall be a delegate commanding its civil and military 
 affairs, and these are to be named by the Director and Congress. To 
 these delegates all the superintendence of the courts of justice, the 
 custom-houses, and duties, &c. is confided. And they are to preside 
 in the cabildos or town councils, which in other respects are to re- 
 main on the old footing. No member of a cabildo may be arrested 
 without the express permission of the Director. 
 
 The seventh section concerns the judical powers. They reside in 
 the usual tribunals. There is a supreme court of five judges, without 
 whoSe sanction no execution can take place. This court serves also 
 as a court of appeal. It is entitled to examine and recommend to 
 the executive to amend the laws. The members to visit the prison 
 each week in turn : they are to sit as council for the Director and 
 Senate on points of law, &c. &c. All emoluments beyond their ac- 
 tual pay are forbidden. 
 
 There is also a Chamber of Appeal composed of five members. But 
 all these things in all their parts are so complicated and tiresome, not 
 fitted for the country because they are the laws of Spain, Moorish, 
 Gothic, Latin, all mixed, and then local customs, in short, 72,000 
 laws, where there are not twice the number of people who can read, 
 that I cannot go through with them. The only sensible paragraph 
 in this part of the constitution is the declaration that no inquisitorial 
 institution shall ever be established in Chile. 
 
 A little section follows on public education which is very well, 
 and shows the intention of establishing many schools and encourao-- 
 ing a national institute. 
 
 The section concerning the army, and militia, and navy, only places 
 them all at the disposal of the Director. 
 
 And the last section concerns the observance and promulgation of 
 the constitution, and the signatures of the Convention a'nd Director. 
 
 November 1st. — My invalid is now so much better, that we have 
 been riding out upon the hills, and getting acquainted with new 
 
VALPARAISO. 295 
 
 path's and new flowers. Poor fellow! he seems more delighted at 
 his renewed liberty even than I am at mine. The charm of a re- 
 covered health has been so often felt that one wonders it should 
 delight again ; but 
 
 " Sans (loute que le Dieu qui nous rend I'existence, 
 
 A I'heureuse convalescence, 
 Pour de nouveaux plaisirs donne de nouveaux sens ; 
 
 A sefe regards impatiens, 
 Le cahos fuit ; tout nait, la lumiere commence ; 
 
 Tout brille des feux du printemps ; 
 Les plus simples objets, le chant d'une fauvette, 
 Le matin d'un beau jour, la verdure des bois. 
 
 La fraicheur d'une violette, 
 
 Mille spectacles, qu' autrefois 
 
 On voyoit avec nonchalance 
 Transportent aujourd'hui, presentent des apas 
 
 Inconnus a I'indifference, 
 
 Et que la foule ne voit pas." 
 
 I cannot doubt that these beautiful lines of Gresset were in Grey's 
 mind, when he wrote his ode on recovering from sickness : the feel- 
 ings are native in every heart, however, and one wants only the 
 power of poetical expression to clothe them in verse. But inde- 
 pendent of all this, the neighbourhood of Valparaiso is peculiarly 
 beautiful at this time. The shrubs have all been refreshed by the 
 rains ; the ground is covered with a profusion of flowers ; the fruit 
 is just ripening ; and the climate, always agreeable, is now, in this 
 spring-time, delicious. No poet ever feigned for his Tempe a more 
 charming sky than that of Chile ; and there is a sweetness and soft- 
 ness in the air that soothes the spirits and doubles every other 
 pleasure. 
 
 2^, — We have had a great many visitors, and of course some 
 news, the most interesting of which is, that the government is in 
 earnest in its intentions to pay the squadron. One half of the pay- 
 ments will, it is said, be made in money, the other half in bills upon 
 the custom-house. Lord Cochrane arrived from the city last night, 
 and is pitching tents by the sea-shore beyond the fort for himself, 
 because he does not choose to accept a house from government, in 
 
296 JOURNAL. 
 
 the way these things are managed here. He has of course a claim to 
 the accommodation of a dwelling on shore ; and an order was sent to 
 the governor of Valparaiso to provide one. The governor con- 
 sequently pitched upon one of the most commodious in the port, and 
 
 sent an order to Mr. C , an Englishman, to remove with his 
 
 family, and to leave it furnished for the Admiral, such being the old 
 Spanish custom. But His Lordship would by no means allow Mr. C. 
 to move, and has accordingly pitched a tent. His friends are a little 
 anxious about this step. No Chileno would lift his hand against 
 him ; but there are persons now in Chile who hate him, and who 
 have both attempted and committed assassination. 
 
 Sunday, November 3d. — This evening, at about nine o'clock, the 
 Director came quietly to the port. It is said he is come to see the 
 squadron paid. Some assert that he is come in order not imme- 
 diately to meet San Martin, who, having bathed at Cauquenes, is 
 about to move into the city, and is to take up his residence in the 
 directorial palace, only, however, as a private visitor.* He is to have 
 a double guard : but if he is, as it is said, so beloved, why should he 
 fear ? I suspect that, like other opium-eaters, he is become nervous. 
 
 I trust, for the honour of human nature, that an opinion which I 
 have heard concerning the Director's appearance in the port, is un- 
 founded : it is, that he is come hither in order to seize an opportunity 
 of getting possession of Lord Cochrane's person, that is, to sacrifice 
 him to the revenge of San Martin in compliance with the entreaties 
 forwarded from Peru, by the agents Paroissien and Del Rio. 
 
 November 1th. — We have been riding about for several days, and 
 making acquaintance among the neighbouring farmers : every where 
 we are invited to alight and take milk, or at least to rest, and walk in 
 the~ gardens and gather flowers. It is quite refreshing to see the 
 gentle and frank manners of the peasants of the country, after all 
 the bustle and petty intrigue of the port and its in-dwellers. To-day, 
 
 * If I were first magistrate of a country, however, I should not choose to accustom the 
 people to see another in my place. 
 
VALPARAISO. 297 
 
 ^ however, I have spent very agreeably to myself, chiefly at the Ad- 
 miral's tents ; but that is far enough from the town not to hear its 
 noise. Having lodged Glennie at the tents, I returned to the town 
 and called on the Director, who is living in the government-house ; 
 and Zenteno and his family are gone to another. His Excellency 
 looks very well, and received me as courteously as I could wish ; and, 
 according to the custom of the country, as soon as I was seated pre- 
 sented me with a flower. I know not how it happened, but the dis- 
 course turned on nunneries, and I mentioned the Philippine nuns in 
 Rome ; on which he begged to have a particular notice of them and 
 their rule, in order to better the condition, if possible, of the nuns of 
 Chile, and especially of such as superintend the education of young 
 girls. This I promised ; and as soon as I came home, sent him such 
 notices as I had, with references to the ecclesiastical histories I sup- 
 pose he can command in the public library. I little thought, when 
 visiting in the parlour of that convent, which was once Caesar Borgia's 
 palace, and looking over the ruins of Rome from its galleries, painted 
 by Domenichino, I think, that that visit might become of consequence 
 to "the forlorn recluses of Chile ! 
 
 Having paid my visits, I returned to the tents, and found that my 
 patient had been sleeping quietly. Lord Cochrane, much interested 
 in him, kindly pressed me to take him for change of air to Quintero, 
 which I am most willing to do ; and as soon as he is strong enough, 
 I mean to go. The Admiral himself does not look very well, but 
 that is not marvellous ; the squadron is still unpaid. The charges 
 preferred against him by San Martin, though never credited by the 
 government, which possesses abundant documents in its own hands to 
 refute them, have remained uncontradicted by him, at the request of 
 that government, in order to avoid exciting party spirit, or a quarrel, 
 perhaps a war, between Peru and Chile. But now that all danger of 
 that kind is over, and as San Martin is honoured by having the palace 
 itself appointed for his residence, and receives every mark of public 
 attention, as if on purpose to insult Lord Cochrane, those charges 
 should and will be answered ; and answered too with facts and dates 
 which will completely overwhelm all the accusations, direct and in- 
 
 Q Q 
 
298 JOURNAL. 
 
 direct, that were ever drawn up or insinuated against him. There are 
 other causes too why those now in high station in Chile should be 
 anxious : there are reports and whispers from the north and from the 
 south, of discontents of various kinds. The brothers and kindred of 
 the dead, and of the exiled, have not forgotten them ; and to see the 
 man whom they consider as the author of their misfortunes receive4 
 and honoured, irritates them. With every respect for the personal 
 character of the Director, they see him as the friend and ally of San 
 Martin, and the supporter of Rodriguez and his comrades ; and I can 
 hear that sort of covert voice of discontent that precedes civil strife. 
 The government of Santiago throws all the blame of this discontent 
 on the squadron, and has sent a few troops here, it is said, to intimi- 
 date it : but the number is so small, that it would scarcely suffice to 
 guard the Director, or to secure a state prisoner ; to which latter 
 purpose those who best know the dispositions of the government 
 believe them to be destined. The Admiral is undoubtedly the per- 
 son who would be seized, if the partisans of San Martin dared 
 commit so great an outrage ; nor would they stop there. San 
 Martin's victims never survive his grasp. I am grieved that the 
 Director should lend himself to such a purpose. The people in the 
 port seeming not to dare to speak, say in fact every thing ; and I was 
 glad to take refuge from hearing disagreeable things at the tents, 
 where, at least, we are secure from hearing of the politics of Chile. 
 
 12th. — I may say, with the North Americans, every thing is pro- 
 gressing ; Glennie is much better ; the discontents are spreading. The 
 squadron is in a way to be paid, though, perhaps, too late ; but when 
 the money came down, they forgot to send stamped paper to make 
 out tickets, &c. ; so the officers and sailors must wait till proper paper 
 can be stamped, and sent from Santiago for the purpose. I have re- 
 ceived a letter from the Director in answer to mine about the nuns. 
 The reglamento is producing all manner of confusion ; Lord Cochrane 
 is proceeding with his refutation of San Martin ; and I have seen him, 
 and fixed on a time for being at Quintero. The only thing that is not 
 progressing is the repairing the ships. I understand that Mr. Olver, 
 a most ingenious artificer, has made the estimates, and undertaken 
 
VALPARAISO. 
 
 299 
 
 the execution : but it is doubtful if the government, which, like some 
 others, is sometimes penny-wise and pound-foolish, will think it ex- 
 pedient to part with the necessary sums to put its ships in order. 
 Yet if it do not, the coasts must be left defenceless, or new ships 
 bought at an exorbitant price. 
 
 I have been looking back at my journal of the last six weeks, and 
 it struck me as I read it that it is something like a picture gallery ; 
 where you have historical pieces, and portraits, and landscapes, and 
 still life, and flowers, side by side. Every other thing written pretends 
 to be a whole in itself, and to be either history, or landscape, or por- 
 trait ; and generally the author finishes it for a cabinet picture. But 
 my poor journal, written in a new country and in a time of agitation, 
 to say the least of it, can pretend to no unity of design ; for can I 
 foresee what will happen to-morrow ? And, as my heroes and he- 
 roines (by-the-bye, I have but a scanty proportion of the latter,) are all 
 independent personages, I cannot, like a novel-writer, compel them 
 to figure in my pages to please me, but they govern themselves ; and 
 that, where to write a journal is only a kind of substitute for reading 
 the new books of the day, which I should assuredly do at home, is 
 perhaps as well r the uncertainty of the end keeps up the interest. 
 
300 JOURNAL. 
 
 November 14:th, Concon.-^ This morning we set off early from 
 home, and at eleven o'clock arrived at Viiia a la Mar, the hacienda of 
 the Carreras. The family has suffered much during the revolution, 
 the head of it being cousin-german to Jose Miguel Carrera. Some of 
 the sons met an untimely death ; one of them is now an exile in the 
 service of Artigas : three daughters only, out of nine, are married ; 
 the rest are living with their parents at Vina a la Mar. It is a noble 
 property : the little stream Margamarga flows through it to the sea, 
 forming a valley exceedingly fertile ; and at the village, whence the 
 stream takes its name, the best dairies in the district are situated. The 
 house of the hacienda is placed nearly in the middle of a little plain 
 formed of the alluvial soil washed down from the surrounding moun- 
 tains, which rise behind it like an amphitheatre. A few fields and 
 some very fine garden ground, cultivated by a Frenchman, Pharoux, 
 occupy the space between it and the sea. Behind it lies the exten- 
 sive vineyard, which is gradually making way for corn, which is both 
 more successful and more profitable than wine here. 
 
 We were received most hospitably by Madame Carrera, who was 
 sitting on a very low sofa at the end of the estrada, on which some 
 of her grand-children were at play, while her daughters sat round on 
 chairs and stools. Refreshments were offered instantly, and warm 
 milk with sugar and a little grated cinnamon was brought in and pre- 
 sented, with slices of bread. The invalid was then taken into a 
 pleasant cool room to rest ; and while he slept, the young ladies 
 showed Mr. Davidson, who had escorted us from the port, and my- 
 self, the garden, orchard, and farm offices, which differed little from 
 those I had seen before, except that they were much out of repair. 
 But as the nature of the farm is changing from a wine t6 a corn farm, 
 all the vats and the alembics for brandy, &c. are becoming useless, 
 and will be replaced by granaries. The dinner was a mixture of 
 Chileno and English customs and cookery ; the children and the 
 grandmother being most Chilian, the young ladies most English. 
 After a reasonable time after dinner, we rode on to Concon, and were 
 met about half way by Mr., Mrs., and Miss Miers, It was one of the 
 
CONCON. 302 
 
 loveliest evenings of this lovely climate, and I felt more than com- 
 monly exhilarated and disposed to enjoy it, not having been so far 
 on horseback since my disastrous ride from San Francisco de Monte 
 to Santiago. 
 
 \5th. — Rode to the mouth of the river ; part of the water of which 
 is lost in the sand accumulated there, part is kept back on the land, 
 and produces a marshy lake ; but there is enough left to form a con- 
 siderable stream at the regular outlet. I was grieved to see a great 
 quantity of very fine machinery, adapted for rolling copper, lying on 
 the shore, where Mr. Miers had thrown out a little pier. This ma- 
 chinery has been regarded with jealousy by certain members of the 
 government, because some part of it may be used for coining ; and 
 yet that jealousy will not, I fear, prompt the state to buy it, and 
 thereby reform their own clumsy proceedings at the mint. However, 
 here lie wheels, and screws, and levers, waiting till more favourable 
 circumstances shall enable Mr. Miers to proceed with his farther 
 plans. But time, his becoming a citizen with some landed property, 
 and the circumstances of his children being born here, will, I trust, 
 do every thing for him. 
 
 The hills here have no longer the same character as about Valpa- 
 raiso : there, a reddish clay, with veins of granite and white quartz, 
 ibrm the greater part, if not the whole mass ; here they consist of a 
 greyish or blackish sand, with layers of pebbles and shells visible at 
 different heights by the sea-side. The plain on either side of the 
 river is rich deep soil, with all sorts of things in it that a large river 
 swelling and passing its bounds twice a year may be supposed to 
 deposit. The first inundation, for it is little less, is during the rains ; 
 the second on the melting of the snows of the Andes : it is said also 
 to rise in misty weather ; but this place is so close to the moun- 
 tains, that it must feel the daily changes ofweatiier in the Cordil- 
 lera ; and, indeed, I believe there is always less water in the morn- 
 ing than in the evening, owing, of course, to the melting of snow in 
 the day time. 
 
 l^th. — We rode to Quintero, stopping to rest at the old house on 
 
302 JOURNAL. 
 
 the lake. As this is a cattle estate, it is not populous in proportion 
 to its extent ; but still every valley has its little homestead or two, 
 around which, at the latter end of the rains, and while the cattle are 
 in the mountains, the peasants form their little chacra, or cultivated 
 spot, for pease, gourds, melons, onions, potatoes, French beans, 
 (which, dried, asfriocole, forms a main article of their food,) and other 
 vegetables. This little harvest must all be gathered in before the 
 season for the return of the cattle to the plain, as the landlord has 
 then a right to turn in the beasts to every field ; and this is often a 
 great hardship, because the peasants are bound to duty-work per- 
 haps six, eight, ten, twelve, or more days in the year, at the will of 
 the landlord as to season. Now, it often happens that he employs 
 his people to clear his own chacra just at the moment when theirs is 
 ready to be cleared ; and the time passes, and the poor man's food 
 is trodden down by the oxen : here on this estate, while the present 
 master is in the country, such things cannot happen ; but the legal right 
 exists, and a hard master or overseer may exercise it. Under Lord 
 Cochrane, the peasantry have found an unwonted freedom which 
 they are so totally unused to, from motives of humane consideration, 
 that they have taken it for carelessness, and have abused it ; but 
 better so, than that they should be oppressed ! Each settler pays a 
 few reals as ground-rent ; two dollars, on some estates more, for pas- 
 ture for every horse, mule, ox, or cow, and double for every hundred 
 sheep. The tenants of Quintero, taking advantage of the owner's 
 long absence, and the carelessness or dishonesty of the overseer, have 
 increased their private flocks and cattle beyond what the estate will 
 bear, without account or payment, and thus materially injured it. 
 
 We found Mr. Bennet, Lord Gochrane's Spanish secretary, and my 
 friend Carrillo, the painter, ready to receive us. The former is a 
 remarkable person, on account of his long residence and singular 
 adventures in South America. // narre bien, and I suspect better in 
 Spanish than in English ; but there is something not unpleasant in 
 the broad Lincolnshire dialect which gives an air of originality to his 
 thoughts, as well as his stories. He affects a singularity of dress : 
 
QUINTERO. 303 
 
 sometimes a loose shirt and looser trousers, nankeen slippers, a 
 black fur cap, and a sash, form the whole of his habiliments ; at 
 other times, wide cossack trousers^ a blue jacket, real gold buttons, 
 a small pair of epaulettes, and a military cap, and the sash tight round 
 his waist, adorn him ; — rarely does he condescend to wear a neck- 
 cloth, even when the rest of his dress is in conformity with common 
 usage ; but when in full costume, his thin pale personage, and eye 
 with an outward cast in it, are set off by a full suit of black, with 
 shiny silk breeches that look like constitutional calamanco (v. Re- 
 jected Addresses), enormous bunches of ribbon at the knees, and buckles 
 in his shoes. I never could help laughing when I saw him in this 
 stiff dress, forming so complete a contrast with the description he 
 gives of his costume while, during the early period of the revolution, 
 he was governor at Esmeraldas ; an honour which, I can well believe, 
 was forced on him. Then, his body was painted, his head adorned 
 with feathers, and his clothing as light as that of any wild Indian. 
 
 He was dressed now in middle costume, to do the honours of 
 Quintero ; and most politely he did them to Mrs. Miers and me, and 
 most kindly to Glennie. After dinner we engaged him to tell us 
 various parts of his adventures ; and were vulgar enough to prefer his 
 account of the earthquake he experienced at the Baranca, when the 
 dismayed inhabitants fled to the hills, and expected every moment to 
 see their ruined town swallowed up, as Callao had been in 1747. * 
 After the earthquake, he told us of his visits to tremendous volcanoes, 
 and said, that he had himself descended lower into the crater of 
 
 * The destruction of Callao was the most perfect and terrible that can be conceived : 
 no more than one of all the inhabitants escaping, and he by a providence the most singular 
 and extraordinary imaginable. This man was on the fort that overlooked the harbour, 
 going to strike the flag, when he perceived the sea to retire to a considerable distance ; 
 and then, swelling mountains high, it returned with great violence. The inhabitants ran 
 from their houses in great terror and confusion ; he heard a cry of miserere rise from all 
 parts of the city, and immediately all was silent. The sea had entirely overwhelmed this 
 city, and buried it for ever in his bosom ; but the same wave which had destroyed this 
 city drove a little boat by the place where the man stood, into which he threw himself and 
 was saved. 
 
 Burkes Account of the European Settlers in America. 
 
304 
 
 JOURNAL. 
 
 Pinchincha than where Humboldt had left his mark. I enquired of 
 him, whether the people in anj^)f the countries he has lived in had 
 an idea that earthquakes could be considered as periodical, and 
 whether the few instances in which they had occurred twice at 
 regular intervals were thought to promise farther coincidences ; men- 
 tioning, that in that case we wanted but a year or two at most of the 
 return of the severe earthquake of this part of Chile. But I could 
 not learn that any Indian superstition or tradition pointed that way, 
 any more than the speculations of European natural philosophers ; 
 and, indeed, twice within these five years, Coquimbo and Copiapo, 
 hitherto described as never touched by these calamities, have been 
 utterly destroyed, and have thus contradicted some theories about 
 situations, soils, &c. * 
 
 18^;^. — We tried to persuade Mrs. Miers to remain with us, but in 
 vain. She was anxious to return to her children, and accordingly 
 left us in time to get home by daylight. I made a little sketch of the 
 house ; and having found a lithographic press here, I mean to draw it 
 on stone, and so produce the first print of any kind that has been 
 done in Chile ; or, I believe, on this side of South America. 
 
 • This conversation may appear to be imagined aftei- the event ; but it was not so. 
 Our company consisted of Mr. Bennet, Mrs. Miers, Mr. Glennie, and myself; and many 
 a time afterwards did we recall this evening's discourse. 
 
QUINTERO. 305 
 
 November 20^A.— Yesterday, after dinner, Glennie having fallen into 
 a sound sleep in his arm-chair by the fire side, Mr. Bennet and I, 
 attracted by the fineness of the evening, took our seats to the veranda 
 overlooking the bay ; and, for the first time since my arrival in Chile, 
 I saw it lighten. The lightning continued to play uninterruptedly 
 over the Andes until after dark, when a delightful and calm moon- 
 light night followed a quiet and moderately warm day. We returned 
 reluctantly to the house on account of the invalid, and were sitting 
 quietly conversing, when, at a quarter past ten, the house received 
 a violent shock, with a noise like the explosion of a mine ; and 
 Mr. Bennet starting up, ran out, exclaiming, " An earthquake, an 
 earthquake ! for God's sake follow me !" I, feeling more for Glennie 
 than any thing, and fearing the night air for him, sat, still : he, look- 
 ing at me to see what I would do, did the same ; until, the vibration 
 still increasing, the chimneys fell, and I saw the walls of the house 
 open. Mr. Bennet again cried from without, " For God's sake, come 
 away from the house !" So we rose and went to the veranda, mean- 
 ing, of course, to go by the steps ; but the vibration increased with 
 such violence, that hearing the fall of a wall behind us, we jumped 
 down from the little platform to the ground ; and were scarcely there, 
 when the motion of the earth changed from a quick vibration to a 
 rolling like that of a ship at sea, so that it was with difficulty that 
 Mr. Bennet and I supported Glennie. The shock lasted three minutes ; 
 and, by the time it was over, every body in and about the house had 
 collected on the lawn, excepting two persons ; one the wife of a 
 mason, who was shut up in a small room which she could not open ; 
 the other Carillo, who, in escaping from his room by the wall which 
 fell, was buried in the ruins, but happily preserved by the lintel 
 falling across him. 
 
 Never shall I forget the horrible sensation of that night. In all 
 other convulsions of nature we feel or fancy that some exertion may 
 be made to avert or mitigate danger ; but from an earthquake there 
 is neither shelter nor escape : the " mad disquietude" that agitates 
 every heart, and looks out in every eye, seems to me as awful as the 
 
 R R 
 
306 JOURNAL. 
 
 last judgment can be ; and I regret that my anxiety for my patient 
 overcoming other feelings, I had not my due portion of that sublime 
 terror : but I looked round and I saw it. Amid the noise of the de- 
 struction before and around us, I heard the lowings of the cattle 
 all the night through ; and I heard too the screaniing of the sea- 
 fowl, which ceased not till morning. There was not a breath of air ; 
 yet the trees were so agitated, that their topmost branches seemed 
 on the point of touching the ground. It was some time ere our 
 spirits recovered so as to ask each other what was to be done ; but 
 we placed Glennie, who had had a severe hemorrhage from the 
 lungs instantly, under a tree in an arm-chair. I stood by him while 
 Mr. B. entered the house and procured spirits and water, of which 
 we all took a little ; and a tent was then pitched for the sick man, 
 and we fetched out a sofa and blankets for him. Then I got a man 
 to hold a light, and venture with me to the inner rooms to fetch 
 medicine. A second and a third shock had by this time taken place, 
 but so much less violent than the first, that we had reasonable hopes 
 that the worst was over; and we proceeded through the ruined sit- 
 ting-rooms to cross the court where the wall had fallen, and as we 
 reached the top of the ruins, another smart shock seemed to roll 
 them from under our feet. At length we reached the first door of 
 the sleeping apartments ; and on entering I saw the furniture dis- 
 placed from the walls, but paid little attention to it. In the second 
 room, however, the disorder, or rather the displacing, was more 
 striking ; and then it seemed to me that there was a regularity in the 
 disposal of every thing : this was still more apparent in my own 
 room ; and after having got the medicines and bedding I went for, 
 I observed the furniture in the different rooms, and found that it 
 had all been moved in the same direction. This morning I took in 
 my compass, and found that direction to be north-west and south- 
 east. The night still continued serene ; and though the moon went 
 down early, the sky was light, and thei'e was a faint aurora austi'alis. 
 Having made Glennie lie down in the tent, I put my mattress on the 
 ground by him. Mr. Bennet, and the overseer, and the workmen, 
 
QUINTERO. g07 
 
 lay down with such bedding as they could get round the tent. It 
 was now twelve o'clock : the earth was still at unrest 5 and shocks, 
 accompanied by noises like the explosion of gunpowder, or rather 
 like those accompanying the jets of fire from a volcano, returned 
 every two minutes. I lay with my watch in my hand counting them 
 for forty-five minutes ;" and then, wearied out, I fell asleep : but a 
 little before two o'clock a loud explosion and tremendous shock 
 roused every one ; and a horse and a pig broke loose, and came to 
 take refuge among us. At four o'clock there was another violent 
 shock ; and the interval had been filled with a constant trembling, 
 with now and then a sort of cross-motion, the general direction of 
 the undulations being north and south. At a quarter past six o'clock 
 there was another shock, which at another time would have been 
 felt severely ; since that hour, though there has been a continued 
 series of agitations, such as to shake and even spill water from a 
 glass, and though the ground is still trembling under me, there has 
 been nothing to alarm us. / write at four o^ clock p. m. — At day- 
 light I went out of the tent to look at the earth. The dew was on 
 the grass, and all looked as beautiful as if the night's agitation had 
 not taken place ; but here and there cracks of various sizes appeared 
 in various parts of the hill. At the roots of the trees, and the bases 
 of the posts supporting the veranda, the earth appeared separate, 
 so that I could put my hand in ; and had the appearance of earth 
 where the gardener's dibble had been used. By seven o'clock per- 
 sons from various quarters had arrived, either to enquire after our 
 fate, or communicate their own. From Valle Alegri, a village on the 
 estate, we hear that many, even of the peasants' houses, are damaged, 
 and some destroyed. In various places in the middle of the gardens, 
 the earth has cracked, and water and sand have been forced up 
 through the surface; some banks have fallen in, and the water- 
 courses are much injured. 
 
 Mr. Cruiksharik has ridden over from old Quintero : he tells us 
 that great fissures are made on the banks of the lake ; the house is 
 not habitable ; some of its inmates were thrown down by the shock, 
 
 RR 2 
 
308 JOURNAL. 
 
 and others by the falling of various articles of furniture upon them. 
 At Concon the whole house is unroofed, the walls cracked, the iron 
 supporters broken, the mill a ruin, and the banks of the mill-stream 
 fallen in. The alluvial soil on each side of the river looks like a 
 sponge, it is so cracked and shaken : there are large rents along the 
 sea-shore ; and during the night the sea seems to have receded in an 
 extraordinary manner, and especially in Quintero bay. I see from 
 the hill, rocks above water that never were exposed before ; and the 
 wreck of the Aquila appears from this distance to be approachable 
 dry-shod, though till to-day that was not the case in the lowest tides. 
 
 Half fast eight p. m. — We hear reports that the large and po- 
 pulous town of Quillota, is a heap of ruins, and that Valparaiso is 
 little better. If so, the destruction there must have re,ached to the 
 inhabitants as well as the houses, — God forbid it should be so ! At 
 a quarter before six another very serious shock, and one this moment. 
 Slight shocks occur every fifteen or twenty minutes. The evening 
 is as fine as possible; the moon is up, and shines beautifully over the 
 lake and the bay : the stars and aurora austi-alis are also brilliant, 
 and a soft southerly breeze has been blowing since daylight. We 
 have erected a large rancho with bamboo from Guayaquil and reeds 
 from the lake, so that we can eat and sleep under cover. Glennie 
 and I keep the tent ; the rest sleep in the rancho. 
 
 Thursday, November 9,1st. — At half past two a.m. I was awoke, 
 by a severe shock. At ten minutes before three a tremendous one, 
 which made us feel anew that utter helplessness which is so appalling. 
 At a quarter before eight, another not so severe; a quarter past nine, 
 another. At half past ten and a quarter past one, they were re- 
 peated ; one at twenty minutes before two with very loud noise, 
 lasting a minute and a half; and the last remarkable one to-day at a 
 quarter past ten. These were all that were in any degree alarming, 
 but slight shocks occurred every twenty or thirty minutes. 
 
 Mr. M- is returned from the port. Lord Cochrane was on 
 
 board the O'Higgins at the time of the first great shock, and went 
 on shore instantly to the Director; for whom he got a tent pitched 
 
QUINTERO. 309 
 
 on the hill behihd the town.* His Lordship writes me that my 
 cottage is still-standing, though every thing round is in ruins. Mr. M. 
 says, that there is not a house standing whole in the Almendral. 
 The church of the Merced is quite destroyed. Not one house in 
 the port remains habitable, though many retain their forms. There 
 is not a living creature to be seen in the streets ; but the hills are 
 covered with wretches driven from their homes, and whose mutual 
 fears keep up mutual distraction. The ships in the harbour are 
 crowded with people ; no provisions are to be had ; the ovens are 
 ruined, and the bakers cannot work. Five English persons were 
 killed, and they were digging out some of the natives ; but the loss 
 of life has not been so great as might have been feared. Had the 
 catastrophe happened later, when the people had retired to bed, the 
 destruction must have been very dreadful. We hear that Casa 
 Blanca is totally ruined. 
 
 Friday, November lid. — Three severe shocks at a quarter past 
 four, at half past seven, and at nine o'clock. After that there were 
 three loud explosions, with slight trembling between ; then a severe 
 shock at eleven; two or three very slight before one o'clock; and then 
 we had a respite until seven p. m., when there was a slight shock. 
 
 As we are thirty miles from the port, and ninety from the city, the 
 reports come to us but slowly. To-day, however, we learn that 
 Santiago is less damaged than we expected. The mint has suffered 
 seriously ; part of the directorial palace has fallen ; the houses and 
 churches are in some instances cracked through : but no serious 
 damage is done, excepting the breaking down the canals for irrigation 
 in some places. A gentleman from Valparaiso describes the sens- 
 ation experienced on board the ships as being as if they had suddenly 
 
 * Don Bernardo O'Higgins, the Director, whose business at Valparaiso was of a na- 
 ture decidedly hostile to Lord Cochrane, narrowly escaped with his life in hurrying out 
 of the government house.. He received on that terrific night protection and attention 
 from the Admiral, which I hope for the honour of human nature caused him at this 
 time to suspend his hostile intentions : But I fear that his temporary retirement from the 
 government on reaching Santiago, was only to leave others at liberty to do as they pleased. 
 
310 JOURNAL. 
 
 got under weigh and gone along with violence, striking on rocks as 
 they went. Last night, the priests had prophesied a more severe 
 shock than the first. No one went to bed : all that could huddle 
 themselves and goods on board any vessel did so ; and the hills were 
 covered with groups of houseless creatures, sitting round the fires in 
 awful expectation of a mighty visitation. On the night of the nine- 
 teenth, during the first great shock, the sea in Valparaiso bay rose 
 suddenly, and as suddenly retired in an extraordinary manner, and 
 in about a quarter of an hour seemed to recover its equilibrium ; but 
 the whole shore is more exposed, and the rocks are four feet higher 
 out of the water than before. 
 
 Such are our reports from a distance. Nearer home we have had 
 the same prophecy, concerning a greater shock with an inundation 
 to be expected ; and the peasants consequently abandoned their 
 dwellings, and fled to the hills. The shock did not arrive, and that 
 it did not has been attributed to the interposition of Our Lady of 
 Quintero. This same Lady of Quintero has a chapel at the old house, 
 and her image there has long been an object of peculiar veneration. 
 Thither, on the first dreadful night, flocked all the women of the 
 neighbourhood, and with shrieks and cries entreated her to come to 
 their assistance ; tearing their hair, and calling her by all the endear- 
 ing names which the church of Rome permits to the objects of its 
 worship. She came not forth, however ; and in the morning, when 
 the priests were able to force the doors obstructed by the fallen 
 rubbish, they found her prostrate, with her head off", and several 
 fingers broken. It was not long, however, before she was restored tO 
 her pristine state, dressed in clean clothes, and placed in the attitude 
 of benediction before the door of her shattered fane. 
 
 We had a thick fog to-day, and a cold drizzling rain all the morning 
 till noon ; when it cleared up, and became still and warm. During many 
 of the shocks, I observed wine or water on the table was not agitated 
 by a regular tremulous motion, but appeared suddenly thrown up in 
 heaps. On the surface of the water, in one large decanter, I observed 
 three such heaps form and suddenly subside, as if dashing against the 
 
QUINTERO. 322 
 
 sides. Mercury, in a decanter, was affected in the same manner. 
 We had no barometer with us, nor could I learn that any observ- 
 ations had been made. 
 
 Saturday, 23d. — The shocks diminished in frequency and force 
 during the night and the early part of the day, only one having been 
 felt before four p. m. ; when there were four between that and this 
 hour, ten o'clock. The weather has been cloudy but pleasant 
 to-day. 
 
 More reports from the neighbourhood. The fishermen all along 
 the coast assert, that on the night of the 19th they saw a light far out 
 at sea, which was stationary for some time ; then advanced towards 
 the land, and, dividing into two, disappeared. The priests have con- 
 verted this into the Virgin with lights to save the country. 
 
 A Beata saint at Santiago foretold the calamity the day before ; 
 the people prayed, and the city suffered little. A propio was de- 
 spatched to Valparaiso, who arrived tbo late, although he killed three 
 horses under him, to put the people on their guard. 
 
 Since the 19th the young women of Santiago, dressed in white, 
 bare-footed, and bare-headed, with their hair unbraided, and bearing 
 black crucifixes, have been going about the streets singing hymns 
 and litanies, in procession, with all the religious orders at their head. 
 At first, the churches were crowded, and the bells tolled the dis- 
 tress incessantly, till the government, aware that many of the belfries 
 and some of the churches were cracked, shut them up, lest they 
 should fall on the heads of the people ; so that now they per- 
 form their acts of devotion in the streets, and each family devotes its 
 daughters to the holy office. 
 
 At length we have an account of the catastrophe as it affected 
 Quillota from Don Fansto del Hoyo, Lord Cochrane's prisoner. Don 
 Fausto's head-quarters, now he is a prisoner at large, have been 
 generally at that place, though he is equally at home at Quintero. 
 He always speaks of Lord Cochrane as el tio {uncle), a term of en- 
 dearment used by soldiers to their chief, by children to their 
 older friends. He is a shrewd man, but not clever, — unconquerably 
 
312 JOURNAL. 
 
 attached to his country, Old Spain, and firmly resolved to have 
 nothing more to do with war. He was with Romana in the north of 
 Germany and Denmark ; embarked with him in the Victory, fol- 
 lowed his fortunes, and at length came to Chile with the expedition, 
 when the Maria Isabella, now the O'Higgins, came out, and he him- 
 self was taken prisoner at Valdivia. 
 
 Don Fausto then reports from Quillota, that he and some friends 
 were in the pla9a, mixing with the people in the festivities of the 
 eve of the octave of "San Martin, the tutelar saint of Quillota.* The 
 market-place was filled with booths and bowers of myrtle and roses ; 
 under which feasting and revelry, dancing, fiddling, and masking, 
 were going on, and the whole was a scene of gay dissipation, or 
 rather dissoluteness. The earthquake came, — in an instant all was 
 changed. Instead of the sounds of the viol and the song, there arose 
 a cry of " Misericordia ! Misericordia !" and a beating of the breast, 
 and a prostration of the body; and the thorns were plaited into 
 crowns, which the sufferers pressed on their heads till the blood 
 streamed down their faces, the roses being now trampled under- 
 foot. Some ran to their falling houses, to snatch thence children 
 forgotten in the moments of festivity, but dear in danger. The 
 priests wrung their hands over their fallen altars, and the chiefs 
 of the people fled to the hills. Such was the night of the nineteenth 
 at Quillota. 
 
 The morning of the 20th exhibited a scene of greater distress. 
 Only twenty houses and one church remained standing of that large 
 town. All the ovens had been destroyed, and there was no bread : 
 the governor had fled, and the people cried out that his sins had 
 brought down the judgment. Some went so far as to accuse the 
 government at Santiago, and to say its tyranny had awakened God's 
 
 * Don Fausto calls it San Martin de Tours ; if so, it was the octave, not the eve, 
 because St. Martin of Tours has his festivals on the 4ith July, 13th December, and 11th 
 of November : the last is the principal festival ; therefore the octave would fall on the 
 nineteenth. If it were the eve of the octave, then the saint must be the Pope Saint 
 Martm, whose feast is held on the 12th November. 
 
CONCON. 323 
 
 vengeance. Meantime the deputy-governor, Mr. Fawkner, an Eng- 
 lishman by birth, assembled the principal persons to take measures 
 
 for relieving the sufferers ; among the rest, came Don Duenas, 
 
 a man of good family, married to one of the Carreras of Vina a la 
 Mar, and proprietor of the hacienda of San Pedro. He had been 
 in his house with his wife and child : he could not save both at once J 
 he preferred his wife; and while he was bearing her out, the roof fell, 
 and his infant was crushed. His loss of property had been immense. 
 This man then, with this load of domestic affliction, came to Fawkner, 
 and told him he had ordered already four bullocks to be killed and 
 distributed to the poor ; and desired him, as governor, to remember, 
 that though his losses had been severe, he was comparatively a rich 
 man, and therefore able as he was willing to deal of his property 
 to his neighbours and fellow-sufferers. 
 
 Sunday, 24:th. — Our register of shocks to-day gives one at eight 
 o'clock A. M. ; and again at one, at three, at five, and at eleven, p. m. 
 I was On horseback, and did not feel the first. 
 
 I had wished to go to the port on the 20th, but the river had 
 swelled so much that the ford was unsafe until to-day, when I left 
 Quintero at six o'clock. The loose banks and the edges of the water- 
 courses are pretty generally cracked or broken down ; there are 
 cracks along the beach between the Herradura and Concon, but they 
 have been nearly filled up by the loose sand falling in ; some rocks 
 and stones that the lowest tides never left dry, have now a passage 
 between them and the low water-mark sufficient to ride round 
 easily. As I approached the river, the cracks and rents in the allu- 
 vial soil almost assumed the appearance of chasms, and the earth 
 appears to have sunk on the sides of the river, where, as in Valle 
 Allegri, water and sand have been forced up through the rents. The 
 water at the ford was uncomfortably high, but we passed safely ; 
 though a mule I had brought for baggage lost her footing, and was 
 carried a little way down the stream before she could recover enough 
 to swim to the opposite shore. My friends at Concon have suffered 
 
 5 5 
 
314 JOURNAL. 
 
 a good deal : their ' house is unroofed ; that is, on one side everj 
 tile is off, and a considerable part of those on the other side. The 
 walls of the mill are quite destroyed ; but the strong corner-posts 
 have supported the roof, and the machinery is but little damaged. 
 The sides of the mill-lead have fallen in ; but the mill has gained by 
 such an alteration in the bed of the river as has given the water 
 several inches more fall than it had. — The night of the 19th was ter- 
 rific here. The two children of Mr. Miers were in bed in rooms 
 which had no communication with each other, and one of them none 
 but from the outer veranda with any part of the house. Mr. Miers 
 hurried his wife from the house, she shrieking for her children : he 
 ran back for the youngest, — the showers of tiles prevented his ap- 
 proaching the place where the eldest was : there was a moment's 
 pause, — he found the child asleep, and brought him out safe. The 
 family spent that night without sleep, walking in front of their ruined 
 home. In the morning they pitched a tent ; and by the 'time I ar- 
 rived there they had a ramada, or hut of branches. During the 
 great shock the earth had rent literally under their feet, and they 
 describe the sound along the valley as most fearful. The church of 
 Goncon is overthrown, and the estate-house nearly destroyed. 
 
 At Vina a la Mar I found the whole family established in a 
 ramada at their outer gate-way ; there nothing was standing but part 
 of the front wall of the dwelling-house : the ruin had been complete ; 
 -not a shelter remained for any living thing. The whole of the little 
 plain is covered with small cones from one to four feet high, thrown 
 Tip from below on the night of the 19th, and from which sand 
 and water had been thrown out. I attempted to ride up towards 
 one of them ; but on approaching it, the horse began to sink as in a 
 quick-sand ; therefore I desisted, not choosing to pay too dearly for 
 the gratification of my curiosity. 
 
 The road between Vina a la Mar and the port is very much in- 
 jured by the falling of the rocks from above : in one place indeed it 
 is rendered extremely unsafe ; but the horses of Chile are so sure- 
 
VALPARAISO. 32 n 
 
 footed, that I had no apprehension but from the chance of a severe 
 shock while passing the perilous place. At length I reached the 
 heights of the port ; and looking down, from thence, there appeal's 
 little difference on the town, excepting the absence of the churches 
 and higher buildings : from a distance, the ruins in the line of the 
 streets fill the eye as well. As I approached nearer, the tents and 
 huts of the wretched fugitives claimed my undivided attention ; and 
 there indeed 1 saw the calamity in a light it had not hitherto ap- 
 peared in. Rich and poor, young and old, masters and servants, 
 were huddled together in intimacy frightful even here, where the 
 distinction of rank is by no means so broad as in Europe. I can 
 quite understand, now, the effect of great general calamities in de- 
 moralising and loosening the ties of society. The historians of the 
 middle ages tell of the pestilence that drove people forth from the 
 cities to seek shelter in the fields from contagion, and returned them 
 with a worse plague, in the utter corruption of morals into which 
 they had fallen. Nor was "the plague in London" without its 
 share of the moral scourge. " Sweet are the uses of adversity" to 
 individuals and to educated men ; but I fear that whatever cause 
 makes large bodies of men very miserable, makes them also very 
 wicked. 
 
 I rode on in no very cheerful temper to my own house, where I 
 found some persons had taken refuge. It had suffered so little, that 
 I think fourteen tiles off one corner was the extent of the damage ; 
 but the white-wash shaken off the walls, and the loosening of every 
 thing about it, showed that the shock had been severe. I was in 
 hopes, seeing the state of the ranchos of the peasants around, that my 
 poor neighbours had likewise escaped. But poor Maria came to me 
 evidently sick at heart. I asked for little Paul, her son, a fine boy of 
 five years old ; when she burst into tears. He was sleeping in the 
 rancho on his little bed : she had been out at a neighbour's house. 
 She ran home to seek her son : she entered her cottage, — he lay on his 
 bed; but a rafter had been shaken from its place, — it had fallen on his 
 
 s s 2 
 
316 JOURNAL. 
 
 little head, and from tthe face alone she could not have told it was 
 her own child. And then came another grief: they came to take 
 the body and bury it, — she had not four dollars in the house ; the 
 priests, therefore, as she could not pay the fees, refused to bury it in 
 consecrated ground : and " They have thrown my child into a pit 
 " like a dog, where the horses and the mules will walk over him, 
 " and where a Christian prayer will not reach him !" — All comment 
 on this would be idle ; as were my words of comfort to the sad 
 mother. She only answered, "Ah, Seiiora ! why were you not here ?" 
 
 Seeing that my house was in a manner untouched, the priests re- 
 solved to make a miracle of it ; and accordingly, by daylight on the 
 20th, Nuestra Seiiora del Pilar was found, in her satin gown, standing 
 close to my stove, and received numerous offerings for having pro- 
 tected the premises, and I suppose carried off a silver pocket-com- 
 pass and a smelling bottle, the only two things I missed. 
 
 Finding there was little to be done at home this afternoon, I rode 
 on to the port as soon as I had taken some refreshment. ■ The Al- 
 mendral presents a sad spectacle : not a house remains habitable ; 
 all the roofs and walls of the land-side are ruined, those of the sea- 
 side are seriously injured. The tower of the church is a heap of 
 sand, and broken brick, and gilt and painted plaister, and all that is 
 ugly and painful in a recent ruin : part of the roof still remains, 
 suspended between some of the side buttresses, and its hideous 
 saints and demons only make the devastation appear more horrible. 
 The port itself is in some parts utterly destroyed, in others scarcely 
 injured : here a fort with not a stone left on another ; there a shop 
 whose tiles have scarcely been loosened. The ruined and the un- 
 ruined form alternate lines. It appears that where the veins of 
 granite rock ran under the foundations, the buildings have stood 
 tolerably well ; but wherever any thing was erected on the sand or 
 clay it has been damaged. 
 
 There was not a human being in the town ; so I went on board the 
 English merchant vessel Medway, where Captain White had shel- 
 
VALPARAISO. 32 Y 
 
 tered my friends the Hogans, among many others, and there I was 
 kindly invited to sleep. The reports I heard on arriving here once 
 more awakened my attention to the affairs of Chile, which the more 
 immediate feelings connected with the earthquake had made me, for 
 the moment, lose sight of. 
 
 At length the government had resolved to pay the squadron ; and 
 the first plan, not uninfluenced, it is believed, by the counsels of San 
 Martin, was to pay the men and petty officers before the officers ; 
 also to pay them ashore, the pay-office being provided either with 
 leave-tickets for four months, or discharges to give them on demand, 
 so as to have left the ships, the Admiral, and the officers in the har- 
 bour, without a man. This plan, of course, the Admiral would not 
 suffer, and therefore the payments are making on board : the first 
 took place on the very day of the earthquake ; and I have been told 
 that the confusion of the scene in the streets on that disastrous night, 
 was increased by the number of sailors ashore on leave, and making 
 merry with their friends on their newly-received pay. They receive 
 bills of twenty-five dollars ; four only of which they will get silver for, 
 the rest they are compelled to expend in clothes at the shops set up 
 for that purpose by Areas in the port. 
 
 This day the Independencia, the only effective ship of the squa- 
 dron, was despatched without the Admiral's leave, without even the 
 formality of transmitting the orders through him ! But Zenteno, as 
 minister of marine, took upon himself to send her on a particular 
 service. It is understood to be in pursuit of a vessel or vessels going 
 to San Carlos of Chiloe with money and stores, which are to be in- 
 tercepted. 
 
 Monday, ^25th. — So severe a shock took place at a quarter past 
 eight o'clock this morning, as to shake down a great deal of what had 
 been spared on the night of the 19th. Two others occurred in the 
 course of the forenoon, and two after seven at night. I have been 
 busy all day packing my books, clothes, &c., to remove ; because my 
 house is let over my head to some persons who, seeing how well it 
 
31 S JOURNAL. 
 
 has stood, have bribed the landlord to let it to them. — They are 
 English ! 
 
 While I was thus busy, Lord Cochrane called, with Captain Crosbie. 
 His Lordship most kindly, most humanely, desired me to remain at 
 Quintero, with my poor invalid, and not to think of removing him or 
 myself until more favourable times and circumstances ; and told me 
 he would soon go thither, and settle whereabouts I should shelter 
 myself and Glennie till he should be well enough finally to remove. 
 
 Tuesday, 26th. — There were five shocks during this day : I must 
 now omit many ; because, unless they are very severe, I never awake 
 in consequence of them during the night. While I was at my 
 own house packing up, I was surprised to see my friend Mr. C. 
 ride up : he had just arrived from Conception, a distance of 170 
 leagues, which he had ridden by by-ways in five days. He had 
 passed through Talca and San Fernando ; at both of which places, as 
 well as Conception, the earthquake of the 19th had been felt, but not 
 severely. Mr. H., who has just returned from the city, tells me that 
 Casa Blanca and Melipilla are both a heap of ruins : Illapel is also 
 destroyed, and all the village churches have suffered ; nothing but 
 the ranchos escape : they are built like hurdles, and though the mud 
 shakes from the interstices, they are safe. Mr, C. has indeed, 
 however, brought intelligence more important than any thing con- 
 nected with the earthquake. The people of Conception, enraged at 
 the unjust provisions of the reglamento, and at other oppressive 
 measures, have burnt the same reglamento and the constitution 
 in the market-place ; have convoked an opposition convention ; and 
 have insisted on Freire's taking the field with the acknowledged 
 purpose of turning out Rodriguez and the rest of the iniquitous 
 administration. Freire has already marched, but as yet his motions 
 cannot be known at Santiago ; and of course I am tongue-tied as to 
 the intelligence, till it comes from some public quarter : conjecture 
 is free, however ; and I cannot hep thinking that the object here has 
 been to secure the squadron in Freire's interest. But that may 
 not be : honour forbids it, I think ; and the Chilian squadron 
 
VALPARAISO. 
 
 319 
 
 will not forget honour, while its present chief is even nominally its 
 admiral. 
 
 Wednesday, llih. —- Several slight shocks to-day : a very severe one 
 at ten o'clock a. m., and again at six p. m. My pleasant friend 
 Mr. B. called to-day : he has announced his intended marriage with 
 a lady of Chile, and the circumstances connected with it form rather 
 an interesting point in the history of the progress of toleration in 
 the country. In other marriages of the kind, the foreigners have 
 generally changed their nominal religion for the sake of their brides, 
 but my friend has more of the feelings of Richardson's days ; and 
 though I do not mean to say that he is full-dressed in bag and wig, 
 like Sir Charles Grandison, at six o'clock in the morning, or to com- 
 pare the lady with the incomparable Clementina, his conduct in the 
 matter has been firm and right for himself, and wise for the country 
 he has now adopted. In this conduct he has been supported by the 
 Director, against all superstitious and party opposition. Neither 
 wishing his intended wife to change her faith, nor willing to change 
 his own, he applied to the Bishop for a licence and dispensation to 
 marry ; this the prelate positively refused, unless Mr. B. would enter 
 into the bosom of the church. The government now interfered, re- 
 presenting to the Bishop that the present state of the world demanded 
 less bigotry, and the advantage of the country required the greatest 
 degree of liberality towards strangers. Still His Grace was inexorable ; 
 when he received notice, that until he were more tractable, certain 
 tithes and emoluments which in the late commotions the church had 
 lost should not be restored. And now, after granting his dispensation 
 thus reluctantly, all he has gained is the framing a concordat by the 
 government, which will curtail his revenues, and diminish his power. 
 He is a bigoted ambitious man, holding, to appearance, with the pre- 
 sent government by various ties, the most efficient of which is cer- 
 tainly the partnership of Areas, who has married his niece, with 
 Rodriguez, but having stronger connections with all those who oppose 
 O'Higgins, whether as partisans of the unfortunate Carreras, or 
 
320 JOURNAL. 
 
 merely as discontented men. The disputes on this marriage have 
 been violent ; but Mr. B.'s firmness and temper have brought them 
 to a proper conclusion. Many compromises and irregular ways, to 
 save appearances for the church, were proposed to him ; but he 
 wished, not only for his own sake, but in order to establish an im- 
 portant precedent, to have the matter publicly and legally settled. 
 
 I intended to have returned to Quintero to-day, the launch of the 
 Lautaro having been obligingly lent to me for that purpose. But, 
 contrary to all experience at this time of the year, a strong northerly 
 wind set in, which totally prevented it ; and at night a heavy torrent 
 of rain fell, which has done great damage by injuring the goods left 
 exposed by the falling of the houses, and which has rendered the 
 miserable encampments on the hills thoroughly wretched. Yet the 
 people are rejoicing at it ; because they say that the rain will ex- 
 tinguish the fire that causes the earthquake, and we shall have 
 no more. 
 
 28#A. — Notwithstanding the rain, which lasted till midnight, we 
 have experienced no less than five shocks to-day. Superstition has 
 been busy during this calamitous period ; thinking the moment, no 
 doubt, favourable for regaining something of the ground she has been 
 losing for some time past. This day was appointed for the execution 
 of a Frenchman and three Chilenos, for having gotten on board of 
 a ship in the harbour during the night, and after dangerously wound- 
 ing the master and chief mate, plundering it of a considerable sum. 
 The priests have been stirring up the people to a rescile, declaring 
 that the misfortunes of the times will be redoubled if good Catholics 
 are thus to be executed for the sake of heretics. The government 
 was apprised of these cabals, and surrounded the place of execution 
 with soldiers enough to destroy the hope of rescue, and the execution 
 took place quietly : nor is this the only clamour of the kind. Some 
 attempts, among the lower clergy, have been made to stir up the 
 people to attack the heretics generally, but without success ; either 
 because they are really indifferent, or because they do not recognise, 
 
QUINTERO. 32X 
 
 in the humane and courteous strangers among them, the horrible 
 features and manners which it had pleased the priests to decorate 
 the poor heretics with in their imaginary pictures. 
 
 I went on board the Admiral's ship soon after breakfast to call on 
 some of my friends, who, with their families, had taken refuge there 
 on the night of the 19th, and to whom he had given up his cabin 
 and lived himself in a tent on deck. The officers with whom 
 I talked on the eflPect of the earthquake on board, told me, that, on 
 feeling the shock and hearing the horrid noise, compounded of the 
 aweful sound from the earth itself and that of the falling town, they 
 had looked towards the land, and had seen only one cloud of dust and 
 heard one dreadful shriek : Lord Cochrane and others threw them- 
 selves immediately into a boat, to go to the assistance, if help were 
 still possible, of the sufferers. The rushing wave landed them higher 
 than any boat had been before ; and they then saw it retire fright- 
 fully, and leave many of the launches and other small vessels dry. 
 They fully expected a return, and the probable drowning of the town ; 
 but the water came back no more, and the whole bottom of the bay 
 has risen about three feet. Every one had some peculiar escape to 
 relate. Poor Mrs. D. was alone, her father and husband having both 
 gone out to spend the evening. Her servants fled from the house at 
 the very first of the shock : she had two children, and could not 
 carry them both out. She was with them in an upper room, — the 
 infant was at her breast ; she carried it to the cradle where her eldest 
 lay, and leaning against the bed of one, with the other in her arms, 
 she waited in mortal agitation to the end, when some one came to 
 her relief, and carried her on board a vessel in the harbour. 
 
 After spending a very interesting forenoon on board the O'Higgins, 
 listening to these tales of terror, I returned to Quintero in the Lau- 
 taro's launch, which performed the voyage in three hours ; and might 
 have done it in less, but for the swell, the consequence of yesterday's 
 
 north wind. 
 
 29^^. — Only one very sensible shock to-day. 
 
 T T 
 
322 JOURNAL, 
 
 30th. — Before ten o'clock, and at two, shocks accompanied with 
 an unusually loud noise : it is seldom that any shock is entirely with- 
 out. Sometimes a sound like an explosion takes place before the 
 shock ; sometimes a kind of rumbling noise accompanies it ; and we 
 often hear the sound without being sensible of any motion, though 
 the quicksilver in the decanter is perceptibly agitated. 
 
 Dec. 1st. — The shocks have been slight, but frequent. We rode 
 to-day to the village of Placilla, through the estate of Maytens, and 
 by the lake of Carices, which bounds the Quintero estate ; the scenery 
 is extremely beautiful, and the valley of the lake rich and fruitful. 
 Placilla is a pleasant village, and puts me in mind of something in Eng- 
 land : it is prettily situated on the little stream of La Ligua * ; the 
 ranchos are of the better kind, and intermixed with orchards and 
 gardens. Corn and pasture surround it, and the mountains rise at 
 an agreeable distance. We found the people just coming from Mass, 
 which had been celebrated in a ramada, built up in the church-yard ; 
 the church and parsonage, the only two brick-and-mortar edifices 
 in the village, having been shaken down on the night of the 19th. 
 The parsonage, however, is only partially destroyed. We found the 
 curate in a little dirty room in a corner of the house, which I sup- 
 pose is his study, with about a score of old books with greasv black 
 leather covers ; and in the corner a parcel of wool : after giving us 
 some rum there, he led us over a heap of ruin to another corner- 
 room but little damaged, where he set before us bread, butter, cheese, 
 milk, and brandy, insisting that we should take luncheon with him • 
 which we, nothing loath, consented to. I then went to settle accounts 
 with the daughter of the judge of the village, — no less a personage 
 than my washerwoman. But in ancient times the queens and 
 princesses themselves washed for their fathers and brothers ; and, 
 I think, like the ladies here, the Princess Nausicaa took the foul 
 clothes to the river-side to whiten. It must be confessed, that a 
 
 • The little town of La Ligua, famous for horses, was destroyed on the 19th. 
 
QUINTERO. 323 
 
 Chilena washerwoman has decidedly the advantage, in elegance of 
 appearance, over our ladies of the suds at home ; but whether it be 
 for the advantage of the community that the daughters of the judges 
 and justices should so employ themselves, I leave to graver persons 
 to determine; — though I think there is something against it in a 
 statute of the first year of George the Third's reign, wherein the 
 independence of judges is considered as necessary to their upright- 
 ness. But this is a long way from England. 
 
 Dec. 2d. — We have felt but one shock early this morning. I 
 remember exclaiming on the apathy of the people of Carracas, who 
 returned to rebuild their houses when the earthquakes returned only 
 once in six hours, or some such period ; and that was after several 
 months passed without any considerable convulsion. But man is 
 the creature of habit ; and though it is scarcely a fortnight since all 
 around us, " temple and tower, fell to the ground," and though we 
 ourselves are living in tents and huts pitched round our ruined dwell- 
 ing, we pursue our business, and even our amusements, as if nothing 
 had happened, and lie down to sleep as confidently as if we had not 
 lately seen the earth whereon we repose reeling to and fro. We 
 have time too to turn to history and poetry, to compare the descrip- 
 tions of men who did not feel the fearful times with the passing facts. 
 One of these appears to me to have superior beauty and truth : 
 Childe Harold is telling of the day of Thrasimene, when, in the fury 
 of the battle, " an earthquake reeled unheededly away." 
 
 " The earth to them was as a rolling bark 
 Which bore them to eternity ; they saw 
 The ocean round, but had no time to mark 
 The motions of their vessel ; Nature's law, 
 In them suspended, reck'd not of the awe 
 "Which reigns when mountains tremble, and the birds 
 Plunge in the clouds for refuge, and withdraw 
 From their down-toppling nests, and bellowing herds 
 Stumble o'er heaving plains, and man's dread hath no words." 
 
 r r 2 
 
324 
 
 JOURNAL, 
 
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 -3^' .i\J^ 
 
 
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 Tf^^! ■ O^t 
 
 Bp?»j 
 
 ■*> 
 
 
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 .•&if 
 
 
 The southern winds are now come, and they often bring us such 
 clouds of dust that our attempts to write are in vain ; and our food 
 would be defiled did we not retire to a little bower under the shelter 
 of a hill, — where, in a dining-room of Nature's own making, with its 
 door and windows looking to the ocean complete, we eat and re- 
 main until the evening calm comes on, when we collect round a large 
 fire * that we burn at the front of our tents, and talk till bed time. 
 Don Benito is perhaps the best companion for such a time that we could 
 have had : he has seen so much of every thing that we have never 
 either seen or heard, that his tales are always new ; and for memory, 
 the Sultaness Scheherezade herself did not surpass him : so we have 
 named his stories the " Peruvian Nights' Entertainments ;" and listen 
 sometimes to the histories of the college of Quito, which prove that 
 professors and students are on the same footing there that professors 
 and students are, and have always been, in all times and countries ; 
 and love stories, that show that young hearts can feel, and confide, 
 
 * I afterwards learned, that this fire being seen from Valparaiso night after night, oc- 
 casioned the report that a volcano had burst out at Quintero. 
 
QUINTERO. 225 
 
 and even break, on the skirts of the Andes, as in the valleys of Europe ; 
 and to histories of revolution, when every passion and aflPection is 
 called into action. These are incomparably the most interesting : 
 they are the materials out of which tragedy and romance are built. 
 The two following were told last night. 
 
 Juana Maria Pola, of Santa Fe de Bogota, was a woman whose 
 husband, and brothers, and sons, were deeply engaged in the patriot 
 cause. When Santa Fe was taken from the royalists, after the 
 barracks of the infantry and cavalry had been seized, the patriots 
 paused to collect numbers sufficient to attack the artillery ; and then 
 was that interval, when "the boldest held his breath for a time." 
 Juana Maria found her son among the troops, who were awaiting the 
 rest. " What do you do here ?" said she. — " I expect each moment to 
 fight for La Patria." — " Kneel down then, and take a mother's bless- 
 '"ng. We women will go on and receive the first fire, and over our 
 bodies you shall march and take yonder cannon, and save your 
 country." She blessed her son, and rushed on with the foremost, 
 and the day was theirs. From that day she held a captain's pay and 
 rank. But the royalists retook Santa Fe, and Juana Maria Pola 
 was one of their first victims : she was led to the market-place and 
 shot. 
 
 Jose Maria Melgado was a young man of good family and excel- 
 lent education. He was an advocate at twenty-two years of age, and 
 on the point of being married to the woman of his choice. When 
 Pomacao arose, Melgado instantly joined him, and became judge- 
 advocate to the patriot army. Shortly afterwards General Ra- 
 mirez took the place which was then Pomacao's head-quarters, and 
 J^delgado with others was taken and condemned to death. His 
 family and friends, however, -possessed such interest that he might 
 have obtained his pardon, would he have submitted to the royal 
 mercy, and embraced the royal cause. But to all that could be 
 urged to that effect he appeared absolutely deaf, and persisted in re- 
 turning no answer whatever. At length he was led out for execu- 
 tion ; and the priest came to confess him, and even then and there 
 
326 JOURNAL. 
 
 exhorted him to make his peace by a free and full acknowledgment 
 of guilt, and to submit to the King ; in which case he promised him 
 a reprieve. He answered with great warmth, that it least of all be- 
 came a priest to disturb the last moments of a dying man ; and to 
 call him back to worldly cares, when his soul had put them off: 
 that it was nonsense' to talk to him of a reprieve, for that his doom 
 had been sealed, and he knew it ; ay, even from the hour in which 
 he had joined Pomacao. " A man," said he, " should be careful how 
 he changes his opinions or his party ; but having once seriously con- 
 sidered and adopted them, he should never swerve from them. 
 Besides, it is too late to talk to me of reprieve or change. What I 
 have done, I have done ; and I do not regret it. I thought it right 
 to espouse the cause of the freedom of my country; I think so still, 
 and am willing to die for it. It ill becomes you to harass my last 
 hour !" — The priest withdrew : the adjutant being by, Melgado 
 asked leave to smoke a segar, saying he was a little ruffled, and 
 wished to calm himself Leave being given, he looked round to the 
 spectators, and said, " Will any body for God's sake give me a segar ?" 
 A soldier handed him one : when he had half-smoked it he laid it 
 down, saying he was ready, and felt calm again. The officer ap- 
 proached to bandage his eyes ; he repulsed him, and said, " At least 
 let me die with my eyes free." He was told it was necessary : " Well, 
 well, this will do;" and placing his hand across his eyes, he signified 
 that he was ready, and received the shot ! 
 
 There is a real enthusiasm in the people of South America. They 
 are ignorant, oppressed, and, perhaps, naturally indolent and timid. 
 But the cry of independence has gone forth : the star of freedom has 
 appeared on their horizon, — not again to set at the bidding of Spain, 
 not to be hushed by the hitherto powerful talisman of kingly 
 authority. Armies have penetrated forests, and scaled mountains, 
 and waded through morasses, only to hail each other as fellow- 
 labourers in the same cause, as co-partners in that new-won freedom 
 they are resolved to leave to their children. It may, perhaps, be 
 
QUINTERO. 327 
 
 long ere their states may be settled ; the forms of their government 
 may long fluctuate, and perhaps much blood may yet be shed in the 
 cause, — for, alas ! what human good is there which has not been 
 purchased by some evil ? But never again will the iron sceptre of 
 the mother-country be stretched out over these lands. 
 
 Tuesday, December Hd. — The earth, which seemed to have re- 
 sumed its stillness, has this day been violently convulsed. At half 
 past three a. m. ; at nine ; at noon, a long and very severe shock with 
 much noise ; at two o'clock another ; and at midnight a fifth, not in- 
 ferior to those of the three first days, always excepting the first 
 great one. 
 
 Wednesday, 4th. — Four severe shocks before eight o'clock this 
 morning seemed to threaten a renewal of the first days after the 
 19th November ; but since we have had only two slight ones to-day. 
 
 The tidings of Freire's march from Conception is now public, as 
 well as the news of the meeting of the provincial convention, and its 
 censure of that of Santiago, first, for declaring itself the first repre- 
 sentative assembly ; secondly, for receiving the Director's resignation 
 and re-electing him : each of which acts is considered as illegal. It 
 is whispered, that the Director talks of resigning. He is much hurt 
 at what he calls, and perhaps feels, the ingratitude of Freire, to whom 
 he was attached as one brave man to another, and whom he had 
 always favoured. But Freire and his soldiers have carried on suc- 
 cessfully a long and harassing war. They have not been paid ; and 
 it is said that Freire has another cause for resentment against the 
 Director's family, if not against himself. General Freire was, it 
 appears, passionately attached to a young lady, an orphan, who 
 became so by the event of the battle of Maypu ; and his regard was 
 returned, and he hoped to marry her ; — when, as the lady was, by her 
 orphan state, a ward of government, her hand was bestowed upon 
 another ; and thus, with her rich possessions, she was taken from 
 her lover to reward, it was said, a deserving officer. But who could 
 deserve more than Freire ? He said nothing — but can he have 
 forgotten this ? Besides, another marriage was offered to him from 
 
328 JOURNAL. 
 
 which he could not but turn with disgust, thus doubhng the injury 
 done to his feehngs. 
 
 Less provocation than this has, ere now, armed nation against 
 nation ; and, in the half-civilised state of this country, private feelings 
 will tell more in the sum total of the causes of civil wars than in 
 more polished states, — where men are smoothed down to such a 
 resemblance to each other, and trained to such a command over the 
 external signs of passion, that individual emotions have seldom in- 
 fluence beyond a family circle. 
 
 General Freire is a native of this country ; but his father was 
 an European, either English or French. He was never in Europe, 
 and has read nothing; but he has strong natural powers and ssL- 
 gacity, an honourable and generous spirit, and has devoted himself 
 entirely to military conduct and affairs. I do grieve for Chile. In 
 the state to which the country had advanced, every day of tran- 
 quillity was a gain, in spite of bad government. There are elements 
 of good here, which only want time and tranquilUty to grow ; and it 
 is cruel, that the misdemeanors of the ministers should stir up civil 
 strife, that worst of plagues, and so retard the progress of all that 
 the nation has been struggling for. I could address the republic in the 
 words of an old poet : — 
 
 " Ill-fated vessel ! shall the waves again 
 
 Tempestuous bear thee to the faithless main? 
 
 What would thy madness, thus with storms to sport ? 
 
 Ah ! yet with caution keep the friendly port. 
 
 * « * « 
 
 * « • « 
 
 * * * The guardian gods are lost, 
 Whom you might call in future tempests tost." 
 
 Francis's Horace. 
 
 Thursday, 5th December. — We are again more quiet ; only three 
 slight shocks to-day. 
 
 Friday, 6th. — Only two shocks ; but the highest wind I remember. 
 A beautifully bright day ; and the bay as lovely as possible, with the 
 white waves dashing over the dark-blue surface. We were obliged to 
 
QUINTERO. 329 
 
 take shelter in the grovcj as the showers of sand penetrate the rancho 
 in every direction, and nearly suffocate us. I have tied the branches 
 of the quintral that hangs from the maytens to the shrubs below, and 
 so made our wall firmer, and our window more shapely, that we may 
 look out upon the sea and the hills ; and having stuck four posts into 
 the earth, and laid one of the fallen doors upon them, we are furnished 
 with an admirable dining-table. 
 
 December Ith. — A slight shock at six a. m., immediately followed 
 by a severe one ; and another in the evening. 
 
 Lord Cochrane arrived in the Montezuma with Captain Winter 
 and Messrs. Grenfell and Jackson. Glennie, who appeared to have 
 been gaining ground for a fortnight, had another attack to-day. 
 
 Sunday, Sih. — A very severe shock. 
 
 Monday, 9th. — One very slight shock ; the day dull and cloudy ; 
 the thermometer at 65° Fahrenheit. In the evening I had a pleasant 
 walk to the beach with Lord Cochrane ; we went chiefly for the pur- 
 pose of tracing the effects of the earthquake along the rocks. At 
 Valparaiso, the beach is raised about three feet, and some rocks are 
 exposed, which allows the fishermen to collect the clam, or scollop 
 shell-fish, which were not supposed to exist there before. We traced 
 considerable cracks in the earth all the way between the house and 
 the beach, about a mile, and the rocks have many evidently recent 
 rents in the same direction : it seemed as if we were admitted to the 
 secrets of nature's laboratory. Across the natural beds of granite, 
 there are veins from an inch to a line in thickness. Most of these 
 are quite filled up with white shiny particles, I suppose quartz, 
 and in some places they even project a little from the face of the 
 rock ; others only begin to have their sides coated, and have their 
 edges rounded, but are not nearly filled. The cracks of this earth- 
 quake are sharp and new, and easily to be distinguished from older 
 ones : they run, besides, directly under the neighbouring hills, where 
 the correspondent openings are much wider ; and in some instances 
 the earth has actually parted and fallen, leaving the stony base of the 
 hills bare. On the beach, although it was high water, many rocks, 
 
 u u 
 
330 JOURNAL. 
 
 with beds of muscles, remain dry, and the fish are dead ; which proves 
 that the beach is raised about four feet at the Herradura. Above 
 these recent shells, beds of older ones may be traced at various 
 heights along the shore ; and such are found near the summits of 
 some of the loftiest hills in Chile, nay, I have heard, among the 
 Andes themselves. Were these also forced upwards from the sea, 
 and by the same causes ? On our return, I picked up on the beach, 
 in a little cove where there is a colony of fishermen, a quantity of 
 sand, or rather of iron dust, which is very sensible to the magnet. 
 It exactly resembles some that was brought me from the Pearl 
 Islands lately. Here the rocks are of grey granite, and the soil is 
 sand mixed with vegetable mould, and layers of pebbles and sea^ 
 shells ; some of these upwards of 50 feet above the present beach. 
 Nothing can be more lovely than the evening and morning scenery 
 here. This evening, as we returned to the house, the snowy Andes 
 were decked in hues of rose and vermilion ; and the nearer hills in 
 dazzling purple, streaming to the ocean, where the sun was setting 
 in unclouded radiance. 
 
 Tuesday, lOtJi. — While sitting at dinner with Lord Cochrane, 
 Messrs. Jackson, Bennet, and Orelle, we were startled by the longest 
 and severest shock since the first great earthquake of the 19th No- 
 vember. Some ran out of the house * (for we now inhabit a part of 
 it), and I flew to poor Glennie's bed-side : it had brought on severe 
 hemorrhage, which I stopped with laudanum. Soon afl;erwards we 
 had a slighter shock, and again at half past three a severe one. The 
 wind was most violent, the thermometer at Q5°. 
 
 Wth. — A loud explosion and severe shock at half past seven a. m. ; 
 another at ten ; and then two, very slight. 
 
 \2th. — A violent shock at noon, a slight one afterwards. As we 
 were riding home to-day from a little tour by Valle Alegri and the 
 Carices, we found a long strip or bed of sea-weed, and another of 
 
 * The portion of the house built of wooden frame-work and plaistered stood perfectly, 
 only the plaister was shaken off". 
 
QUINTERO. 
 
 331 
 
 muscles, dead and very offensive; they had never been within reach 
 of the tide since the ] 9th November, It was as fine a day as I ever 
 remember. 
 
 " On the surface of the deep, 
 The winds lay only not asleep ;" 
 
 and as they stole through the woods of odoriferous shrubs, con- 
 veyed an almost intoxicating feeling to the sense. I cannot conceive 
 a finer climate than that of Chile, or one more delightful to inhabit ; 
 and, now I am accustomed to the trembling of the earth, even that 
 seems a less evil than I could have imagined. Old Purchas's quaint 
 description of Chile is as true as it appears singular from its antiquated 
 garb. — " The poor valley," says he, speaking of Chile, " is so ham- 
 " pered between the tyrannical meteors and elements, as that shee 
 " often quaketh with feare, and in these chill fevers shaketh off 
 " and loseth her best ornaments. Arequipa, one of her fairest 
 " townes, by such disaster in the yeere 1582, fell to the ground. 
 " And sometimes the, neighbour hilles are infected with this pes- 
 " tilent fever, and tumble down as dead in the plain ; thereby 
 " so amazing the feareful rivers, that they runne out of their channels 
 " to seeke new, or else stand still with wonder, and the motive 
 " heate failing, fall into an uncouth tympany, their bellies swelling 
 " into spacious and standing lakes : the tides, seeing this, hold back 
 " their course, and dare not approach their sometime beloved 
 " streames by divers miles' distance, so that betwixt these two 
 " stools the ships come to ground indeed. The sicke earth thus 
 " having her mouth stopped, and her stomache overlaied, forceth 
 " new mouthes, whence she vomiteth streams of oppressing waters. 
 " I speake not of the beastes and men, which, in these civil warres 
 " of nature, must needes bee subject to devouring miserie." 
 
 Dec. 13th, 14th, 15th, 16th. — There have been four shocks each 
 day, accompanied by much noise ; and we have heard several ex- 
 plosions, without feeling any motion, like the noise of heavy guns at 
 sea. I have been occupied in reading San Martin's accusations of 
 Lord Cochrane, and His Lordship's reply. The accusations are as 
 frivolous as they are base ; and are exactly calculated to excite and 
 
 uu 2 
 
332 JOURNAL. 
 
 keep up that jealousy which his being a foreigner and a nobleman, 
 and his great talents, have excited. Presented to the government of 
 Santiago while His Lordship was absent, and by envoys whose pri- 
 vate malignity added to every accusation all the force of hints and 
 inuendos, they struck at his honour and his personal safety equally. 
 Happily there were some feelings which prevented the Director from 
 giving credit to some of the charges, and he knew that documents 
 existed which disproved others ; and with this knowledge, and these 
 feelings, he had entreated Lord C. not to ans'wer San Martin imme- 
 diately on his arrival, lest such an answer as he might give should 
 involve the governments in contention or war. Now, however, that 
 San Martin has retired from the government of Peru, and that no 
 evil can arise to the public from a refutation of the atrocious 
 calumnies he has taken pains to spread here and to send into foreign 
 countries, Lord C. has addressed a letter to him, not only excul- 
 pating himself, but exposing the baseness, cruelty, and cowardice of 
 San Martin. * Had the letter nothing to do with Lord Cochrane's 
 justification or San Martin's accusation, the picture it presents of 
 the conduct of the war in Peru would render it one of the most 
 curious documents that has yet appeared before the public concern- 
 ing the affairs of South America. 
 
 Dec.llth. — Mr. Grenfell arrived from the port to-day, bearing 
 important news. General Freire has advanced as far as Taica, and 
 a division of the army of Santiago is ordered to be in readiness to 
 meet him. The marines belonging to the squadron, with Major 
 Hyne at their head, marched towards the city last night, by orders 
 from the minister of marine, to reinforce the Director's troops. 
 Many arbitrary orders have also been issued to the squadron, so that 
 the Admiral has resolved to go and resume the command to-night. 
 The Galvarino was ordered to be in readiness for sea ; it is rumoured 
 to take some important personage, perhaps San Martin, on board, 
 and so convey him to Buenos Ayres, or some other place' of safety. 
 
 * See the Sketch of the History of Chile prefixed to this part of the journal, particu- 
 larly from p. 83. to the end. 
 
QUINTERO. 333 
 
 imagining that his retreat by the Andes would be cut of. Some 
 time ago the same order was given, and it was supposed for the same 
 purpose in fact, although it was to be executed by the vessel running 
 along the coast, and taking up the passenger or passengers at the 
 mouth'of the Maypu. But neither then nor now would the squadron 
 hear of her sailing, having a claim on her, as she was pledged to be 
 sold to pay the officers and men. The Lautaro has accordingly 
 loaded her guns, and is to sink her if she attempts to move without 
 the Admiral's express permission. The fort has loaded its guns also, 
 but this the squadron may laugh at. His Lordship's resuming the 
 command will no doubt restore every thing to order. 
 
 The party in the South have not been inactive by sea any more than 
 by land. Captain Casey, who was captain of the port at Talcahuana, 
 has the command of a large vessel which arrived off Valparaiso last 
 night, but did not anchor. She sent a boat on board the O'Higgins, 
 it is conjectured with the design of engaging the squadron to aban- 
 don the cause of the Director, and to act in opposition to the govern- 
 ment, whose sworn subjects every officer and man are. But if such 
 were the design, it has failed. Captain Casey has proceeded to 
 Coquimbo, where he is likely to meet with more success. That port, 
 like those of the South, is grievously injured by the reglamento ; the 
 troops are equally indignant at the non-payment of their wages ; and 
 if I may trust the reports brought by cattle-dealers and other itine- 
 rant persons, they are all ready to revolt. The troops at Quillota and 
 Aconcagua have refused to march to the capital ; and though the re- 
 cruiting is going on in all the neighbouring districts, it is doubtful on 
 which side the new troops will engage. We begin to feel the anxie- 
 ties preparatory to a civil war. Our pistols are cleaned ; we have 
 prepared a store of bullets : we feel an unusual uneasiness on account 
 of the Admiral, who is riding to town with only his one peon, 
 
 Wednesday, December ISth. — Three shocks to-day, all slight. 
 
 Thursday, 19th. — One long shock, with a very loud noise, and 
 several slight shocks. 
 
 Friday, 20th.— Some very slight shocks ; none of which I felt, being 
 
gg^ JOURNAL. 
 
 on horseback at the time. Unless the shocks are very violent, or the 
 sound very loud, the horses and mules do not appear to feel them. 
 
 I rode to Valparaiso : the morning w^as dull and drizzling. I can- 
 not describe the efFect of such a day on the scenery between Quintero 
 and Concon, by the long beach of nine miles : on one side the sand- 
 hills with not a sign of vegetation, on the other a furious surf; both 
 seeming interminable, and being lost in the thick air ; or if a breeze 
 now and then blows the haze aside, the distant dreary points of 
 land seem suspended far above the visible horizon, and one goes on 
 with a kind of desperate eagerness to see what will.be the end. I 
 was in a fine humour for moralising. Earthquake under me, civil 
 war around me ; my poor sick relation apparently dying ; and my 
 kind friend, my only friend here indeed, certainly going tO leave the 
 country, at least for a time.* All this left me with nothing but the 
 very present to depend on ; and, like the road I was travelling, 
 what was to come was enveloped in dark clouds, or at best afforded 
 most uncertain glimpses of the possible future. 
 
 In such cases the mind is apt to make a sport to itself of its very 
 miseries. I more than once on the way caught myself smiling over 
 the fanciful resemblances I drew between human life and the scene 
 I was in ; or at the fatality which had brought me, an Englishwoman, 
 whose very characterestic is to be the most domestic of creatures, 
 almost to the antipodes, and placed me among all the commotions of 
 nature and of society. But if not a sparrow falls unheeded to the 
 ground, I may feel sure that I am not forgotten. Often am I obliged 
 to have recourse to this assurance, to make me bear evils and incon- 
 veniences that none, not the meanest, in my own happy country 
 would submit to without complaint. 
 
 The appearance of Mr. Miers at the little rock near the mouth of 
 the river dissipated all my misty reflections, however. He had come 
 to show me the new ford, the old one being now dangerous ; and we 
 had a pleasant ride together to his house, where we breakfasted. I 
 
 * See Lord Cochrane's address to the Chilenos hereafter in the Journal. 
 
VALPARAISO. 335 
 
 had been an hour and a quarter in riding the twelve miles, including 
 the ford ; which takes a long time both to find and to cross, the river, 
 though shallow, being wider and more rapid than the Thames at 
 London-bridge. Mr. Miers accompanied me to the port ; and after 
 transacting some business (for some of the merchants do appear in 
 theday time at their warehouses, or the scites of them), and chang- 
 ing my riding-dress, 1 went on board the O'Higgins to dinner. 
 
 I find that although Lord Cochrane has twice tendered his resign- 
 ation to the government, it has not been accepted. But he is not the 
 less resolved on a temporary absence. After dinner, as I was waiting 
 for a boat to pay a visit on board another ship, and leaning over the 
 tafFel-rail of the frigate, musing on all the discomforts of my situation, 
 and the dreariness of my prospects, especially if the rains should 
 come before Glennie was able to move to some warm dry house, I 
 felt a heaviness of heart that few occurrences of my life, and many a 
 painful one I have abided, had occasioned. I saw no prospect of 
 comfort ; and suddenly it came from a quarter where I had not ex- 
 pected, indeed where I should not have dared to expect it. Lord 
 Cochrane came up to me where I stood, and gently calling my atten- 
 tion, said, that as he was going to sail soon from this country, I 
 should take a great uneasiness from his mind if I would go with 
 him. He could not bear, he said, to leave the unprotected widow 
 of a British officer thus on the beach, and cast away as it were in a 
 ruined town, a country full of civil war ! I replied, 1 could not 
 leave my sick relation, — 1 had promised his mother to watch him. 
 " Nor. do I ask you to do so," answered Lord Cochrane. " No, he must 
 go too, and surely he will be as well taken care of with us, as you could 
 do it alone." I could not answer — I could not look my thanks ; but 
 if there is any one wh© has had an oppressive weight on the heart, 
 that seemed too great either to bear or to obtain relief for, and who 
 has had that weight suddenly and kindly removed, then they may 
 understand my sensations, — then they may guess at a small part of 
 the gratitude with which my heart was filled, but which I could 
 not utter. 
 
33g JOURNAL. 
 
 2lst — One great and several lesser shocks to-day. I find my 
 English friends what may be called comfortably settled now, on 
 board the several vessels in the harbour, where they have either hired 
 the whole or part of the cabins, by way of dwelling-houses. The 
 governor of Valparaiso and his family have the sheds of the dock- 
 yard fitted up, and are living there. Many of the richer inhabitants 
 are gone to Santiago ; the poor and middling classes still continue 
 encamped on the neighbouring hills. In clearing the rubbish in the 
 town, many more dead are found than it was at first supposed there 
 could be. Some of the merchants have erected tents and wooden 
 houses in the broad parts of the streets, where they sleep at night 
 to guard their goods ; but no one ventures to pass the night in his 
 house, except Madame Pharoux, the pretty wife of the keeper of the 
 French hotel, who still appears at the bar smiling, and only shrug- 
 ging her shoulders a little at things " inouies d Paris ;" but for the 
 rest, profiting, J believe, by the commotion that has extinguished 
 most kitchen fires but her own. She has been fortunate, and de- 
 serves it. 
 
 22d. — Only three slight shocks. The business of preparing for 
 my voyage still keeps me in Valparaiso : I pass the day packing on 
 shore, eating with my different friends afloat ; and I sleep in a 
 corner of the cabin where Mrs. D. and her family have found refuge, 
 on board the O'Higgins. Well does Shakspeare say, " Misery ac- 
 quaints a man with strange bedfellows :" we are all, English and 
 Chilenos, men, women, and children, brought together in a way 
 that nothing but the miseries we have all felt could account for. 
 
 23d. — A few very slight shocks, felt as perceptibly on board as on 
 shore. I went down to Quintero with my goods in the Lautaro's 
 launch ; we were four hours and a half on the voyage. My arrival 
 was "a matter of some importance at Quintero. I had laughingly told 
 my friends there, that 1 was determined we should have a plum- 
 pudding on Christmas-day, and that I would return with sufficient 
 materials, and in good time to make it. Accordingly, the first things 
 thought of were raisins and sugar, spices and sweetmeats ; and I 
 
QUINTERO. ga^ 
 
 found that I had not been singular in remembering the promise, 
 for I was greeted on my return with a gay httle poem, by Mr. Jack- 
 son, on the subject; and to us, who never see a new book, or only 
 by chance, when an American trader brings out the Philadelphia 
 reprint of a new London or Edinburgh novel (the Pirate is the 
 last we have seen), a new poem, even of a hundred or half a hun- 
 dred lines, on any subject, is a literary treat, and is valued accord- 
 ingly. At any rate, I am sure no birth-day ode, saving, perhaps, the 
 celebrated probationary odes, ever gave the readers more pleasure 
 tlian our pudding rhapsody ; and as the walls of Thebes arose to the 
 sounds of Amphion's lyre, so my plums were picked and my pud- 
 ding compounded to the rhymes of Mr. Jackson's verse. I can be 
 delighted with every thing, now I am relieved from my anxiety and I 
 have a prospect of seeing home once more. 
 
 December 25th. — The perfect stillness of the earth yesterday little 
 prepared us for the tremendous shock we experienced at eight o'clock 
 this morning. It was only not so severe as that of the 19th November, 
 and was followed by several slighter ones ; but nothing alarming 
 occurred after the first. We are all busy with preparations for leav- 
 ing "this delightful land," for such it is in spite of its earthquakes. 
 I should feel less regret at leaving it if I saw it prosperous and at 
 peace ; but every hour brings fresh reports of wars and rumours of 
 wars. The people of Coquimbo have openly thrown oiF their alle- 
 giance to the Director ; and have convened a provincial congress, and 
 mean to oppose the government of Santiago by every means in their 
 power. 
 
 26th. — Only two shocks to-day. 
 
 21th. — Four shocks. We learn to-day that the greatest conster- 
 nation prevails in the city. Arcas's bills are said to be at a discount 
 of 40 per cent. : he himself refuses them ; and we hear that an officer 
 of distinction has been imprisoned on account of some dispute that 
 arose on the subject, in which Areas behaved extremely ill. Be that 
 as it may, the government shows its alarm by having recourse to 
 petty expedients. In order to appear strong and rich, orders have 
 
 X X 
 
338 
 
 JOURNAL. 
 
 been issued concerning the rebuilding of Valparaiso, and magnificent 
 plans talked of. But the grand stroke is the order given to the 
 Admiral to place the O'Higgins and Valdivia under the charge of the 
 commandant of marine, in order, as it is said, to be repaired, and to 
 make a store-ship of the Lautaro. This is intended to answer no 
 less than three ends. The people are to be deluded by seeing that 
 the government has confidence enough to undertake so heavy an 
 expense as the repair of the two ships at this time. Lord Cochrane 
 is deprived of even the slightest authority ; and as they have not 
 accepted his resignation, he is, they flatter themselves, a kind of state- 
 prisoner ; and I doubt not would, the moment they dared, be sacri- 
 ficed to the same private malignity which instigated the charges laid 
 against him in April. He remains in the port until he has put it out 
 of the power of the Lautaro to put to sea, by causing her to strike 
 her masts, &c. And he has hoisted his flag on board the schooner 
 Montezuma, the only thing now serviceable at Valparaiso ; the 
 Galvarino, with not an Englishman in her, having at length sailed 
 by his permission, on the request of the Director, for some secret 
 service. Those who planned this blow forgot the schooner, I pre- 
 sume. Thank God, he will soon be beyond the reach of the ill-treat- 
 ment of those for whom he has done so much ! All the seamen are 
 paid off. The officers only are retained, and on full pay. The arrears 
 have been also paid, excepting to the crew of the Montezuma, and 
 part of that of the Lautaro. The troops are dissatisfied ; and I suspect 
 that nothing but the personal respect felt for the Director still holds 
 his wretched government together. 
 
 28^A. — Some slight shocks felt to-day. 
 
 Sunday, 29th. — The earth has been remarkably quiet these last 
 twenty-four hours. 
 
 Lord Cochrane arrived, bringing with him the D — s, and all their 
 family. They had taken refuge on board the O'Higgins, and now 
 the ship is dismantled they have not where to lay their heads : here 
 there is at least shelter among the tents and ranchos, and quiet and 
 kindness. 
 
QUINTERO. 339 
 
 We are a motley company it must be confessed ; and a strange 
 locality we present. The main part of the house is lying flat before 
 us. All the wood-work has been removed ; and the whited walls, 
 nearly entire, of the two large rooms are lying flat upon the earth 
 before the windows of the still habitable part of the dwelling. A 
 little round vestibule still stands, occupied as a secretary's room ; and 
 there some one or two, or more, of the gentlemen sleep : then there 
 is a room, by courtesy called mine, in which Glennie, my maid, and I, 
 all live ; besides all my clothes, books, and furniture, i. e. what the 
 room will hold ; the rest is in the open air before it. Next stands 
 His Lordship's room ; where he sleeps on a sofa, where all his 
 business is transacted, and where, when the wind renders it impos- 
 sible to dine in the rancho, we all eat. It serves, besides, as a pantry. 
 
 Then Mrs. D 's room, where she, her husband, two children, and 
 
 two female servants, all live : two tents near the dining rancho shelter 
 some of the servants. Mr. Bennet, commonly called Don Benito, has 
 pitched his tent in a little grove at a distance : the rancho shelters, in 
 one corner, our prisoner Don Fausto ; and a very strange collection 
 of servants and idlers take refuge in the half-standing kitchen and 
 cellar. Such are the inhabitants, and such the present situation of 
 the house of Quintero ! Persons brought together by the state of the 
 country, that no other possible combination of circumstances could 
 have forced into any thing like intimacy, as different from each other 
 in education, habits, and manners, as they are in rank and character, 
 and only holding together by the common necessity that leaves them 
 no choice ; and that house in ruins which was not quite finished, and 
 had been built with a view to comfort and elegance ! 
 
 Tuesday, Dec. Slst, 1822.— The earth has been pretty quiet during 
 these last days. Once or twice in the course of the day, and 
 generally as often in the night, there are sensible shocks, and still 
 oftener loud noises ; but nothing alarming. Our preparations for 
 leaving the country afford little time for attention to much else. 
 We hear, however, that the disaffection to the existing government 
 is daily spreading, especially to the northward ; and that the Coquimbo 
 
 XX ^ 
 
340 JOURNAL, 
 
 convention is doing its utmost to raise money &c., and to oppose 
 O'Higgins, and has actually sent 20,000 dollars to Freire. 
 
 After dinner we generally walk to the sea-side to enjoy the pros- 
 pect and the music of the sea, which comes, " like the joys that are 
 "past, sweet and mournful to the soul." To-day we sat long on the 
 promontory of the Herradura, to see the last sun of 1822 go down into 
 the Pacific, and we watched how long his rays gilded the tops of the 
 Andes after he himself was hid in ocean. The sea was beating 
 nearly round us ; as far as the eye could reach, there was but the 
 ruins of one human habitation ; the deep shadows of evening con- 
 cealed the narrow traces of cultivation, that here and there encroach 
 on the wild thickets, bounded by the mountains ; the cattle had re- 
 tired to the woods ; and nothing liviiig but the night-birds flitting 
 round us, told that we still belonged to a living race. My thoughts 
 naturally went back to times when life and its enjoyments were 
 young ; when I had hearts that sympathised, friends that felt with 
 me. Nay, even the last sun of the last year went down with hope, 
 almost with confidence, for me. But now, the generous feeling of 
 almost a stranger, alone bestows a momentary comfort on me. 
 Misery and death have been busy with me : my best hopes have 
 been disappointed ; and I have to seek new interests, ere life itself 
 can be otherwise than burthensome. 
 
 My companion at length roused me to recollection, by naming 
 the hour. A silent walk home, with a not unpleasant feeling of sad 
 remembrance, ended this, perhaps the most disastrous, year of my 
 life. 
 
 January \st, 1823. — Well might Young exclaim, " Tired Nature's 
 " sweet restorer, balmy sleep !" This fine, fresh, fair morning has 
 awakened me to life, and light, and hope, and at least the certainty 
 that come what will, this year cannot be so disastrous as the last. I 
 have now nothing to lose, and every common enjoyment must be a 
 gain to me. 
 
 The inconvenience of dwelling with so many people is begin- 
 ning to increase, as our packages are made up. Therefore Lord 
 
QUINTERO. 34 X 
 
 Cochrane has ordered some tents to be pitched on the sea-shore ; 
 whither the goods will be taken immediately, and at least part of the 
 family will also go. I have been busy in my vocation, and have the 
 pleasure to see my invalid gradually improving in health. 
 
 2d — At length we have divided the enormous party of Quintero. 
 The dining-room is carried down and placed by the tents ; and the 
 D s are left in quiet possession of the house, along with the over- 
 seer of the estate, who has established a salting-house here, where he 
 has cured about ten thousand dollars' worth of beef, as fine as any Irish 
 beef I ever saw. Our new settlement forms a line along the sea- 
 beach in the following order : first, the dining rancho nearest to the 
 hill, where a fisherman's hut serves as a kitchen, and where there is 
 a well of sweet water ; next, stands a very large tent, across which 
 a screen is placed, thus forming two apartments for Glennie and 
 me ; Lord Cochrane inhabits the second tent ; the third is appropri- 
 ated to packages, and a guard sleeps there ; the fourth is Mr. Jack- 
 son's ; the fifth, Don Fausto's ; the sixth, Carillo's ; and Don Benito 
 has pitched his out of the line behind the rest : so that now every 
 person has his own separate apartment ; and every body may meet 
 the rest in the rancho when it is agreeable. The sea reaches to 
 within a few yards of our tents, rolling smoothly in, just opposite, 
 and breaking a little to the left round the rocks and the wreck of the 
 Aquila, one of the Admiral's Guayaquil prizes. The shell-fish have 
 already taken possession of her, within and without ; and we are fre- 
 quently indebted to that circumstance for one of our greatest dainties, 
 the large eatable barnacle, peculiar in Chile to the bay of Quintero, 
 and known by the name o£ pico. I have sent my maid to Con con to 
 take care of Mrs. Miers's children, as she was of no use here ; and I 
 did not think the sort of Robin Hood life we are leading, the most 
 advisable thing in the world for a young good-looking girl. She will 
 be safe and happy where she is. 
 
 January 3d.— To-day I set up the lithographic press in Lord 
 Cochrane's tent, to print the following address to the Chilenosj 
 which we hope to get ready to-morrow : — 
 
342 JOURNAL. 
 
 " Lord Cochrane to the Inhabitants of Chile. 
 " Chilenos — My Countrymen ! 
 
 " The common enemy of America has fallen in Chile. Your Tri- 
 " coloured flag waves on the Pacific, secured by your sacrifices. Some 
 " internal commotions agitate Chile : it is not my business to inves- 
 " tigate their causes, to accelerate or retard their effects ; but I can 
 " only wish the result that may be most favourable for all parties. 
 " Chilenos ! You have expelled from your country the enemies of 
 " your independence : do not sully the glorious act by encouraging 
 " discord, and promoting anarchy, that greatest of evils. Consult the 
 " dignity to which your heroism has raised you ; and if you must 
 " take any step to secure your rational liberty, judge for yourselves, 
 " act with prudence, and be guided by reason and justice. 
 
 " It is now four years since the sacred cause of your independence 
 " called me to Chile : I assisted you to gain it ; I have seen it ac- 
 " complished ; it only remains to preserve it. 
 
 " I leave you for a time, in order not to involve myself in mat- 
 " ters foreign to my duties, and for reasons concerning which I 
 " now remain silent, that I may not encourage party spirit. 
 
 " Chilenos ! You know that independence is purchased at the 
 " point of the bayoneti Know also, that liberty is founded on good 
 " faith, and on the laws of honour ; and that those who infringe upon 
 " them are your only enemies, — among whom you will never find 
 
 " Cochrane. 
 
 " Quintero, January 4th, 1823." 
 
 We have also another of the same date to print, addressed to the 
 merchants of England and other nations trading to the Pacific. It is 
 as follows : — 
 
 " Quintero, Chile, January 4th, 1823. 
 
 " Gentlemen, 
 " I cannot quit this country without expressing to you the heart- 
 " felt satisfaction which I experience on account of the extension 
 « which has been given to your commerce, by laying open, to all, the 
 
QUINTERO. 343 
 
 " trade of those vast provinces, to which Spain formerly asserted an 
 " exclusive right. The squadron which maintained the monopoly 
 " has disappeared from the face of the ocean ; and the flags of inde- 
 " pendent South America wave every where triumphant, protecting 
 " that intercourse between nations which is the source of their riches, 
 " power, and happiness. 
 
 " If, for the furtherance of this great object, some restraints were 
 " imposed, they were no other than those sanctioned by the practice 
 " of all civilised states ; and though they may have affected the im- 
 " mediate interests of a few who were desirous to avail themselves 
 " of accidental circumstances presented during the contest, it is a 
 " gratification to know that such interests were only postponed for 
 " the general good. Should there, however, be any who conceive 
 " themselves aggrieved by my conduct, I hav^ to request them to 
 " make known their complaints, with their names affixed, through 
 " the medium of the public press, in order that I may have an 
 " opportunity of particular reply. 
 
 " I trust you will do me the justice to believe that I have not de- 
 " termined to withdraw myself from these seas, while any thing 
 " remained within my means to accomplish for your benefit and 
 
 " security. 
 
 " I have the honour to be. Gentlemen, 
 
 " Your faithful humble servant, 
 
 " Cochrane." 
 
 ]y|j.^ Q J who understands the management of the press bet- 
 ter than any of our party, has kindly volunteered to come and assist 
 in taking the impressions from the stone. 
 
 I like this wild life we are living, half in tlie open air ; every 
 thing is an incident ; and as we never know who is to come, or what 
 is to happen next, we have the constant stimulus of curiosity to bear 
 us to the end of every day. The evening walk is the only thing we 
 are sure of. Sometimes we trace the effects of the recent earthquake, 
 and fancy they lead to marks of others infinitely more violent, and at 
 
344 
 
 JOURNAL. 
 
 periods long anterior to our knowledge. Often we have little other 
 object than the mere pleasure of the earth, and air, and sky. Sometimes 
 we go to the garden, where every thing is thriving beyond allhope. 
 And we are busy collecting seeds of the wild plants of the country, 
 though it is too early in the season to find many ripe. 
 
 5th. — We have again lost the Admiral for a few days. The press 
 is removed to my tent, where we are more free to work at all hours, 
 without interrupting business or being interrupted by it ; and we 
 might flatter ourselves that we were going on extremely well, were it 
 not that the ink sent by the makers of presses for exportation is so 
 very bad that we are obliged to renew the writing on the stone very 
 frequently, so that we might have multiplied the copies almost as 
 quickly with the pen. 
 
 9tJi. — We have been surprised at seeing a large ship come into the 
 bay, and stand off and on for some hours. Every thing now awakens 
 suspicion ; and as the Admiral has been longer absent than was ex- 
 pected, and that without writing, we are beginning to be a little 
 alarmed on his account. 
 
 The public news shows, I think, that the event of the present 
 struggle must be decided ere long. Freire has reached the Maule, 
 only six days' march from Santiago ; and though the Director pro- 
 tested at first that he never would give up Rodriguez, it appears now, 
 that not only the minister, but the measures — not only Rodriguez, 
 but the reglamento, have been sacrificed, too late, in all probability, 
 to save the rest. The will to defend the abuses has been shown, the 
 weakness that was forced to abandon them proved, and the respect 
 and the love for the old government proportionably diminished. 1 
 am very sorry for the Director, — I believe truly that he meant well, 
 and I cannot forget his great kindness to myself. * 
 
 * I cannot help referring here to the 1st chapter of the 2d book of Delolme on the Con- 
 stitution of England, from the paragraph beginning, " If we cast our eyes on all the 
 states that were ever free," to the end of the quotation fi-om Machiavel's History of 
 Florence, as rather a history than a description of the events that have taken place in Chile 
 since 1810, when the faction of the Carreras led the way to all that has happened since. 
 
QUINTERO. 
 
 345 
 
 lOth. — Lord Cochrane returned to us in the Montezuma; — every 
 thing is finally settled as to our departure. The brig Colonel Allen 
 is to come to Quintero, where we are all to embark ; and in less 
 than a week we expect to be under weigh. All hands are now 
 employed ; the overseer's people on the hill salting beef, the car- 
 penters nailing up boxes, people cutting strips of hide for cordage, 
 secretaries writing, the press at work, sailors fitting spars across the 
 light logs, called balsas, to make a raft to ship the goods with * ; and 
 amidst all this, people coming and going, foreigners and English, 
 to take leave of the Admiral ; and some, I am sorry to say, for the 
 purpose of being, and showing themselves, ungrateful. Men for whom 
 he had done every thing, both in the Chilian service and long before 
 they joined it, — nay, who owed their very bringing up at all to him, 
 reproach him for their own disappointed vanity or desire of gain ; as 
 if he had the dispensing of honorary titles or distinctions, or the 
 disposal of the public funds. He did for them on his return from 
 Acapulco what he did for himself, — he obtained a solemn promise 
 from the ministers both of pay and of reward, f If any of the officers 
 have now made a private bargain for their own personal advantage, 
 they best know on what terms they have made it. However, some 
 in this country, and those among the best, have, I really think, a 
 sincere regard for the Admiral ; but I believe in friendship as in love, 
 " ce ri' est pas tout d'etre aime ; ilfaut etre apprecU ;" and I scarcely know 
 one here who is capable of appreciating him justly ; so that even the very 
 homage he receives is unworthy of him. Oh, why is he not at home ! 
 11th. — At length every thing is embarked, and we are ready to 
 sail. This morning I walked with Lord Cochrane to the tops of 
 most of the hills immediately between the house of the Herradura 
 and the sea : perhaps it may be the last time he will ever tread these 
 grounds, for which he was doing so much ; and I shall, in all proba- 
 
 * Balsas are literally rafts : but the name is extended to those large trunks of trees as 
 light as cork, which are now commonly used instead of the inflated seal skins, which the 
 native Chilenos had adapted to the same purpose. 
 
 f See the letters of the 4th June, and the 19th June, 1822, in the Introduction, p. IIQ. 
 
 Y Y 
 
346 
 
 JOURNAL. 
 
 bility, never again see the place, where, in spite of much suffering, I 
 have also enjoyed much pleasure. We gathered many seeds and 
 roots, which I hope to see springing up in my own land, to remind 
 me of this, where I have met with a kindness and a hospitality never 
 to be forgotten. * As to the Admiral, he must always feel that if he 
 has not been well requited, he has done good to the great cause of 
 independence ; he has done good also to the people of this country, 
 by giving them the first ideas of many improvements in their agri- 
 culture, their arts, and even their government, all of which will 
 produce fruit, though it may be late. And, on this ground, his 
 recollections of Chile can never be otherwise than agreeable. — On 
 returning to the tents we found several friends assembled to take 
 leave : the tents, indeed, had been struck, and nothing remained but 
 the rancho, where we dined most cheerfully, though rudely enough ; 
 the servants having carried every thing but a few knives and plates on 
 board. However, we cut forks out of pieces of wood, and passed the 
 knives round ; and, with a roast dressed in the open air, and potatoes 
 baked in the ashes, we made our last dinner at the Herradura. 
 
 ISth. — Every body slept on board last night; and this morning 
 was spent in getting in wood and water. At six o'clock, Captain 
 Crosbie went on board the Montezuma to haul down Lord Cochrane'sf 
 flag, and thus formally to give up the naval command in Chile. One 
 gun was fired, and the flag was brought on board the Colonel Allen 
 to His Lordship, who was standing on the poop : he received it with- 
 out apparent emotion, but desired it to be taken care of. Some of 
 those around him appeared more touched than he was. X Under that 
 flag he had often led them to victory, and always to honour. Quin- 
 tero is fading fast behind us ; and God knows if we may any of us 
 
 ever see it again. 
 
 * While this sheet was in the press one of the bulbous roots, called in Chile Mancaya, 
 flowered. in the garden of Messrs. Lee and Kennedy, at Hammersmith; it is now called 
 the Cyrtanthia Cochranea. 
 
 t The flag he used on board the O'Higgins liad been previously sent to the <to- 
 
 vernment. 
 
 :j: Captain Crosbie, and L'ieutenants Grenfell, Shepherd, and Clewly, witli some civilians. 
 
JUAN FERNANDEZ. 347 
 
 Lord Cochrane had adopted Chile as his country : its government 
 has used him ill ; and now at a time when, if he Jiad been so 
 minded, revenge on the authors of the ill-usage he has suffered would 
 have been easy, he withdraws. I know that it has been thought right 
 that in civil commotions every honest man should take part, in order 
 that the wiser might bring matters to an accommodation. This is 
 good for the natives of a country, but is no ways to be desired from 
 a stranger, especially a martial man of high reputation and rank, 
 who might be supposed to have the inclination as well as the power to 
 set up his own authority. In this case, having done every thing to 
 deliver the country from a foreign enemy, and to secure its national 
 independence, it is wisdom, it is generosity, to stand aloof and let the 
 seed of the soil be the arbiters of the concerns of the soil. Law and 
 justice themselves can but guard the citizens from external evils, but 
 may not meddle in their family affairs. 
 
 From the 18th to the 21st we had weather very uncomfortable, 
 and a disagreeable sea ; but this morning (2ifd) we descried the island 
 of Mas-afuera about seven leagues off, right a-head, through a fog ; 
 and shortly after bore up for Juan Fernandez, where we were to 
 complete the water for the ship. I should have been sorry, indeed, 
 to have left the Pacific without seeing the very island of Alexander 
 Selkirk, the prototype of that most interesting of all heroes of ro- 
 mance (excepting Don Quixote), Robinson Crusoe. 
 
 2^tJi. — Yesterday and to-day in sight of Juan Fernandez, and 
 working for it, but could not reach it till near sunset. It is the most 
 picturesque I ever saw, being composed of high perpendicular rocks 
 wooded nearly to the top, with beautiful valleys ; and the ruins of 
 the little town in the largest of these heighten the effect. It was too 
 late to go ashore when we anchored ; but it was a bright moonlight, 
 and we staid long on deck to-night, admiring the extraordinary 
 beauty of the scene. 
 
 25th. — Before daylight this morning Lord Cochrane and most 
 of the other gentlemen went ashore to climb to the high ridge behind 
 the port, and look over to the other side of the island, where it is 
 
 rr 2 
 
348 JOURNAL. 
 
 reported there are some plains and arable land. I watched them 
 ascend up a very high peak, and then went ashore with Glennie and 
 others to walk about and dine ; I found His Lordship's party re- 
 turned from their walk much disappointed. The boatswain of the 
 brig, who had been for several days on the island some years before, 
 had undertaken to guide them ; but instead of leading them to the 
 ridge of the highest land, he only conducted them with much labour 
 to the top of a fearful pinnacle, whose height is about 1500 feet ; but 
 as it is surrounded by still higher rocks, nothing more was to be 
 seen from it than from below. Lord Cochrane brought from the 
 summit a piece of heavy black porous lava ; and under that he found 
 some dark hardened clay full of cells, the inside of which appear 
 slightly vitrified. The island seems chiefly composed of this porous 
 lava ; the strata of which, being crossed at right angles by a very 
 compact black lava, dip on the eastern side of the island about 22°, 
 and on the west side 16°, pointing to the centre of the island as an 
 apex. The valleys are exceedingly fertile, and watered by copious 
 streams, which occasionally form small marshes, where the panke 
 grows very luxuriantly, as well as water-cress and other aquatic 
 plants. The soil is generally of a reddish brown : there are several 
 small hills and banks of bright-red clay ; and I thought I found 
 puzzolano, and some fragments of coarse pumice-stone. The 
 little valley where the town is, or rather was, is exceedingly beau- 
 tiful. It is full of fruit trees, and flowers, and sweet herbs, now 
 grown wild : near the shore it is covered with radish and sea-side 
 oats. The colony of Juan Fernandez had been used as a place of 
 confinement for state-prisoners. I do not know in what precise year 
 it was founded ; but it could not have been long before the I'evolution 
 in Chile, as I find over the door of the ruined church the following 
 inscription : — 
 
 " La casa de Dios es la puerta del cielo y 
 Se coloco, 24 Setenibre, de 1811." 
 
 A small fort was situated on the sea-shore, of which there is 
 now nothing visible but the ditches and part of one wall. Another, 
 
JUAN FERNANDEZ. 349 
 
 of considerable size for the place, is on a high and commanding spot : 
 it contained barracks for soldiers, which, as well as the, greater part 
 of the fort, are ruined ; but the flag-staff, front wall, and a turret are 
 standing ; and at the foot of the flag-staff lies a very handsome brass 
 gun, cast in Spain A.D. 1614. A few houses and cottages are still 
 in tolerable condition, though most of the doors, windows, and roofs 
 have been taken away or used as fuel, by whalers and other ships 
 touching here. 
 
 The colony was in a tolerably flourishing condition for some years, 
 and the exiles had found means to cultivate vegetables and fruit, 
 which thrive so well here that many of the kinds have become 
 wild, to such an extent as, by supplying ships, to obtain additional 
 comforts in their exile. Some jealousy was, however, entertained 
 against this, and the banished men were forbidden the indulgence. 
 The cultivation of the grape, which was found to thrive wonderfully^ 
 was also prohibited ; and dogs were sent over to the island to hunt 
 the cattle out of the woods, in order that the settlers might not be- 
 come too independent. Still, however, the settlement was kept up, 
 and ships frequently touched there, especially for water, which is 
 much better and more abundant than at Valparaiso, and keeps well 
 at sea ; but the island, no longer permitted to raise provisions, was 
 victualled from Chile. At length, in the middle of 1821, an insur- 
 rection against the governor, headed by one Brandt, a North Ame- 
 rican, took place ; in which it was believed that one of the unhappy 
 Carreras of Vina a la Mar was implicated. This young man had 
 been banished to the island for some political crime, and was -killed 
 in the very first of the disturbances ; so that it is extremely doubt- • 
 ful whether he had any thing to do with the conspiracy. I have 
 heard, indeed, that one of the exiles, who was jealous of him, not 
 without reason, took the opportunity afforded by the disturbance of 
 revenging himself. The insurgents having confined the governor 
 and overcome the garrison, seized the boats of an American whaler, 
 which had touched there, with the intention of going on board the 
 
g^Q JOURNAL. 
 
 ship, and so escaping to some foreign land. The whaler left her 
 boats, and brought news of the state of the island to Valparaiso. * 
 
 This insurrection of Brandt's determined the government of Chile 
 to abandon the settlement. The garrison was consequently with- 
 drawn, the fort dismantled, and the place rendered as far as possible 
 unfit for future inhabitants. Nevertheless, early this year the 
 government of Chile published a manifesto, setting forth its claim to 
 the place, and forbidding any persons whatsover to settle there, or to 
 kill the cattle, or take the wood of the island. After walking about 
 a long time among the ruined cottages and gardens, I returned to the 
 place where I left my companions, and found that the young men 
 had pitched on a most charming spot for a dining room. Under 
 the shade of two enormous fig-trees there is a little circular space 
 bounded by a clear rivulet, which in its rapid descent bounds from 
 stone to stone, and mixes its murmurs with those of the breeze and 
 the distant ocean. Here I found Lord Cochrane and the rest seated 
 round a table-cloth of broad fig-leaves covered with such provision 
 as the ship afforded, eked out with fruit of the island hardly yet ripe. 
 Our claret was cooled in a little linny in the stream, and the deco- 
 rations of our bower were the rich foliage and fruit of the overhang- 
 ing trees, and the flowers of the opposite bank, on which stands the 
 castle, reflected in the broken silver of the water that gurgled past. 
 
 After dinner I walked with Lord Cochrane to the valley called 
 Lord Anson's Park. On our way we found numbers of European 
 shrubs and herbs, 
 
 " Where once, the garden smiled, 
 And still where many a garden flower grows wild." 
 
 And in the half-ruined hedges, which denote tl^e boundaries of former 
 fields, we found apple, pear, and quince tjees, with cherries almost 
 ripe. The ascent is steep and rapid from the beach even in the valleys, 
 and the long grass was dry and slippery, so that it rendered the walk 
 
 * In consequence of this the British Commodore sent notices to the ports of Brazil and 
 the Spanish Colonies, to prevent English merchantmen from touching at Juan Fernandez, 
 lest the exiles should seize them and so escape. 
 
4 
 
 & 
 
JUAN FERNANDEZ. 
 
 351 
 
 rather fatiguing ; and we were glad to sit down under a large quince 
 tree on a carpet of balm bordered with roses, now neglected, and 
 rest, and feast our eyes with the lovely view before us. Lord Anson 
 has not exaggerated, the beauty of the place, or the delights, of the 
 climate ; we were rather early for its fruits ; but even at this time we 
 have gathered delicious figs, and cherries, and pears, that a few more 
 days' sun would have perfected. I was quite soiry to leave our station 
 in the park, and return to the landing-place to embark for the dark 
 close ship. 
 
 The landing-place is also the watering-place ; and there a little 
 jetty is thrown out, formed of the beach pebbles, making a little 
 harbour for the boats, which lie there close to the fresh water, which 
 comes conducted by a pipe, so that with a hose the casks may be 
 filled, without landing, with the most delicious water. Along the 
 beach some old guns are sunk to serve as moorings for vessels, which 
 are all the safer the nearer in-shore they lie : violent gusts of wind 
 often blow from the mountain for a few minutes. During our ab- 
 sence, we found that Glennie had been calculating the height of the 
 island, which he makes about 3000 feet. 
 
 ^Qth. — I went ashore with Lord Cochrane's party early to-day, as 
 I wished to make some sketches, and, if possible, to chmb up some 
 of the hills in -search of plants ; therefore, when they all resumed 
 their scheme for reaching the highest point in order to see the other 
 side of the island, I remained behind. They were soon out of sight : 
 the vessel was far from hearing ; no boat was ashore ; and I was left 
 alone among the ruins of the once-flourishing colony, I did not 
 long stay there ; but walked, or rather crawled — for the steepness of 
 the land rendered it necessary often to depend partly on my hands 
 in the ascent — to a place where the marks of cultivation led me to 
 search for the herbs or trees which might have been imported ; and 
 there I found the vine grown wild over a pretty considerable track ; 
 pot-herbs, particularly parsley, I found abundance of; and such beds 
 of sweet mint spread along the water-courses, that I think it must be 
 native ; so are the strawberry and the winter cherry. 
 
352 
 
 JOURNAL. 
 
 And now I had reached a lonely spot, where no trace of man could 
 be seen, and whence I seemed to have no communication with any 
 living thing. I had been some hours alone in this magnificent wilder- 
 ness ; and though at first I might begin with exultation to cry — 
 
 " I am monarch of all I survey, 
 
 My right there is none to dispute," 
 
 yet I very soon felt that utter loneliness is as disagreeable as unna- 
 tural ; and Cowper's exquisite lines again served me — 
 
 " Oh, solitude ! where are thy charms 
 That sages have seen in thy face ? 
 Better dwell in the midst of alarms. 
 Than reign in this horrible place." 
 
 And I repeated over and over the whole of the poem, till I saw 
 two of my companions of the morning coming down the hill, when 
 I hurried to meet them, as if I had been really " out of humanity's 
 reach." 
 
 The two were His Lordship and Mr. Shepherd, who having reached 
 the ridge, or rather the gap in it, by which the two sides of the 
 island communicate, had contented themselves with a Pisgah view, and 
 had left the others to pursue their journey through the wood below. 
 
 They report that^ there is not more flat ground there than here, 
 and that there is no perceptible difference in the vegetation. They 
 are enraptured with the wild beauty of the scenery, and have brought 
 me many splendid flowers and shrubs, — the giant fuscia, andromedas, 
 and myrtles ; but above all, a lovely monopetalous flowering shrub : 
 the leaves are thick-set, shiny green ; the flower and berry of the 
 richest purple. I never saw any thing like it. While we were sort- 
 ing these in our dining-room under the fig-trees, the rest of the party 
 joined us, reporting traces of recent habitation, such as fresh embers, 
 and a horse evidently used for the saddle ; so that, though we had 
 not seen them, we concluded that there were probably some of the 
 cowherds here, who on government account make charqui and cure 
 hides for Valdivia ; and this we afterwards had confirmed. 
 
 After dinner we went to the western side of the town, and there 
 we admired the extraordinary regularity of the structure of the rocks, 
 
JUAN fESNaKCez. 253 
 
 and some curious caverns like those of Monte Albano. In one of 
 the largest of these we found an enormous goat deadj which of 
 course reminded us of " Poor Robin Crusoe." The island abounds in 
 these animals ; but though in my walk to-day I found the lairs of 
 several, I saw nothing alive. 
 
 And now, just as we were going to re-embark, a man made his 
 appearance, and told us that he and four others were stationed on the 
 island, as we supposed, on account of the cattle, and that a cargo of 
 charqui, tallow, &c., had recently sailed for Talcuhana : we imagine 
 this visit was occasioned by the appearance of our party on the other 
 side this morning. Some tallow and hides that the master of the 
 vessel had taken on board, Lord Cochrane now paid for. After 
 which I left Juan Fernandez, probably for ever. 
 
 2'lth. — The vessel was anchored so far off shore, that she dragged 
 her anchor and chain-cable out to a considerable distance ; the 
 anchoring ground being almost as steep as at St. Helena. I remained 
 on board, making sketches of the two baysj and the gentlemen went 
 a-fishing, and brought on board a boat-load of the finest fish imagin- 
 able, both of known and unknown kinds. Of the known kinds the 
 principal were some fine rock-cod and crawfish, the latter nineteen 
 inches long. 
 
 28th. — Having completed our water we sailed from Juan Fernan- 
 dez, highly pleased with our visit. Cattle, and wine, and vegetables, 
 might be produced here to a great extent ; but any nation that takes 
 possession of it as a harbour would have to import corn. The island 
 might maintain easily 2000 persons, exchanging the surplus beef, 
 wines, and brandy, for bread and clothing; and its wood and its 
 water, besides its other conveniences, would render it valuable as a 
 port in the Pacific : as it is, our whalers resort thither continually. 
 The three bays called the East, the West, and the Middle Roads, are 
 all under the lee of the island, so that the water is always smooth ; 
 they are all well watered, and very beautiful. 
 
 Monday, February lOth. — Since we left Juan Fernandez we have 
 had a tolerable run. The thermometer has not been below 40°, 
 
 z z 
 
354 JOURNAL. 
 
 though we are now near Cape Horn. My poor invalid is very ill, 
 and confined to his bed. 
 
 Tuesday, February Wth. — This day, we came early in sight of the 
 land about Cape Horn, which we doubled about sunset. There were 
 mists and clouds overhanging the land ; now and then we had fine 
 sunshine, but oftener cold misty breezes. The coast is high and re- 
 markable, especially about False Cape Horn, where there are several 
 large conical hills ; but we were not near enough to distinguish them 
 very clearly. Lord Cochrane had landed here on his passage to 
 Chile ; and tells me he walked some hours in a delightful valley, in 
 the month of November, full of beautiful evergreens and flowers. 
 Very high mountains come near the sea, and even now, in autumn, 
 the highest are covered with snow. The near hills are bold and 
 precipitous : the cliffs of Cape Horn itself are white as chalk, and rise 
 in fantastic spiry points, like the ruins of some old castle ; and as 
 the sun went down through the hazy air, they took fine glowing tints 
 of gold and purple. The light just served us to see the inhospitable 
 naked peaks of Barneveldt's Isles, or rather rocks : beyond which high 
 mountain-tops peeped through heavy clouds. The names of Home 
 and Barneveldt preserve to the Dutch their seniority in the discovery 
 of this easy passage into the Pacific. It was in 1616 that Le Maire, 
 a native of Home in Holland, first doubled this Cape, and by naming 
 it after his birth-place, gave to that little town one of the most re- 
 markable monuments in the known world. I am very well pleased 
 to have seen the Cape ; but I wished rather to have come through 
 the Straights of Magellan, for the sake of the eai'ly navigators, Drake, 
 
VOiAGE ROUND CAPE HORN. Qgg 
 
 Cavendish, and others, whose adventures and sufferings give an in- 
 terest to these savage scenes which their own desolateness, though 
 grand in itself, could not inspire : for the same reasons, I regret not 
 having seen Chiloe for Byron's sake. 
 
 I2th February. — To-day we ran through the straights of Le Maire. 
 The land on the side of America about Cape Good Success seems 
 good and pleasant, with many gentle hills covered with grass and 
 trees : beyond, are high mountains ; and on the coast some abrupt 
 rocks, and frequent harbours and coves. Staten Land on the east side 
 of the straights, is so bleak and barren-looking, that I suppose it will 
 be one of the last spots on the globe that will be inhabited. 
 
 The weather is chilly and uncomfortable. 
 
 ^Mh, off Falkland's Islands. — This morning we found ourselves 
 off the western Falkland Island. It is moderately high, and com- 
 pletely bare of trees, as far as we could see ; but covered with short 
 grass, and here and there patches of low green shrubs. The rocks 
 appear to be all of sandstone in horizontal layers : where they dip at ^11, 
 it is to the southward. The coast is surrounded by broken rocks, which 
 stand up like the pinnacles of churches ; and here and there natural 
 gateways and windows, that put me in mind of the scenery of Holy 
 Island on our own shores. There are many admirable bays, but all, 
 are uninhabited. The Spaniards destroyed cruelly our settlement at 
 Port Egmont ; and they have been obliged to abandon their own, 
 owing, it is said, to the severity of the climate, and barrenness of 
 the land. But I imagine cultivation might cure both these evils ; 
 and nothing can be better situated than these islands for fitting ships 
 destined for the Pacific. The thermometer has fluctuated to-day 
 between 43° and 50°, and we have had snow and sleet ; the baro- 
 meter gives us from 29 — 15 to 29—20. The temperature of the sea- 
 water 48°. 
 
 1st March. — We came in sight of the land about Cape Santa 
 Marta. At night there was the most beautiful lightning possible ; 
 and while we were looking at it, we heard something fall into the 
 sea like a heavy body from a height, at some distance from us ; and 
 
 z z 2 
 
356 
 
 JOURNAL. 
 
 about, half an hour afterwards Mr. J saw, and some of the 
 
 ptl^eirsi heard, a second body fall into the water. Could these be 
 oji^teoric stones ? The thermometer for some days not under 80°. 
 
 ^th. — We are going slowly along the land, thermometer 82° morn- 
 ing and evening ; 89° at noon. 
 
 9tk,. — Sailing along the land and among the islands of the bay of 
 Santos, not one half of which appear in the charts. They are mostly 
 high ; many of them rocky, and many covered witli palm trees. We 
 have had the thermometer at 94° ; but last night a thunder-storm 
 aijd some heavy squalls of wind and rain have cooled the air. 
 
 13th. — We anchored in the harbour of Rio de Janeiro. 
 
POSTSCRIPT. 
 
 1 HE civil war that had broke out before I left Chile was not of 
 long duration, and occasioned little bloodshed. It terminated in 
 the election of Freire to the directorship, and the calling of a new 
 convention ; which it is devoutly to be hoped will profit by the errors 
 of the last. The Director O'Higgins, a few days after his return to 
 Santiago, having narrowly escaped with his life from the earthquake 
 at Valparaiso, retired to rest and recruit his strength at the Conven- 
 tilla, his country seat ; and in .order that public affairs might not 
 suffer, perhaps also to give still more consequence to Rodriguez, 
 who was San Martin's creature, and whom he was resolved at that 
 time to support, he delegated his authority to that minister and 
 three others, who appear to have exercised it but a few days. — Affairs 
 in the South were coming to a crisis : the soldiers and money ex- 
 pected from Coquimbo were turned against the government of San- 
 tiago. Aconcagua followed the example, and sent deputies to the 
 convention of Coquimbo; and the attempt to recruit for the army of 
 O'Higgins cost several lives in Quillota : as a last resource, Rodriguez 
 was given up, on which Areas fled. San Martin also hastily aban- 
 doned the man whom his evil counsels had in part ruined, and the 
 only resource remaining to the Director was the attachment of the 
 ■troops. He went to the barracks, — he called on them in the name of 
 the country to stand by him ; he spoke to them of the glory they had 
 
358 JOURNAL. 
 
 won together, of his pride in their attachment. A very few, on this 
 appeal, declared for the Director. Many said the cause of the coun- 
 try had been ruined by his measures ; Freire was as well beloved as 
 he, and had also been their companion and leader ; and to crown all, 
 the names of the Carreras were whispered in the ranks. He bared 
 his breast, and told them since he had failed to satisfy his country- 
 men and fellow-soldiers, he oiFered thern a life now little worth ; and 
 after one cry of " Long live the Director O'Higgins !" from his own 
 guard only, he retired, charging them all to remain quiet, as he would 
 not hazard the shedding the blood of his fellow-citizens ; and this I 
 believe was the last public act of that good though weak man. 
 
 He had been made the tool of a speculating trading company, 
 through the influence of his mother and sister, and his fall was not 
 surprising. He wished to retire to Ireland, the country of his fathers ; 
 but he has been detained under I know not what pretence of making 
 him accountable for the treasury expenditures, and he was placed in 
 the custody of Zenteno. 
 
 The army of Freire marched straight to Valparaiso, where it 
 was joined by a small force by sea from Talcahuana. Hence it 
 proceeded to the capital ; not, however, so suddenly as to rouse what- 
 ever spirit of affection for the Director might have prompted resist- 
 ance from the troops. Meantime the partizans of Freire and the 
 enemies of O'Higgins made common cause : the old convention 
 was dispersed, and the new one, consisting, however, of many of the 
 old members, met, elected in a more popular manner. Freire long 
 resisted the solicitations of all parties to assume the dictatorship, 
 alleging his proclamations and avowed intentions only to remove 
 bad ministers by his expedition from the South. But it was clear that 
 O'Higgins would be no longer suffered. The country required some 
 chief magistrttte ; and at length on the 31st of March, 1823, an official 
 letter was presented to him, signed by the deputies plenipotentiary 
 of Santiago, Conception, and Coquimbo, insisting on his accepting 
 the office. Another was also written, appointing these three, i. e. 
 Juan Egaiia plenipotentiary for Santiago, Manoel Novoa for Con- 
 
POSTSCRIPT. 359 
 
 ception, and Manoel Antonio Gonzalez for Coquimbo, together 
 with the new Director, and the secretary Alamos, as a senate, autho- 
 rised to pass an act of union, and to bring together the conventions 
 of the three divisions of the state. On the 1st of April, Freire ac- 
 cepted the office of Director, the Senate entered on its functions, 
 and the Convention appears to have proceeded to business. 
 
 The revolution has been thus far conducted with unusual moderation 
 and temper ; a circumstance creditable to the leaders on both sides, 
 and which will, it is to be hoped, continue to actuate the farther 
 proceedings of the new government. I do not know better how to 
 end this short notice of the changes that have happened since my 
 departure from Chile, than by the following memorial, addressed to 
 the new Convention, and signed by the members of the junta of 
 government which had exercised the supreme authority from the 
 time of the abdication of the Director-general O'Higgins, to the meet- 
 ing of the Congress, or rather till the new Senate was chosen : — 
 
 " Gentlemen Deputies, 
 " The meeting of the representatives of the people in this august 
 " assembly is the moment desired by the country, in order to apply 
 " the necessary remedies to the terrible evils that afflict her ; and 
 " never was any administration in circumstances to desire reform 
 " with such ardour as the junta of government at the present crisis. 
 " You are about. Gentlemen, to regenerate the nation which misfor- 
 " tunes, not easy to foresee, threatened to annihilate. Six years of 
 " a government crowned with success in all its enterprises, respected 
 " abroad, and at least feared at home, had given to the past directory 
 " the power of doing good. To the fervour of military feeling, and 
 " to the exaltation of the passions that accompany the first moments 
 " of all revolutions, the calm of peace had succeeded. The people 
 " had learned that its rights did not consist in the use of an unlimited 
 " power, which, injudiciously exercised, would only plunge it into 
 " anarchy ; and that its solid happiness consisted in good order, and 
 " in establishing guardian institutions, which, under the empire of 
 
360 JOURNAL. 
 
 *' law, might defend it from arbitrary rule. But by a misfortune 
 " which often attends the fate of nations, the government, which 
 *' might have done the most good, wanted talent to accomplish it. 
 " Public discontent has broken through the barrier of oppression ; 
 " and the passions agitated in this impetuous shock against the for- 
 " mer government, threaten ills which, if they be not stopped be- 
 " fore they become irremediable, will hurry the country to its ruin, 
 " and blot out the records of twelve years of glory and of sacrifices. 
 
 " To you, then, fathers of the people ! it belongs to avert the con- 
 " fusion, the disorganisation, the dishonour of the country. This is 
 " the necessary and grand object for which you are called. The 
 "junta is not afraid to say it — Chile never was in a more dangerous 
 " state. Our revolution presents vicissitudes in which almost all the 
 " errors and inadvertencies of which the human mind is capable have 
 " been committed; but in a government always concentrated, and in 
 " the strict union of the citizens, the country found a defence against 
 " the misfortunes that threatened to overwhelm it. For the first time, 
 " we have this day heard the cry of disunion ! a word even harsher to 
 " the hearts than the ears of true patriots. Prudence, and a generous 
 " contempt of petty interests, which are nothing compared with the 
 " general good of the state, and principles of exact equality and 
 *' justice, alone will avert the disorders, the divisions, which might 
 " lead the people to curse the day when they shook off their peaceful 
 " slavery. 
 
 " It is nearly two months since the votes of our fellow-citizens 
 •' called us to take upon ourselves the administration of affairs, and 
 " no one day of that short period has passed that has not been 
 " marked by some circumstance to aggravate the bitterness of our 
 " hearts. In presenting to you the political situation of the state, we 
 " direct your eyes to a picture of present misfortunes and of fears 
 " for the future, which fill us with shame, and which we would con- 
 " ceal, in order that the internal miseries oi' Chile might not be known 
 " abroad, if the evil called less urgently for redress, and if it were 
 
POSTSCRIPT. 36 X 
 
 " not in our own power to mend our fate, and to be respectable and 
 " happy when we truly desire it. 
 
 " In the beginning of last November, Chile formed one indivisible 
 " republic : the towns, distressed by the weight of oppression, with- 
 " drew their obedience from the director of the state, and established 
 " assemblies which might unite the representation of each respective 
 " province. This generous effort, directed solely against the citizen 
 " who governed arbitrarily, could not be a revolt against ourselves ; 
 " it could not have had for its object to impugn the unity of the nation. 
 " The Director, during the last days of his command, in order to 
 " restore that peace to the country wMch he could not maintain, offered 
 " to the representatives of Conception (who were said to act in con- 
 " cert with those of Coquimbo), to abdicate his supreme direction of 
 " the state which he had exercised, in favour of a person to be pro- 
 " posed by them, in order that the change might not affect the 
 " dissolution of the republic. The city of Santiago, ignorant of this 
 " proposal, and which, besides, could not believe that the provinces 
 " would accept offers from the chief against whom they were armed, 
 " and of whose influence they were jealous, hastened to complete the 
 " revolution, in order to unite itself with the rest of the nation. 
 
 " Permit, Gentlemen, to the junta a species of vanity which, 
 " although the characteristic of weakness, is that which reflects least 
 " on the reputation of honest men. Its members had the satisfac- 
 " tion to believe, that by taking on them the provisional government 
 " they might collect the will of the nation. The constant enemies 
 " of despotism, and consequently of the late administration, fear- 
 "-less defenders of the rights of the people, and having given proofs 
 " of their disinterestedness, they were persuaded that if the provinces 
 " had taken up arms solely against the person of the Director, in 
 " order to procure a congress, the deposing of the former and the 
 " calling together of the latter would satisfy the general wish. Be- 
 « sides, what evils had been suffered by Conception and Coquimbo 
 " which had not been felt still more heavily by Santiago ? What 
 " advantages could they promise themselves from reform that San- 
 
 3 A 
 
362 JOURNAL. 
 
 " tiago might not likewise hope for ? Their evils were the same, 
 " their wants the same, their circumstances the same, and the reme- 
 " dies the same : in no one province could there exist separate 
 " interests or separate views. Nevertheless the junta had not the 
 " folly to assume the supremacy without the consent of the other 
 " towns. It indeed desired that the republic should continue entire, 
 " and informed the provinces, that it was about to call a congress ; 
 " and that in the meantime it was necessary, in order to avoid the 
 " appearance of anarchy, that a central and supreme authority should 
 " exist ; that it was in the power of the provinces themselves to ap- 
 " point it provisionally to act till the meeting of the Congress ; but 
 " that as the election of the deputies to the Congress, as well as that 
 " of members for the provisional government, must be a work of 
 " time, it appeared better and more consonant to the despatch with 
 " which the nation desired to call together its representatives, to ac- 
 " knowledge the junta of government as a provisional government, 
 " until the installation of the said Congress ; for whose convocation 
 " the assemblies of Conception and Coquimbo were consulted, in 
 " order that the terms and time of election might be agreed on. The 
 " answers of the provinces were contradictory : none were willing to 
 " recognise the central authority of the junta of government, nor to 
 " agree to the convocation of a congress, without first establishing 
 " a new provisional government. We then perceived that the dreaded 
 " evil was hanging over our heads — the immediate separation of the 
 " different provinces of the state. In order to form a general go- 
 " vernment, a centre of union to a republic, one and indivisible, the 
 " junta opened negociations with General Freire and his deputies ; 
 " of which the minister will give a particular account. These were 
 " in great part listened to, but remained ineffectual to the end, on 
 " account of the full powers which the deputies from Conception de- 
 " clared they had demanded from that assembly. To this day, the 
 " provinces therefore are independent in fact ; and a deputation from 
 " the assemblies of Conception and Coquimbo have but now arrived 
 " in this capital, with ample powers to bring about the re-union of 
 
POSTSCRIPT. 
 
 363 
 
 " the nation.. The junta does not consider these provinces, any more 
 " than Santiago, as sovereign and independent states. It looks on 
 "them as a fraction of the nation, whose magnates and representa- 
 " tives, occupying the command in order to preserve order during the 
 " dissolution of the former government, are now treating of the 
 " means to re-establish the union of the republic. 
 
 " Meantime the province of Santiago, as far as the Cachapoal, ac- 
 " knowledges, tranquilly and willingly, the authority of the junta of 
 " government. The districts of Colchagua and Maule obliged, ac- 
 " cording to the representations of their cabildos, by the force of 
 " circumstances, had united with the province of Conception. Ex- 
 " horted by the junta to re-unite themselves to the province of which 
 " they had always formed a part, Colchagua returned to her ancient 
 " position.; while Maule, in consequence of an order from the as- 
 " sembly of Conception forbidding the measure, adheres to that 
 " province. On this head General Freire seconded the wishes of the 
 " junta, declaring to these districts his acquiescence in their re-union 
 " with Santiago. Curico has always proclaimed its constant attach- 
 " ment to the government of the province, which has now suffered 
 " no other loss than the dismemberment of the territory of Maule. 
 
 " The example of provinces separated from the indivisibility/ of the 
 " state, of districts divided from the provinces, of municipal govern- 
 " ments elected under a variety of forms, has been fatal to internal 
 " quiet, much more to our external relations ; and will be incom- 
 " parably more so in the course of time, as factious ideas spread 
 " and become familiar. Nothing is more certain, than that nations 
 " are often so mistaken in their ideas of freedom as to embrace in 
 " her stead a monster, the certain forerunner of slavery. Various 
 " towns have shown symptoms of that disorder, the last degree at 
 " which public misfortune can arrive. In Casablanca a meeting of 
 " the people took up arnfis against the lieutenant-governor. In Quil- 
 " lota some discontented persons offered to Chile, for the time, the 
 " lamentable spectacle of the blood of the children of the soil shed 
 « in her streets in a civil dispute. In other places the junta has suc- 
 
 3a 2 
 
3g4 JOURNAL. 
 
 " ceeded in checking intestine dissensions by means of gentleness and 
 " prudence. 
 
 " The outworks of good order once saved, the government neces- 
 " sarily felt its weakness ; for without obedience, and the eifective 
 " co-operation of the subjects, it is impossible to make use of the 
 " only means it has of managing the body politic. The towns 
 " threaten with separation or confederation as it suits them. Private 
 " citizens fancy that they exercise the supremacy that resides in the 
 " people every time that they meet, and attempt a revolt. The public 
 " functionaries, vacating and fluctuating between doubts and fears of 
 " sudden change, do not act with the vigour requisite to prevent the 
 " ruin of the community. The subaltern no longer obeys his superior, 
 " whose authority he considers as temporary, and therefore easy to 
 " escape. In such circumstances, without freedom and without 
 " power, what could the administration do ? The nation was de 
 ''^ facto divided into three separate sovereign states, who each go- 
 " verned itself, without either agreeing or consulting with the others : 
 " all affairs of general interest, all that belonged to the body of the 
 " republic, was abandoned, to the disgrace and ruin of the country. 
 " Peru, Gentlemen, is the most piteous and most interesting object 
 " which can come before our eyes. The liberating army, composed 
 " of the conquerors of Chacabuco and Maypu ; that army whose 
 " transport to give liberty to the empire of the Incas had cost Chile 
 " such enormous sacrifices, has been beaten by General Canterac. 
 " Peru must once again crouch under the yoke of irritated and 
 " wicked Spain, if Chile, to whom our unhappy brethren now 
 " stretch forth their supplicating hands, do not administer a prompt 
 " and efficacious succour. Not only the general interest which en- 
 " gages us to support the cause of independence, not only humanity 
 " and the faith of treaties, but our own proper salvation, impels us 
 " to the assistance, to the defence of America, in that last theatre of 
 " war. Defending Peru, we defend Chile and the whole continent on 
 " her ground. Who ever doubted that the naost noble, most useful, 
 " and most necessary pledge that the country has at any time con- 
 
POSTSCRIPT. 2Qg 
 
 " secrated to liberty, was that defence ? The junta decreed it, after 
 " having consulted the general authorities of the state : but the want 
 " of a supreme central government formed an obstacle to the enter- 
 " prise, that is to say, to the salvation of our existence. 
 
 " It is impossible to conceive a situation more deplorable than that 
 " of the public exchequer. More than a million of urgent immediate 
 " debt ; more than 40,000 dollars in advance for absolute necessaries 
 " at the moment ; and a monthly list four times greater than the 
 " actual receipts of the ti'easury ; — offer a picture of almost desperate 
 " wretchedness. The minister of this department will lay the parti- 
 " culars before the Assembly. To establish a new system of finance, 
 " to reform abuses, to reduce the expenses to a just proportion with 
 " the receipts, are steps which require the concentration of the 
 " government. 
 
 " A ruinous loan, which must fetter the nation and its resources 
 " for many years, calls for the attention of government, either to re- 
 " move from us, if possible, the weight of this insupportable burthen, 
 " or to render its consequences less fatal. Every day augments the 
 " debt, and our responsibility becomes the heavier. Consider, Gen- 
 " tlemen, how urgent a motive this is to accelerate the concentration 
 " of the government. 
 
 " The national squadron, that squadron to which we indubitably 
 " owe the destruction of tyranny, is now laid up in our ports ; where 
 " the ships are either gone to ruin, or, by continual waste, are ap- 
 " proaching it. Meanwhile its officers, who have so often covered 
 " themselves with gloi-y in the Pacific, are on half-pay; or, being mostly 
 " foreigners, are leaving us daily, a loss irreparable in the hour of 
 " danger. A central government, making aproper use of the resources 
 " of the country, might restore it to the brilliant footing of 1820. 
 " Now a single province, inadequate to such an expense, must be the 
 " sad spectatress of the annihilation of the main force of a nation 
 " whose foe is beyond seas. 
 
 " Among the enterprises which the Director particularly had de- 
 " termined on, was the occupation of Chiloe. This archipelago is 
 
366 JOURNAL. 
 
 " not only an important part of Chile, which ought to be united to 
 " the rest of the nation; but the enemy having possession of it, it 
 " furnishes a serious and continual subject of alarm, and renders the 
 " war of Valdivia interminable. The continual expense demanded 
 " by the land and sea forces to cover that point to which the enemy 
 " calls continual attention, is well worth the effort, once for all, of 
 " destroying that last refuge of tyranny in Chile. By a new popular 
 " sacrifice, an expedition against Valdivia had been concerted ; which, 
 " by the preparations for it, and the bravery of our troops, ought to 
 " have ended the continental war. Our political movements have 
 " rendered this enterprise abortive. Great part of the garrison re- 
 " turned to Valparaiso ; and although the junta, in concert with 
 " General Freire, had sent back the necessary force to Valdivia, 
 " Chiloe continues under the Spanish yoke, and is a point whence 
 " tyranny in its last act of desperation, and with the important assist- 
 " ance it has received, may renew the scenes of 1813, organising 
 " and directing on the continent armies which may subdue us. A 
 " general government might revive the expedition to Chiloe, and blot 
 " out the disgrace from the country of still suffering a foreign enemy 
 " to remain within its limits. 
 
 " Our external relations subsisting on the same footing as in July 
 " last, although they give us no fresh motives of affliction, remind 
 " us that our misfortunes must bring with them the dishonour of 
 " Chile, and the loss of the credit acquired so dearly during twelve 
 " years. In Europe there was no want of confidence in the fate of 
 " America. The union and tjie consistency of our governments 
 " were justly looked upon as the best security for our independence ; 
 " and Spain, in order to keep back the European powers from the 
 " solemn recognition of our independence, used no other means 
 " than those of representing us as plunged in anarchy. In America 
 " the reverses of .Peru will be remediable from the moment we are 
 " united ; and the junta, after having gained time here to renew our 
 " relations with Columbia and the trans-andine states, has exhorted 
 
POSTSCRIPT. 357 
 
 « them in the common danger to the defence of Peru. The minister 
 " for foreign affairs will lay before you the steps taken for this end. 
 
 " Gentlemen, our institutions and internal administration do 
 " not offer a very consolatory picture. Not one but needs reform ; 
 " and if the happy destiny of the country should place at its head a 
 " genius capable of directing her, all must be erected anew. Edu- 
 " cation, the base of national prosperity, is in the most deplorable 
 " state. 
 
 " Neglected, not to say abandoned, without encouragement, with- 
 " out a plan, we feel the consequences of the evil in our daily pro- 
 " ceedings. The administration of justice demands important 
 " reformation ; or rather, it demands an entire new system, agreeable 
 " to the progress of the age, and to the rights of recovered humanity, 
 " in order to place us on a level with that nation on whom we for- 
 " merly depended, and whose barbarous and destructive usages we 
 " have preserved without profiting by the amendments that she her- 
 " self has lately made. The police, absolutely abandoned in all its 
 " branches, no longer exists, any more than any other establishment 
 " of public utility, either for the advantage of commerce, mining, in- 
 " dustry, or agriculture. 
 
 ^« Our military force is entrusted to General Freire, an officer who in 
 " fourteen years of uninterrupted services, and of glorious actions, the 
 " pride of the nation, has proved his patriotism and his moderation. 
 " If the proceedings of the junta had not been so frank and open ; if 
 " the testimony of conscience did not assure its members that they 
 " had done for the good of the country all that honour, justice, and 
 " policy demanded ; if in the eminently difficult circumstances in 
 " which it was constituted, there had been any other road to pursue ; 
 a — it' might have feared the weight of a responsibility which it covild 
 " not have borne. — When the directorial government expired, Ge- 
 " neral Freire was the citizen who enjoyed the public favour. He 
 " was, besides, the only man who could curb the exalted passions, and 
 " the evil effects, the political illusions, arising from ill-understood and 
 " ill-applied principles : in short, he was the man who was to rescue 
 
368 
 
 JOURNAL. 
 
 " the nation from the fangs of the anarchy which threatened to over- 
 " whelm it ; and procure for his country the happiest and most bril- 
 " Hant destiny. Never mortal saw himself in a situation to render 
 " more important services to the country to which he owed his 
 " birth, the theatre of his exertions and his glory. His voice, heard 
 " with the liveliest emotions of pleasure from one end of the re- 
 " public to the other, was to be the signal of re-union for the whole 
 " nation, under a government as respectable and vigorous as that 
 " which had passed away, and as free, just, and beneficent as we 
 " had a right to expect. In this conjuncture he presented himself 
 " in Valparaiso at the head of an army, and of an expedition which 
 " had sailed from Talcahuana, after having received communications 
 " from the junta assuring him of its cordial support, of the abdi- 
 " cation of the Director, and of the unanimous wishes of the nation. 
 " This act, which perhaps might have been considered by some as an 
 " indication of a conduct hostile, or at least equivocal ; as marking 
 " exorbitant pretensions, founded on the strength of arms ; as want- 
 " ing in respect to the government, without whose authority, and 
 " even without a pretence, he had brought an army into the territory 
 " it ruled ; — surprised the junta, but did not alarm it. Why distrust 
 " the man whose modesty and the liberality of whose principles 
 " were so well and so generally known ? Why draw back from the 
 " citizen in whom the country placed its hopes, and to whose virtue 
 " it was willing to trust its fate ? He was invited to Santiago : he 
 " was called to the meeting, whose object was the general good of 
 " nation. We assure you. Gentlemen, that we have omitted no 
 " means, proposals, or efforts, in order to avail ourselves of his in- 
 " fluence in healing the public dissensions. He demanded the com- 
 " mand of the army of the province of Santiago, and it was granted 
 " him as a proof of our unlimited confidence, as a guarantee of our 
 " uniformity of sentiment ; and on condition of acknowledging the 
 " authority of whoever should receive that command, that we might 
 " not be wanting to the duties imposed on us by the people, when, 
 " together with the government, they entrusted us with the force 
 
POSTSCRIPT. 269 
 
 " destined for its defence, and made us responsible. On perceiving 
 " that without establishing a central junta, the chief, who called him- 
 " self the general of a province independent de facto, transported 
 " thither the troops of Santiago ; on observing that officers were re- 
 " moved, and others named, without consulting the junta, and even 
 " against its will ; — it made such representations as appeared suitable 
 " to its duty and its dignity. The ministers of state will lay before 
 " you the correspondence that took place between General Freire 
 " and the various public offices : in it you will find that the General 
 " had declared solemnly and formally, that neither he nor the army 
 " are subject to the junta ; and that he does not acknowledge in it any 
 " authority whatever over the military, the sole, independent, and 
 '^exclusive command of which belongs to himself: in it you will 
 " also observe, that on this account the preparations for sending 
 " troops to the immediate assistance of Peru were suspended; an 
 " evil which, among the many existing, has not been the least that 
 " has harassed the better days of our administration. 
 
 " If the junta has not been able to preserve strict harmony with 
 " General Freire, we strongly recommend to you. Gentlemen, to en- 
 " deavour to accomplish that desirable end : do not forget that he is 
 " the only man who can save the country, — and rely on his disin- 
 " terestedness. Call him to your bosom, and may you be happier 
 " than we, in inspiring him with confidence, and erasing impres- 
 «* sions which savour of provincialism and dangerous principles ! Let 
 " not the evil-minded, or those who are led by personal interest, or 
 " the giddy and the weak, triumph, and tear away the laurels of peace 
 " destined for the citizen who shall restore his country, oppressed 
 " by internal grievances, to prosperity. 
 
 " If General Freire, by keeping the independent command of the 
 " army, sought to avoid the horrors of civil war, the necessary con- 
 " sequence of anarchy ; if his object was to prevent th^ dissolution of 
 " the army ; if, with all the forces of the republic at his disposal, he 
 " sought to preserve his influence and dignity, only in order that he 
 " might place himself in a situation to procure the immeasurable be- 
 
 S B 
 
370 JOURNAL. 
 
 " nefit of ending strife ; if he makes use of his credit and his influence 
 " to restore the repubhc immediately to its former unity under a su- 
 " preme and energetic government ; if, with his forces, he does not 
 " remain an indifferent spectator of the pubhc misfortunes, or allow 
 " the provinces to plunge into endless disputes about theoretical 
 " rights ; if in the best way in which circumstances will permit, and 
 " with all possible provisions for the security of liberty in the mean- 
 " time, he concurs in establishing a provisional government until the 
 " meeting of the General Congress which shall in full liberty dictate 
 " the permanent constitution of the state ; — he will have pursued a 
 " policy as sublime as beneficent, and will be in every sense the de- 
 " liverer of his country. 
 
 " Such is the general picture of our public affairs : and your labours 
 " will be as arduous as important. A thousand improvements, a 
 " thousand useful provisions, would have been dictated by the junta, 
 " if its vacillating authority, the political situation of the state, and 
 " its attention, directed exclusively to the union of the nation, had 
 " not opposed insuperable obstacles. Perhaps we have been mis- 
 " taken ; perhaps error may have presided over many of our deliber- 
 " ations,' — it is inseparable from human nature: but pardon, Fathers 
 " of the country ! pardon faults which certainly have been committed 
 " without tainting the general disinterestedness and patriotism on 
 " which we pride ourselves. God grant that our authority may be 
 " short, in order that you may accomplish as speedily as possible the 
 " establishment of a supreme government. Reason, experience, and 
 " public opinion, all agree that the executive power ought to be 
 " trusted to one alone. Relieve us from a burthen which oppresses 
 " us ; and let this be the reward of an administration, whose labours, 
 " difficulties, and grievances, have exceeded both our time and our 
 " strength. 
 
 " AUGUSTIN DE EyZAGUIRRE. 
 
 " Jose Miguel liNFANXE. 
 " Fernando Ezrazuris. 
 " Mariano de Egana." 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 3b 2 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 A brief Relation of Facts and Circumstances connected with the Family 
 of the Carreras in Chile ; with some Account of the last Expedition 
 of Brigadier- General Don Jose Miguel Carrera, his Death, S^c. 
 
 By Mr. YATES. 
 
 OoN Juan Jose, Don Jose Miguel, and Don Luis Carrera, were the sons 
 of Don Ignacio Carrera, who was the descendant of an ancient and honour- 
 able line of ancestors. His sons were destined for the service of their 
 country ; and were at an early age entered as cadets in the Spanish service. 
 Don Jose Miguel was sent to Europe, as the war in the Peninsula was con- 
 sidered to be the most promising school for the acquirement of those quali- 
 fications whicli are most necessary to complete the character of an officer 
 and statesman. 
 
 Having arrived in Spain, his merit soon recommended him to the consi- 
 deration of his superiors ; and in reward for his zeal, assiduity, and attention 
 to the service, he was promoted by the regular gradations of rank to be 
 lieutenant-colonel and commandant of a regiment of hussars. 
 
 At this time the revolution in America had begun to wear a favour- 
 able aspect. Buenos Ayres had solemnly declared her independence ; and 
 Chile (though apparently without a person capable of conducting her in so 
 arduous an undertaking,) seemed wilhng to throw oif the long-worn and 
 galling yoke of the mother country. Carrera, anxious for the success of 
 Chile in particular, and desirous of lending his arm in the cause of Ame- 
 rican emancipation in general, took the earliest opportunity to transport 
 himself across the Atlantic ; which he effected with some difficulty, owing to 
 the distrust which was then generally entertained in Spain with regard to the 
 loyalty of the American officers in her service. 
 
374 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 Previous to his arrival in Chile (about the year 1811) some attempts had 
 been made towards the abolition of the Spanish authority. Carasco, the 
 Spanish President, had been deposed, on a pretence of his incapacity to serve 
 the Spanish monarch. The government was assumed by. a Cabildo and Pre- 
 sident, all of whom were Americans, and enemies to the tyrannical system 
 which had hitherto been observed and followed ; but as they were entirely 
 destitute of the abilities which were necessary to enforce the execution of 
 their plans, and unequal to the power with which -they had invested them- 
 selves, they were obliged to follow the old form of government ; professing 
 to take a lively interest in the welfare of their Spanish sovereign and his do- 
 minions, whilst they were really his most inveterate foes. 
 
 Such was the state of anarchy in which Don Jose Miguel Carrera found 
 Chile on his arrival : without an army, without a navy, without funds, or 
 any preparation whatever towards carrying on an inevitable and sanguinary 
 war ; the necessary effect of the steps which they had already taken. His 
 country entertained the highest opinion of the virtues and abilities of Car- 
 rera. He was considered as the only person who could be found capable of 
 extricating the state from the snares of that labyrinth into which it had 
 incautiously plunged itself.* 
 
 In order to effect this he was trusted with the supreme authority of Pre- 
 sident of the Congress ; and also nominated general to command an army 
 which did not yet exist, but of which the immediate formation and organiz- 
 ation were looked to as the only guarantee of success and future safety to 
 the new state. 
 
 It is not difficult to imagine the many inconveniences attending the levy- 
 ing an army designed to operate against the established authority, in a 
 country more remarkable for its bigotry and superstition, than for virtue, 
 liberality, or patriotism ; and whose inhabitants, notwithstanding the servile 
 and humiliating yoke under which they lived, were taught by their priests, 
 that any attempt against the person or interests of their prince was an in- 
 fringement on religion itself, and consequently contrary to the divine will of 
 Heaven. 
 
 However, having great influence in the country, Carrera undertook to 
 
 * In this early part of this paper the reader is requested to remember that it is the party and 
 family history of Carrera, and that the truth is more nearly that which is related in the Intro- 
 duction ; I have thought it right, however, to print it unaltered in any way. — M. G. 
 
APPENDIX. 375 
 
 silence the zealots, and set Chile free at any expense. He commenced by 
 dedicating his fortune (which was very considerable) with those of his relations 
 and friends to the cause of independence, thereby supplying the defect of a 
 public fund. He began to recruit for his army, paying to eacli soldier a 
 premium on his entrance, as practised in European nations ; a method never 
 used in America but by him. From the most respectable citizens he selected 
 officers ; who were indeed ignorant of all military knowledge, but whose cha- 
 racters, probity, and well-known attachment to their country, made ample 
 amends for all other defects. The regiments thus organized were well 
 clothed, armed, regularly paid, and disciplined under his own immediate 
 inspection. Carrera was colonel of the dragoon regiment of national guards, 
 general inspector of cavalry, and commander-in-chief of the national forces. 
 His elder brother, Don Juan Jose, was colonel of grenadiers, and commandant 
 of all the infantry ; and the youngest of the three, Don Luis, commanded a 
 regiment of artillery which had garrisoned Santiago in the time of Ferdi- 
 nand VII. but had been prevailed on to espouse the cause of independence, 
 and follow the banners of Chile.* 
 
 It may be necessary to observe here, that the general head-quarters of the 
 Spanish troops in Chile has generally been in the province of Penco, the 
 capital of which is Conception. The troops which were in that garrison in 
 the beginning of the revolution, were Americans by a great majority ; and 
 were, by the liberality of the inhabitants of the town, and the promises of the 
 American officers amongst them, easily prevailed on to revolt and deny all 
 future allegiance to the Spanish monarch. Thus far the revolution was un- 
 stained with blood ; but a circumstance soon after occurred which menaced 
 the country with the horrors of a civil war. The inhabitants of Conception 
 asserted, that it was better adapted for the seat of government than Santiago, 
 as it had a communication with the sea, and many local advantages favour- 
 able to commerce, &c. &c. Carrera endeavoured to convince them of the 
 impropriety of such a measure ; but finding that his arguments were not 
 likely to dissuade them, he adopted other means. He opened a negociation 
 with them ; in which it was stipulated that the army of Conception, then 
 encamped on the southern bank of the Maule, should not pass that river, 
 nor that of Chile make any advance, during a certain time. Before the expir- 
 
 * There were only fifty soldiers of any kind in Santiago before the revolution. This state- 
 ment is very wrong. — M. G. 
 
376 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 ation of the time fixed, emissaries had been sent to the army of Conception 
 by Carrera : by their generous offers matters were amicably adjusted, a 
 reconciliation and coalition of parties was effected, and the enterprise of 
 removing the seat of government to Conception was totally destroyed. 
 
 The Spaniards having received reinforcements from Lima, Chiloe,'and 
 Coquimbo, began to concentrate themselves in the south of Chile, in order 
 to oppose the progress of Carrera, who was not remiss in his preparations to 
 meet them. He nominated a Vice-President in his absence, and marched 
 to encounter them with the united forces of Chile and Conception. An infi- 
 nity of actions, sieges, and skirmishes succeeded, in which the Americans, 
 though little experienced in war, were generally victorious over their 
 oppressors. 
 
 It was in these guerillas that Don Bernardo O'Higgins (now Supreme 
 Director of ChUe) first distinguished himself. His father was a native of 
 of Ireland, who had served some time in the Enghsh army ; but not meeting 
 the attention or preferment which he considered as due to his merit, he 
 resigned, and passing to Spain, received an appointment in the army of that 
 country ; from whence he accompanied an expedition to Chile, where he 
 evinced so much intrepidity, prudence, and application, in a war against the 
 Indians, as induced His Catholic Majesty to create him a brigadier of his ser- 
 vice, and captain-general of Chile. He discharged the duties of these high 
 offices to the general satisfaction of his king and the people. He did not ne- 
 glect the education of Don Bernardo, who was but a natural son by a woman 
 named Isabella Riguelme, whose morals (it is said) were not altogether irre- 
 proachable. He was sent to England when young, where he continued 
 some time in an academy or college. At the commencement of the revo- 
 lution he resided on a farm which was bequeathed him by his father. His 
 military rank was captain of country militias ; but, in consequence of his 
 extraordinary courage and serenity in several actions against the Spaniards, 
 Carrera promoted him to the rank of lieutenant-colonel of the army of 
 the line, as an encouragement to valour among his officers. O'Higgins 
 continued to merit the esteem of his general, and almost every action 
 brought him new honours : he attained at last the rank of brigadier-general ; 
 and Carrera placed in him as much confidence as he did in either of his 
 brothers. , 
 
 Subsequent to these fiattering marks of favour and distinction witli which 
 he had been honoured, Carrera and his brothers were shut up in the garrison 
 
APPENDIX. 377 
 
 of Talca (if I recollect rightly), and besieged by the Spaniards ; the town 
 was assaulted and taken ; and the Carreras, with all the officers of the garri- 
 son, were made prisoners. 
 
 The whole command of the army now devolved on Brigadier-General 
 O'Higgins ; who, instead of taking the necessary steps to procure the en- 
 largement of Carrera his chief, by exchange or otherwise, seized on the 
 favourable opportunity of assuming the civil power, and caused himself to be 
 proclaimed President : in these proceedings he was supported by the officers 
 and. soldiers of Conception, his native town. Brigadier-General M'Kenna 
 (who was afterwards shot in a duel by .Don Luis Carrera) was appointed as 
 second in command to O'Higgins. The city was governed as before, by a 
 Vice-President, whilst the new President remained in front of the enemy. 
 He was making vigorous preparations to carry on the war, when his attention 
 was called to a quarter he least expected. 
 
 The Carreras having procured and distributed money among the Spa- 
 nish soldiers who guarded them, were allowed to escape ; of which O'Higgins 
 being apprised, he offered a reward for their apprehension and delivery to him. 
 However Carrera, from his popularity in the country, had little to fear from 
 such a rival. He proceeded towards Santiago with his brothers, disguised as 
 peasants ; and on his arrival in that city, he requested of his brother Luis to have 
 himself discovered that he might be made prisoner, at the same time assuring 
 him that he would liberate him that very night. Luis acted-accordingly. He 
 entered a tavern ; and calling a peasant, gave him some money, and desired 
 that he would go and inform the town-major, that he could guide him to the 
 house in which Don Luis Carrera was lodged : the countryman made some 
 remonstrances ; but being ordered peremptorily he obeyed, and soon returned 
 with a guard, which made Luis prisoner. 
 
 In the meantime General Carrera, having an unbounded confidence in the 
 soldiers whom he once commanded, introduced himself disguised (by being 
 inveloped in a large cloak) into the barrack of the artillery ; and on being 
 challenged by the sentinels, he answered that he was Carrera ; upon which 
 the officers and soldiers crowded round their proscribed general with enthu- 
 siasm and approbation, swearing to stand or fall with his fortunes. He 
 ordered them to form, and immediately marched at their head to the plaza, 
 liberated his brother Luis ; and as soon as his arrival in the town was known, 
 he was joined by all the detachments in the garrison, and congratulated by 
 all the citizens, who reinstated him in his former power. 
 
 3 c 
 
378 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 O'Higgins, on being acquainted with all that had happened, thought proper 
 to prefer the gratification of private animosity to the safety or good of the 
 public in general. He abandoned his station in front of the enemy, and with 
 his whole force marched towards Santiago, to wreak his vengeance on his 
 greatest benefactor, — on the man who had raised him from amongst the un- 
 distinguished multitude, to act in a sphere so far above his expectations! 
 
 Carrera being advertised of the redoubled marches of his rival, despatched 
 deputies to meet and expostulate with him on the impropriety of having left 
 the country unprotected and at the mercy of the Spaniards ; and also to 
 propose the union of their forces, and joint exertions to expel their common 
 enemy (who profited by their disunion) ; after which they could at their 
 leisure decide their private disputes either by the fortune of war, or by the 
 general sufS-age of the people in favour of one or the other. As O'Higgins, 
 with the exception of a few detachments, had the whole of the veteran forces 
 under his command, he rejected with contempt these proposals of Carrera ; 
 who making known to the citizens of Santiago, and the peasantry of the 
 country, the issue of the negociations with O'Higgins, they saw that there 
 was no alternative left between submitting to an usurper, or preparing to 
 reduce him to subjection by force. The latter was unanimously agreed to. 
 Tlie citizens enrolled themselves in corps with alacrity ; the country militia 
 assembled ; and being united, they marched out with Carrera to meet O'Hig- 
 gins, and by a battle decide their fate. 
 
 Carrera's men were badly armed, and ignorant of service ; their antago- 
 nists were soldiers disciplined, and already accustomed to conquer. 
 
 Carrera chose a position on the plains of Maypu, which he fortified-, and 
 there waited the arrival of O'Higgins, who did not long detain him. The 
 two armies being in front of each other, O'Higgins, liaving disposed his 
 troops for the assault, commanded the charge, and led his soldiers on with 
 his usual bravery. Carrera waited the shock of the enemy in his entrench- 
 ments, and on their near approach he opened on them a heavy fire which 
 caused them to retire ; they were pursued, and called on to surrender by the 
 peasants of Carrera, who had given orders not to take the lives of any of the 
 fugitives. The soldiers of O'Higgins, as if intimidated by the idea of their 
 disloyalty to their chief, laid down their arms, and were generously received 
 and forgiven. O'Higgins and his principal officers were made prisoners, and 
 experienced the clemency of the conqueror. The spoils of the field were 
 divided amongst the victorious volunteers ; and the vanquished, from O'Hig- 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 379 
 
 gins down to the meanest soldier, were amply remunerated by Carrera for 
 the loss of their baggage, &c. 
 
 After they had considered themselves prisoners for a few hours, the scattered 
 remains of those corps (which but just now were his enemies) were incor- 
 porated in a division with their own officers, and, what is still more surprising, 
 with O'Higgins himself at their head. This division was appointed to act as 
 van-guard to the army ; and O'Higgins thus reconciled, and obhged not only 
 for his employment, but for his life, to Carrera, after receiving his instruc- 
 tions, marched to possess himself of a post which he was ordered to occupy in 
 order to check the enemy. 
 
 .Carrera, ever frugal of the blood of his country, endeavoured by unexam- 
 pled generosity and clemency to engage those in his favour who, according 
 to the laws of war, of society, and of nature itself, had justly forfeited their 
 lives : but he unfortunately miscarried in his attempts to disarm his enemies 
 by these laudable means. Noble actions can only shed their influence on 
 noble minds, and are but lost on the envious and ungrateful. Nevertheless, 
 Carrera's noble forgiveness of so great a crime on this occasion thi'ows a 
 brilliant light on that disinterested magnanimity and humanity which 
 chai'acterised the actions of his public life. Though he had repeated instances 
 of the ingratitude of those whom he had served, yet he was not the less ready 
 to extend his generosity or protection to all friends, or enemies, who stood in 
 need of it. 
 
 The Spaniards profited by the domestic dissensions of Chile. The strength 
 of the army was much reduced by their strife, and the army of Carrera was 
 obliged to take refuge in Rancagua ; which the Spaniards besieged, assaulted, 
 and. after a defence of forty-eight hours, without intermission of fire, the town- 
 was taken for want of ammunition to defend it longer. In this action the 
 patriots were obliged to supply the place of grape-shot by dollars, which they 
 fired from their artillery at the close of the second day. 
 
 The remains^ of the army which escaped^ the fury of the Spaniards passed 
 the Andes, with General Carrera and his brothers, O'Higgins, M'Kenna, 
 Benevente, Rodriguez, &c., and a vast number of respectable citizens, to seek 
 an asylum amongst the patriots of the Provincias del Rio de la Plata ; from 
 whence, after recruiting their army, they expected to recross the Andes, and 
 again dispute the fate of Chile with her oppressors. 
 
 After a short residence in Buenos Ayres, Carrera, who was without funds, 
 saw that it would be impossible for him to effect his plans. He therefore pro- 
 
 3c 2 
 
380 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 ceeded to the United States, from whence he expected to derive some assist- 
 ance : in which he was not disappointed, being furnished with five armed 
 vessels, in which he embarked seventy English and French officers (not in- 
 cluding the naval officers who came employed in the vessels) ; arms, ammuni- 
 tion, and clothing, accoutrements, &c. for 12,000 foot ; sabres, pistols, &c. 
 for 2000 cavalry ; with a great number of artizans of difierent denominations, 
 their necessary implements, &c. &c. 
 
 He concluded a treaty of commerce with the Congress, in which it was 
 agreed that the duty on American imports in Chile (when liberated) should 
 pay the debt incurred in fitting out the expedition alluded to ; and when paid, 
 the duties were to continue at a certain rate per cent., as stipulated in the 
 treaty. Whether this money was advanced to Carrera by the government 
 of the United States, or by a certain number of the members of Congress, I 
 know not. Having thus formed, a connection which he considered respect- 
 able, he departed for the Pacific ocean, where his operations were to have 
 commenced. 
 
 In the meantime the conquest of Chile had been meditated by Pueyrredon, 
 governor of Buenos Ayres : nothing less than the universal extension of his 
 influence over the United Provinces, and Chile, would gratify the ambition 
 of this monopolist of power. He well knew Carrera's character, though 
 gentle, was not passive ; and therefore he resolved to appoint O'Higgins as 
 President of Chile, being, as he considered, a more apt instrument to facilitate 
 his private views. San Martin was the general appointed to lead the expe- 
 dition into Chile which was then raising in the province of Cuyo. The 
 brothers of Carrera, who had remained in Buenos Ayres, were denied the 
 gratification of accompanying this expedition to their native country, and 
 had strict injunctions not to leave Buenos Ayres, where they were confined 
 on parole. 
 
 Carrera, unconscious of the treachery which was designed against him, put 
 into Buenos Ayres to take in fresh provisions, some troops and officers which 
 he had left there, and to inform himself of whatever might have transpired 
 relative to his country in his absence, previous to his passing the Cape to 
 commence hostilities in Chile. No sooner did he arrive, than his vessel was 
 seized by the government, himself and his officers made prisoners on shore ; 
 but they afterwards put Cai-rera on board a gun-brig in the river, as a. 
 place of greater security. His brothers saw the imminent danger which 
 surrounded them : they escaped from Buenos Ayres ; and, disguised in the, 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 381 
 
 apparel of muleteers, expected to reach Chile undiscovered. But in Mendoza 
 they were betrayed by a servant, apprehended, cast into a dungeon, and 
 loaded with irons, by order of San Martin ; from whence they never went 
 forth, till called on to resign a life already made too loathsome by the tyranny 
 of their oppressors. 
 
 Three of the vessels of the squadron of Carrera entered the Rio de la 
 Plata ; and on being informed of his imprisonment, they put to sea again, and 
 returned to the United States. 
 
 By the connivance and humanity of the officer to whose care Carrera had 
 been committed, he escaped in a boat which two officers had provided for 
 that purpose : the commander of the gun-brig, to prevent suspicion, fired 
 several guns after him, and ordered some boats to pursue him ; but not be- 
 fore he was certain that he could not be retaken. 
 
 Carrera, after some hours' sail, landed safely at Monte Video, and presented 
 himself to General Le Cor, governor of the town, who received him with 
 that kindness and respect which were due to his misfortunes and rank. 
 
 Pueyrredon carried on a private negociation at this period with the Portu- 
 guese court at Rio de Janeiro, relative to the delivery of the Provincias 
 Unidas del Rio de la Plata to a prince of the house of Bourbon (Principe de 
 Luco), reserving for himself a lucrative and honourable place in the state 
 after the political regeneration it was expected immediately to undergo. 
 
 Carrera ingratiated himself so far with his Portuguese friends in court, that 
 he not only was informed of the very important business transacting there, 
 but also furnished with copies and most authentic documents of the whole 
 proceedings. 
 
 Pueyrredon had much to fear from Carrera's situation and residence in 
 Monte Video, and demanded of the Portuguese an order that he should be de- 
 livered prisoner in Buenos Ayres, from whence he had escaped. Carrera 
 was acquainted of this by his friend, who recommended him to hold himself 
 in readiness to depart for Panana (a town in the jurisdiction of Artigas), in 
 case the order should be granted against him ; assuring him that he would give 
 him notice, and time for his escape. A few days after, the order was received 
 for his apprehension in Monte Video ; and on being informed he departed, 
 and with some difficulties reached Entre Rios. 
 
 Ramirez, who was governor of that province, under Artigas, received 
 Carrera hospitably, espoused his cause against Pueyrredon, and became his 
 decided friend. Soon as Artigas knew that Carrera was in his territory, he 
 wrote to Ramirez, ordering him to secure him, and send him to his head- 
 
382 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 quarters on .the frontier of the Brazils. The order came too late ; Ramirez, 
 though a stranger to him, had become his friend, and could not think of de- 
 livering his friend to destruction. He put the letter into Carrera's hands, rcr 
 questing he would direct him in so intricate a situation, and assuring him that 
 he would sooner meet all the resentment of Artigas, than be guilty of deliver- 
 ing him. Carrera told him not to fear Artigas ; and devised a plan by which 
 Ramirez might establish himself) independent of Artigas, in the government 
 of the province of Entre Rios for the present, and afterwards perhaps might 
 supersede him in the government of the Banda Oriental. A palliating letter 
 was written by Ramirez to Artigas, stating that Carrera was a patriot, a fHend 
 of his, and that he stood in much need of his talents in the prosecution of 
 the war against the Porteiios, or Buenos Ayrians. Artigas thought it unavail- 
 ing to use menaces to enforce his orders at such an immense distance, and 
 therefore affected to acquiesce in the request of Ramirez ; not doubting that 
 an opportunity might soon occur more favourable to the execution of his un- 
 generous designs against a man already, too unfortunate. Artigas's hatred 
 to Carrera originated in an idea that Carrera, by his superior abilities, might 
 supersede or supplant him in his government of the Banda Oriental. 
 
 Some time had elapsed since San Martin and O'Higgins had crossed the 
 Andes ; they had already gained some decided advantages over the Spaniards 
 in Chile. The news of the battle of Maypu ; the death of his two brothers in 
 Mendoza, and that of his father in Chile ; the confiscation of all their estates 
 and properties ; the declaration against them, the CaiTeras, as being traitors 
 to their country, and to be proceeded against accordingly ; — all came to him 
 the same day : add to this catalogue of misfortunes, the imprisonment of his 
 lady. Dona Mercedes, and Dona Jabiera, his sister, in Buenos Ayres. 
 
 The popularity of the Carreras in ChUe appeared so glaringly to San Mar- 
 tin, that he resolved to end the existence of Don Juan Jose and Don Luis, 
 whom he had left in Mendoza, lest they should escape, well knowing that 
 in Chile he could hold no competition with them. He therefore sent an order 
 to Luzuriago, governor of Mendoza, intimating the advantages that would 
 accrue to the state from the immediate execution of the Carreras. Luzu- 
 riago, whose military preferment and admission into the honourable orders 
 of new nobility established in Chile and Buenos Ayres, depended on his 
 promptitude in assassinating those whom his employers would point out for 
 victims, quickly put into execution the mandate of his fell master. 
 
 The Carreras were conducted to the public plaza, to gratify the envy, am- 
 bition, and revenge of a base tyrant. They died ! But they suffered death 
 
APPENDIX. 333 
 
 with such unshaken resolution, as astonished their savage executioners, and 
 excited the pity and tears of their more feehng beholders : they refused to 
 admit the officious assistance of the priests who were appointed to attend 
 them ; and walking arm in arm to the place of execution, they embraced each 
 other most tenderly, recollected their absent brother in a very affecting man- 
 ner, at the same time expressing a thought, that if he still lived he would 
 undoubtedly avenge the wrongs and vindicate the fame of his most unfortunate 
 brothers. Then seating themselves on the bench, and again embracing each 
 other, they requested of the soldiers to despatch them : the soldiers fired, 
 and they fell, clasped in each others arms. Thus died the Carreras, whose 
 only crime was, that they loved their country too well, and were too much 
 beloved by their countrymen ! 
 
 After their death, the form of a trial was drawn up by a lawyer, in which 
 they were found guilty of having left - Buenos Ayres without a passport, in 
 order to circulate sedition in Chile. This most ingenious trial was published 
 in Buenos Ayres, Chile, and all parts of the United Provinces, in order to 
 hide the deformity of a most horrid violation of the common rights of indi- 
 viduals, and of mankind in general. This mode of trial, however rare it may 
 have been before, has since that time been but too common in America In- 
 dependiente. It is a most excellent plan ; for the dead speak not, and 
 the evidences are always such as to meet the entire approbation of the 
 executioners. 
 
 A bill of costs was presented, by order of His Excellency General San 
 Martin, to Don Ignacio Carrera, in which he was charged with all the 
 expenses arising to the state from the execution of his sons ; viz. gaolers' 
 fees, plank and nails used in the seat on which they were shot, cordage (with 
 which they were not tied), powder, ball, &c. &c. The aged and unfortunate 
 father, whose property had been already confiscated, except a small allow- 
 ance, discharged this unheard-of species of debt, and expired in a few days 
 
 after! 
 
 Colonel Don Manuel Rodriguez, an officer of Carrera, who passed to Chile 
 before the expedition of San Martin, and raised a force in the country, by 
 vfhose influence and exertions San Martin was enabled to subdue Chile, was 
 stiU more basely assassinated, because he was a known friend to the Uberty of 
 
 his country. 
 
 General Carrera had brought with him from the United States several pnnt- 
 ing presses ;. one of which had by some means escaped the general ruin : he 
 had it in Entre. Rios, where he lost no time in publishing manifestos of his 
 
Qg^ APPENDIX. 
 
 transactions and services during the revolution. His defence was ably stated, 
 and in the sequel proved that he and his brothers were not traitors to their 
 country, as had been declared by his enemies ; but that those enemies were, or 
 wished to be, traitors. He stated, and made appear from the most authentic 
 documents, the treaty which existed between Pueyrredon and the Portuguese 
 court relative to the delivery of the United Provinces. These manifestos 
 were distributed by his friends through the whole country. The town and 
 province of Buenos Ayres began to distrust the patriotism of their Director 
 and his Congress : they saw the justice which actuated the Federalists or 
 Montoneros in their threatened invasion of the provinces, and looked forward 
 to them rather as their deliverers than as enemies. 
 
 Pueyrredon was sensible of his danger, and made timely preparations to 
 meet it. General Belgrano, who commanded the army of Peru (then in 
 Tucuman), was ordered to accelerate his marches towards the confines of 
 Santa Fe and Cordova, where the first scene of action was anticipated. 
 
 Ramirez and Carrera, finding the minds of the Portenos to be in a proper 
 mood for their reception, crossed the Parrana, and hostilities commenced in 
 the province of Santa Fe, where many actions were fought, all of which 
 redounded much to the credit and valour of the Federalists. All the posts 
 which the PorteKos held were taken with slaughter ; and the remains of their 
 army, under General Balcarse, took refuge in the town of Rosario, where 
 they were besieged about fifteen days ; and, fortunately for them, some vessels 
 had come to receive them previous to the assault of the town. In these ves- 
 sels they embarked with great disorder, losing many soldiers, their artillery, 
 and baggage : they sailed down the Parrana, and disembodied at San Ni- 
 cholas ; Viamon, who was g^neral-in-ghief of the Portenos, was taken 
 prisoner in this campaign. 
 
 The Federal army now completely victorious over the Portenos, marched 
 towards the river Carcarana, on the frontiers of Cordova, to encounter the 
 celebrated army of Peru under General Belgrano, who had established his 
 head-quarters in the Cruz Altra, a small town or village on the Cordova side 
 of the Carcaraiia. Here guerillas were blazing unceasingly at each other 
 day and night, without any decisive advantage to one party or the other. 
 Belgrano's army was highly disciplined, accustomed to the dangers and pri- 
 vations of war, and had a desire to come to a general engagement, as they 
 were much fatigued with the incessant toils, vigilance, and partial dangers 
 inseparable from a soldier in front of his enemy ; but he was too prudent 
 to hazard all his hopes in a general action against troops already considered 
 
APPENDIX. gg^ 
 
 invincible," and wished to await reinforcements in his present position before 
 he would venture an attack : his soldiers became impatient, and desertion 
 began to threaten his army with total annihilation, whilst the deserters passed 
 over. to the Federalists, and strengthened their lines. 
 
 The publications of Carrera were privately distributed and read in Bel- 
 grano's army ; protection was offered to all officers, soldiers, provinces, &c. 
 who should wish to throw ©ff the oppressive yoke of the metropolis, Buenos 
 Ayres. Many persons of rank and distinction in the country who were per- 
 secuted for their political tenets, flocked to the Federal standard, and found 
 an asylum beneath its influence. Thus the Federal army became more for- 
 midable every day, and the knowledge of a revolution in Belgrano's army 
 was what saved him from an attack in his intrenchments. 
 
 Such were the prospects of the campaign, when the second in command, 
 Don Juan Bautista, Coronel Mayor of the national forces, and General of 
 the auxiliary army of Peru, fired with ambition, and anticipating the mu- 
 tinous spirit of the soldiery, headed the revolution, and declared for the 
 Federal army, requesting of Carrera and Ramirez to have him nominated to 
 the government of Cordova, professing the highest veneration and attach- 
 ment to his new allies, and his readiness to assist in forwarding their views, 
 and the good of the country in general. 
 
 Ramirez was of opinion that Bustos should be sent to Entre-Rios, and, the 
 army taken by himself and Carrera, and some other person, more worthy their 
 confidence, appointed to the government of Cordova. But the idea was too 
 uno-enerous for Carrera : he believed the professions of Bustos, and had him 
 appointed to the government. This army consisted of about four thousand 
 veteran soldiers, seven hundred of which were Chilenos, and to be delivered 
 by Bustos to Carrera, clothed, armed, &c. whenever he should demand 
 them. 
 
 The officers who had honour enough to detest the proceedings of Bustos, 
 and did not wish to remain in that army, were permitted to retire whither 
 they thought best : they were but few who retired. Belgrano was imprisoned 
 by the Portenos for an event which he could not foresee or prevent. He 
 was in his youth a lawyer, and became a soldier in the revolution. Belgrano 
 was the most able, honourable, and meritorious officer the Portenos ever 
 boasted ; and it was certainly a pity that his exertions were not employed in 
 a better cause than the extension and support of a tyrant's authority. 
 
 Before we proceed, it may not be amiss to notice slightly the birth of His 
 
 3 D 
 
386 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 Excellency Don Juan Bautista Bustos, governor of the province of Cordova. 
 According to the religious institutes of Catholic countries, monks or friars are 
 not supposed to extend their affections to any thing beneath the dignity of the 
 church, the blessed Virgin, or some other heavenly chimera ; but that they 
 have their weaknesses, and, like other men, are sometimes led aside from the 
 paths of virtue, we have a living and unequivocal proof in the person of Don 
 Juan Bautista Bustos, who was the son of a friar : his mother was indeed a 
 slave ; but she was one of the prettiest Mulatas in Cordova, so famed for that 
 cast. She was afterwards purchased by the friar by whom she had many chil- 
 dren. As Cordova is the seat of science and literature in America, it is very 
 natural to suppose that Bustos imbibed some tincture of both. He served in 
 the Spanish army as cadet ; and it is fiirther said, that he particularly distin- 
 guished himself in Buenos Ayres, in 1807, against the English. However 
 that may be, Bustos is certainly a brave man, and his military promotions 
 have been gained in the field by his merit : nevertheless, he is ungrateful, 
 cruel, intriguing, and perfidious. 
 
 Buenos Ayres now saw herself divested of those succours in which her 
 confidence and security were founded. Santa Fe was lost, Cordova no longer 
 recognised her authority ; and the army of Peru, which was expected to con- 
 quer her enemies, now was foremost in asserting the rights of the provinces. 
 The communication with the province of Cuyo was intercepted, and there 
 were reasons to fear, that that province would follow the example of Cor- 
 dova, whenever circumstances would be favourable to it. Thus deprived of 
 all its resources, Buenos Ayres saw, in its most dreadful shape, the impending 
 storm which was gathering over her head, and promised to crush her to the 
 dust : the day of retribution seemed fast approaching, in which she should 
 receive the punishment which was due to her insidious perfidy and un- 
 bounded ambition. In this lamentable dilemma, Pueyrredon and his coH' 
 gress turned their eyes unanimously towards their champion San Martin, 
 tlie immortal and invincible hero of San Lorenzo, Chacabuco, and Maypu, 
 as the only person who could deliver them fi-om the hands of their enemies. 
 
 San Martin had crossed the Andes, and was with his grenadiers, dragoons, 
 and Cazadores, in Mendoza. The army of the Andes, which San Martin 
 commanded, belonged to Buenos Ayres. His obligations to Pueyrredon 
 were, or ought to have been infinite, for having selected him, from amongst 
 many who possessed greater merit, to fulfil the office which lie held ; but he 
 had cunning enough to foresee that the Federal army was superior to his 
 
APPENDIX. 38Y 
 
 own in every point of view : he saw the danger to which he would be exposed 
 if he attacked them, and therefore wisely shunned it, thinking with Sir 
 John FalstafF, (whom he also imitates in his love of the bottle,) that " dis- 
 cretion is the better part of valour." The savage wished to cloke his cow- 
 ardice under the mask of humanity and patriotism, and for that purpose 
 issued a proclamation, expressing how extremely repugnant it was to his 
 feelings to shed the blood of one single American : that it was his only 
 wish to carry the sword of his country against its common enemies, the 
 Godos or Spaniards : — he prepared to cross the Andes, resolved to put 
 the army under his command at the disposition of the government of ChUe. 
 On his presenting himself in Chile, these forces underwent an alteration of 
 titles : they were styled by Buenos Ayres, Exercito de los Andes, 6 Exercito 
 de Buenos Ayres ; but were now called Exercito de la RepubUca de Chile. 
 Thus did this modern hero, this Washington of South America, not only fly 
 from the government which had elevated, distinguished, and protected him 
 in the moment of danger ; but also robbed her of those forces which some 
 nobler spirit might have led to rally round the ruins of their falling state. 
 A desertion, fraud, and cowardice worthy of San Martin, and of him 
 only. 
 
 I should be extremely sorry to insinuate any thing derogatory to the cha- 
 racter of so great and illustrious a person as San Martin ; but if it is admitted 
 that conscience sometimes damps a man's courage, — surely no person could 
 be more likely to fear from its accusations than His Excellency. He must 
 have recollected how much easier it was to gratify his brutal revenge on 
 Carrera's brothers in a dungeon, and loaded with shackles, than it would be 
 to meet him at the head of an army, determined to conquer. 
 
 By his orders, the most notorious infraction on the rights of war and hu- 
 manity, perhaps, that is recorded of any country having pretensions to any 
 degree of civilisation, was perpetrated in San Luis by his friend Dupuy, the 
 lieutenant-governor of that town. After the battle of Maypu, all the officers 
 taken prisoners in that action had been sent to San Luis, and recommended 
 by San Martin to the particular attention of Don Vicente Dupuy, the lieu- 
 tenant-governor. They were about fifty in number, including General Or- 
 donez, Colonels Riberos and Murgado, and other field officers. Every 
 Sunday the general and field officers presented themselves to Dupuy, with 
 whom they generaUy dined and passed the night in playing at cards, &c., &c. 
 Dupuy, either from a malevolent and blood-thirsty incUnation (as some sup. 
 
 3 2) 2 
 
388 APPENDIX. 
 
 pose), or in obedience of orders from his master (which he afterwards in his 
 trial endeavoured to prove), conceived a horrid plan of assassinating all the 
 prisoners in the town, with the Spanish residents and officers. Accordingly 
 on the night of the 7th of February 1818, General Ordoilez, Colonels Riberos 
 and Murgado, and the officers of the general's staff, were invited to Dupuy's, 
 and highly entertained ; the night as usual was passed over the cards, and 
 at break of day Dupuy, impatient to commence his sanguinary undertaking, 
 violently seized on the money which Riberos had won during the night, and 
 which tvas placed on the table before him. 
 
 Dupuy knew the high and unyielding temper of that meritorious officer, 
 and. supposed he would attempt to strike him in the moment he had been 
 guilty of that breach of decorum ; he had a number of orderlies, or assassins 
 (as we shall here consider them synonymous terms), in waiting, ready to rush 
 forth on the first alarm. Riberos acted with a patience and sang-froid, to 
 which he had heretofore been a stranger. He recollected that he was but a 
 prisoner of war on parole, and the aggressor was an absolute tyrant and a 
 governor : he therefore calmly remonstrated with him on the impropriety and 
 baseness of the action of which he had just been guilty, telling him that if 
 he availed himself of the authority invested in him as governor for acting in 
 such an ungentlemanly manner, he found himself, from his circumstances, 
 obliged to allow it to pass unnoticed ; but that if it were understood in any 
 other light, no man should insult Riberos and pass unpunished. Dupuy 
 declared that he only availed himself of the authority of a gentleman, not 
 that of a governor, and stood up at the same time by way of defiance. Ri- 
 beros, now, not only considered himself justified in chastising his insolence, 
 but obligated to do so ; and in contempt of the intreaties of his companions 
 he knocked down Dupuy by a vigorous blow on the face. The confederates 
 of Dupuy, then at the table, flew with one accord to a corner of the 
 room, in which was deposited a quantity of arms for the purpose. The 
 officers seeing their danger, followed the same example, and in a moment 
 every person in the room was armed. 
 
 It is not difficult to suppose that veteran officers accustomed to brave dan ■ 
 gers, overawed these vile assassins, who were only active in their profession 
 when secure from danger, or screened by the darkness of night. They stood 
 motionless before the officers, who immediately secured the door, as the guards, 
 prepared without, were entering the court yard. Dupuy and his gang being 
 enclosed, and unable for the present to receive any assistance from his friends 
 
APPENDIX. 3gg 
 
 without, thought it best to capitulate : — he pledged his word and honour to 
 the officers, that if they would permit him to go out, he would pacify the 
 tumult in the street, and bury in oblivion their mutual resentment. The 
 officers acceded to this proposition. Dupuy went out, and telling the mob 
 that he had escaped from the Godos who were in revolution against the town, 
 he caused the druihs to beat, and trumpets to sound the " General" which, 
 seconded by the cries of " Down with the Godos," announced to the unfor- 
 tunate officers that the fatal hour of their massacre was come. 
 
 The gallant Riberos, who considered himself the cause of that general 
 misfortune, exhorted his companions to sell their existence at the dearest rate 
 possible, but they saw the inutility of seven officers opposing themselves to 
 the rage of an incensed rabble ; and expected, by offering no resistance, to 
 find mercy amongst their butchers. Riberos finding them unwilling to ac- 
 quiesce in his first proposal, insinuated that each Spaniard ought to fall by 
 his own hand, but his comrades shrunk from the idea of suicide. The as- 
 sassins began to fire, and advanced on the house : Riberos bid farewell to his 
 companions, and exclaiming, •' Un Americano indecente jamas quitterd la vida 
 de Segundo Riberos," he finished his existence by discharging the contents 
 of his pistol in his head: the remaining six threw down their arms, and were 
 without resistance despatched by the ruffians, who immediately went all 
 through the town assassinating every Spaniard individually in their houses or 
 in the streets. 
 
 This scene of barbarity commenced about seven o'clock in the streets on 
 the 8th of February, 18 17, Only two Spaniards escaped their search, the 
 one died insane from the terror of that day, the other still exists in the con- 
 vent of San Lorenzo, province of Santa Fe. 
 
 Ordonez, whose body was covered with wounds received in the French 
 war in defence of his country with fifty officers, many of whom were Spanish 
 noblemen, perished on that day by the hands of the merciless assassins : the 
 number of residents of the town who died, is not known ; twenty-seven sol- 
 diers, prisoners of the Federal army, were also suffocated in a dungeon the 
 
 same day. 
 
 Thus did Dupuy gain a memorable and signal victory over these brave 
 though unresisting officers and soldiers. Prodigies of valour and patriotism 
 were performed by his officers on this occasion. An official letter was des- 
 patched to Buenos Ayres, stating the imminent danger of the Patria from the 
 insurrection of fifty Godos, isolated from all intercourse with their friends 
 
390 APPENDIX. 
 
 by a distance upwards of five hundred leagues, and surrounded by enemies 
 on every side. The Patria, thus delivered from her enemies, could not do less 
 than reward her sons. Pueyrredon, who never allowed this kind of merit to 
 pass unrewarded, decreed, that each officer of Dupuy should be presented 
 with a medal at the cost of the government of Buenos Ayres, with the date 
 of the memorable event, and some appropriate insignia engraved on it. Du- 
 puy was promoted to be Coronel Mayor of the national forces, and a member 
 of the legion of merit, in recompence for his activity. 
 
 This, perhaps, is the first example of an infamous clan of. ruffians being 
 honoured with, or daring to assume a distinction only due to merit, as the 
 demonstration of their prowess in the horrid and detestable crime of assas- 
 sination ! 
 
 The Federalists, who had nothing to fear from the enemies in their rear, 
 directed their marches towards the province of Buenos Ayres, leaving Bustos 
 (whose army was now called the third division of the Federal army), in the 
 province of Cordova to observe the operations of the interior provinces. 
 
 The known resentment of Carrera and Ramirez to Pueyrredon made it 
 necessary for him to retire from the government in Buenos Ayres, as the 
 Federalists would enter into no treaty whilst Pueyrredon was director. He 
 was obliged to resign, and was succeeded in the government by Brigadier 
 General Don Jos6 Rondeau. This change in the administration did not 
 satisfy the Federalists ; the congress still existed, and they would listen to no 
 terms of accommodation whilst it did. 
 
 Rondeau, who had acquired some credit in the campaigns of High Peru, 
 availed himself of his popularity by persuading chosen detachments of civicos 
 and country militia to accompany him with the veteran force then in Buenos 
 Ayres, to the frontiers, to meet, and stop the progress of the Federalists, whose 
 numbers were much reduced by having sent some of their force back to 
 Entre-Rios, and leaving parties in several towns in their rear. The troops 
 under Rondeau were about three thousand, those of Ramirez were at most 
 nine hundred, including about forty northern Indians. 
 
 It was evening when the contending parties discovered each other, and as 
 it was late, and the FederaHsts fatigued with marching, it was determined to 
 defer the attack till the next morning ; but soon as the night came on, the 
 Portenos, notwithstanding the great superiority of their numbers, put them- 
 selves in march, in order to retire to San Nicolas. The Federalists pursuing 
 them, and harassing their rear, which was much encumbered by carts and 
 
APPENDIX, 391 
 
 baggage, they found it impossible to effect their retreat. However, they sus- 
 tained their Guerillas, and continued their march, in order to possess them- 
 selves of a strong and advantageous position on the Canada de Cepeda, On 
 arriving there they halted. Their infantry, amounting to twelve hundred, 
 formed a hollow square, the front of which was covered by their numerous 
 carts, with artillery at proper intervals ; the flanks, or right and left faces of 
 the square, were strengthened by cavalry ; and the rear face of the square was 
 protected by the Canada on which it was formed. In this position the Por- 
 teiios remained till morning, when Ramirez in person reconnoitred the 
 ground, and a little after sunrise every thing was ready for a general attack. 
 The charge was sounded, the Federalists advanced sword in hand, with a 
 terror-striking courage, at full speed of their horses, amidst a heavy fire of 
 artillery and musquetry. The cavalry of the Porteiios, accustomed to trust 
 more to the fleetness of their horses, than to the keenness of their swords, 
 could not resist the charge, but fled in disorder, leaving their infantry aban- 
 doned. Rondeau himself was one of the first to fly. The fiigitive cavalry 
 were pursued with great havoc, whilst a corps de reserve of 150 men re- 
 mained in observation of the infantry. 
 
 The grass was extremely luxuriant, and rather dry by the intense heat of the 
 season : it caught fire from the artillery, the breeze augmented the flames, 
 and in a few minutes the camp appeared in a dreadful conflagration. 
 
 The loss of the enemy's waggons, artillery, &c. was inevitable; they 
 marched through the marsh in their rear, and gaining an adjacent lake, re- 
 mained there during the time the fire continued to rage, which was about 
 three hours ; the breeze then lessening, and the Federalists returning from the 
 pursuit of that part of the enemy which had fled, the fire was by their exer- 
 tions almost entirely extinguished. 
 
 The situation of the enemy's infantry was the most pitiable which can be 
 conceived; without cavalry to sustain them, without refreshment of any 
 kind, not knowing the moment in which they might be engaged by their victo'- 
 rious enemies, and at least six or seven leagues distant ftom San Nicolas, the 
 only post in which they could reasonably indulge a hope of being able to de- 
 fend themselves. However, they were still in number much superior to the 
 Federalists, and the spirit and coui-age of the three ofiicers who commanded 
 them was almost equal to the difficulty and danger of their situation. Bal- 
 carse, who commanded in chief) was summoned to surrender, but refused 
 with great resolution ; he formed his men in close column, with parties of 
 
392 APPENDIX. 
 
 light infantry on the flanks, and in that posture of defence began his march 
 for San Nicolas. Ramirez formed his cavalry in column of divisions in order 
 to attack him, and they must undoubtedly have perished, were it not for 
 the interposition of Carrera, who had two objects in view, which impelled 
 him not to concur in the attack on the column : — first, amongst the infantry 
 of the enemy he knew there were six hundred Chilenos, who being the 
 bravest would in all probability have been the first to perish. These soldiers 
 he expected in a few days would be his own, and by destroying them then, 
 he would have deprived himself of those men with whom he afterwards ter- 
 rified his enemies. Secondly, he. knew that veteran soldiers led by brave 
 chiefs would dispute each yard of ground with an obstinate courage, and 
 that many of the Federalists would necessarily fall in reducing them, which 
 would cause a suspension of operations for some time, as the Federalists could 
 not recruit their army without returning to Santa Fe or Entre-Rios ; which 
 would give time to the government of Buenos Ayres, to make new prepar- 
 ations. Such were the causes which made CaiTera consider that a victory 
 over this column of infantry would be too dearly bought. 
 
 They harassed the rear of the column for a few leagues, many soldiers 
 from excessive fatigue were obliged to throw themselves on the ground, and 
 give themselves up to the parties which hung on their rear. — Colonel Major 
 Balcarse, and Colonels Rolon and Vidal commanded the infantry. Their 
 spirited resolution and good dispositions for their defence did them as much 
 credit, as the shameful flight of the Director, Rondeau, did him' dishonour. As 
 only nine hundred infantry entered San Nicolas, their total loss in killed, 
 wounded, and prisoners, may be computed at 300. 
 
 The Federalists continued their march towards Buenos Ayres, leaving a 
 small force in the vicinity of San Nicolas and San Pedro to observe the 
 operations of the enemy. 
 
 Rondeau with one of his aides-de-camp escaped from the field of battle, and 
 arrived in Buenos Ayres about 4 o'clock the following morning. As they sup- 
 posed themselves the only survivors of the expedition, they declared to the 
 Congress the dreadful destruction which their cavalry had suffered, and which 
 they supposed it altogether impossible their infantry could have escaped. 
 
 About 7 o'clock in the morning a proclamation was published in all the 
 streets, announcing to the people the dismal reverse of fortune which the 
 Patria had just sustained ; and the total loss of her son's horse and foot, in 
 the battle of Cepeda, the governor " alone having escaped to tell them." This 
 
APPENDIX. 393 
 
 proclamation was more adapted to prepare the minds of the inhabitants to 
 bear with a meek and Christian resignation the vicissitude under which they 
 had fallen, than to rouse them to any new exertion for the defence of their 
 capital. No immediate preparations were made by the government. No- 
 thing but fear and consternation reigned in the town ; they even had the 
 absurdity to believe that the body of the Federal army could advance with 
 the rapidity of a courier and enter the city that night. It is remarkable that 
 this was the first, and almost the only occasion on which the government of 
 Buenos Ayres acknowledged a defeat of their forces ; although their arms 
 were attended only with a series of uninterrupted misfortunes, owing to the 
 ignorance or cowardice of the commanders of their expeditions. Although 
 they had lost all the Banda Oriental, Entre Rios, Santa Fe, and all the towns 
 of High Peru ; yet the gazettes were filled with fictitious and imaginary details 
 of their victories, and plausible excuses for the necessity of sending such 
 frequent reinforcements were given to the public. This last misfortune 
 extorted from them not only a full, but an exaggerated description of their 
 loss. 
 
 However, two days afterwards an express arrived from San Nicolas with 
 despatches from Balcarse. Their veteran infantry still existed ! A proclam- 
 ation was immediately published, in which the former report of Rondeau 
 was flatly contradicted. It was true, indeed, that the Director and his aid- 
 de-camp, with all the cavalry, were pursued five leagues ; nevertheless the 
 army rallied afterwards ; in fine, " their fellow citizens and soldiers were 
 covered with immortal laurels, and the enemy defeated." 
 
 The first confession was believed by the people to be genuine ; it was the 
 only government news they had believed for a length of time. They, accus- 
 tomed to hear nothing from their press but falsehood and deception, con- 
 sequently found themselves under the necessity of learning to judge for 
 themselves. It was known that the Federalists were advancing on the town ; 
 and the inhabitants could not conceive how an enemy could receive such a 
 defeat as the Congress would fain make it appear they had, and still continue 
 to advance. 
 
 The object of this last proclamation was to raise a contribution to pay the 
 civicos, in order to put them between the Congress and her danger. The 
 design did not succeed. The people had a right idea of their imbecile and 
 corrupted governors ; and looked forward with anxiety to the hour which 
 would free them altogether of their oppressors. 
 
 3 E 
 
394 APPENDIX. 
 
 In this very unfavourable state of affairs, the government recollected the 
 services and abilities of Don Estanislao Soler, whom they had long neglected, 
 and discarded from their notice ; and who lived on his little farm in the 
 country, unregarded and obscure. Soler had been a brigadier-general, and 
 had merited and received the approbation of his country, in the campaign 
 of the Banda Oriental, and siege of Monte Video. 
 
 In times which did not promise so rich a harvest of honour, the candidates 
 for power in Buenos Ayres were numerous ; but on this occasion the fear of 
 danger seems to have completely superseded the love of glory. There was 
 not a man who would offer himself for his country. Soler was summoned by 
 the Congress, on which he immediately waited, and was solicited by them to 
 receive the command of whatever force could be raised. With this request 
 he complied, without insinuating or perhaps recollecting their former 
 ingratitude. 
 
 The opinion of the public in favour of Soler was so great in Buenos Ayres, 
 that he was congratulated by every class of citizens, on his return into office. 
 In a few days he raised about 3,000 men to accompany him to the field, and 
 established his head-quarters at the Puente Marco, seven leagues from 
 Buenos Ayres. The Federal army was encamped at Pilar, distant from 
 Puente Marco eight leagues. An armistice was concluded for fourteen 
 days ; but before any further propositions should be made for peace, the 
 Federalists required that the Congress should be dissolved; which order 
 Soler intimated to them, and the town had the gratification to see that assem- 
 bly dismissed. 
 
 The provinces of Tucuman, Salta, Santiago del Estere, Catamarca 
 Arioja, and San Luis, encouraged by the example of Cordova, and protected 
 by the Federalists, declared themselves independent of Buenos Ayres. Du- 
 puywas superseded, cast into prison, and brought to trial for the' massacre 
 of the Spaniards, and various cruelties and assassinations. He was entirely 
 void of that resolution which he so often had put to the proof in others ; the 
 crimes of which he was accused were committed under the eyes of the town, 
 and even his judges were witnesses of his barbarity : he therefore could not do 
 otherwise than acknowledge the crimes kid to his charge ; but he alleged 
 for his defence, that he was but a subaltern, and obliged to execute the orders 
 of the captain-general of the province of Cuyo, Don Jose San Martin, who 
 was his immediate chief He produced the written orders of San Martin for 
 the assassination of Rodriguez, Raposo, and Conde ; these orders were very 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 395 
 
 laconic, stating nothing more than — « Don Fulano will pass through the town 
 of San Luis on such a day: he has my passport ; receive him politely ; give him 
 whatever assistance he may stand in need of, — but, take care that he pass not 
 the wood on the other side San Luis. — Prontitud y silencio, asi conviene la bien 
 de la Patria !" He made it appear, that previous to the departure of San 
 Martin, he had, in conversation with him, received a verbal order for the mas- 
 sacre of the Spaniards, lest they should take part with Carrera. 
 
 Frivolous as this defence was, it had some weight with the pusillanimous 
 and ignorant court by which he was judged. They were accustomed to 
 tremble at the name of San Martin, and could not divest themselves of fear. 
 They dreaded a vicissitude in their affairs by which San Martin might be 
 enabled to reassume his authority ; in which case they would be responsible to 
 him if they acted by his favourite as his crimes deserved. Thus the sentiments 
 of fear overbalanced those of justice; and the tyrant who had a thousand 
 times forfeited his vile existence by his viler deeds, was only sentenced to be 
 transported in irons to La Arioja; from whence he escaped, and followed his 
 master to Lima, to inform him of the wonderful metamorphosis of America 
 beyond the Andes. San Martin received him with the regard due to an able 
 and faithful assistant in his iniquities, and appointed him to the command of 
 the Castella de la Independencia in Callao. 
 
 After the dismission of the Congress in Buenos Ayres, the supreme power 
 was invested in the Cabildo, over which presided Don Pedro Aguirre Al- 
 calde de Primer Voto. The treaty of peace now commenced ; and after a 
 few days' negotiation, overtures were agreed to and signed by the stipulating 
 parties. The articles of the treaty of Pilar were as follows, viz. — 
 
 " That the war carried on by the Federalists against the government of 
 " Buenos Ayres and her allies in tlie United Provinces was just, in every 
 " acceptation of the word ; and had for its principal object and end, the 
 " emancipation of America in general, not only from her foreign, but also 
 " from her domestic, yoke, which was still more galling and illiberal. 
 
 " That the many petty governments and independent states bordering on 
 " each other were inimical to, and incompatible with the peace, good order, 
 " and prosperity of the nation ; war being inevitable whdst each petty 
 " governor had exorbitant and avaricious desires to gratify, and a miUtary 
 " force under his command. 
 
 " That a Federal government was the most effectual preventative against 
 
396 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 " these disorders, by uniting all the finances and forces of the nation under 
 « one Director or President, to be elected in the most just, and constitutional 
 •' manner. 
 
 " That an assembly should be elected in each of the Federal provinces by 
 " the free and unbiassed votes of their constituents. From each of these 
 " assemblies, one or more deputies (according to the population of the pro- 
 " vince which they represented) should be nominated as members of a 
 " general Congress, which should meet at the convent of San Lorenzo, in 
 " the province of Santa Fe (being the most central situation), seventy days 
 " subsequent to the date of the treaty; when they were to select from 
 " amongst their own body, the President before mentioned ; and enact such 
 " general laws as would be deemed most salutary for the public. That there 
 " might not remain a shadow of oppression in this convention, all mihtary 
 " forces should be distant at least twenty leagues. 
 
 " That in consequence of the vast extension of the territories included in 
 " this treaty, local circumstances, qualities, and properties peculiar to each 
 " province, must be admitted to have a particular influence on its laws and 
 " customs ; hence, it became necessary that each should be governed by 
 " laws established by its own assembly, the laws enacted by the Congress 
 " only tending to the general utiUty of the provinces collectively. 
 
 " That the finances, and all the forces of the nation, should be exclusively 
 ** at the disposition of the President and Congress. No particular province 
 " should raise, organise, or train soldiers or militia, but by orders of the 
 " supreme government ; and when such soldiers or militia were so organised 
 " or trained, they should be Uable to be commanded to whatever part their 
 " presence might be most necessary. 
 
 " That Don Manuel Saratea should be nominated Governor of Buenos 
 " Ayres for the time being, and till the will of the assembly of Buenos Ayres 
 " should be further known. 
 
 " That the Federal army should retire from the province of Buenos Ayres, 
 " by divisions not exceeding two hundred men each, for the greater conve- 
 " nience of supplying them with provisions, &c. in their regression ; the first 
 " division to march in three days from that time, and the number of days 
 " between the marches of the succeeding divisions not to exceed eight." 
 
 Saratea quietly took possession of his office according to the treaty. Cir- 
 cular letters were despatched to the different provinces requesting the attend- 
 ance of their deputies, at the time appointed. 
 
APPENDIX. 397 
 
 Carrera had various solicitations from the most respectable citizens of 
 Buenos Ayres to accept of that government. Ramirez also told him that it 
 was impossible to place any confidence in a people who were so long their 
 enemies, whilst a Porteno ruled them ; and advised him to become governor, 
 strengthen himself with troops worthy his confidence, and revenge the indig- 
 nities and wrongs he had sustained. Had Carrera directed his views to am- 
 bition, and not to the good of his country, it cannot be denied that he had 
 then an excellent opportunity of aggrandising himself: but he aspired not to 
 an unbounded or extensive authority over his countrymen ; his exertions were 
 directed only to Chile, and for her welfare, — he had not a wish beyond her 
 narrow precincts. 
 
 He hoped to see established a most liberal form of representative govern- 
 ment, and waited with impatience the assembling of the Congress at San 
 Lorenzo, where his eloquence, his abilities, and the uprightness of his conduct, 
 would have opened for him the most effectual and direct road to redress his 
 wrongs, and punish those who had endeavoured to defame his character and 
 oppress his country. Had the Congress met, it was supposed that they would 
 have furnished Carrera with every thing necessary for his expedition to Chile, 
 which (after its regeneration) would have been united to the confederacy. . 
 
 America, thus united, under any chief capable of conducting her operations, 
 would very soon have changed her aspect of anarchy : the political chaos 
 would have been superseded by an organised and regular government, which 
 (though it could not be supposed to have been perfect in the moment of its 
 formation) would at least have had the most flattering form, and in all pro- 
 bability would have been the foundation of future greatness to America. 
 
 Balcarse having procured transports at San Nicolas embarked his troops, and 
 came down the river to Buenos Ayres. It was late in the evening when he 
 landed; and marching immediately to the Plaza he formed his corps, collect- 
 ing all the field-officers and captains to the centre, where he began to ha- 
 rangue them on the vile submission to which their once glorious city and 
 its territory were reduced ; protesting that he was still ready to rescue them 
 with his force from the hands of their enemies, and restore them to their 
 former greatness. 
 
 Soler, French, Pagola, and several others of the officers of the new go- 
 vernment, were present ; but they did not consider the time or place well 
 adapted for entering into a defence of the late measures, or discussing the 
 merits or faiUngs wliich might be attached to them : they retired as soon as 
 
398 APPENDIX. 
 
 propriety would admit. The eloquence of General Balcarse had the wished- 
 for eiFect on his military audience : they were proud of his abilities, and not 
 entirely blind to their own merit, as they supposed there was much due to 
 them from their conduct at Cepeda. After some specious promises of pay, 
 &c., officers and soldiers agreed to follow him ; and the next morning he was 
 acknowledged in the Cabildo as captain-general of the province, &c. &c. 
 The Cabildo could not with safety resist Balcarse ; their votes were forced, 
 the hall being filled with officers, and the front of the Cabildo and all parts 
 of the Plaza lined with soldiers, who were ready to act in case of any dif- 
 ficulty arising to their general. 
 
 Saratea, Soler, Bellino, French, Pagola, Martinez, and all the officers of 
 Buenos AyreS, except those of Balcarse's two battalions, went out to Pilar, 
 where Ramirez still remained with two hundred men : I was one amongst 
 those officers also. We remained in Pilar two days, in which time we were 
 joined by a vast number of citizens of Buenos Ayres, who had followed 
 Saratea and his officers, thereby showing their attachment to his government. 
 
 With a body of two hundred soldiers, as many officers, and a motley group 
 of citizens, we commenced our march to Buenos Ayres, and in two days we 
 arrived in the suburbs of the town. That night, Carrera and Ramirez, with 
 a guard of forty men, entered Buenos Ayres, and were immediately joined by 
 the artillery, dragoon, and grenadier regiments. The civicos and the greater 
 part of the citizens joined us in the Corrales de Miserea the same night. 
 
 Balcarse, seeing that all the citizens and soldiers (except his own two bat- 
 talions), had deserted him, shut himself up in the fort : his soldiers, who a 
 few days ago had sworn to support him, now saw it was utterly impracticable 
 to do so, and meditated the surrender of the castle. However, the walls 
 were manned by some parties who kept up a fire on a few soldiers who 
 amused themselves galloping in front of them. Balcarse, Rolon, Vidal, and 
 a few others, escaped by a private door which led to the river ; where they 
 embarked in a boat, first possessing themselves of 14,000 dollars which were 
 in the public coffers, in order to defray their expenses at Monte Video, or 
 wherever their adverse fortune might drive them. 
 
 Soon as the fiight of the governor and his principal officers was known in 
 the fort, a flag of truce was sent to the Federal generals, offering to surrender, 
 and requesting pardon, .which was granted : the castle gate was thrown open, 
 the troops marched out, and fonued in the line of Soler. The government 
 
APPENDIX. 39^ 
 
 and all its affairs were again arranged on the plan previously described in the 
 treaty of Pilar. 
 
 The town being perfectly tranquil, Ramirez retired to the Santos Lugares, 
 where he encamped during six or seven days. Carrera remained in Buenos 
 Ayres with Saratea, who permitted him to draw all the Chilian soldiers from 
 the regiments in which they served ; and of these an hussar regiment was 
 formed by Colonel Benevente and a few officers, having for their barrack a 
 large country seat, about a league out of town. 
 
 Alvear, who had preceded Pueyrredon in the government of Buenos Ayres, 
 thought this a proper time to return from his banishment ; and, on his arrival 
 in Buenos Ayres, he was arrested by Soler. Alvear had served with Carrera 
 in Europe, where they lived together on terms of intimacy ; and that 
 intimacy was again renewed in the time of Carrera's residence in Monte 
 Video. In consequence of which Carrera had him released and enlarged in 
 Buenos Ayres. 
 
 As Alvear was the first who formed the corps of Buenos Ayres on a 
 respectable footing, and the only Director who ever paid them for their ser- 
 vices, he found little difficulty in causing a revolution amongst them. The 
 troops all assembled at the retico in the suburbs, where they declared Alvear 
 General, and deposed Soler. 
 
 The civicos, under their favourite Soler, took arms against Alvear and the 
 reo-ulars ; who retired from the city, and came to our encampment, expecting 
 that Carrera would give his sanction or assistance in favour of this revolution. 
 Ramirez was on his march for Entre Rios j where his presence and his forces 
 were likely to be very necessary, as Artigas was directing his marches to- 
 wards the frontiers on Entre Rios. We were also about to march the day fol- 
 lowing for Santa Fe, where Carrera designed to encamp during the winter 
 
 season. 
 
 Alvear requested of Carrera to return to the town, and have him recog- 
 nised as General of the Portenian army : Carrera refiised to take any part in 
 his revolution ; but told him that if he were obliged to fly, he might come to 
 him, and that he would protect him. The troops of Alvear seeing that Carrera 
 would not support them, thought of abandoning Alvear and throwing them- 
 selves on the mercy of Soler, who had marched out after them with civicos. 
 A few subalterns headed them, and next morning on parade usurped the 
 command ; and telling the rest of the officers that it was optional with them 
 to follow their respective battalions or remain with Alvear, they began their 
 
400 APPENDIX. 
 
 march to return to Buenos Ayres, Alvear requested of Carrera to impede 
 their retreat ; but he repeated his determination not to compromise him- 
 self for the affairs of another, and Alvear's corps retired unmolested. 
 
 Alvear, seven colonels, and forty-seven officers, including lieutenant-colo- 
 nels and majors, followed our regiment, with their servants, and a few sol. 
 diers, who would not return to Buenos Ayres. 
 
 Ramirez continued his march to the Entre Rios, as we did ours to Santa 
 Fe. Nothing in the march occurred worthy of notice. We encamped in 
 the Rincon de Gorondona, an angle of land formed by the confluence of the 
 Carcarana and Parrana, covered with wood, and affording good pasture for 
 our horses and cattle. Alvear's officers, who were under our protection, 
 formed their encampment about a league below ours, on the bank of the 
 Parrana. Ramirez passed over to the Bajada, where he was received with 
 every demonstration of joy by his countrymen. 
 
 In oiu- encampment we remained two months ; during which our soldiers 
 were trained to the cavalry exercise, charge, and manoeuvres. Two gun- 
 brigs, with some gun-boats, came up the river, conveying arms, ammunition, 
 clothing, and money, to Carrera, for our regiment : the arms, ammunition, 
 and clothing, which were remaining, together with the gun-brigs and boats, 
 were presented by Carrera to Ramirez, the officers and men still continuing 
 in them to serve Ramirez in the river. 
 
 About this time a captain came to our encampment with letters from Co- 
 lonel Dorego in Buenos Ayres, informing Carrera, that by a revolution of 
 Soler, Saratea had been deposed, and the inhabitants reduced to a more 
 miserable state than ever. Soler had declared himself captain-general of the 
 province, marched to Luxan, with his new-organised troops, formed an en- 
 campment about one mDe distant from that town, where he disciplined his 
 corps, and obliged the Cabildo in Buenos Ayres to lay a weekly contribution 
 on the people for the regular payment and support of his military establish- 
 ment. A French officer also arrived with correspondences from Chile, soli- 
 citing the speedy assistance of Carrera in co-operation witli his country, in 
 order to sustain a revolution which had been set on foot immediately on 
 hearing that he was at the head of a force. As it was too far advanced in 
 the season to cross the Andes, the revolutionists were obliged to desist, and 
 a distant relation of Carrera gave information of the plan to O'Higgins ; in 
 consequence of which several persons of the highest respectability were sent 
 into exile in different places, and forty of the principal officer* concerned were 
 
APPENDIX. 401 
 
 sent to New Granada, in irons, with letters to Bolivar, informing him of 
 .their offence, and offering him the indemnification of the state of Chile for 
 whatever costs might be incurred by keeping them secure in prison. These 
 officers were attached to their country's Hberties ; and though that was a 
 Clime in Chile, in Columbia it was the best recommendation they could 
 produce. Instead of being continued in irons, they were immediately re- 
 leased from their tyrannical oppressors who bore them thither, supplied with 
 every necessary in which they stood in need ; and such as wished to join the 
 service of Columbia had their appointments directly. In answer to the 
 official letter of O'Higgins, Bolivar returned, that he would provide for the 
 comforts and safety of the unfortunate officers remitted to him as well as 
 lay in his power, without receiving any remuneration from the state of 
 Chile ; and also, that if meritorious Americans were found to be either a 
 burden or a trouble in Chile, he requested they might be always sent to 
 Columbia, where they should find a secure asylum ; adding, that the blood 
 of worthy citizens and soldiers had already sufficiently stained the United 
 Provinces and Chile. This reply of Bolivar seems to have sounded rather 
 harshly to the ears of a government only accustomed to hear the soft sounds 
 of adulation. Of the many exiles that left Chile since, none have ever been 
 sent thither, Columbia having lost all credit with Chile as a place of exile. 
 
 The regiment No. 1 de los Andes, of which Alvarado was colonel, had 
 been left in San Juan with Don Juan Rosas, governor of that town. It con- 
 sisted of 400 dragoons, and 500 light infantry. They declared themselves 
 independent of San Martin ; deposed his governor, Rosas, at the request of 
 the town, substituting in his place Don Mariano Mendizabal, who immediately 
 declared in favour of Carrera, sending Lieutenant-Colonel Morillo with 
 despatches, and inviting him to take up his winter quarters in San Juan.; 
 offering him barracks, provisions, money, and auxiliary forces to cross the 
 Andes the ensuing spring, provided such auxiliaries should be found 
 
 necessary. 
 
 Ramirez also sent an aide-de-camp to our encampment, requesting Carrera 
 to cross the Parrana, as Artigas had declared hostilities against him. Thus 
 Carrera had in his encampment at the same time four embassies, each solicit, 
 ing his attendance in a different quarter; viz. Buenos Ayres, ChUe, San Juan, 
 and Entre Rios. 
 
 To Chile he could not pass tUl spring ; his presence was not necessary in 
 San Juan, and it would be inglorious to go there to pass his time in ease and 
 
 3f 
 
402 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 tranquillity, leaving his friend Ramirez involved in a dangerous war ; his ex- 
 perience taught him to expect that Buenos Ayres would be immediately re- 
 duced to their former system, as the Portenos were extremely docile when 
 threatened by an approaching enemy : on the contrary, he anticipated a long 
 and sanguinary war between Artigas and Ramirez. He therefore prepared to 
 march to the aid of Buenos Ayres, where he expected to leave every thing 
 tranquil in the course of a month at furthest, and then cross the Parrana with 
 whatever forces he could raise, to the assistance of Ramirez. Don Estanislao 
 Lopez, governor of the province of Sante Fe, also entered into these mea- 
 sures, and accompanied Carrera to Buenos Ayres with 400 men. 
 
 Previous to our march to Buenos Ayres some ammunition and other mili- 
 tary stores were sent to the allies in San Juan, as they were liable to be 
 attacked by a force then raising in Mendoza. 
 
 We marched from our encampment on the 14th of June, 1820, towards 
 Buenos Ayres. Our regiment was 600 ; the dragoons of Lopez were 400. 
 We were badly mounted, being obliged to ride and walk alternately, that our 
 horses might not be too much fatigued ; but after five days' march, we 
 arrived in the neighbourhood of San Nicolas, when we provided ourselves 
 with some excellent horses. 
 
 Soler having drawn all his forces together, resolved to await our approach 
 to his encampment, On our arrival at San Antonio de Areco, a squadi'on of 
 200 cavalry, which had been sent as an advance guard to observe our march, 
 made their commander prisoner, and passed to our division : these soldiers were 
 left in San Antonio de Areco ; and the Generals Carrera and Lopez marched 
 with an advance of about 200 men ; and early next morning, 28th of June, 
 they discovered the encampment of the enemy at the Canada de la Cruz. 
 They were formed in three divisions : that of the right consisted of the regi- 
 ment called Colorados, and a strong detachment of Blandingos, with one 
 piece of artillery, commanded by Colonel Pagola ; the centre division was 
 formed by all the regulars, and four pieces of artillery, commanded by 
 Major-General French ; and their left division was composed of militia and 
 civicos commanded by regular officers. A river ran from right to left in their 
 front. Soler, who commanded the whole, was stationed with his staff and a 
 small corps de reserve in the rear of the centre division. 
 
 As it was not supposed that we should meet the enemy till the following 
 day, about 300 Chilenos and Santafecinos were detached on a necessary and 
 important service, and could not be expected to return before midnight. 
 
APPENDIX. 403 
 
 The remainder of the Federal force was at San Antonio, five leagues 
 distant from the Canada de la Cruz, where Carrera and Lopez were en- 
 gaged with the enemy's guerillas. In the meantime expresses were sent 
 to the detachments which were out, and to Colonel Benevente at Areco, 
 desiring they would advance with all possible speed. Benevente mounted 
 our division immediately; and about 11 or 12 o'clock we arrived on the 
 field of battle, having galloped all the way : we changed our horses, and dis- 
 positions were given for the attack. The militia of Rosario, with a detach^ 
 ment of Chilenos, formed our right division, commanded by Lieutenant- 
 Qolonel Garcia; the Chilian hussars occupied the centre, commanded by 
 Colonel Benevente ; and the dragoons of Santa Fe, commanded by General 
 Lopez, were opposed to the Colorados on the right of the enemy's line. 
 General Alvear, who acted as captain of his company of officers, bravely 
 repulsed all the enemy's guerillas. Our force was so very inconsiderable, 
 that it was impossible to spare any part of it for a reserve. General Carrera 
 commanded the whole, without assigning any particular place in the field 
 for his station. 
 
 All being ready, the action commenced by Lopez charging the Colorados 
 on the enemy's right. Garcia, on the right of our line, also charged the 
 .enemy's left. No advantage appeared on one side or the other for some 
 time ; the dragoons of Lopez were at length repulsed by the Colorados, 
 and retired fighting, about three hundred yards. The Portenos now con- 
 sidering the action as gained, shouted for victory ; and their centre division, 
 commanded by French, advanced to charge our regiment, French and Bene- 
 vente (who were particular friends) first saluting each other in front of the lines. 
 As the Portenos charged they kept up a heavy fire on us : the Chilenos used 
 not their fire-arms ; but, sword in hand, moved with such celerity and cou- 
 rage, that the Portenos had not time to secure their carabines or draw their 
 swords, before we were on their line, which was soon broken, and fled with 
 precipitation and disorder. The left of the enemy's line, seeing their centre 
 destroyed (on which all their dependence was placed), fled also ; and the 
 Colorados on their right, who had gained much advantage over Lopez, 
 were obliged to escape lest we should take them in the rear. 
 
 The rout was complete, the fugitives being pursued about six leagues. 
 The Santafecinos gave no quarter: the Chilenos took 250 prisoners, not 
 including Major-General French, Adjutant-General Montes la Rea, and 
 
 3f 2 
 
404 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 14 other field-officers, captains, and subalterns, with five pieces of artillery 
 and two standards. 
 
 The Portenos lost, in killed, wounded, and prisoners, about 7^0 men. 
 The wounded were collected in waggons that night on the field of battle^ 
 and sent to an hospital provided for them in Luxan. 
 
 In our march to Luxan, the light infantry of Vidal (who had not time to 
 arrive on the field the day before) capitulated. They were about 500 effect- 
 ive men, and were given to Alvear, as were also the prisoners of the ranks 
 taken in the action. These soldiers all took the oath of fidelity to Alvear, 
 who summoned the alcaldes of the different towns and districts to meet in 
 Luxan, where they declared him captain-general of the province of Buenos 
 Ayres. 
 
 This misfortune of Soler threw a shade over his past successes. He could 
 not brook the idea of the disgrace arising fi-om his having been defeated by 
 a force not amounting to more than one-fifth of that which he commanded j 
 he determined, however, to evade it by passing to Monte Video, and thence 
 to the United States. In the meantime. Colonel Pagola reached Buenos Ayres, 
 where he raised himself to the dignity of captain-general of the province ; 
 and was deposed two days afterwards by Colonel Dorego. 
 
 We continued our march towards Buenos Ayres, and at the Puente Marco 
 we were met by deputies from the town, who offered to ratify whatever con- 
 ditions Carrera would please to grant. This humble strain, however, was 
 quickly altered by the imprudence of Alvear, who was always as much hated 
 by the citizens as he was beloved, by the soldiers. Instead of endeavouring 
 ■to cultivate a confidence with the citizens, he said to the deputies (when 
 Carrera was not present), " You once dismissed me from your government, 
 " but you shall not do so again. If ever an attempt be made against me, I 
 " shall hang on the gibbet one half of Buenos Ayres." 
 
 This harangue of the new governor caused an astonishing change on the 
 minds of the deputies and people : they considered that if his promises were 
 so very beneficent before he had any actual power in the town, his perform- 
 ance would even exceed them when invested with authority. The deputies 
 returned to Buenos Ayres ; and when the citizens knew that Alvear was 
 appointed to be their governor, and heard his speech to their deputies, they 
 flew to arms to prevent our entry. 
 
 The protection which Carrera dispensed to Alvear, his union with him, 
 
APPENDIX. ^ 405 
 
 and his march to Buenos A yres, was much against the inclination of his officers; 
 nay, even himself must have seen that such an union was contrary to his own 
 interest, and to that of all who were connected with him : he lost, in a great 
 measure, that high opinion which the respectable inhabitants of Buenos 
 Ayres had entertained of him, by protecting their enemy. But he had seen 
 many happy and miserable days with Alvear : they had been long intimates ; 
 and he considered himself bound by the sacred laws of friendship not only to 
 protect, but also to aid him'. His judgment was sacrificed to the sincerity 
 of his friendship, which led him to err ; and that error may be considered as 
 the principal cause of the difficulties under which he afterwards suffered. 
 
 We marched from the Puente Marco to the suburbs of Buenos Ayres, 
 which we besieged d.uring eighteen or nineteen days, cutting off all commu- 
 nication with the country. Colonel La Madrid was in the Magdalena, raising 
 a force, whither we went in search of him ; but he left a strong division well 
 mounted, which retreated as we pursued them, whilst he with a part of his 
 force made a retrograde movement to the town of Moron, in which our in- 
 fantry was stationed, and prevailed on the officers and soldiers to accompany 
 him to Buenos Ayres. All which he effected with address, ingenuity, and 
 despatch. 
 
 The whole country and all its towns were ours. Buenos Ayres alone re- 
 mained firm in the resolution to act on the defensive, though yet unable to 
 undertake any offensive operations against us. To take the town by assault 
 with Carrera's troops, which never exceeded 2000, was impossible ; therefore, 
 as the soldiers were much fatigued by the rigours of service and severity of the 
 season, he raised the siege and retired to Luxan, to invigorate the troops with 
 a few days' rest previous to our march for Entre Rios, having determined to 
 evacuate the province. 
 
 Whilst we were in the encampment of Luxan, a considerable force of the 
 enemy had advanced to the towns of San Isidro and San Fernando, on the 
 coast of the river. These were surprised and dispersed at day-break by a 
 detachment of our regiment, and another of the Santafecinos : some escaped 
 on board their barks, others into the country, whilst the more resolute part of 
 them undertook to defend themselves on their asoteas, or roofs of their houses. 
 They were, however, obliged to surrender ; and as they were but civicos of 
 Xhe town and country militia, they were disarmed, and- dismissed to their 
 
 respective homes. 
 
 Two days afterwards we began our march by the way of San Pedro, from 
 
406 , APPENDIX, 
 
 whose vicinity we collected some good horses. Here a party of ours was cut 
 off: it consisted of a serjeant and eighteen men, who were conducting a drove 
 of horses ; when, intercepted by a division of the enemy, and not considering 
 it warrantable to give up their horses, they fell on their numerous enemies, 
 and all except three fell in the contest. Continuing our route in a direction 
 parallel with and close to the river, we came to the Hermanos, where we 
 learned that a vast number of horses were guarded by regulars and militia in 
 the islands of the Parrana. As the channels of the river could only be passed 
 by swimming, the defenders of these islands had great advantage in the 
 morning, as they kept up a heavy fire on the men who had volunteered for 
 that service : however, the channels were crossed, and the enemy driven from 
 island to island ; but they still kept their horses secure in their van. About 
 eleven o'clock a dreadful storm of thunder, lightning, and rain came on, 
 which rendered fire-arms useless and burdensome. The fire ceased ; and as 
 the contest remained to be decided by the sword, they entirely despaired of 
 success ; and embarking on large rafts, they crossed the largest channel to an 
 island, leaving their wives, daughters, &c., with 2000 excellent horses, in our 
 possession. The women we left in possession of their islands, marching away 
 with the horses. We arrived at San Nicolas, where head-quarters were estab- 
 lished, to wait the arrival of a vessel from Buenos Ayres, which had on board 
 military stores and money remitted by the friends of Carrera in that town. 
 In a few days the vessel came to San Nicolas, and delivered 900 suits of 
 uniform, shirts, and every necessary for the soldiers ; together with uniform, 
 boots, pistols, &c. for the ofiicers, 60,000 dollars in cash, and several pieces 
 of cloth for cloaks ; which stores were deposited in the house of the command- 
 ant of San Nicolas, where the General resided. 
 
 The Santafecinos under Lopez had crossed the Arroyo del Medio, and 
 encamped in their own province, ten leagues distant from San Nicolas ; and 
 a detachment of Chilenos was also on that side of the Arroyo, about four 
 leagues distant from our encampment. 
 
 This great separation of our force can only be accounted for by taking 
 into consideration the absolute security in which we supposed ourselves from 
 any feeble efforts which our timid enemy could be supposed to make. 
 
 A great levy had been made in Buenos Ayres and its adjacent country ; 
 and on our retreat, an army of 3000 men, commanded by Dorego, Rodriguez, 
 and La Madrid, followed the line of our march, always keeping about thirty 
 leagues in our rear. The same captain who had been sent by Dorego to the 
 
APPENDIX. 407 
 
 Rincon de Gorondono, to call Carrera to Buenos Ayres, and who had fol- 
 lowed Alvear since his revolution in the army of Buenos Ayres (before 
 mentioned), now thought it the best way to atone for his former pei-fidies by 
 becoming a spy on our operations, and continually communicating with the 
 enemy. 
 
 The situation of our camp and distribution of our men were as follows : 
 a strong detachment was at four leagues distance, in the province of Santa 
 Fe ; other detachments were at one league from our encampment, guarding 
 our horses ; the remainder of the cavalry were encamped in fenced orchards 
 about one league from the town, and were not allowed to have horses sad- 
 dled. A company of infantry, all the officers of Alvear, and some artillery 
 soldiers, with five pieces of cannon, occupied the town. 
 
 That the Portenos might succeed the better in taking us altogether unpre- 
 pared, deputies were sent to treat with the genei-als ; and, breaking through 
 all the laws of war and honour (being informed of our situation by their spy}, 
 they surprised us whilst in this treaty, and they succeeded so well that it 
 became a general stratagem of our enemies in all our future actions with them. 
 
 On the evening of the 31st July, our spies gave notice that about 150 of 
 the enemy had entered San Pedro, about 14 leagues distant ; these we sup- 
 posed to be the rear-guard of the enemy, who, though rmmerous, did not 
 cause preparation, vigilance, or caution, on our part ; so very contemptible 
 was the idea which we entertained of them. 
 
 Lopez had information that Dorego intended falling on us at day-break 
 next morning, and was about to despatch an express, when Alvear, wlio was 
 in his encampment, offered to carry the news. Lopez confided this commis- 
 sion to his care ; but, owing to forgetfulness, inattention, or treachery, he 
 supped at an intermediate house, slept there all night, and, consequently, 
 deprived us of that information which would have secured us from so un- 
 expected and dreadful a catastrophe. 
 
 August 1st, before day, Carrera with the deputies proceeded from San 
 Nicolas to the encampment of Lopez. At day-break the detachments 
 which guarded our horses were surprised, and put to the sword : a soldier, 
 however, escaped to our encampment with the information. Such officers 
 and soldiers as had horses in the encampment, saddled and mounted them ; 
 whilst those who had not, formed on foot, and began their retreat towards San 
 Nicolas. The number of officers and soldiers who were mounted did not 
 exceed S50 men, who took the field to protect the retreat of the dismounted 
 
;^Qg APPENDIX. 
 
 soldiers to the town. An officer was despatched to San Nicolas, to acquaint 
 the General, and receive his orders ; but as he had crossed the Arroyo del 
 Medio, the officer had orders to proceed to the encampment of Lopez, and 
 call him to the assistance of the town. The Portenian army, consisting of 
 about 3000 men, advanced (trotting) in four parallel columns, with a strong 
 guerilla in their front. 
 
 A detachment of fifty men were sent out to entertain the enemy; and our 
 retreat was continued in column of divisions at the regular pace of our horses. 
 Our guerilla repulsed that of the enemy, who immediately advanced a co- 
 lumn of 800 men to sustain the attack on our rear. Reunion was sounded ; 
 and our guerilla took its place in the column, which now began to trot. The 
 enemy pressed close on the rear of our column, and annoyed it much by a 
 heavy fire. A German officer, who commanded the rear division, seeing his 
 men begin to fall, and rightly judging the fortune of the day to be desperate, 
 preferred to die fighting his enemy, rather than fall in the retreat. He 
 ordered his men to secure their carabines, sword in hand; and faced 
 them about without any order from the Colonel, or even acquainting him of 
 his design. ' He precipitated himself with his valiant little band of thirty on 
 a division of the enemy consisting of 800 men, throwing them into great dis- 
 order. Another of the enemy's columns, which was on our flank, quickly 
 occupied the intervening space between our division and that brave officer^ 
 obliging Colonel Benevente to continue the retreat : as it was impossible to 
 give any assistance to the men who were engaged, they all perished. Abeck, 
 the officer who commanded that party, had served with Napoleon in Russia, 
 and several other campaigns. He was an engineer, and possessed much 
 professional knowledge ; in his private character and domestic qualities he 
 was as amiable and generous, as he was honourable and brave considered as 
 a soldier. The dismounted soldiers had by this time entered the town, which 
 was fortified by a deep dike, having only two entries, which were defended 
 by artillery : our column began to gallop, in order to enter the town ; but 
 being closely pressed in the rear, friends and enemies entered together, 
 thereby in a great measure rendering useless our artillery. Two columns 
 of the enemy opened to the left, and surrounded the town by a strong line 
 of battle, that none should escape. The brave Benevento rallied his men in 
 the Plaza; where, with the assistance of a few infantry soldiers, he maintained 
 the unequal conflict for upwards of two hours, — at the expiration of which 
 time he had not more than thirty men, and a few officers on horseback : with 
 
APPENDIX. 409 
 
 these, however, he determined to cut his way through whatever obstacles 
 might oppose him. He put himself at the head of his party, galloped full 
 speed through the town, and leaping the fosse, proceeded with intrepidity 
 to break through the enemy's line which surrounded the town. The two 
 platoons or small divisions, to which the desperate fury of Benevento was 
 directed, fearing to meet him, opened an avenue by wheeling on the right 
 and left backwards, through which he passed under an oblique fire from each 
 platoon with little loss. The greatest difficulty was now surmounted : the 
 Portenos pursued, keeping up a heavy but ineffectual fire, and expected that, 
 arriving at a precipice which lay in the direction, they would make an easy 
 prey of their designed victims ; however, on coming up to it, men and horses 
 went, or rather rolled, down it without any material injury. The detachment 
 of the Arroyo del Medio now appeared ; and the Portenos retired, lest they 
 should be chased in their turn. Of the thirty men who accompanied Bene- 
 vente from San Nicolas only fourteen escaped. 
 
 Our loss ill San .Nicolas was 16 ofiicers and about 470 soldiers, not including 
 50 officers and 200 men belonging to Alvear ; 6000 horses ; the General and 
 Colonel's tents ; all our baggage and military stores ; five pieces of artillery; 
 an ammunition waggon with 12,000 rounds, and 60,000 dollars for the pay 
 of the regiment. Madam Carrera, who had come from Rosario to see the 
 General the day previous, shared in the general misfortune of the day, being 
 taken prisoner in the church ; however, two days afterwards Dorego sent 
 her to the Arroyo Pabon, whither we had retired, with an escort and a poUte 
 message to the General. 
 
 The conduct of our Colonel, Benevento, on that day (as on all other such 
 occasions) was worthy of the highest praise : the surprise was most complete ; 
 and though he had not more than 250 men (including officers) mounted, he 
 defended himself against 3000 of the enemy from sunrise till mid-day, ho- 
 nourably exposing himself, and protecting the retreat of the dismounted sol- 
 diers to the town. 
 
 The Portenos were not content with the ample share of plunder which 
 they had acquired at our cost, — they also broke open every house without 
 exception ; and in three days afterwards, upwards of 800 had deserted, 
 loaded with booty : they returned to Buenos Ayres, resolved not to lose the 
 honour they had gained in this by risking it in another action. 
 
 .This great victory, gained by a people only accustomed to defeats, had the 
 most flattering effects ; the ancient spirit of Buenos Ayres (they supposed) 
 
 3g 
 
410 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 had reanimated her children. Not content with retaining their own pro- 
 vince, they began to dream of conquests; and passing the Arroyo del Medio, 
 the boundary of their territory, they entered that of Santa Fe, which they 
 resolved to add to their jurisdiction. 
 
 Expresses were sent to all the provinces, announcing the death of Carrera, 
 and the destruction of his division in the action of San Nicolas. The captain 
 who had been spy in our encampment was the person who bore the wel- 
 come news to Chile ; where his story seems to have been very gratifying, as 
 he was presented with eight hundred dollars, and admitted as an honorary 
 member of the distinguished legion of merit of ChUe. Now, of what merit 
 may have entitled him to this distinction I am still unable to form any idea : 
 if a man who first betrays his own country, afterwards deceives and sells his 
 friends and companions, and who is phant to change with times, circum- 
 stances, and interests, have any merit, then that distinguished order should 
 decorate every traitor's breast ; if riding 300 leagues with despatches in the 
 shortest time possible recommend a man so highly, why then we may sup- 
 pose that all couriers who distinguish themselves in that way, ought to be 
 admitted into this honourable and meritorious society of Chile.- 
 
 Lopez and his dragoons having united themselves to the remnant of our re- 
 giment, which was about 130 men, we retired to the Arroyo de Pabon, about 
 nine leagues from San Nicolas. Alvear was ai'rested by Lopez, who insisted 
 on shooting him, with the deputies of the enemy, as accessaries to our mis- 
 fortunes ; but Carrera would not permit it. He provided a boat for Alvear, 
 and assisted him to escape from the fury of the soldiers, telling him that he 
 could not suppose his late error to have proceeded from treachery ; that as 
 he had once been the friend of Carrera, so he should ever consider him, but 
 never again could admit him as a partoer in his operations. — Alvear took a 
 last leave of the friend whom his indiscretion had ruined ; and, passing the 
 Parrana, travelled to Monte Video, where he was employed in his rank of 
 brigadier-general in the service of the Portuguese. 
 
 The Portenos, following up their advantage, had approached within four 
 leagues of our encampment at the Arroyo de Pabon. Dorego sent deputies 
 to Lopez privately, offering him peace, and a continuation in his government 
 in alliance with Buenos Ayres, if he would turn the arms of his province 
 against Carrera, and deliver him prisoner with his men to him. Lopez made 
 known these conditions to Lieutenant-Colonel Garcia, who was second in 
 command in the province of Santa Fe, and a particular friend of Carrera. 
 
APPENDIX. 41 2 
 
 Garcia heard the proposition with contempt and indignation ; adverted to his 
 officers on the baseness of their governor Lopez, in thinking of sacrificing 
 his greatest friend to his most inveterate enemies the Portenos ; and finally 
 made Lopez understand that his own safety was in question if he did not ira- 
 mediately desist. The plot was made known to Carrera, who had for some 
 days previous suspected something of that nature to be on foot. Carrera 
 dictated a letter, which the Governor was obliged to sign and send to the 
 enemy, renouncing all further negociation of a private or dishonourable 
 nature. 
 
 The PorteRos seeing their perfidious efforts against Carrera disconcerted, 
 advanced to try the fortune of another action : their force consisted of 2100 
 men ; ours was about 380, of which only 130 were Chilenos. But twelve 
 days had elapsed since the surprise of San Nicolas, the impression of which 
 was still fresh on the minds of the soldiers, although few of them had been 
 there ; this, together with the great disproportion of our numbers, accounts 
 for the unaccustomed timidity of our soldiers in the action of Pabon. 
 
 The Porteiios at first were charged, and obliged to retire ; but renewing 
 the attack with vigour, our line was broken, and began to retreat : we were 
 pursued several leagues. The Chilenos and a few Santafecinos protected the 
 retreat by keeping a constant fire on the enemy. Our men were not properly 
 reunited before our arrival at San Lorenzo, a distance of ten leagues from the 
 battle ground. Our loss was immaterial, not exceeding twenty men. The 
 most remarkable occurrence of this retreat was, that a Portenian officer who 
 accompanied us, and had been major of the famous hussars of La Madrid in 
 High Peru, where he was considered little less than a Mars, was horse- 
 whipped and discarded for having too great a desire to be one of the fore- 
 most in the retreat. 
 
 Having reunited our men at San Lorenzo, we continued to retire ; and pass- 
 ing the Carcaraiia, we encamped in Las Barrancas. The Portenos occupied, 
 and almost destroyed, the town of Rosario ; where they remained, not consi- 
 dering it prudent to follow our flying remnant too far in a country where 
 they were entirely destitute of friends. 
 
 Lopez, finding that nothing but war would satisfy his officers and sol- 
 diers, made a levy in the country, raising about 800 men ; a few northern 
 Indians also came to join him : our division was now augmented to about 
 1000 men. We returned in search of the Portenos ; and when we were about 
 to pass the Carcaraiia, our advance guard fell in with that bf the enemy near 
 
 3g 2 
 
412 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 San Lorenzo, and killed forty of them, taking nine prisoners. This was an 
 indication to the Portenos that their former fortunes in war were about to 
 return ; they, therefore, began to retreat, but were overtaken and brought 
 to action. 
 
 On the 10th of September, in the morning, the town of Pergamino, which 
 was garrisoned by 350 of the enemy, was assaulted and taken ; 220 were 
 taken prisoners, and the greater part of the rest died in the attack : and on 
 the 12th, our entire division, and that of Dorego, presented themselves for 
 battle in the Canada Vica, or Gamonal. The detachments destroyed in 
 Pergamino and San Lorenzo, as well as desertion, made a considerable reduc- 
 tion in Dorego's force ; and this was the first action in which we were opposed 
 by equal numbers. 
 
 Dorego, who attributed the success of the Federalists to their peculiar 
 manner of fighting, determined to adopt the same plan, prohibiting his sol- 
 diers, on pain of death, to fife a shot. He bravely charged in front of his 
 line against the Santafecinos, who met him with an equal contempt of danger. 
 Dorego succeeded in breaking through the line of Lopez, when he was im- 
 mediately charged by the Chilenos, led by Benevente, who stopped his pro- 
 gress : the fight became general and obstinate ; but at length the Portenos 
 had recourse to their long- practised expedient : they retired ; and being 
 closely pressed and broken, it was in vain that their General exposed himself 
 by remaining in their rear, and labouring greatly to rally his flying troops : 
 they were pursued six leagues. No quarters were given till the latter part of 
 the chace, when 325 prisoners were taken. The number of killed were com- 
 puted at 570 : Dorego very narrowly escaped in the retreat. 
 
 Carrera and Lopez passed the Arroyo del Medio : it was the desire of the 
 former to return to Buenos Ayres, and establish a government there which 
 would be friendly to our cause ; but the latter only wished for a consum- 
 mation of the treaty which he had commenced at Pabon. As our principal 
 force consisted in militia, who were eager to return to their families and 
 houses, they contented themselves with driving off as their booty 15 or 20,000 
 head of cattle, and a great number of horses ; and on their arrival in their 
 own province, they were disbanded, each returning to their respective homes. 
 
 Carrera's head-quarters were at Rosario. The dragoons of Lopez were 
 obliged to go to Santa Fe to curb the inroads of the northern Indians, who 
 had taken offence against Lopez because he would not deUver up to their 
 deputies a person who had killed an individual of their nation at Santa Fe. 
 
APPENDIX. 413 
 
 Though Dorego had gained more honour for his country, and displayed 
 more courage and ability, with a smaller force, than any former governor of 
 Buenos Ay res ; yet, the Portenos could not think of deviating from their 
 long-received principle of deposing every Director as soon as he had been 
 defeated, or otherwise unfortunate, without any regard to the abilities or vir- 
 tues which he might possess. Hence the many mutations of government : 
 their defeats were numerous, and each brought its political change. 
 
 Martin Rodriguez thought this the most advantageous moment to assert his 
 claim ; and his first step was to gain all the regular soldiers to espouse his 
 pretensions. Soler (having recovered from the shame which he considered 
 attached to himself in consequence of his defeat in the Canada de la Cruz) 
 came to Buenos Ayres from Monte Video to offer himself as a candidate for 
 the government ; but considering the power of Rodriguez to predominate, he 
 united his faction with that of Dorego, that they might conjointly destroy 
 Rodriguez, leaving futurity to decide the particular fate of each afterwards. 
 
 Every thing being thus arranged between Soler and Dorego, they assembled 
 their factions armed in the Plaza, when they fortified themselves with artil- 
 lery, &c. Rodriguez lost no time ; he appointed the rendezvous for his veterans ; 
 and when he inspected them he found they would not be sufficient to attack 
 the Plaza : he therefore went to the prisons where the officers and soldiers 
 of our regiment made prisoners in San Nicolas were, and offered them their 
 liberty if they would lend their assistance to him that day. They unani- 
 mously volunteered ; were immediately taken out of prison and armed ; and 
 being united with Rodriguez's troops, he advanced to the attack of the Plaza. 
 The citizens and civicos defended themselves for some time with resolution ; 
 they were, however, obliged to yield to the superior courage of Rodriguez's 
 inferior force, whilst he waded through the blood of 400 citizens to seize on 
 the supreme power of the republic, against the general consent of the town and 
 province. This mode of election is not very uncommon amongst the South 
 American Republics. 
 
 Rodriguez having established himself in the government of Buenos Ayres, 
 and dispersed all the factions which had opposed him, performed his promise 
 to the Chilenos who had aided him, by granting them passports to proceed to 
 any of the provinqes except Santa Fe, where we were : some of the officers 
 passed over to Monte Video, from whence they united themselves again to 
 
 our division. 
 
 Rodriguez sent deputies to the Indians of the South, promising them great 
 
414 APPENDIX. 
 
 rewards if they would declare war against us, which they promised to do ; 
 and the Cacique Nicolas (the ally of Buenos Ayres) came with his tribe to 
 Pergamino, from whence he marched with 200 Porteiiian soldiers to the vil- 
 lage of Melingue, on the confines of Santa Fe. A detachment of ours which 
 garrisoned the town was put to the sword, and all the females and children 
 carried away by the Indians for slaves. The Cacique Nicolas promised to 
 put at the disposition of Rodriguez 7OOO Indians ; which force they considered 
 would exterminate us without difficulty. 
 
 Buenos Ayres, with her promised Indian allies, considered herself secure. 
 Their miserable poets all rhymed of our inevitable destruction, and ridiculed 
 in the most reproachful manner the political ideas of Carrera ; whUst those 
 whose abilities did not reach to verse were more mischievously employed, in 
 order to cause a dissension between Carrera and Lopez, by an extensive dis- 
 tribution of their pamphlets : in these pamphlets and papers, which were 
 carefully thrown in our way, they made it appear that Lopez was but a mere 
 cipher, subservient to all the measures of Carrera, without ideas, will, or 
 opinion, of his own. The idea suggested in these papers did not deviate 
 much from truth ; but truth is not always pleasing. Lopez had self-loye suf- 
 ficient to make him feel the depth of his inferiority, which was now laid be- 
 fore the public : however, he concealed as much as possible the envy that 
 gnawed his ungenerous heart. 
 
 The Portenos, rightly judging that their scheme might have had some eflFect 
 on the uncultivated mind of Lopez, sent deputies to San Nicolas to resume 
 the negociation, relative to Lopez giving up Carrera and his officers to the 
 Portenos. Bustos, governor of Cordova, seeing Carrera without force, and 
 forgetting all his obligations, refused to deliver to him 7OO Chilenos which 
 existed in his army, and which were to be delivered whenever Carrera would 
 demand them. He also sent deputies to San Nicolas, to co-operate with those 
 of Buenos Ayres in our destruction, having previously had his government 
 acknowledged as legal by Buenos Ayres. 
 
 The regiment No. 1. in San Juan, which had been given to Carrera by 
 Mendizabal, governor of that province, had been led by its colonel to attack 
 Mendoza without any orders from Carrera, who had only directed that they 
 should act on the defensive in San Juan in case of being attacked. Corro, 
 who commanded that regiment, knew them to be as good soldiers as any in 
 America, and put all his confidence in their courage, without consulting his 
 own capacity for conducting such an enterprise. He marched with his in- 
 
APPENDIX. 415 
 
 fantry and dragoons to the Positos, and from thence sent an advanced guard 
 of 48 dragoons to Jocoli, a small village eight leagues distant from Mendoza. 
 This guard was surprised and attacked by Caxaravillo, the celebrated Portefio, 
 with 200 cavalry and 400 infantry. The guard charged, and routed the 200 
 cavalry with considerable loss to the enemy ; and, on their return from the 
 pursuit, had the audacity to attack the infantry, in which more than three- 
 fourths of the guard perished : a remnant, however, returned to Corro. This 
 victory of 600 men over 48, was not owing to their courage, or to the courage 
 or dispositions of Caxaravillo, but to their impossibility of running away ; for 
 if the infantry could have followed the example of their cavalry, they certainly 
 would have done so : if they could have run, they would never have stood to 
 conquer. This dear-bought victory of the enemy was celebrated in Mendoza 
 with much pomp and ceremony. 
 
 • The officers and soldiers unanimously requested of Corro to lead them to 
 the town, as the defeat which the guard had suffered only seemed to establish 
 on firmer grounds the high opinion of their own superiority. But Corro saw 
 it in another light. He was a most consummate coward ; void of ideas, disy 
 position, or any sense of honour or shame. He put his troops in retreat to 
 return to San Juan ; whilst the Mendocinos, informed of his timidity, pursued 
 him with 2000 men, causing him to redouble his marches : however, he 
 arrived without any loss in San Juan, where his soldiers expected he might 
 pluck up a httle courage amongst the ladies, as he was a great gallant. On 
 the approach of the Mendocinos (who had the promise of co-operation from 
 a faction in the town) Corro marched out, and was eagerly followed by his 
 soldiers, who expected he was going to give the enemy battle on the Legua 
 (a small plain outside San Juan) ; but their indignation was raised to the 
 highest, when they were ordered to leave the ground they had devoted to 
 the fortune of war, in order to retreat to La Arioja. The soldiers, seeing 
 that Corro was only determined to run (as his name foretold for him), denied 
 all further obedience to the coward, and dispersed to the different towns. 
 About 200 soldiers, natives of Salta, still followed him, as he was going to 
 that town. Mendizabal, governor of San Juan, was superseded by Don 
 Antonio Sanchez in the government, and carried to Mendoza, where he was 
 confined in a dungeon till after the death of Carrera, whose faithful friend he 
 was ; and at the time of our passing the cordillera, he also was sent to Chile 
 at the disposition of O'Higgins, who, either from a desu-e to be considered 
 magnanimous, or from real principles of humanity and justice, desisted from 
 
416 APPENDIX. 
 
 taking his life in Chile, but did not scruple prolonging his tortures in irons' 
 and in a dungeon ; and afterwards sent him to Lima, where his blood flowed 
 to quench the insatiable thirst of the tyrant San Martin, Mendizabal was 
 generous, brave, and disinterested ; faithful to his friends, and rather impla- 
 cable with his enemies : no superstition tainted his mind ; and his resignation 
 md courage in his last moments were worthy his former character. 
 
 Shortly after the dispersion of our men in San Juan, a revolution took place 
 in Mendoza, in which Godoy Cruz succeeded Cruz Vargas ; in consequence 
 of which change. Colonel Aldao and his principal officers became obnoxious 
 to the existing government. These were the officers who had commanded 
 the expedition against our troops in San Juan ; and though they were the 
 inveterate enemies of Carrera, they were now obliged to throw themselves on 
 his clemency. He did not consider them worthy of resentment : their wants 
 were relieved, and they participated the generosity and protection of him 
 whom they had so materially injured. 
 
 Lopez still carried on his private treaty with the deputies of Rodriguez 
 and Bustos in San Nicolas. 
 
 The Indians who were invited by Rodriguez to join in the war against us 
 had an unconquerable hatred to the Poitenos ; and at the period in which 
 we expected them every day to fall upon us, a deputation of fourteen captains 
 arrived in Rosario, sent by the principal cacique to treat with Carrera. They 
 told him, in the names of their respective chiefs, of the very great rewards 
 which Rodriguez had offered them for their services ; but declared they 
 could never take part with their insidious enemies the Portenos ; and as to 
 the rewards offered them, that they would sooner fight in company with 
 brave men, independent of emolument, than they would in favour of such 
 cowards as they knew the Portenos to be, notwithstanding any gifts they 
 might offer. They made known to Carrera that their chiefs would be ex- 
 tremely ambitious of his alliance and protection ; and that they were author- 
 ised to grant him any number of Indians he would require. 
 
 The conduct of the Indians, and their unasked assistance, seemed very 
 mysterious, and made us suspect some treachery; but on minute investigation 
 it appeared that Don -— — Guelmo, who had been a captain, and commandant 
 of a town on the Indian frontiers in Chile, in the time of Carrera, had preferred 
 living amongst the Indians to suffering the indignation which O'Higgins and 
 San Martin heaped on the officers and friends of the former government in 
 Chile. This Guelmo, though above eighty years old, wished still to make 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 417 
 
 himself useful to his general, by engaging the Indians in his favour. Sur- 
 rounded by enemies, and, what was worse, by false friends, the ray of hope 
 which this unexpected intelligence communicated to each breast was far 
 from disagreeable. Carrera knew the plot of the deputies in San Nicolas, 
 and was aware that such an opportunity of extricating himself from their net 
 was not to be rejected. He despatched five of the Indian deputies to the 
 caciques, returning them thanks for the offer of their disinterested friendship, 
 of which he accepted, and offered to become their protector against the 
 Portenos ; at the same time requesting them to send six or seven hundred 
 men into the Pam])as, which were there to wait his orders, without showing 
 themselves on the frontier. The other nine deputies were provided for in 
 our encampment, where they remained to act as guides to us, in case of being 
 obliged to escape precipitately ; and forty Indians, the guard of these deputies, 
 were encamped in a village in the frontier, where we provided for them 
 provisions, tobacco, &c. 
 
 Carrera wrote to the deputies in San Nicolas, informing them that he was 
 perfectly acquainted with the nature of their dishonourable and perfidious plot; 
 that he even comprehended its most abstruse conditions and ramifications, as 
 they respected the provinces of Santa Fe, Buenos Ayres, and Cordova. He 
 demanded them immediately to desist from the measures in contemplation, 
 and to allow him an uninterrupted march to Chile; to which, if they did not 
 accede, they should consider themselves responsible to their provinces for 
 the consequences which would follow. 
 
 This letter of Carrera appeared to the deputies as an enigma which they 
 could by no means solve. It was indeed very extraordinary how he could 
 be acquainted with their private proceedings ; but it was still more so, that, 
 not having more than 150 men at his disposal, he would dare to demand of 
 the representatives of these powerful provinces a suspension of their designs, 
 point out a line of conduct which they should pursue, and throw out such 
 menacing insinuations in case they did not allow him to march to ChUe. 
 His union with his friend Ramirez appeared impossible ; and they could not 
 conceive any other resource which was left him, or by which he could escape 
 from their hands. 
 
 The abilities of Carrera were acknowledged by all parties, and his enter- 
 prising spirit w^s feared, as it was always known to be capable of some 
 resource when danger threatened : they therefore resolved to put immedi- 
 ately in execution their plans, lest he should counteract their scheme. 
 
 Sh 
 
41g APPENDIX. 
 
 The treaty was signed by the parties on the following conditions : viz. 
 that the government of Buenos Ayres should pay to Governor Lopez at 
 Santa Fe the sum of 1&J,000 dollars, together with 30,000 head of cattle, on 
 his delivery of Carrera and his officers to the Buenos Ayrian troops in San 
 Nicolas ; that Lopez should continue in the government of Santa Fe, and 
 Bustos in that of Cordova ; that the three states, Buenos Ayres, Santa Fe, 
 and Cordova, should act defensively and offensively against llamirez, or any 
 other friend of Carrera who should resent or oppose their present undertaking. 
 Lopez had sent to Santa Fe for his dragoons, who came down the river, and 
 were disembarking at San Lorenzo in order to surprise us, and give us up to 
 the enemy before we were apprised of our danger. Having received in- 
 formation of the meditated surprise, we put ourselves in a posture for defence, 
 and at the same time began our retreat, conducted by our Indian guides. 
 We marched all that evening and night at an accelerated pace, and at twelve 
 o'clock next day we united ourselves to the forty Indians who awaited us on 
 the frontier. The dragoons of Santa Fe were unacquainted with the service 
 on which they were about to be employed, till they were ordered to take 
 horses in San Lorenzo, and then informed of the duty they had to perform. 
 The soldiers unanimously refiised to take arms against the Chilenos, as they 
 called them their companions and defenders in their past campaigns. Hence 
 it is that we were not interrupted in our retreat. We continued our march 
 three days into the Pampas, not having any other food than the eggs of 
 ostriches and other wild fowls, which were for the most part addled ; the 
 soldiers, however, selected the best of them for us. We almost despaired of 
 meeting the Indians in these Pampas^ where they had promised to wait our 
 orders : the Indians who accompanied us were also impatient, and on that 
 night the divines or necromancers began their sacred ceremonies ; and after 
 four hours' consultation, it was revealed to these prophets, that the next day, 
 before noon, we should discover the Indians of whom we were in search.. 
 
 Next day, about ten o'clock, we discovered the van of the Indians (thereby 
 fulfilling the prophecy of their priests), who sent out a party to reconnoitre ; 
 we followed the like example, sending a party of the Indians who were with 
 us : these parties quickly recognised each other for friends, and returned to 
 their particular corps. Soon after the main body of the Indians appeared, 
 rising on the horizon, and continued to advance in line. A deputation of 
 Indians (with interpreters) was despatched to wait on the General, and to 
 request that the ceremonies of our meeting should be conducted in the same 
 
T'xawn bT Aiiv':' E^rle 
 
 Enfii-aved "by Edw^rinden , 
 
 (DA©E^T0K JsMOJSiBWEJtJ© (i3.s\.l!.S.lE3EmA'S ^L'Bi®®IPS. 
 
 Zondjm., Jijh'Ui-h£d. iy Ii.>fuii'i,iii &: 6^ \- J. Murr,i\.-'- --(prii M24 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 419 
 
 manner as practised amongst them, and not in any other way customary 
 among Christian armies. All their formalities being agreed tor one of the 
 deputies was sent to announce to the Indians that we had acquiesced in theii- 
 desire, and that they might advance ; whilst the rest remained with us, to 
 assist- us in going through the manceuvres. 
 
 Our men were formed in one rank, officers to the front, with an equal 
 distance between them. On our left flank were about sixty Indians, forjned 
 in the same manner. Our Indian aUies were about 900 in number, not 
 including those which accompanied us from Rosario. They were formed in 
 line, with an interval of about three yards between each troop ; the captain of 
 each troop in front of its centre, and the caciques, at equal distances, in front 
 of the whole. The Indians were naked, with exception of the waist, to 
 which was suspended a small triangular piece of tanned sheep-skin, orna- 
 mented on the border by a silver fringe ; their long black hair (which they 
 wore all alike), after coming down over the ears and forehead, was again 
 turned upwards, wound round the head, and tied at the extremity by a 
 riband used amongst them for that purpose ; their lances were about 14 
 feet long, and were held perpendicular in their right hands ; their horses 
 (which were covered with many fantastic trappings) were excellent; and 
 their line was actually the best formed I ever saw. 
 
 All being ready, the ceremony began by each line advancing at a trot; and 
 on approaching each other at a full gallop, as in a charge, the Indians 
 brought their lances to the position of attack, and whilst they advanced with 
 the greatest fury raised a hideous yell, which (as we were little acquainted 
 with our new allies) made us doubt very much whether this were a real or 
 mock charge. However, on coming within forty yards of us, the Indians 
 halted on a sudden, their formation not having suffered the smallest alteration 
 or confusion in their rapid advance. We wheeled to our left, and continued 
 to gallop round them (according to our instructions) till we had encircled 
 them three times, keeping up a fire during the whole, which very much 
 gratified them. We then halted, and they returned us the same comphment 
 by galloping round us three times in the same manner. 
 
 The honours being over, they halted in front of our line ; and the prin- 
 cipal cacique, with his subaltern caciques and captains, marched out in 
 front of theirs, where they were joined by Carrera and his officers. After a 
 long, but (I may say) unintelligible conversation, they offered us their hands, 
 which we accepted, in token of our mutual attachment and promise to defend 
 
 3h 2 
 
420 
 
 APPENDIX, 
 
 each other. We encamped; and were invited by the caciques to their 
 quarters, where we feasted sumptuously on some good roast horses. The 
 Indians took the same care that our soldiers should want for nothing which 
 it was in their power to bestow. They made us many presents of horses, 
 ornaments, ponchos, &c. in proof of the sincerity of their protestations; and 
 showed the greatest solicitude and attention to please, and make us consider 
 ourselves among friends. 
 
 Having assuaged our hunger, the caciques rose in council, and requested 
 the General would be present also. The subject in discussion was, whether 
 the town of Salta (which was about three days' march from us), on the frontier 
 of Buenos Ayres, should or should not be attacked. 
 
 We had a long march to encounter, and it became necessary that we should 
 enter the province of Buenos Ayres to furnish ourselves with cattle for our 
 transit to the country of the Indians ; and also make some provision for the 
 time of our residence there, that we might not be burthensome to our 
 friends, having the opportunity of being independent at the expense of our 
 enemies. 
 
 La Madrid, whom we expected to attack, had retired towards Pergamino. 
 The town of Salta was garrisoned by a detachment of forty men ; its own 
 inhabitants capable of carrying arms might be from 150 to 200 men. Carrera 
 knew too well the disposition of the Indians, and their mode of warfare, to 
 give his assent to the assault of the town. He therefore used every expedient 
 exertion to prevent and dissuade them from it, by showing the impossibility 
 of succeeding in, and danger of attempting, any attack against the town ; 
 in contrast with the exaggerated advantages of passing into the country, 
 from whence they might drive to their habitations vast droves of horses, 
 cattle, &c. He expatiated much on the destruction of the Indians, if they 
 should have the temerity to advance against the musquetry and artillery of 
 the town. But they were not to be deterred by words only. They protested 
 that nothing should hinder them of destroying the Portenos ; and requested 
 he would give them thirty of his men to accompany them. Carrera finding 
 them so importunate and unchangeable in their resolution, conceived the idea 
 of counteracting their inhuman designs and saving the inhabitants, whilst he 
 seemed to accede to their request. He called a captain, and gave him in- 
 structions to march with thirty men as vanguard to the Indians towards the 
 town, and immediately on receiving the fire of the enemy to put his men in 
 retreat, and use all possible means to inspire the Indians with a sense of 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 421 
 
 imminent danger if they advanced, that they might be induced thereby to 
 abandon their project. It was rather a hard injunction to lay on a brave old 
 officer, that he should show himself as a coward in front of his soldiers and 
 the enemy. However it was complied with. Soon as the enemy in the 
 town opened their fire from the church and batteries, Carrera put himself at 
 the head of his picket, exchanged fire a few times with the enemy, and 
 then ordered a retreat. The soldiers, little accustomed to shrink from 
 apparent danger, were incensed against their captain for the cowardice he 
 showed, refused to obey him, and even threatened to shoot him if he dared 
 to give them any order. They called on the cornet to lead them on, and 
 fearlessly advanced under the enemy's fire, followed by 900 Indians. The 
 Captain accompanied the detadhment as a soldier in order to redeem his lost 
 reputation ; but all was vain : the impression on their minds against him ever 
 after was indelible. The soldiers and Indians entering the Plaza, the 
 Portenos were pianic-struck : they capitulated, on condition of being left un- 
 molested in the fort and tower of the church, leaving their property, wives, 
 children, and relatives, at the mercy of the unfeeling Indians. The scene 
 which ensued was the most affecting and pitiable : the women (as is cus- 
 tomary on such occasions) had run {o the church to implore the protection of 
 their patron saints ; but the Indians were ignorant of the existence of such 
 patronage or protection. They broke open the door of the church, possessed 
 themselves of all the females, old and young, children, sacred utensils, &c. ; 
 even the images of the saints did not escape the general calamity. As that 
 of the Virgin was magnificently decorated, it caught the fancy of a cacique, 
 who dragged her away in the greatest precipitation : nor did he discover his 
 prize to be inanimate till he had her in the street ; when, finding that he had 
 been deceived by her very brilliant appearance, and lost the opportunity of 
 making a more desirable booty, he undressed her, and carrying with him all 
 the ornaments and clothing, he left the unfledged image with disgust and 
 contempt in the street. Whilst all the time of the Indians was absorbed in 
 search of the unfortunate women and children, our detachment employed 
 themseves in plundering the town ; in which they found a considerable 
 quantity of specie and valuable articles. Soon as the General was acquainted 
 with the occurrences he hastened to the town ; but as he was two leagues 
 distant, he could not arrive in time to prevent the excesses. The Indians 
 were about to reduce the town to ashes, when the General arrived, and per- 
 suaded them to desist and abandon the town; which they did, conveying the 
 
422 APPENDIX. 
 
 women on old horses, and such as were not able to travel otherwise were 
 carried in the arms of the Indians. It is unnecessary to attempt a descrip- 
 tion of the cries and agonies of these wretched creatures in the power of their 
 savage masters, — it is easily conceived. Carrera claimed many of the most 
 respectable amongst them as his relations ; and some of them, who were in 
 possession of the caciques, were quietly dehvered ; but such as had the mis- 
 fortune of falling into the hands of the Indians were retained, as the authority 
 of their chiefs did not extend so far as to command them to relinquish what 
 they considered honourably gained in war. However, we employed every 
 means of extricating several yoimg women from the power of their cruel 
 masters. We got some in exchange for our scarlet cloaks, caps, jackets, &c. ; 
 others we stole, and disguised in the uniform of soldiers ; whilst we seized on 
 others by force, alleging that they were our sisters, wives, or relations. 
 
 The Indians were so irritated at our contempt of their sacred rights and 
 customs respecting prisoners and war, that they prepared twice to sacrifice 
 us as the victims of our insolence ; but the interposition of Guelmo and their 
 caciques, our prompt dispositions to resist them, the high idea they had 
 formed of our prowess from the example of those who accompanied them in 
 Salta, and a respect or timidity (which they had not yet lost) for fire-arms, 
 all concurred in inducing tbem to desist, and become our fi-iends again. 
 
 That night thirty women, whom we had rescugd or ransomed, were sent 
 back to Salta vmder the care of a guard, and unknown to the Indians. The 
 greater part of the remainder were afterwards ransomed; many of whom chose 
 to remain in the division, and accompanied to the last. The number of 
 women taken in Salta was about 250, and a great number of children. 
 
 The very unfortunate catastrophe of Salta furnished our enemy's com- 
 mentators with ample grounds for a liberal display of their encomiums on 
 Carrera, and those wiio accompanied him. That the affair in itself was 
 undoubtedly barbarous, and will admit of little apology, is but too evi- 
 dent ; but any person curious enough to investigate the causes which led to 
 the desolation of that town, will be convinced that it was not caused by 
 Carrera, was not abetted by him, nor was it in his power to have prevented 
 it. Seven thousand Indians had been called by Martin Rodriguez in order 
 to extirpate us ; and he also showed the inhuman example of Indian warfare 
 by sending 200 of his soldiers with the cacique Nicolas, who surprised Me- 
 lingue (a town on the frontiers of Santa Ft, then our all)), carrying away all 
 its inhabitants captives. This, Rodriguez observed to the cacique, was but 
 
APPENDIX. 423 
 
 a foretaste of future plunder, as he would give them every assistance to 
 destroy the whole of the province of Santa Fe when their force would 
 arrive. Lopez, intimidated at this threat, and envious of Carrera, made 
 a dishonourable peace with his enemy, — selling us, as has been before stated. 
 Carrera was accidentally enabled to defend himself from the machinations 
 of his insidious enemies, by uniting himself with those very Indians who had 
 been called for. his destruction ; and necessity obliged him to scourge his 
 enemies with the same lash under which they had deliberately doomed him 
 to suffer. 
 
 Carrera did in no way encourage the Indians in their attack on Salta : on 
 the contrary, he did every thing in his power, and perhaps more than was 
 consistent with his safety, to dissuade them from it ; and though he permitted 
 a detachment of soldiers to accompany them, it was for the express pui-pose 
 of more effectually deterring them by showing an example of fear, that he 
 might thereby prevent the disorders necessarily emanating from the surrender 
 of the town. 
 
 Unless by some such stratagem as that tried by Carrera, the destruction 
 of Salta could not possibly have been prevented by us. The Indians are 
 naturally jealous and distrustful ; and it cannot be supposed that Carrera 
 could have such an unbounded ascendancy over their minds in the first days 
 of our union with them, as he afterwards acquired by a longer acquaintance 
 with them. There was no province that would receive us ; and Carrera, by 
 restraining them from their project, would have shut the last and only 
 avenue which was left us for retreat. If we absolutely refused to allow the 
 assault, they would in the same moment mistrust us of being attached to the 
 enemy, and as enemies they would proceed against us. Their force was 
 upwards of 900, and our squadron about 140. However, Rodriguez in his 
 proclamation hinted that we were more barbarous than the Indians them- 
 selves, for not having opposed them. If Rodriguez judged of the Indians 
 from his knowledge of the Porteiios, there is some excuse for him ; for our 
 140 men were more than sufficient to control and drive 1000 Porteiios with- 
 out difficulty ; but with that disparity of numbers, against the Indians, we 
 could indulge no rational hopes of success. Hence our open and active 
 mediation in favour of the town would have been as useless towards its 
 safety, as it would have been impolitic, injurious, and destructive, with regard 
 to our interests. We had indeed an excellent opportunity of dying in 
 defence of our most implacable' enemies, one of whom would not have been 
 
424 APPENDIX. 
 
 grateful enough to acknowledge the merit of such a sacrifice. But even that 
 could not have saved them ; their destiny was inevitable ! 
 
 In Rodriguez's very eloquent proclamation, particular descriptions of our 
 imputed cruelties in Salta were given to the public : Carrera was accused of 
 sacrilege ; and Rodriguez, as champion of the church, bound himself under a 
 most solemn vow to the saints and Virgin who had been so vilely treated, to 
 avenge their indignities on the head of the impious barbarian who had in- 
 flicted them. He called on the citizens and soldiers to aid him in the per- 
 formance of his sacred promise ; and hoped the matrons, virgins, and holy 
 people would fast and pray for the success of his most laudable enterprise. 
 
 He had little difficulty in raising a strong expedition ; for as the honour of 
 their saints and their religion had suffered in Salta, their votaries flew to their 
 banners, confident of success from the holiness of their cause. 
 
 Rodriguez is no doubt a very good Christian whilst there are no motives 
 to be otherwise j but, whether his piety and veneration for the saints would 
 be sufficient to triumph over the temptation held out by the appearance of 
 the glittering chalices, vases, and candlesticks consecrated to them, or not, 
 the inhabitants of Chuguisaca and their churches could determine without 
 much hesitation. 
 
 As Rodriguez was familiarised with sacrilege, it is not strange that it should 
 be the uppermost of his inflammatory inventions against his enemies : men 
 frequently judge of the vices and weaknesses of others by a knowledge of 
 their own, but he fabricated his charges against Carrera merely to answer 
 his own purposes ; and by a retrospect over his own former actions, he was 
 furnished with all those crimes which he wished to attribute to us : and from 
 the same source, so long as his memory aids him, he can always draw an 
 abundant fund of invectives. 
 
 We continued our march into the interior ; and Rodriguez followed us, but 
 at a very respectful distance, not less than fifty leagues in our rear. The 
 Portefios saw that it was inconsistent with their safety to march too far into 
 the Pampas, as (in case of being attacked) their flight would avail them 
 nothing, when at such an immense distance from their own province. They 
 therefore encamped at the Laguna de Floras, and Rodriguez, leaving La 
 Madrid in command of the army, returned to Buenos Ayres ; from whence 
 he sent to the encampment a quantity of cloth, beads, bridles, toys, &c. as 
 presents for the Indians of Nicolas (who were in their favour), or any others 
 who might become proselytes to the interests of Buenos Ayres. 
 
APPENDIX. 425 
 
 After thirty-two days' march we arrived at the toldos, or habitations of the 
 Indians ; and chose for our encampment a situation at the base of a hUl, about 
 one mile distant from the dwelhng of one of the caciques. A deep river 
 and two smaller streams ran parallel with our front, which they covered 
 securely ; our left flank was defended by a branch of the same river ; and 
 our right was protected by an advanced post. Our position was the most 
 eligible in the country, as it would be impossible to surprise us ; however the 
 Indians requested we would decamp, as they had serious doubts for our safety 
 if we persisted in our desire to hold this ground. It was supposed among, 
 them (from some tradition or prophecy) that that hill was the habitation 
 and resort of an infinite number of gualichi or evil spirits, who punished with 
 death or disease the temerity of all such as dared to intrude on the confines 
 of this enchanted ground. Our first idea on receiving this information of 
 the Indians was, that as the grass was luxuriant and of excellent quaUty, 
 they wished by this artifice to preserve it for themselves, and induce us to 
 remove to some other part ; but on consulting with Guelmo, the General was 
 convinced that they spoke the sentiments of their minds, without any inten- 
 tion to deceive us, and that their importunity in urging us to decamp was 
 owing to their solicitude for our safety. The spot was most desirable, yet 
 there was no vestige of habitation ; and the untrodden appearance of the 
 ground, and their little knowledge of the passes of the river in that place, 
 indicated that it was little frequented by the Indians. Carrera quieted their 
 fears, assuring them that those gualichi had no power against his soldiers, and 
 that in a very few days he did not doubt but they would be entirely ex- 
 pelled from the hill. The Indians retired from the unhallowed ground, 
 filled with hope and fear for our fate. Very early next morning they came 
 to visit us, and hear what adventures we might have had in the course of the 
 night; and expressed the greatest joy and astonishment, at hearing that the 
 evil genii of the mountain had no power when they were opposed by us. 
 They gradually lost their fears of the place, and in a few days their visits 
 became so frequent and of such duration as to be a test to our patience. 
 
 Their attachment to Carrera daily increased. All the neighbouring 
 caciques came to congratulate and welcome him to their country ; offering at 
 the same time to serve with him in any part against his enemies. Deputies 
 were sent to Chile and the more distant nations, requiring the attendance of 
 their caciques in the encampment of the Pkhi Rey, or little king (as such 
 
 3/ 
 
426 APPENDIX. 
 
 was the name they had given Carrera), naming a certain day for the assembly 
 or junta of caciques to meet. 
 
 The Portenos having used every method to alienate the confidence of the 
 Indians from us, and finding them inflexible in their attachment to us, con- 
 ceived the following scheme : — they circulated a report amongst the Indians 
 that we were their friends, and that our object was to gain the rear of the 
 Indians, and then attack them ; whilst they would meet them, and by this 
 combination of operations they expected to annihilate the whole race. This 
 ingenious intelligence was industriously circulated by the cacique Nicolas 
 (their ally) and his captains amongst the other tribes, and did not fail to rouse 
 the distrust and jealousy of the Indians towards us. 
 
 Carrera heard their complaints against us with much patience and atten- 
 tion, and succeeded in appeasing them, by making it appear that it was but a 
 stratagem of the enemy, to cause a dissension between him and the Indians, 
 that they might come afterwards and drive them entirely out of their country; 
 and to show them that he was not the friend of Buenos Ayres, he determined 
 to march in a few days to attack them, desiring some Indians to be immedi- 
 ately sent out to discover their position. The Indians sent out to explore 
 the enemy's camp advanced with an incredible rapidity, and reconnoitred 
 their encampment ; but in lieu of returning to report what they had seen, as 
 had been ordered, they fell on the enemy by surprise, and again renewed 
 their offence against the Virgin, by putting to death all the soldiers who were 
 under her protection : the soldiers no doubt had ready passports to heaven ; 
 but the crime against their Holy Lady was aggravated by this defeat of her 
 avengers. La Madrid, with his usual good fortune, escaped with a few 
 officers, to give an account to Rodriguez of the success of the expedition, and 
 its negociation ; which account was so satisfactory, that he was induced to dis- 
 continue any further efforts towards the accomplishment of his holy vow. 
 
 The appointed time for the meeting of the caciques being come, they at- 
 tended with punctuality ; each bringing with him a guard of Indians, to give 
 an idea of strength and quality of his tribe. All being assembled, they sacri- 
 ficed to their great patron and preserver the Sun, previous to opening their 
 council. 
 
 For this sacrifice a colt " without blemish" was chosen by the priests, and 
 tied by their own hands. The principal priest then by an orifice in the side 
 introduced his arm into the body of the victim, and tore out the heart. 
 
APPENDIX. ^2Y 
 
 liver, &c. whilst the animal was yet alive; the blood from the heart he sprinkled 
 upwards towards the sun, the other priests doing the same with the blood 
 from the body. They (the priests) then devoured the heart, liver, lights, 
 and entrails, reeking with blood ; whilst the caciques were permitted to eat 
 the body of the sacrifice.* 
 
 The sacrifice being finished, they proceeded to their divination or pro- 
 phecies ; and as their revelations were of the most flattering nature, the 
 council was permitted to be opened under the auspices of the Sun. The 
 Indians were naked, as they are in all functions of war, council, religion, or 
 athletic exercises. Their long hair was more than usually ornamented by 
 white, red, blue, or yellow plumes ; and their faces frightfully painted with 
 black, red, and white earths. 
 
 The oldest cacique sitting cross-legged on a cloth prepared for that pur- 
 pose, the next in seniority sat in the same manner on his left, and so in 
 succession, till the junior cacique came to close the circle on the right of 
 the senior. The General and his interpreters were seated in the centre of 
 this circle. Our officers and the Indian captains formed a second and third 
 rank round the circle; where we stood, to hear these turbulent sons of liberty 
 represent their constituents in the open air, exposed to the rays of a scorching 
 sun. All being seated, a profound silence reigned, which was at length 
 interrupted by the principal or oldest cacique, in a short speech directed to 
 the members, intimating the object of their union, &c. He then addressed 
 
 himself to Carrera, saying, that having assembled tribe of Indians in 
 
 council, he was authorized and required by their authority, and in their name, 
 to congratulate and welcome the Pichi Rey to their country ; to enquire re- 
 specting his health, and the difficulties he might have met in his march 
 hither ; the state of the country from whence he came ; the strength of the 
 military establishment there, and how employed, or likely to be employed ; 
 a particular relation of the wrongs which he had suffered from his enemies, 
 &c. &c. ; and to inform him, that as they were convinced that he was the 
 true friend to the Indiahs, he had only to command their tribe, and they 
 
 * It is curious that the account given here by Mr. Yates, of the sacrifice of the colt, 
 agrees with what we are told of the ceremonies practised by the ancient Mexicans at a 
 human offering. It should seem, therefore, that the horse is only a substitute for a man. 
 The way is now open, and I do not doubt that an inteUigent observer might find among 
 the Araucanians much to throw light on the history of the more polished ancient Ame- 
 rican states. 
 
 3/ 2 
 
428 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 would fly to any part to revenge his injuries, and embrue their hands in \he 
 blood of his enemies. Guelmo, the interpreter, noted all the principal heads 
 of the cacique's discourse ; and Carrera, after examining it particularly, 
 answered in a formal speech, which was interpreted to the Indians by Guelmo. 
 They spoke each in the same simple form, and to the same effect ; and when 
 they had all delivered the messages of their respective tribes, Carrera de- 
 livered to them a speech, in which he returned them thanks for the confi- 
 dence, which they placed in him, and the force which they had put at his 
 disposition, declaring to become their protector ; enumerating the advantages 
 which would arise to them from this union with him, &c. &c. When this 
 oration of Carrera was interpreted to them, they offered him their hands, 
 which he cordially accepted one by one. 
 
 As all they had hitherto spoken was not of or for themselves, but for the 
 tribes which they represented, they now ventured to express their personal 
 attachment to the Pichi Rey, whom they presented with various gifts, &c- 
 Wine was served to this august assembly ; but as they were on important 
 business, they observed perhaps as much moderation as might be expected in 
 a more civilised society. Each dipping the middle finger of the right hand 
 thrice in the cup, sprinkled the wine upwards as an offering, before they would 
 taste it (a ceremony which is invariably observed before they eat or drink) ; 
 they then merely tasted the wine, and ordering it away, resumed the business 
 of the day. Each cacique gave in a report of the force which he could bring 
 into the field, which collectively amounted to 10,000 warriors: they then 
 proceeded to give their ideas on the mode of attack against the Christians; 
 and their horrid plans of bloodshed and desolation argued as much sagacity 
 and penetration, as they did of ruthless barbarity and cruel inhumanity. 
 Carrera used every argument to convince them of the evil of their method of 
 carrying on war ; but no eloquence could prevail against the impropriety of 
 a custom which long usage had rendered sacred. As the Indian maxim is, 
 " Spare an enemy to-day, and to-morrow he will cut your throat," thev can- 
 not conceive either propriety, policy, or humanity, in allowing their victims 
 to live, except women and children, who serve them as slaves. 
 
 However Carrera made appear to them, that amongst those whom they 
 considered as their enemies, they and he had many friends ; and that it would 
 be preposterous to inflict on them the same chastisement as on their oppres- 
 sors ; of which being convinced, they promised to respect all such as he would 
 call his or their friends. Carrera then asserted, that as women or children 
 
APPENDIX. 429 
 
 did not carry arms or go to war, it was unbecoming a brave and warlike 
 people to kill or carry them away captives. They could not listen to this 
 tenet, as it struck at the very foundations of their customs respecting war ; 
 and even their honour was implicated. The honour of an Indian is computed 
 by his train of captives : they destroy all their enemies of the male kind ; 
 and if they took no women or children prisoners, they should have no captives, 
 and consequently no honour. Such is the reasoning of the Indians on the 
 subject ; and if any chief, however popular he might be, would undertake an 
 expedition, and deny that right to the Indians, he would not have one solitary 
 follower : Carrera seeing he could not prevail, waived all further conversation 
 on the subject. The assembly was prorogued, and we retired with the caciques 
 to dine on some bullocks, which had been roasted for the occasion ; and after 
 dinner, a bacchanalian revel succeeded, in which they gave themselves up to 
 the uncontrolled enjoyment of their favourite excess, — drunkenness : we 
 continued the revel all night, amidst the prophecies and songs of priests and 
 bards. It is an abomination to an Indian to eat, drink, or sleep, with a woman ; 
 however, the principal or favourite women of some of the caciques had their 
 meetings apart ; they were unnoticed by the Indians, but had some attention 
 paid them by us : they were, if possible, more intoxicated than the men. 
 Their songs seemed to take much effect on them, as they sometimes laughed, 
 and sometimes wept, at the ideas which they expressed. The airs were wild, 
 sweet, irregular, and plaintive ; rather pleasing, and not void of harmony. 
 
 The repetitions of these fetes were numerous ; but it would be tiresome and 
 unnecessary to enter into a particular detail of them, as what I have men- 
 tioned may serve to give a general idea of their sacrifices, councils, and 
 
 revels. 
 
 These inhospitable regions of America, where water is extremely scarce, 
 and wood in most places not to be found, were but little inhabited before the 
 conquest by the Spaniards ; and were first peopled by refugees from the south 
 of Chile, who came hither for the exercise of that liberty which they feared 
 it would have been impossible for them to enjoy there. Various other causes 
 since that time, such as wars with each other, &c., have driven various tribes 
 and remnants of tribes to settle there, that they might e'scape the vengeance of 
 their more powerful rivals. 
 
 Amongst the various tribes there is no union of government : they are fre- 
 quently at war with each other ; and only act in concert with each other, and 
 under one chief, when threatened by some real or imaginary danger ; and 
 
430 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 even then, there are no laws to compel them : the service of each tribe is 
 voluntary, and during its own pleasure. 
 
 Each tribe is governed by a cacique or chief) who is elected from amongst 
 themselves. The qualifications necessary for him who would aspire to that 
 honour are, acknowledged superiority of wisdom in council, courage and 
 stratagem in war, and zeal for the tribe which he governs : the power of a 
 cacique is so exceedingly limited, as to leave him merely the name of it. It 
 is his province to assemble his tribe, and explain to them the advantages 
 arising from a war, or the necessity of surprising or annihilating a rival nation ; 
 but it is theirs to ratify or deny it. However, when they do ratify the propo- 
 sition of their cacique on any occasion whatsoever, they adhere to it ever 
 afterwards with a religious veneration ; and it is to them as laws are to other 
 countries. When the chief and a majority of his tribe are for war, they can- 
 not use any compulsory means to force those to take a part in it who might 
 have been against it in council ; each being absolutely master of his own 
 actions, so long as he does not injure the person or property of any individual 
 of the society : but the soothsayers and bards begin their functions ; and by 
 their prophecies and songs so elevate the minds of their martial audience, 
 that few are so cold to fame as to stay behind, when honour and victory await 
 them in the field. The war-cry being given, the Indians relinquish that tur- 
 bulent and independent spirit which animates them in domestic life : they 
 become tractable and subordinate to their captains and caciques, obeying them 
 in every respect with the same punctuality which is expected from regular 
 soldiers to their superiors, during the expedition. Nor can they recover their 
 liberties before they return to their habitations ; when they are dismissed, 
 again assume their arrogance, and have a power to bring to trial their 
 chief, or enquire into his conduct in the time of his absolute authority, and 
 punish him if he were obnoxious to them. — From what has been said of the 
 government of Indian tribes, it is evident that the influence of a chief with 
 his own tribe, or among the chiefs of neighbouring nations, depends in a great 
 measure on his eloquence. The only privilege which they possess in time of 
 peace is that of giving their advice ; and he who can express himself best, 
 and touch the passions of his audience most forcibly, will be heard most 
 attentively, and obeyed with least reluctance. The Indians pay a religious 
 adoration to the sun, as the author of light, life, vegetation, &c. ; and also a 
 kind of secondary veneration to the moon. Whenever they eat or drink, the 
 three first morsels or drops are consecrated to the sun, by throwing them up- 
 
APPENDIX. 431 
 
 wards : the priests, on occasions of danger, emergency, doubt, suspicion, &c., 
 sacrifice to the sun, previous to their soothsaying, that the genius of truth may 
 direct their prophecies ; at the return of each full moon, they perform some 
 inferior ceremonies to that luminary. The eclipse of either sun or moon is 
 looked on as a presage of some dire calamity, which they try to avert by 
 sacrifice, or flight from the dwelling from whence they had seen it. That 
 they have an idea of a state beyond the grave, appears from their having 
 their horses, arms, and sometimes their favourite wives, buried with them, to 
 accompany them to that unknown world ; but such an idea must indeed be 
 very imperfect and undefinable, in an Indian mind! 
 
 Their language is very imperfect, wanting a great number of nouns to 
 express the names of many virtues, vices, ideas, arts, &c. Male and female 
 are sometimes expressed by the same name, without any modification or dif- 
 ference of termination by which the gender might be known ; thus, Pichi- 
 boton is the name for boy or girl, young man or young woman, but an addi- 
 tional number of qualifying epithets is necessary before we know in which of its 
 meanings to consider it. Their verbs are also defective in the tenses, ex- 
 pressing an action or passion without any direct idea of time, but in an 
 indefinite manner : labouring under these difficulties, it must take many words 
 to express the most simple idea. The manner in which the caciques speak 
 in council is entirely different from that of common conversation. The 
 harangues are given with astonishing fluency and rapidity : they seem never at 
 a loss to express any word ; their sentences are equally divided by pauses of 
 equal length, and they give an idea of blank verse, read without observing 
 any pause but the final at the end of each line. They use neither action nor 
 gestures ; but affect a most visible variation of the tone in which they deliver 
 their sentiments. 
 
 Agriculture is entirely unknown amongst them. They subsist altogether 
 on their flocks, and remove from one part to another to accommodate them 
 with pasture : when the society is small their stock is kept together, without 
 distinction of property, except the horses, which in the way of stock are the 
 only personal property of the Indians ; the cows, sheep, mares, and colts, 
 are the common property of the tribe. Their flocks are entirely managed 
 by their women and slaves (Christian women), who watch alternately during 
 the night, mounted on horseback, and going the rounds among the cattle : 
 if a sheep or any animal should be missing, the unfortunate woman is stripped 
 and flogged in a most barbarous manner. The occupation of the women 
 duiing the day is to catch and saddle the horses of the Indians, and cook 
 
432 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 their food. From day-break till dark, the women are busily employed in 
 this last occupation. Soon as a boiler of the horse-flesh is cooked, it is taken 
 from the fire and served to the Indians, sitting on their beds : every one has 
 his earthen dish, out of which he eats and drinks ; and if there should be any 
 left after the men have done eating, the women make a repast in a separate 
 corner of the toldo. The boiler is again put over the fire and filled, — cook ed, 
 and eaten; and the repetition of the same continues so long as they have 
 light. The Indians in their toldos are very hospitable : always when we 
 visited the toldos they took care to have beef and mutton for us ; which food 
 they eat only in time of famine, or when they can procure no other. 
 
 The toldo of an Indian is a species of tent formed by a few stakes made fast 
 in the ground, and covered with skins. The fire is in the centre ; and at one 
 side of the toldo the Indians sleep in little stalls on beds of sheep-skins, 
 whilst their women occupy the other side in a similar manner. The Indians 
 are as silent and pensive in their toldos, as they are noisy and turbulent in 
 their public meetings and councils. They will sit on their beds for an hour 
 without uttering a syllable, wrapt in some profound meditation, or plucking 
 the beard from their faces with silver tweesers which they carry for that 
 purpose, never permitting any hair to grow on their faces or bodies. Every 
 Indian has absolute power over the lives and actions of his women and slaves; 
 his daughters are also at his disposition ; but they are accountable for their 
 conduct towards their sons, soon as they have passed the state of childhood. 
 If a woman is unfaithful to her owner, or even mistrusted by him of having 
 other attachments, he is generally her executioner, ending her life with his 
 own hand. When an Indian is first married, he gives a feast to the relations 
 of the bride and his own friends ; but all the after-marriages are considered 
 merely as commercial transactions. Polygamy is allowed amongst them, each 
 being permitted as many wives as he can purchase. 
 
 The Indians, owing to the simplicity of their lives, enjoy excellent health ; 
 diseases are so unfrequent amongst them that they do not acknowledge the 
 existence of any natural distemper. Whenever an Indian is afflicted with 
 any sickness at a premature age and dies, the soothsayers, who are also their 
 physicians, impute the malady to some enemy of the deceased, who is sup- 
 posed to have the power of magic or witchcraft ; and if their science of pro- 
 phecy should enable them to discover who the wizard is, he suffers an 
 immediate death. When an Indian dies, his best horse, saddle, spurs, sword, 
 and lance, are buried with him in a pit ; and if he should have a wife 
 more dearly beloved than the rest, she accompanies him in his transit to a 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 433 
 
 more happy world, where her office is still to wait on him as a servant. 
 Immediately after the interment the tents are struck, and the tribe marches 
 in search of a more hospitable habitation. 
 
 Among the Indian tribes, crimes are not very frequent. They adhere 
 strictly to what they consider justice ; and any great innovation on, or vio- 
 lation of; their established customs is punished with death. A man who kills 
 any member of the society is given up to the fHends of the deceased, and 
 expiates his crime with his blood. This is the right of revenge, which is the 
 unquestionable privilege of every Indian ; and should it be denied him, a 
 civil war is generally the result, and the tribe becomes extinct. Though 
 they suppress theft, murder, &c. in their own tribes, he who commits the most 
 barbarous outrages on his enemies is considered most worthy of the respect 
 and applause of every member of his own society. 
 
 There may be considered four orders of Indian society; the caciques, 
 priesthood, captains, and people. They live together in the most perfect 
 equality and enjoyment of their- customs. Their occupations are nearly the 
 same, except the priests' ; who at different times, and under different cir- 
 cumstances, exercise the various functions of priest, prophet, physician, 
 bard, &c. 
 
 They compute their time by the lunar revolutions, and their distances by 
 days ; thus, two moons mean two months ; and the number of days between, 
 one place and another, means the time in which an Indian can gallop from 
 one to the other, and gives them a tolerably exact idea of distance. Their 
 way of counting is complex and fatiguing. They begin by counting up to 
 ten (which they cannot exceed) ; then making a mark on their beads, or with 
 a piece of stick, they count other ten, which they mark in the same way, and 
 so continue to proceed to ten tens or 100, which is marked apart ; a fresh 
 score is begun, and continued to ten hundred or 1000, known by a different 
 mark. Their numeration seldom goes beyond 1000, and cannot exceed 
 10,000. A number of men or objects passing 10,000 is expressed amongst 
 them by the word Many. 
 
 Their exercise or diversions are performed on horseback with their lances, 
 and are adapted to improve their strength and make them fit for war. They 
 have also an exercise which they perform on foot with a ball, not unlike 
 cricket. In all their exercises, diversions, and fetes, of whatever kind, they 
 are invariably naked. 
 
 The dress of an Indian in winter is a poncho, a piece of rug wound 
 round his waist, like the chiripa of the peasants in this country, (i. e. Chile, 
 
 3 K 
 
434 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 where waistbands are generally used,) and a pair of horse-skin boots, all 
 manufactured by their women. In summer the poncho is but little worn, 
 as the weather is sufficiently warm without it. The women wear a cloth 
 round the waist, which reaches to the knees : a square piece of cloth is 
 passed underneath the right arm-pit, the corners of which are made fast 
 over, and in front of, the left shoulder, by a large silver skewer about 12 
 or 14 inches in length. Their breasts, which in general are immoderately 
 large, and the greater part of the body, are entirely exposed to view. Their 
 hair forms two long queues ; which, beiijg bound in selvages, covered with 
 beads of divers colours, are brought round the forehead and temples like a 
 band, the ends tying over the forehead. Their ear-rings are large square 
 pieces of silver, rather thin, and hang down on the shoulders. They wear 
 broad necklaces of various coloured beads, and bracelets of the same. Some 
 of them also wear broad girdles round the waist, which are covered with gold 
 and silver coins, beads, &c. The unmarried women are known by wearing 
 bracelets on their legs, and their dresses are generally comparatively richer 
 than those of the married women : by this superiority in dress, their fathers 
 expect them to attract the attention of some rich warriors, who, to possess the 
 fair, must give to her father some horses, money, ponchos, or an equivalent 
 of some description, in exchange for his bride, who then becomes his slave, 
 and whose life is from that moment at the disposition of her purchaser. Nor 
 are females allowed any choice in the election of their conjugal masters. 
 The avarice of the father is only consulted ; and when a marriage or ex- 
 change of masters takes place, all the father's authority ceases, and the 
 daughter looks on him only as a stranger, her filial love and obedience 
 having been transferred with her person to her buyer. 
 
 The women are affable, generous, and attentive to strangers. Their fea- 
 tures are by no means displeasing : there are some among them whose coun- 
 tenances are indicative of innate goodness ; and, though their costumes are 
 not calculated to make the most advantageous display of their charms, there 
 are many of them pretty, and exceedingly interesting. 
 
 Many authors have supposed (and perhaps have had strong reasons for the 
 supposition) that Patagonia was inhabited by a gigantic race of Indians : a 
 contradiction from me would be as impertinent as unavailing against the 
 torrent of opinion ; but I will say, that I have not seen any of that race, nor 
 could I learn from any information of the natives that such a people do or 
 did exist. 
 
 They are of good stature, well made ; and if compared with the diminutive 
 
APPENDIX, 435 
 
 race of Peru, they will certainly appear to be large men j but are by no means 
 larger than the generality of English and Germans. They live in a con- 
 tinual state of war, or preparation for war, among their own tribes, and against 
 the Christians. Carrera succeeded in reconciling to each other all the rival 
 chiefs ; but such reconciliation cannot be of long duration. 
 
 The Indians are imperious and resentful j vehement in all their passions ; 
 jealous of their freedom and rights, and bold in maintaining them : they are 
 exceedingly brave, but extremely cruel and fond of revenge ; distrustful 
 of those whom they know not ; hospitable and faithful to those whom they 
 recognise as friends ; inveterate to their foes, neither forgiving an enemy or 
 forgetting an injury. 
 
 During our residence in the country of the Indians various causes com- 
 bined to render our soldiers insubordinate and mutinous ; viz. their inactivity, 
 want of pay, &c. ; however we continued to punish them severely for every 
 fault or disrespect, not overlooking the most trivial. In consequence of 
 this, they projected a most villainous mutiny against the General and offi- 
 cers, and only waited the arrival of a party which was out on duty to effect 
 their designs. — A soldier named San Martin was appointed general by the 
 soldiers ; the other officers necessary for the squadron were all selected from 
 among themselves. Our division was formed of the prisoners taken in the 
 battle of Maypu ; and as they had all served under the Spanish government, 
 they stUl retained an occult allegiance to Fernando. Their plan was, that 
 after putting to death the General and officers, they would pass to the south 
 of Chile, conducted by an Indian, and there join Benevides, who was fighting 
 for the Spaniards. 
 
 Fortunately our soldiers were not all unfaithful. There were some of 
 them who gave us exact information of the revolution, and swore to stand or 
 fall with their officers ; these were in the quickest time possible formed into 
 one troop, and amounted to 40. With this troop and the officers we did not 
 despair of suppressing the conspirators. The General affected to be ignorant 
 of the conspiracy. The ammunition was secured by us, and the principal 
 leaders of the' conspirators were sent on duty to the toldos of different 
 caciques who lived distant, and who had orders not to permit the soldiers to 
 return without a second order from the General. 
 
 Having secured the ammunition, separated the conspirators and their prin- 
 cipal leaders, and prepared ourselves to oppose whatever resistance might be 
 offered, the General called the sergeants to his quarters, and made known to 
 
 3k 2 
 
436 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 them that he was well acquainted with their base plot, and prepared to punish 
 them as they deserved. The sergeants retired; and soon as the soldiers 
 were acquainted with the conference which had been held between them and 
 the General, they began to regret having lost the confidence of their General, 
 and laid all the blame to the chief of the conspirators, San Martin. They 
 requested that the General would visit them, that they might personally beg 
 his forgiveness. In consequence of which an order was read to the soldiers, 
 intimating that the General would speak with them that evening, on the sum- 
 mit of the hill which overlooked the encampment. 
 
 On the evening parade the line was formed on the summit of the hill be- 
 fore mentioned. Soon as the General came in front they saluted, afterwards 
 carried arms, and wheeled to the right and left on their centre to form a 
 circle, in which the General stood, and from whence he harangued them 
 for about an hour. He painted in such colours the enormity of their medi- 
 tated crime, as caused several of the wretches to weep ; they prayed to be 
 forgiven and received into the General's favour, promising that the general 
 tenor of their future conduct would be only calculated to bury in oblivion the 
 remembrance of their past ingratitude and offences. 
 
 Having promised unconditional obedience, the General told them that 
 (unless for some very flagrant offence) he would not permit the officers to 
 punish them till such time as he would have it in his power to pay and clothe 
 them regularly. He also told them to prepare immediately for marching to 
 Chile, where each would be rewarded according to his services, and retired. 
 
 The soldiers, ashamed of their ingratitude, seemed ngw more than ever 
 determined to support their General, and cut their way through whatever ob- 
 stacles would oppose our march to Chile ; and to keep them in this mood of 
 mind, the General resolved not to allow them a moment's inactivity in future. 
 General orders were issued, specifying the conduct which the General ex- 
 pected from the soldiers towards their officers, and also intimating that the 
 latter should not wantonly or without good cause chastise or suppress the 
 former. The day of our march was narped, and emissaries were despatched 
 to the surrounding caciques, to inform them that an imperious necessity 
 impelled us to march immediately ; and to return them our thanks for the 
 hospitahty which we had received in their country. The General also made 
 known to them, that for the present he had no necessity of their aid, but 
 would accept it in the first case of contingency which would occur. How- 
 ever, he offered to admit of a captain of each tribe accompanying him, that 
 
APPENDIX. 43»7 
 
 he might have guides, in case it were necessary to retire to their country 
 again, and also to show that he would not absolutely refuse the assistance 
 they had offered him. Forty Indian captains accompanied us in our march 
 from the toldos, and formed the escort of the General. 
 
 A few days after the commencement of our march, we were lost in an 
 hitherto unexplored desert ; and none of the Indians knowing whither to pro- 
 ceed, the General undertook to guide us by a pocket-compass and small map 
 which he had in his possession. We were reduced to the most miserable 
 condition ; our provisions were entirely expended, in a country where water 
 was extremely scarce, and in which no living creature was to be found, ex- 
 cept sei-pents and other venomous reptiles. However, we continued our 
 march, satisfying our hunger by kilUng and eating such horses as were unable 
 to proceed farther ; and after two days we came to a lake, the water of 
 which was salt as that of the sea. Neither our men or horses were able to 
 proceed on the march, so much had they suffered from the heat of the wea- 
 ther and want of water. The General gave orders that each troop should be 
 divided into parties of five soldiers, and each party dig a well at a consider- 
 able distance from the brink of the lake, which was effected with much 
 labour ; and when they were sunk about five feet deep, the water began to 
 spring : it was nauseous, and very brackish. However, it was a luxury ; and 
 we indulged ourselves so much with it, that we became very ill, and passed 
 a most miserable night. From these wells fifteen hundred horses were also 
 supplied, but many of them died that night. Next morning we took a quan- 
 tity of water in barrels for our own use, and giving our horses again to 
 drink, we continued our course by the compass. As there are no rivers in 
 that part of the country, the lakes at an immense distance from each othei', 
 and almost universally of salt water, our fatigues were the same during our 
 march as what have been already described, unless that use made our hard- 
 ships more familiar to us, and consequently more supportable. At length, 
 after a march of thirty-three days, we arrived on the fi-ontier, some leagues 
 farther northward than we had expected. We came to a farm-house on the 
 frontiers of Cordova,, where we found abundance of cattle, and a chacra well 
 stocked with every kind of vegetables ; which relief was most timely, as we 
 should not have been able to continue our march two days longer, so much 
 had we suffered from hunger and fatigue. 
 
 We had scarcely dined, when a guerilla of Cordoveses presented them- 
 selves ; and as our horses were unfit for service, we waited their near approach. 
 
438 APPENDIX. 
 
 A troop then mounted, and, accompanied by some Indians, went out to meet 
 the enemy's guerilla, which they routed ; and eight Indians who, were fore- 
 most in the pursuit, succeeded in taking a prisoner, whose life they spared 
 in consequence of having received the General's order to kill no person, 
 but bring as many to him as they could take alive. This prisoner was of 
 great importance to us : he not only gave us all the necessary information 
 relative to the country in which we were (and of which we were entirely 
 ignorant), but also became our guide, and conducted us to the parts in which 
 the enemy's horses were concealed, thereby affording us an opportunity to 
 have our men remounted. 
 
 O'Higgins had sent money, arms, and ammunition to the governors of 
 San Juan, Mendoza, San Luis, and Cordova, to engage these provinces as 
 mercenaries to make war against us, and to oppose our march to Chile. The 
 regiment called the Guardia de Honor, with such other detachments and 
 officers as the Supreme Director thought worthy of his confidence from the 
 other regiments, were also ordered to march out of Santiago de Chile, in 
 order to cross the Andes, and assist the mercenaries in exterminating us : 
 but these troops had only reached Chacabuco, when they were counter- 
 manded by O'Higgins, as, on second consideration, he was aware that no 
 Chileno would fight against us ; that, on the contrary, they would all pass to 
 us and strengthen our lines. As Chilenos could not be trusted to oppose the 
 man who had first led them against their oppressors, liberated their country, 
 and expended his fortune in support of their independence ; against the man 
 whose rank, character, and benignity gained him the love and respect of 
 his countrymen, whilst he was feared but by a few tyrants and usurpers, who 
 were loathed by the country over which they had assumed an arbitrary au- 
 thority ; — it was thought that Chilian gold would have a better effect against 
 him. A fresh supply of money was sent to the provinces, that they might 
 raise a competent force to supply the place of the Chilians, who had been 
 recalled : of that money Mendoza received 30,000 dollars, San Juan and 
 Cordova the same sum each, and San Luis 1 2,000. 
 
 Our squadron consisted of 140 men, which, with forty Indians, the escort 
 of the General, composed an entire force of 180 men, not including officers ; 
 and for the destruction ef that small but much-feared band thousands took 
 the field. 
 
 The privations and dangers over which we had from time to time triumphed, 
 made us look with a degree of indifference on any misfortunes which could 
 
APPENDIX. 43g 
 
 possibly happen to us. Our soldiers were well mounted, and conscious of 
 their own superiority over any troops which could be brought into the field 
 against them. Carrera, with his few enthusiastic followers, continued his 
 march, notwithstanding many divisions of the enemy had marched to in- 
 tercept us. He despatched letters to the governors of Cordova and San Luis, 
 informing them that it was his resolution to follow his route to Chile, with 
 their consent, or by open force. That in case they gave their consent, every 
 thing his soldiers received in their march should be paid for ; and that, on his 
 part, he would take care that no cause for hostility should be given. We 
 continued to march without receiving any answer from these governments ; 
 and in Chajan, whilst we were unconscious of our danger, and unprepared to 
 meet it, we were surprised by Bustos, governor of Cordova, at the head of 
 600 of his veterans, having previously placed 200 militia in ambuscade in our 
 rear. Our encampment was in a small vale, surrounded by hills on every 
 side. The sun being extremely hot, three sentries, who were posted on com- 
 manding eminences for the security of the camp, had lain down in shade of 
 their horses, and there gone to sleep ; hence we had no notice of the advance 
 of the enemy until we saw them on the summit of the hill coming to the 
 charge in two lines. Our soldiers were astonished at this unexpected sur- 
 prise. Such as had horses saddled mounted them ; and those who had not, 
 caught their horses, bridled, and mounted them without saddles. The 
 General had only time to take his sword and mount the horse of a woman, 
 leaving his coat and hat behind : all was disorder and confusion, — no 
 formation or time to form. Our men began to disperse and retire through a 
 defile in our rear, in which Bustos' ambuscade was stationed ; but about 
 fourteen soldiers, with seven or eight Indians, stood firm to their ground, and 
 resolved to sell their lives as dearly as possible. They raised a terrific shout, 
 and precipitated themselves on the enemy, regardless of their danger. The 
 flying soldiers, looking behind and seeing their few companions engaged with 
 the enemy, were ashamed of their momentary fear ; and without any com- 
 mand, but as with one common impulse, they wheeled about, and, without 
 waiting to form, rushed on the enemy with redoubled fury. The enemy 
 could not withstand the impetuosity of the onset : their second in command, 
 and the principal officers who commanded the first fine, were killed ; in con- 
 sequence of which their first line gave way, and, falling back on the second, 
 began to rally. But the fury of our soldiers and chosen band of Indians they 
 could not withstand ; they were broken, and obliged to trust to their horses 
 
4^Q APPENDIX. 
 
 for safety. They were pursued six leagues, and received very little mercy 
 from the enraged soldiers. The Indians, with their long lances, gratified 
 themselves exceedingly on their enemies. Late in the evening the carnage 
 abated ; and fifty-four soldiers, with seven officers, were taken prisoners. We 
 were employed that night in gathering those who were badly wounded on the 
 field, and conducting them to our encampment, where they received every 
 attention in our power to bestow ; and next morning the field was again in- 
 spected, the arms gathered, and such wretches as were languishing under the 
 pain of incurable wounds were shot from principles of humanity. The 
 wounded who were dreadfully carved, but still curable, were sent under the 
 charge of a guard of peasants to San Luis, with a letter from Carrera to the 
 governor Ortiz, recommending them to his humanity. Ortiz, though he did 
 not answer Carrera's first lettei", answered the latter in such a polite manner 
 as induced us to believe that he would sooner allow us to pass through his 
 province unmolested than run the risk of opposing us. 
 
 We continued our route towards San Luis, and discovered on our right a 
 faint glimmering light, which appeared and disappeared alternately. A party 
 was sent to reconnoitre, and found an advanced guard, which they pursued. 
 As the enemy's guard reached the line and gave the alarm, they supposed 
 themselves attacked, and made several discharges. The flash from their arms, 
 in a night extremely dark, showed their position and the extent of their line 
 perfectly ; but as the ground was covered with wood, and little known by 
 us, we resolved to hold the position in which we were for that night, and at- 
 tack them at day-break. Our party returned, having lost a few men ; and 
 the enemy effected a retreat, notwithstanding the darkness of the night. One 
 of the enemy's guides deserted, and came to join us early next morning ; from 
 whom we learned, that the force which we had seen that night belonged to 
 San Luis, consisted of 800 men, and was commanded by Colonel Videla and 
 Lieutenant-Colonel Suasti, who were expecting large reinforcements every hour 
 from San Juan, Mendoza, and Arioja, besides infantry which they expected 
 from San Luis. Soon as daylight appeared we pursued the enemy; but 
 could not overtake him, as he had had considerable advantage of us in the 
 time of starting. However, after marching fifteen leagues, we arrived on the 
 banks of the Rio Quinto, in whose thick impenetrable woods the Puntanos had 
 taken up a position, in order to hinder us from obtaining water for ourselves 
 and horses. They sent out a flag of truce, to inform the General that they 
 had orders from their governor not to attack him, as Ortiz was coming out 
 
APPENDIX. 441 
 
 to negotiate with him personally ; and required that we should advance no 
 farther. Carrera told them that he was willing to suspend hostilities for 
 twenty-four hours, but that they should give up their position on the bank of 
 the riVer and retire elsewhere. Suasti, who was the deputy of the enemy, 
 refused to give up the ground which Carrera had required of him, and which 
 (on account of the water) was absolutely necessary for us. Carrera desired 
 he would immediately return to his troops, and, at the same time, gave 
 orders that Colonel Benevente should prepare to carry the enemy's position 
 by force. Suasti, seeing the General resolute, requested a few minutes to 
 deliberate with liis officers, which was granted him ; and sooner than fight 
 they consented to retire, and allowed us to take possession of the ground in 
 dispute. We heard the enemy sound their march with a number of trumpets 
 and bugles, but neither saw their force nor knew whither they retired. 
 Suasti accompanied us to the place where we were to encamp for the night, 
 when he had an opportunity of estimating our effective force. An officer 
 arrived late in the evening with a letter from Governor Ortiz to General 
 Carrera, which was to be answered next morning. 
 
 The ground which we occupied was a square of about 150 yards each 
 way ; one side was formed by the broad sandy beach of that part of the 
 river ; the opposite side by houses, corrales, gardens, and pahng ; and the 
 other two sides by thick woods. 
 
 Early in the morn, when the General was in the act of answering the letter 
 of Ortiz, the enemy's trumpets sounded in the woods in every direction, and 
 soon after our advanced posts reported the advance of the enemy in several 
 different quarters. The General could not suppose that this attack had the 
 sanction of Ortiz, but rather supposed it to have originated in some mistake, 
 and therefore sent an officer with a flag of truce to enquire into the cause of 
 such dishonourable proceedings. The enemy received our flag of truce with 
 fire, which sufficiently proved the baseness of their design : our outposts 
 retired into the square, when we prepared for action. Some officers requested 
 the General would give up to them the officer of the enemy who had 
 brought Ortiz's despatches, and who was nothing less than a spy, that they 
 might have him shot in front of our line, and in sight of his own, by way of 
 commencement ; but he appeared so very sad, and protested so earnestly that 
 he was ignorant of the treachery of his countrymen, that the -General, so far 
 from giving him up to be shot, as was solicited, sent an officer with him to 
 put him out of the reach of danger from our troops, that he might with safety 
 
 3£ 
 
442 APPENDIX. 
 
 return to his army. The enemy now appeared, surrounding us completely, 
 and began to pour in their guerillas, which were quickly repulsed by ours. 
 On the opposite shore of the river their strongest parties appeared ; and we 
 expected that an attack would be made from that quarter, as many of their 
 parties were seen uniting themselves there. They were charged by about 
 100 men, and completely routed. 
 
 During this time, the General had received information from one of the 
 guides, that at about one league's distance, in the middle of the wood, there 
 was a spacious "opening entirely clear of trees, where we might charge the 
 enemy to some advantage. The General formed our men in column, and 
 we began our march for the plain. The enemy did not interrupt us in our 
 march through the woods (probably because they found it impracticable to 
 bring their whole force to act against us) j but they anticipated our design, 
 and were in the plain of the Pulgar before us, where they waited our arrival, 
 and presented us battle in the border of the wood. The General ordered 
 our men to wheel about and retire, in order to draw them into the centre of 
 the plain, that they might not be able to shelter themselves in their native 
 shades ; but they understood it in another light. Owing to the superiority 
 of their numbers, they supposed that we were deterred, and determined to 
 fly from their vengeance. They pursued us, and promised themselves as 
 easy a victory as that which they had obtained over the Spaniards, whom 
 they massacred in San Luis ; but when they came into the centre of the 
 plain, we wheeled about and offered them battle. They immediately halted, 
 and seemed quite astonished at an unexpected change of front. Confusion 
 now seemed to take pace in their formation ; they saw that our retreat was 
 but to draw them out of the woods, and no doubt began to recollect the fate 
 of the Cordoveses in Chajan, which made a great impression on them, as 
 they had seen the wounded which we sent to San Luis, and heard their 
 description of that action. But their superiority in numbers, still left them 
 room to hope. Their line was handsomely formed. The right flank con- 
 sisted of 200 cavalry, formed in line of battle, and supported by a column of 
 reserve of 200 men, at about 50 yards in their rear ; their left flank was 
 exactly of the same strength and formation. Their centre was occupied by 
 100 infantry, covered from our view by a single rank of cavalry, which 
 defiled to the right and left, and uncovered them as soon as we charged 
 them. About 100 yards to the right of their line was a guerilla, which seemed 
 destined to attack us in flank soon as the attack would commence. Opposed 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 443 
 
 to this guerilla, on the enemy's right, an officer was stationed with 20 men. 
 Opposed to their right flank were 50 soldiers and 10 Indians, formed in a 
 single line, with about three yards between every two soldiers, in the manner 
 of skirmishers or tiradores. We opposed to their left flank the same number 
 of men, in the same weak formation. Their infantry, in the centre, remained 
 without any antagonists in our line ; yet with all our economy we could not 
 cover the front of their cavalry. The number of our effective men who 
 entered in action was 140 ; the enemy's force exceeded 1000. But if the 
 line of battle which we presented to the enemy was contemptible, our reserve 
 made amends for it, as it was rather numerous, and commanded much respect 
 from the Puntanos. It consisted of 80 women, whom we had bought of the 
 Indians ; about 15 or 20 Chilian women, wives of the soldiers; 54 Cordoveses, 
 prisoners taken in Chajan ; and a number of our own wounded men. This 
 reserve was commanded by seven of the Cordovese officers, prisoners of war, 
 and held a position about 50 yards in our rear, in a well-formed and formi- 
 dable-looking line. 
 
 All being ready on both sides, our soldiers and Indians advanced to the 
 charge with their usual intrepidity. The enemy's cavalry, though about . 
 eight or nine to one, despaired of success and fled. They were pursued with 
 a degree of zeal, and the field left pretty well strewn with them; and arriving 
 on the banks of the Rio Quinto, several of them threw themselves headlong 
 down the precipice sooner than meet the rage of the soldiers. In the mean- 
 time, the infantry, who remained in the centre of the plain, kept up a fire on 
 our reserve of women ; who stood it astonishingly well, without ever betraying 
 a feminine fear or a desire to retreat. A few soldiers, who had remained to 
 observe the infantry, returned their fire, and kept them engaged till the rest 
 of our men returned from the chace of the cavalry, when they were formed in 
 order to charge the infantry, who were first summoned to surrender ; but 
 either from actual bravery, or owing to an expectation of the reunion and 
 assistance of their dispersed cavalry, they decUned to surrender. 
 
 The order was given to charge ; and notwithstanding their heavy fire, our 
 men rushed on at full speed of their horses, overran and broke their square : 
 the fire ceased ; and in a few minutes this brave band of assassins lay dread- 
 fully mangled in a heap, not one officer or soldier escaping. 
 
 Thus died the chief supporters of Dupuy, the murderers of the Spaniards 
 in San Luis ; they were the bravest men we had seen among our enemies, and 
 fought to the very last man. The officer who commanded them bore an 
 
 3l 2 
 
444 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 excellent character, and deserved a better fate. This action was directed in 
 chief by Colonel Don Luis Videla, and the second in command was Lieute- 
 nant-Colonel Suasti, both famous officers of San Martin ; and the latter was 
 a member of the Legion of Merit of Chile, and his character was such as is 
 generally necessary for the members of that institution. 
 
 We had now acquired more arms, ammunition, and horses, than we had 
 any necessity for : the surplus was destroyed. The 54 Cordovese prisoners 
 were, at their own request, admitted to take arms in our line ; and the seven 
 officers who were chiefs of the reserve got their liberty, and passports to 
 return to Cordova, after having been five days prisoners. 
 
 From the field of battle we began our march, in order to make the most of 
 our advantage by entering the town of San Luis, and organising a govern- 
 ment which would be favourable to our views. We encamped in the Cho- 
 rillas, one league from the town ; and an officer*s guard was immediately sent 
 to the town to prevent disorders of any kind. 
 
 Here Carrera received despatches from Ramirez, informing him that he was 
 about to cross the Parrana with 4000 men, reminding him of his danger in 
 exposing himself to his numerous enemies with so small a force, and inviting 
 him to accompany him in his operations against Buenos Ayres and Santa Fe ; 
 and also telling him, that at the conclusion of the campaign he would give 
 him as many squadrons of horse as might be thought necessary to accompany 
 him to Chile. 
 
 We had notice from our spies and correspondents that Bustos was again 
 marching with a fresh army to incorporate himself with the Mendocinos San- 
 juanos, and Puntanos, in the province of San Luis ; that in a few days this 
 junction of forces would be effected, and would amount to 5000 men. The 
 spirit of our soldiers was still unbroken ; nay, they almost fancied themselves 
 invincible ; but their number was considerably decreased by the losses of the 
 two latter actions in killed and wounded. Our men who were fit for service 
 did not exceed 100 ; with which number it would have been preposterous to 
 hope for success against our numerous enemies. Under these circumstances, 
 Carrera called a council of his officers, who were unanimously of opinion 
 that the best means of securing the advantages which we had gained, 
 and of ensuring our future success, was to begin our retreat to the frontier 
 of Santa Fe, or Buenos Ayres, and there to wait the arrival of Ramirez. We 
 began our retreat accordingly ; and next day we took the officer who had 
 been liberated by Carrera the morning of the action with the Puntanos pri- 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 445 
 
 soner : he was accompanied by an Alcalde, Ortiz, and both were spies ; how- 
 ever, Carrera again liberated him, and recommended him to the attention of 
 the officers. 
 
 From the neighbourhood of Lobay the General took an escort, and pro- 
 ceeded to Melingue, to reconnoitre the frontier, and hear if Ramirez had 
 crossed the Parrana. In the meantime we dispersed a division of Bustos 
 which came to surprise us near the Tunas. From thence Bustos retired to 
 the Punta Sause, a town on the Riotercero ; where he shut himself up, and 
 fortified the place. 
 
 The Indians having had no intelligence of us from the time of our de- 
 parture from the toldos, had sent 400 men in search of us, as they were 
 anxious to hear what had become of us. These Indians came up with us 
 on the frontier of Buenos Ayres, when we were endeavouring to surprise La 
 Madrid. As the General wished rather to interest the peasants in his favour 
 than deter them by the presence of the Indians, lie took a great quantity of 
 mares, and giving them to the Indians, dismissed them to their country, 
 assuring them that they should frequently hear from him, and that he would 
 call on them for assistance whenever he found it necessary. Three of the 
 Indian captains remained with us as guides, in case we should be obHged 
 at any time to return to the country of the Indians, or call on them for any 
 force. 
 
 As Ramirez could not for the present cross the Parrana, owing to the su- 
 periority of the Porteiiian squadron on the river, Carrera determined to go 
 into the province of Cordova in search of Bustos, who had so diligently fol- 
 lowed us. Bustos' experience had taught him not to wish to meet us in the 
 field ; he therefore determined to fight us only under the protection of his 
 batteries or entrenchments. He remained in his fortifications in Sause with 
 500 men ; and we besieged him there fourteen days with 200 men, including 
 his own soldiers who were taken in Chajan: we encamped close by the town ; 
 and our guerillas kept the enemy always annoyed in the trenches, notwith- 
 standing the advantage of their artillery, which was sometimes used but to 
 very little purpose. Finding it impossible to draw Bustos from his fortifica- 
 tions, or to assault him in them, we left him in possession of his town, and 
 proceeded through all the other towns of the province, which we reduced, 
 with the exception of the city of Cordova. 
 
 We began to recruit our regiment, which soon augmented to 500, all of 
 
446 APPENDIX. 
 
 which were regular soldiers ; and besides these, we had 800 militia, under the 
 command of Colonel Don Felipe Alvarez. 
 
 The sierras or mountains of Cordova were considered impenetrable to an 
 army, particularly of cavalry ; but as Bustos' chief force was cantoned in 
 different parts of the mountains, we attempted to search them out. The 
 country people assisted us as guides, and we marched for Salta ; where we were 
 sui-prised whilst at dinner in a wood : the guard kept the enemy employed 
 whilst the squadron formed; the enemy was then charged and routed, a 
 considerable number killed, and some prisoners taken. The Cordoveses re- 
 tired to the mountains, whither we followed them closely ; many skirmishes 
 ensued, but all ended in the destruction and dispersion of the enemy, without 
 any considerable loss on our side. The last of the regulars of Bustos in these 
 mountains having long witnessed our success, and formed an adequate idea 
 of their danger in opposing us, passed to us under the orders of their ser- 
 geants and corporals, permitting their officers to escape. The sierras being 
 entirely subdued, Don Manuel Arrias was appointed commandant of the 
 district, and raised 300 militia to remain there ; whilst we returned to the 
 Villa de Concepcion, and thence marched to the city of Cordova, to form a 
 junction with the division of Colonel Pintos, who was then encamped on the 
 north side of the city. 
 
 We had Cordova besieged for some days by the militia of Colonel Pintos 
 on the north, and by our division and that of Colonel Alvarez, on the south. 
 The enemy's guerillas and outposts being beaten into the city, Bedoya, who 
 was govemador intendente, and now commanded in chief in" Cordova, drew 
 all his forces to occupy the plaza, leaving all the rest of the city unprotected. 
 The citizens of every rank were in our favour ; and were it not for an acci- 
 dent which happened to Ramirez, who had just crossed the Parrana, we 
 should have taken the city : an express arrived from him, stating that he was 
 closely pursued by his enemies, and requesting Carrera to march immediately 
 to his assistance. Carrera could not hear of the danger of his friend without 
 flying to his succour. He left Colonel Pintos, with other officers of practical 
 knowledge, to carry on the siege ; but as their force only consisted of militia, 
 they were surprised by a sally of the besieged, and entirely defeated. 
 
 Ramirez had sent 1000 infantry, under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel 
 Mansilla, to attack Santa Fe, whilst he passed the river near Coronda with 
 700 cavalry, leaving in the Bajada 2700 ready for embarkation. Mansilla 
 
APPENDIX. 4 47 
 
 disembarked under the fire of the forts and gun-boats of Santa Fe, and took 
 the batteries and plaza by assault. Ramirez having landed at the Barrancas 
 near Corronda, sent out 100 men towards Rosario to collect horses ; who, 
 when returning, were pursued by 700 men of the division of La Madrid, 
 Perez, the officer who commanded this small party of Ramirez, drove all his 
 horses in the van, and fought in retreat against the sevenfold force of the 
 Porteiios from Rosario to San Lorenzo, a distance of five leagues, without 
 losing any of the horses which he had taken. In San Lorenzo Perez was 
 reinforced by 100 men more ; he then charged the Portehos, and drove them 
 back to Rosario. La Madrid put his whole division in march, in order to 
 form a junction with Lopez, governor of Santa Fe, that their united forces 
 might oppose Ramirez, who still remained encamped in the Barrancas waiting 
 the arrival of his troops. La Madrid had marched all night ; and early in 
 the morning coming to the Barrancas, where he expected Lopez to meet 
 him, he found the weather so extremely hazy, that an object could not 
 be discerned at thirty yards' distance. He therefore fired a piece of artillery, 
 as a signal to Lopez to repair to the place appointed for their union. 
 
 Ramirez, who was but a few hundred yards distant, conceived that the 
 enemy was at hand, and with great silence prepared for action. Some officers 
 of the enemy, who were riding in front of their column with the guides, 
 perceived Ramirez's line at a few yards' distance, and returning immediately 
 to La Madrid, reported the same ; and Ramirez found himself in a few mi- 
 nutes surrounded completely. Ramirez's force consisted of 700 men ; they 
 were formed on the bank of the river, with a small interval between each 
 troop. The force of La Madrid was about 2840 men ; his Hne formed a 
 crescent, the extremities of which were placed on the bank of the river. Ra- 
 mirez, though a brave soldier, had little eloquence to harangue his men on 
 this occasion : he merely pointed to the river in their rear ; and then showing 
 them their flanks and front covered by the enemy, he exclaimed, " Muchachos, 
 " de aqui no hay retirada !" The charge was sounded, and the orientals 
 obeyed it with their usual promptitude. The Porterios waited them piejlrme; 
 and when but a few yards distant made a general discharge of artillery and 
 small arms, by which upwards of ninety of Ramirez's men fell ; however, the 
 remainder intermingled with the enemy, and soon put them in disorder. The 
 Porterios, long accustomed to be conquered by these troops, were again 
 obliged to yield, and were pursued with great slaughter, the whole division 
 being entirely dispersed or destroyed. The soldiers of Ramirez were well 
 
448 APPENDIX. 
 
 rewarded for their exertions. The miUtary chest of the Portefios contained 
 30,000 dollars, part of which belonged to Lopez and the Santafecinos. These 
 were equally divided amongst the soldiers, together with carts of baggage, Sec- 
 four pieces of artillery, with an ammunition waggon, remained on the field ; 
 and the most valuable prize of all was a large bag of official letters from all 
 the united provinces, which was taken in the baggage of La Madrid. By 
 these letters we were made acquainted with the very minutise of our enemy's 
 circumstances, and their united efforts against us, from Buenos Ayres to Chili. 
 This success was of short duration ; for Ramirez, proud of the victory which 
 he had gained, and intoxicated with the congratulations of a fair amazon 
 who accompanied him to the war, attacked at nightfall the division of Santa- 
 fecinos under Lopez, against the wisli of his officers ; who urged the darkness 
 of the night, and the fatigue of the soldiers since the action of the morning, 
 as sufficient reasons for deferring the action till the morning. Ramirez would 
 admit of no delay : his plan was, that his whole force, formed in columns, 
 should charge by divisions successively, when and where their exertions 
 would be most necessary. After explaining this new plan of attack to his 
 officers, he ordered the first division to charge, which was done : the first 
 division being warmly received by the Santafecinos, he ordered the second 
 to reinforce them. Lopez's line was broken ; and, owing to the darkness of 
 the night, similarity of uniform and language, a dreadful confusion ensued : 
 they could not distinguish whether their blows were directed against friends 
 or enemies ; but, overheated by passion and animosity, they continued to 
 fight with each other. The Santafecinos, aided by the general confusion and 
 darkness of the night, escaped from the field unperceived, and continued to 
 retreat, supposing themselves pursued by the orientals. The fight still con- 
 tinued between Ramirez's first and second divisions. Ramirez, thinking 
 that the Santafecinos still maintained the conflict, ordered the third and fourth 
 divisions to the assistance of the first and second, and afterwards went him- 
 self with the reserve ; when, observing the men closely, he distinguished by 
 their caps that they were all his own men : but, even afler the discovery of 
 the fatal mistake, it was with much difficulty that the soldiers could be 
 separated, as the clamour was so great, that Ramirez, or those who assisted 
 him, could scarcely be heard. By this imprudence of Ramirez nearly one 
 half his men fell by the hands of their own comrades. Lopez had not 
 suffered much in the fray, as he retired early ; but being informed next day 
 of the misfortune of Ramirez, he prepared to attack him. Ramirez was 
 
APPENDIX. 449 
 
 obliged to retreat, and seek our protection in the province of Cordova, leaving 
 the artillery, &c. which he had acquired behind him. MansiJla, who had 
 taken Santa Fe, not having positive orders how to act, and hearing of Ra- 
 mirez's loss, evacuated the town, and embarking his troops crossed the 
 Parrana, to wait further orders in the Bajada. Thus all communication was 
 cut off between Ramirez and his province. We met Ramirez at the Passo de 
 Ferreira, on the Rio Tercero. He still had nearly 400 men. 
 
 Bustos all this time remained shut up in his fortifications at Sause, and we 
 marched; together with Ramirez, to assault him in his trenches ; but having 
 had notice of our movement, he quitted his strong hold in order to unite him- 
 self with Lopez and La Madrid, then in the Posta del Esquina, near the line 
 of demarkation between Cordova and Santa Fe. There was a great number 
 of carts in Sause, which he brought with him to fortify himself if attacked on 
 his march. We arrived at Sause, and found that he had retreated two days 
 before ; we therefore left all our heavy baggage in that town with a detach- 
 ment, and redoubled our marches in pursuit of him. =,1 
 
 Doiia Delfina, the lady who accompanied Ramirez, was a fair Portena, who 
 " loved him for the battles he had fought" against her countrymen, and the 
 victories he had gained over them ; and his love for her was unfortunately 
 the cause of his present errors, and afterwards of his death. — As this lady's 
 frame was too delicate long to endure the fatigues of a forced march, several 
 halts" were made on her account. When close by Bustos, at least within 
 eight leagues of him, we were obliged to halt the whole night, that she might, 
 by reposing, recover some strength with which she might support the toUs 
 which were anticipated for the next day. But Bustos, during our halts, 
 reached the Cruzo Alta, where he fortified himself. Next morning we 
 arrived before the town j and, forming our divisions, an aid-de-camp was sent 
 to Bustos to intimate his unconditional surrender, and threaten him with 
 the consequences of an assault, if he should refuse. Fifteen minutes were 
 allowed Bustos for the return of his answer ; but he did not hesitate a mo- 
 ment : he replied to the officer, that the "Federal arms were never to be 
 " surrendered, nor could be obtained, but at the expense of the blood of 
 " those who carried them." The officer returned with this answer, and we 
 prepared to assault the town. (Bustos here calls his the Federal army. At 
 the time when he was first put in possession of the government of the province 
 of Cordova by Carrera and Ramirez, his army was called The Third Division 
 of the Federal Army ; and now, though an apostate firom the political tenets 
 
 3 M 
 
450 APPENDIX. 
 
 which he then professed, though an ally ofBuertos Ayres, and a mercenary 
 of Chile, he had either ignorance or impudence enough to assume the name 
 of Federalist.) 
 
 The Cruz Alta is a village which has been for some time fortified against 
 the incursions of the Northern Indians. There are three small forts at right 
 angles, formed by palisades, earth, &c., besides many impenetrable corrales 
 de tunas* : one side of the triangle was protected by a line of carts made fast 
 to each other ; the other two were formed by cheveaux-de-frise, houses, 
 yards, &c. These small forts were well manned, and a piece of artillery in 
 each : the intervals between each of the forts were occupied by light infantry 
 behind their works. The cavalry of the enemy were few, and had been beaten 
 by our guerillas into the plaza on our first arrival in the morning. Bustos' 
 whole force was about 580 men ; our division, with that of Ramirez, was 
 more than 1200. 
 
 Three hundred of our men dismounted, to act against the forts as infantry, 
 and were to have been protected by the whole of the cavalry. All being ready 
 for the attack, our infantry, sustained by the cavalry, advanced on the right 
 and left flanks of the town : a heavy fire commenced. Our men continued to 
 advance, and dislodged the enemy from an outpost, and afterwards took the 
 fort to which it belonged : in that moment Ramirez rode up and ordered the 
 cavalry to charge. We then galloped close in front of the enemy's line under 
 a heavy fire, and entered the plaza ; where we found nothing but horses, 
 Bustos' cavalry having abandoned them, and escaped into the forts. We 
 remained in the plaza for some minutes covered with dust and smoke, and 
 exposed to the enemy's fire in every direction. Our infantry were aware that 
 their fire crossed the plaza, and would be as offensive to us as to the enemy ; 
 they therefore ceased firing. After being some time in the plaza without 
 being able to do any thing against the enemy, we retired with a degree of 
 confusion ; and our infantry (seeing so much disorder prevail among us) also 
 retired, abandoning the advantageous posts they had gained, which were 
 quickly re-occupied by the enemy. We again formed our infantry and cavalry 
 before the town, and, on inspection, it appeared that all the ammunition was 
 very nearly expended ; we could not replace it till our return to Sause, where 
 we had left our ammunition dnd baggage : it was, therefore, out of our power 
 to renew the action, which the indiscretion of Ramirez had lost by his devi- 
 
 * Enclosures, the hedges of which were made of the Cactus opuntia. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 451 
 
 ation from the plan previously understood by the officers, and by his unac- 
 countably exposing the cavalry in a place where they ought not to have been 
 employed, as they could be of no service. We remained before the town two 
 days, and then returned to Sause, leaving Bustos unmolested to effect his 
 junction with his allies, Lopez and La Madrid. We lost between forty and 
 fifty men in the assault ; the enemy's loss could not be so little : Bustos, how- 
 ever, gratified his allies by reporting that he knew from good authority that 
 our loss in killed and wounded was not less than 300 men, and even gave 
 them a description of the manner in which we buried our soldiers to keep our 
 loss unknown, &c. On our arrival in Sause, we were informed by our spies 
 of the operations of our enemies. Buenos Ayres, Santa Fe, Cordova, San 
 Juan, San Luis, and Mendoza, had sent out divisions against us. 
 
 The Padre Guiraldes was sent as a deputy from Mendoza, under pretence 
 of negotiating a peace or neutrality on the part of that province, whilst his 
 real object was to cause a revolution amongst the officers of Carrera. Don 
 Juan Jose Benevente, a resident of Mendoza, and brother to our colonel, was 
 obliged by the government to give a private letter to Guiraldes by way of re- 
 commendation to the Colonel ; and in which he conjured his brother to accede 
 to the propositions which the holy father would make him, as the good of the 
 country and his own safety and welfare depended on them. The conditions 
 were to be privately made known to the Colonel, who was expected to disse- 
 minate the seeds of sedition among the officers. The following are the ideas 
 which were conveyed to us in Father Guiraldis' mission. — That Carrera and 
 his division had done the greatest injuries to the nation ; nevertheless, there 
 was yet an opportunity for the officers to make reparation for the evils to which 
 they had been accessaries, by abandoning the standard of anarchy and enrol- 
 ling themselves under that of the Patria, leaving Carrera alone with his sol- 
 diers, to receive the just punishment which the nation would think proper to 
 inflict. Some compliments were paid to the understanding of the officers, 
 and the Patria anticipated that these propositions would be joyfully received 
 by us ; for though we had the misfortune to have been misguided, they flattered 
 themselves we were still zealous for the public good, and would avail ourselves 
 of this opportunity of showing it. In return for this important service, the 
 Colonel was to be promoted to the rank of brigadier-general, and every officer 
 receive a rank above that which he held in the service of Carrera ; our com- 
 missions were to be, not from any particular province or government, but from 
 the nation, which are considered the most honourable. There was nothing 
 
 3 M ^ 
 
452 APPENDIX. 
 
 in these stipulations relative to the legion of merit ; but had we performed the 
 service required of us, no doubt we should have been admitted into that 
 meritorious and worthy fraternity. 
 
 When Guiraldes' secret commission was made known by the Colonel, it was 
 looked on and treated with the contempt and ridicule which it merited. He 
 was seized and brought before the General, who became his confessor, to 
 whom he disclosed his secrets, and was then given up a prisoner to the guard ; 
 from whence he escaped in the confusion of an action, a few days after. 
 From Sause, we marched towards Frayle Muerto, when a misunderstanding 
 taking place between the generals, they parted. Our division took the route 
 for the frontiers of the province of San Luis, in order to surprise the Men- 
 docinos, who were encamped in Las Barranquitas : the division of Ramirez 
 marched in a northerly direction, to return to Entre Rios by the way of 
 Las Charcas. The causes whence this separation originated were various ; 
 the following were the principal ones : — Ramirez had for his secretary the 
 celebrated priest Montarosa, who had been principal secretary to Artigas, and 
 director of all his proceedings. He was much attached to his old master 
 (Artigas), and consequently an enemy to Carrera and Ramirez. Carrera ex- 
 postulated with Ramirez on the impropriety of having admitted such a person 
 to accompany him, and desired that he would be sent back to Entre Rios ; 
 where, if he wished to show him any kindness, he could easily do it, without 
 exposing himself to the consequences of having a person in his army likely 
 to prove a traitor ; but Ramirez had much confidence in this warlike priest, 
 and could not think of discharging him. Our soldiers began to express 
 their disgust towards those of Ramirez, imputing to them and their "ge- 
 neral the ill success of our attack on Cruz Alta, and the raising the siege 
 of Cordova. Ramirez, though he had given himself up to pleasure in this 
 more than in any former campaign, did not allow the smallest relaxation in 
 the rigid discipline of his soldiers. In the midst of abundance they were 
 stinted of meat, and severely punished for every trivial offence : this they con. 
 sidered rather hard ; for as their general indulged all his appetites, they who 
 ventured their lives in his defence thought themselves at least worthy of a 
 sufficiency of food in an enemy's country, where it cost him nothing. 
 
 In consideration of these circumstances, Carrera thought it best to part 
 with his friend before grievances would become more serious ; and as it seemed 
 to be of necessity, their separation caused no abatement in their friendship. 
 The day subsequent to our separation, an aide-de-camp of Ramirez came up 
 
APPENDIX. 453 
 
 with us, bearing a letter from his general to Carrera ; in which Ramirez soli- 
 cited the re-union of their forces, the guidance of every thing to be left to 
 Carrera, and Montarosa to remain merely in the character of a priest, who, 
 he again assured him, was no longer the friend of Artigas, but faithful to 
 their interests. 
 
 Carrera answered this letter by assuring his friend, that where the insidious 
 friar Montarosa existed, he would never expose himself or his soldiers. 
 But, even independent of that objection, he told him, that the only means of 
 escaping the vigilance of our numerous enemies was by separating, that we 
 might thereby draw their attention in different q^uarters, and so by dividing 
 them conquer them separately. He concluded by giving him his opinion on 
 the line of conduct which he supposed would be most eligible for him to 
 follow in his march, and assuring him of his unchanging friendship. 
 
 Besides the official correspondence, the aide-de-camp was the bearer of a 
 private proposition from the officers of Ramirez, offering to leave their gene- 
 ral, and pass with all the soldiers to Carrera, if he would receive or admit 
 them to do so. This proposition Carrera heard with horror and astonish- 
 ment. He told the aide-de-camp that he was sorry the officers had formed 
 so very illiberal an opinion of him as to have supposed him capable of treating 
 his friend in that manner. He also told th.e aide-de-camp, that he would not 
 inform Ramirez, as he hoped they would never again think of committing so 
 heinous a crime ; that if their general had been led into error, he stood in 
 the greater need of their firm support ; that whatever his weaknesses might 
 be, they never could efface his glories ; that he never expected to hear of 
 such brave officers as those of Ramirez staining their dear-bought honours 
 by the base crime of abandoning the general who so often had led them to 
 conquer, &c. 
 
 The aide-de-camp returned with the letter of Carrera to his general, and 
 with the above-cited reproofs to the officers. Several of Ramirez's soldiers 
 and sergeants deserted, and some of them followed our division. 
 
 As we were about to leave the province of Cordova our division was much 
 reduced by desertion, as many soldiers whom we had recruited in that pro- 
 vince, and nearly all the militia, returned to their homes. 
 
 The enemy trusting to his numbers came out in search of us ; and suc- 
 ceeded in intercepting our rear-guard, which had under its care a great num- 
 ber of waggons, baggage, sick and wounded men, prisoners, women, &c. 
 The Mendocinos fell on them at day-break, and put all to the sword, not 
 
454 APPENDIX. 
 
 excepting the sick and wounded who were festering in their sores. In these 
 waggons the General's papers were taken, and despatched to Mendoza as the 
 most authentic and unequivocal proof of the important victory they had 
 gained. We marched from the Arroyo on which we were encamped, imme- 
 diately on hearing of the massacre of the guard and wounded men j and in 
 two days we fell in with the enemy, who was also in search of us. 'Twas 
 early, and the morning was extremely dark and foggy, when the flankers of 
 our left discovered the Mendocinos' encampment in the woods, on the banks 
 of the Rio Quarto ; and as they knew we were encamped close to them that 
 night, they were prepared, and came out to meet us. The ground being 
 woody and uneven we retreated, leaving a strong guerilla to protect our 
 retreat, during which it was engaged with the enemy's van. We at length 
 arrived on a fine plain near the Villa de Concepcion, where we halted and 
 gave front to the enemy. General Morou, who commanded the Mendocinos, 
 from his success over the wounded and the small guard which escorted them, 
 supposed he would have little difficulty in defeating us. He formed his men 
 in two divisions, with a strong guerilla on their right, which advanced to 
 attack us. Our squadrons were formed in line of battle, with a reserve in 
 the rear of only 40 men ; the women, who generally augmented that corps, 
 having been taken with our baggage two days previous. A guerilla of our 
 lancers charged and repulsed that of the enemy ; which being reinforced, our 
 party were obliged to retire, and were pursued in their retreat. The whole line 
 of the Mendocinos now advanced to the charge, as did ours to meet them. At 
 a few yards' distance from each other both lines made an involuntary halt : 
 an awful pause ensued, till Colonel Benevente peremptorily ordered the line 
 to advance ; the same expedient was used by General Morou, who came in 
 front of the Mendocinos' line and led them on. The lines closed, the action 
 commenced ; and General Morou, after exchanging a few blows, was the 
 first who fell beneath the superior arm of one of our soldiers. The fight 
 between their second division and our whole line was obstinate ; but theu* 
 first division and the guerilla of their right out-flanked us, so that We were 
 then charged in flank, front and rear, or completely surrounded. The action 
 now presented very little hope to us ; our line was broken and obliged to 
 fly, but was at length rallied again by Colonel Benevente and the ofllicers. 
 The charge was renewed with vigour, and the Mendocinos were beat back 
 several hundred yards beyond the ground where the action began ; when they 
 were reinforced by 200 men, who awaited our arrival in formation and 
 
APPENDIX. 455 
 
 charged us. They easily succeeded in routing us, as we were not more than 
 50, and not in formation. The day was extremely dark ; and not being able 
 to see any of our men, we considered the action lost, and ourselves the only 
 remnant of the fugitives. We were chased by the enemy a considerable dis- 
 tance ; when falling in with a large party in our front, which we supposed to 
 be enemies, and which proved to be Colonel Benevente with all the force he 
 could collect, we again charged the Mendocinos, routed and entirely dis- 
 persed them, which terminated the action. There was not a shot fired except 
 by the guerillas in the commencement of the action. We lost 80 men, and 
 a few officers ; the enemy lost their general and all their best officers : their 
 loss in killed we never ascertained, as we marched immediately off the field 
 in pursuit of those who had escaped. We retook our waggons, and the women 
 who were prisoners with them. In this action our effective force did not 
 exceed 300, the Mendocinos' were 1400. 
 
 •» We marched directly to Concepcion, which was the point of re-union for 
 the enemy, where we found 150 men, who abandoned the town, and re- 
 treated precipitately for the sierra ; but as their horses were all fatigued in 
 the action, and without any others to replace them, we came up with them 
 at nightfall, and summoned them to surrender ; but whilst their commanding 
 officer, Colonel Quiroga, was treating with Carrera, the soldiers passed the 
 river in their rear unnoticed in the night, and dispersed, every one pursuing a 
 different route : this was all Carrera wished — their total dispersion. 
 
 We continued our route for San Luis, taking many of the dispersed officers 
 and soldiers prisoners in our march. This late action (in the idea of the pea- 
 sants) established our good fortune on supernatural principles. They had an 
 opportunity of seeing the enemy's troops and ours, and could not conceive 
 how the few soldiers of Carrera could be so frequently victorious over the 
 numerous divisions of their enemies ; howeyer, they attributed the cause to 
 a communication with demons or familiar spirits which were subservient to 
 Carrera, as the most easy way of accounting for the effect. Carrera being 
 advanced with a party a few days subsequent to the action, entered a cot- 
 tage, where he passed himself on the people for an officer of Mendoza 
 coming with reinforcements against Carrera, and made many enquiries 
 relative to the situation and operations of the Carrerinos, or people of Car- 
 rera. The old woman told him, that all his countrymen had been killed by 
 Carrera a few day ago, in the action of Concepcion or Rio Quarto ; and con- 
 jured him by all the saints to make his escape as quick as possible to Mendoza, 
 
456 APPENDIX. 
 
 as Carrera could not be far distant : that he had not many men with him ; 
 but when it was necessary to fight, he only took a piece of white paper from 
 his pocket, muttered a curse, and threw it in the air, when troops sprung up 
 from the ground, sent to him by the devil, with whom he was in league : 
 hence he was always victorious. 
 
 Carrera was infinitely pleased with his excursion, and retired with every 
 mark of conviction relative to the truth of the old woman's doctrine. 
 
 We continued to march towards San Luis, and met no difficulties on our 
 route. The town had been abandoned by Ortiz the governor, and we en- 
 camped in Las Chorillas, one league from the town : the General, with a 
 guard, lived in the town, the more effectually to prevent excesses on the 
 
 part of the soldiers. In a few days, Ximenes was elected governor 
 
 for the time being, by the cabildo ; and San Luis declared in our favour. 
 The lady of Ortiz was sent to him under the care of an escort, carrying with 
 her every thing she thought necessary : a guard was placed in Ortiz's house, 
 to take care that nothing should be injured which belonged to him. The Ge- 
 neral also sent him a letter by his lady, inviting him to return to San Luis, 
 and continue in the exercise of his government ; but Ortiz (though not averse 
 to Carrera's political ideas) was overawed by the many enemies who were 
 determined to effect our destruction, and would not return, or accept his go- 
 vernment from Carrera. 
 
 In San Luis we had information of the death of General Ramirez, in an 
 action (if it maybe so called) against the Santafecinos- and Cordoveses. The 
 circumstances of his death are the following: — He had reached the fron- 
 tiers of Santiago del Estero ; and being advanced with a guard of thirty men 
 at a consideral)le distance from his division, he was suddenly surprised at 
 the Rio Seco, and charged by 400 men. The guard could not resist such 
 a force, but was soon beaten and put to the route. Ramirez, who had his 
 fair charge (Doha Delfina) by his side, disdained to abandon her or shrink 
 from danger, though he must have been aware that his single exertions could 
 not suffice to rescue her from the enemy. He fought desperately by her 
 side, and despatched several of his foes, but at length fell beneath the 
 swords of the merciless multitude that assailed him. 
 
 Ramirez was of a low stature, very dark complexion, and disagreeable 
 countenance. He seems to have had a strong capacious mind, and possessed 
 natural abilities ; but they were entirely uncultivated by education. He was 
 a poor politician ; but the best qualities of a soldier were concentred in him in 
 
APPENDIX. 457 
 
 a high degree : he was open and frank, a stranger to dissimulation, true to his 
 friend, and in point of personal bravery was exceeded by none. 
 
 During our stay in San Luis, two revolutions were set on foot against us : 
 the one by four officers of our own division ; the other by Aldao, and some 
 officers of the enemy who had been prisoners with us, and who having re- 
 ceived their liberty from the General, still chose to follow our division and 
 remain under our protection, probably to embrace the first opportunity of 
 betraying us. 
 
 The cause of this division among our own officers may be accounted for 
 by observing, that three of them, who had commanded parties in the country, 
 and acted in a way highly derogatory to the character wliich they represented 
 (by not only allowing their soldiers to plunder several villages, but actually 
 receiving their proportion of the booty, thereby injuring the general charac- 
 ter of the officers, as well as the cause in which we were engaged), were 
 impeached by the other officers, who requested of the General that they might 
 be brought to trial, and dismissed for their ill conduct. As these officers 
 were much beloved by the men, on account of the many liberties which they 
 allowed them, the General did not at that time think it prudent to bring them 
 to punishment, as it might cause a desertion among the soldiers ; but he 
 named a military tribunal, over which the Colonel was to preside ; and which 
 on our arrival at San Juan was to be invested with full power to take cogni- 
 sance of, and enquire into, the conduct of every officer in the past campaigns ; 
 bring all such as were obnoxious to trial, and subject them (according to the 
 nature of their crimes) to such punishment as a court-martial might think 
 fit to impose. This determination of the General, though it was intended to 
 have been kept unknown to the greater part of the officers, came to the 
 knowledge of some of those whose characters would not bear scrutiny, and 
 therefore they began to exert all their influence with the soldiers to induce 
 them to desert and follow them. At the head of this mutiny was Don Ma- 
 nuel Arias, who has been mentioned before as appointed commandant of the 
 Sierra de Cordova. Arias was aged about forty-five ; and though not a soldier, 
 as he was the richest and most respectable gentleman who resided in the 
 sierra, where his influence with the inhabitants was considerable, Carrera 
 thought him the fittest person to nominate to the command of that district. 
 He had 300 militia left him when we raised the siege of Cordova, and in 
 our absence he was attacked and easily defeated ; from which time he fol- 
 
 3 N- 
 
^^g APPENDIX. 
 
 lowed our division for protection, and merely as an individual without au- 
 thority or occupation. 
 
 On our arrival in San Luis he was appointed to act as commissary, in 
 which his conduct was not altogether unexceptionable : he was superseded 
 by another civilian follower in that office ; and then having the entire dis- 
 posal of his own time, he employed it in successfully addressing a young 
 lady of the town, whom he induced to elope with him ; but as he was mar- 
 ried and had a large family, the General took the lady from him, and made 
 known to her who and what Arias was. Arias addressed this young woman 
 under the character of a single man and an officer of Carrera, without being 
 either ; but so great an ascendancy had he gained over her affection, that 
 though undeceived, she was willing to sacrifice all other feelings to her love 
 and follow him. Carrera delivered her to her relations, who kept her as a 
 prisoner as long as we remained in the town. Such were the grievances 
 which induced Arias to take a part in the mutiny. One of the officers of the 
 mutiny (Moya) was to receive the sister of Arias in marriage on their return 
 to the sierra ; but how they intended to employ the troops we have never 
 been able to learn. 
 
 The loyalty of our soldiers disconcerted both the one and the other of these 
 revolutions. The plans of the conspirators never came to the knowledge of 
 the General till after his imprisonment by them, having been conducted with 
 admirable secrecy ; and it is remarkable, that the parties whicli conspired 
 were ignorant of each other's views and motives for mutinying. 
 
 The General was not well acquainted with the nature of the country 
 through which we had to pass ; and all his officers being equally ignorant 
 of it, he was obliged to consult with guides who were traitors, and who had 
 nothing in view but our destruction : amongst these Aldao was the principal; 
 and he was sufficiently skilled in dissimulation to make the General believe 
 that he was sincerely attached to his interests. The guides highly recom- 
 mended the route to San Juan, which coincided with the ideas of Carrera, 
 as his plan was, to remain in San Juan till the passage of the cordillera would 
 open, organise an army of two or three thousand men, and pass into Coquimbo, 
 where he would have received the capitulation of O'Higgins without any 
 hostilities in Chile. 
 
 The General having determined on the route of San Juan, sent out parties 
 in the road of Mendoza, which attacked and routed the advanced posts of 
 the Mendocinos : by this he expected to impress on the minds of our ene- 
 
APPENDIX. ^gg 
 
 mies the idea that our march would be in that direction, and thereby distract 
 their attention ; but the enemy received correct information from our guides, 
 and made the necessary preparations to meet us. 
 
 On the 21st of August, 1821, we marched from San Luis towards San Juan. 
 Ximenes, who acted as governor of San Luis, accompanied us with eighty 
 Puntanos ; .the greater part of whom deserted when we approached the 
 enemy. 
 
 Our horses were miserably reduced in our encampments at San Luis, as 
 there was no grass but what was artificially produced, and it had been de- 
 stroyed by the enemy's horses previous to our arrival. On our march to 
 San Juan we too late discovered the country to be an uninhabited and sandy 
 desert, scarce of water, and producing no kind of vegetation, except some 
 copses of stunted brushwood ; the decayed branches of which were the only 
 food of our horses in the march of eighty leagues. The guides every day 
 promised that the next we might expect to meet pasture for the horses ; and 
 so brought us on insensibly, till at length we had advanced too far to think 
 of receding. A division of the enemy had occupied San Luis a few days 
 after we evacuated it ; and if we retreated, the enemy would have an oppor- 
 tunity of uniting their forces. 
 
 We had an expectation of receiving horses in San Juan ; on the realisation 
 of which depended all our hopes. We stUl continued to advance ; and on 
 the 29th of August we met a strong detachment of the enemy on the banks 
 of the river of San Juan prepared to dispute the passage. The river was 
 wide, deep, and difficult to ford : the pass was, however, carried with little 
 loss, and the enemy dispersed. We continued our march towards San Juan, 
 the principal force of which was encamped in the Ligua, a plain some dis- 
 tance from the town ; and we encamped close to them that night, and ex- 
 pected to attack them in the morning. 
 
 In our division there were not twenty horses fit for service ; and by a 
 prisoner who had been taken that day, the General was informed that in 
 Guanacacho (about eight leagues distant, on the road to Mendoza), there 
 were horses ; and also, that the Mendocinos were in march, and hourly ex- 
 pected to join the San-Juaninos. This intelligence made Carrera alter his 
 plan of attacking the San-Juaninos at day-break ; instead of which we marched 
 towards Guanacacho, in order to possess ourselves of the horses which were 
 there, and intercept the Mendocinos in their march before they should form 
 a junction with the force of San Juan. 
 
 3n- 2 
 
460 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 Experience had taught our soldiers that their success and safety depended 
 not less on the quality of their horses, than on the superiority of their cou- 
 rage ; and though they did not murmur, they universally desponded of suc- 
 cess, and considered themselves as marching to deliver themselves into the 
 hands of their enemies, — victims, without the means of offering any resistance, 
 
 A friend of Carrera's in San Juan had sent 400 horses to a pqtrera in the 
 vicinity of Pie de Palo, and a letter to Carrera, directing him where he 
 should march to take those horses ; and also informing him, that the town 
 was entirely in our favour ; and that 300 of the veteran infantry, which had 
 belonged to No. 1. regiment, were ready to pass to us soon as we should 
 attack the plaza. This letter was unfortunately intercepted by the enemy, 
 who took the necessary measures for their security, possessed themselves of 
 the horses alluded to, and put into prison all suspected persons. 
 
 A party of thirty men, the best mounted of our division, were advanced 
 to Guanacacho, to take whatever horses they might find there and observe the 
 Mendocinos. Another party marched a considerable distance in our rear, 
 to ascertain if the San-Juaninos retired to San Juan or followed our march. 
 We marched but a few leagues that day, and were obliged to halt in a 
 medano, or soft sandy ground, without either grass -or water ; the incapacity 
 of our horses not admitting our farther advance to a more desirable situation. 
 
 Our advanced party met a strong detachment of the enemy in Guanacacho; 
 they were in a potrera, and, not being able to escape out it, they were nearly 
 all cut off: — a few escaped to Mendoza with the news. 
 
 By a priest whom we had taken, and who was a scout of the enemy, we 
 knew that the Mendocinos were near at hand. An express was sent to 
 Guanacacho, requiring the party to fall back rapidly with whatever horses 
 they had taken, that they might unite themselves with us ; and orders of a 
 similar nature were sent to the rear-guard ; but in the next moment we dis- 
 covered the enemy, who had taken up a strong position between us and our 
 advanced party, thereby cutting off all communications. 
 
 Thus we found ourselves in front of the enemy, our best mounted and 
 bravest soldiers absent, and our men entirely destitute of that animation and 
 desire for combat which they so strongly manifested on all former occasions; 
 some soldiers mounted on worthless horses, more on mules, and others lead- 
 ing their horses after them on foot. Such were our dreary prospects on the 
 morning of the 31st August, 1821. 
 
 Under these disadvantages the General did not despair, but made immediate 
 
APPENDIX. 461 
 
 dispositions for the action. Our whole force was but 470 men, of which 150 
 men and officers were taken out, and given to the Colonel to charge the 
 enemy's line. Our horses were of very bad service, but all the others were 
 entirely unfit fqr any service. We advanced in line towards the enemy ; 
 whilst the remainder of the force, including women, prisoners, muleteers, and 
 baggage, marched in column at a very slow pace. 
 
 The enemy occupied a strong position : his right and left flanks were 
 composed of cavalry ; the one protected by the Laguna de Guanacacho, the 
 other by a neighbouring wood against which they were formed. The centre 
 was occupied by 600 infantry, and a fosse extended along their front ; which 
 was easily formed in the sandy ground, and was almost impossible to pass 
 with our weak horses. A guerilla from the enemy's left annoyed us much ; 
 however, it retired as we advanced, and at last took place in their line. Our 
 horses were too .weak to reconnoitre their line closely, or ascertain the 
 strength of their position. Having came within pistol-shot of the enemy, 
 they opened a fire on us. Benevente halted, formed his few men for the 
 charge ; and seeing the soldiers rather dispirited, he began to encourage them 
 by reminding them of former difficulties out of which they had extricated them- 
 selves by their exertions ; comparing the present with former dangers, and 
 assuring them that their future welfare entirely depended on their conduct in 
 this action : but seeing them still irresolute, he asked peremptorily, and with 
 a stern countenance, if they would or would not fight. The soldiers, more 
 from a fear of the imputation of cowardice than from any hope of success, 
 answered unanimously, that they would follow and die with their colonel. 
 The charge was sounded ; and we advanced under the fire of the enemy as 
 rapidly as our horses' strength would admit. We soon got on a soft sandy 
 ground ; when many of our horses sinking, and not being able to disengage 
 themselves, lay there ; others advanced, whilst some were obliged to remain 
 behind : thus, by the nature of the ground and incapacity of our horses, our 
 line was broken before we reached that of the enemy. On coming up to the 
 enemy's line we could not charge them, nor cross the trench which protected 
 their front. The Colonel and officers made every exertion to pass it ; but 
 the men being under the galling fire of the enemy but at a few yards' distance, 
 and thinking it impracticable to pass the fosse, retired in disorder. We 
 were pursued by the enemy's cavalry about 300 yards; when, meeting the 
 General, the soldiers rallied, and drove the enemy back to their trenches. 
 The air was filled with a subtile dust, with which we were almost suffocated, 
 
462 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 and prevented us seeing or preventing any attempt which the enemy might 
 make to surround us ; hen-ce we could not with propriety follow up the advan- 
 tage we had gained. 
 
 Re-union was sounded, and we formed close to the enemy's position ; where 
 we waited, expecting to be attacked : the cloud of dust gradually disappeared, 
 and we saw the Mendocinos in their ground seemingly in the same uncer- 
 tainty as ourselves ; however, they immediately sent out guerillas to renew 
 the attack. 
 
 In this skirmish our horses were completely fagged. Forty or fifty soldiers 
 were, however, fortunate enough to catch the horses of the enemy's soldiers 
 who had been killed or unhorsed in the attack ; and with these we dispersed 
 their guerillas. The Colonel resolved, whilst the soldiers were in the heat of 
 passion, to renew the charge, without giving them time for the consideration 
 of their danger. We were about 100 ; and with that number Benevento 
 charged the cavalry on their left flank, leaving all the rest of their line un- 
 covered and unheeded. On our approach to their line, Albin Gutierres, 
 who was their general, abandoned his horse and took refuge in the infantry's 
 square. The commandant of the cavalry on that flank followed the same 
 example, but on pretence that his horse had become unmanageable from the 
 noise of the musquetry : the soldiers and inferior officers of the cavalry, 
 abandoned by their chiefs, could not be much blamed for a change of posi- 
 tion which brought them in rear of the infantry, who kept up such a heavy 
 oblique fire on us as obliged us to retire once more ; but in good order, and 
 not pursued. We halted, and gave front to the enemy again ; when, as the 
 Colonel was exclaiming against the soldiers for their cowardice in havino- 
 twice retreated without orders, we perceived a large cloud of dust, which 
 indicated the march of the army of San Juan, and consummated the terror 
 of our men. It was with difficulty we could hinder the soldiers from mani- 
 festing their fear to the enemy, who were close in front : each seemed eager 
 to seek his own safety in flight ; and the officers were obliged to form in their 
 rear, with orders to strike dead the first man who would show any disorder or 
 cowardice in sight of his enemy. The General plainly saw that these men 
 would not charge, and that, if they did, it would be only uselessly sacrificing 
 the lives of soldiers who might be useful on another occasion ; he therefore 
 gave orders for a retreat, which we commenced in good order. The soldiers 
 whose horses were bad mounted behind others, or were taken prisoners. 
 The enemy harassed our rear about three leagues ; in which distance, out of 
 
APPENDIX. 4g3 
 
 470 men, which we brought into the field, we lost all except about 20 officers 
 and 80 soldiers : in action we could not have lost 30 men ; the rest remained 
 on the field, as their horses could not march. 
 
 We had gained eighteen leagues a-head of the enemy ; and were about to 
 surprise a squadron which guarded a great number of excellent horses in the 
 potreras of Jocoli, when a catastrophe the most fatal, horrid, and criminal, 
 put us in power of our oppressors. 
 
 The officers who had planned the revolution in San Luis supposed this to be 
 the most favourable moment for executing their villanous undertaking. They 
 reported to the soldiers, that soon as Carrera should surprise the enemy's 
 squadron in JocoU, and possess himself of the horses, he and his favourite 
 officers would abandon them and the soldiers, by escaping to Buenos 
 Ayres disguised ; from whence they would embark for England, or the United 
 States : and that to avert the vengeance which awaited them (the soldiers), 
 it was necessary that they would take him and his officers, and give them up in 
 Mendoza. The soldiers believed this ingenious fabrication of the mutineers, 
 and entered unanimously into the design of seizing the General and officers ; 
 which they soon after effected. 
 
 It was very dark, about two o'clock in the morning, when we were surprised 
 by the word "Halt" being given vehemently by many voices. We halted, 
 supposing the enemy were on us. The conspirators (Arias, Moya, Fuenta, 
 and Inchouti) rushed forward with a chosen escort to the head of the 
 column, exclaiming "Seize the General and Colonel ! Tie all the officers !" In 
 the same moment some shots were fired at the Colonel and Ansorens (a 
 guide), who, having good horses, escaped. The General made some efforts to 
 defend himself) — his pistols missed fire, and he was in a moment overpowered 
 and disarmed. He attempted to speak to the soldiers, but they would not 
 hear him ; and Arias ordered him and the rest of the officers not to speak to 
 the soldiers on pain of death. 
 
 A letter was immediately sent back to the army of the enemy by the con- 
 spirators, and another to Godoy Cruz, governor of Mendoza, informing them 
 of what they had done : they then continued their march towards Mendoza, 
 till we arrived at Jocoli ; when we halted, and had some refreshment, for the 
 first time in the forty-eight hours antecedent. 
 
 Here Moya, one of the conspirators, seemed to have repented of his 
 treachery : he acknowledged that nothing could efface the stain which his 
 character had sustained ; but he was over-awed, and persuaded by his com- 
 
464 APPENDIX. 
 
 panions to adhere strictly to what they had commenced. However, by his 
 intercession on our behalf, he obtained from the other three permission to 
 write, in their names, an official letter to the governor of Mendoza ; in which 
 he requested that the lives of the officers whom they had taken would be 
 held sacred, and that they should be allowed to retire to any of the provinces 
 as destierrados, without suffering other punishment or imprisonment. This 
 letter was answered by Godoy Cruz, the governor, in the affirmative. 
 
 We continued to march towards Mendoza ; and when we were about two 
 leagues from the town, several squadrons came out to receive us. Moya 
 and Arias, who had assumed the command, ordered the soldiers to surrender 
 their arms ; which they did with reluctance. 
 
 We halted at a large country-house, which served as a barrack for the 
 enemy's troops : there the soldiers were placed in a yard, with double guards 
 over them ; and Colonel Garcia, commandant of the barracks, sent to invite 
 us to sup with him, in order to separate us from our soldiers; whom they still 
 feared, though unarmed. After the Colonel had entertained us about two 
 hours in his quarters, an adjutant came with a strong guard and conducted 
 us to the barrack of San Domingo in Mendoza ; where we were thrown into 
 a large dark room, without any kind of defence against the cold, and obliged 
 to lie on a damp brick floor. After a few days' residence there, we became 
 inmates of the capilla (a room dedicated to persons under sentence of death, 
 and stocked with images, &c. for religious purposes), in the gaol ; when we 
 were loaded with irons, &c. &c. 
 
 The officers who had conducted the revolution were received with much 
 magnificence at the Governor's, and next morning were billeted in the most 
 respectable houses of the friends of Godoy Cruz. A small pension was 
 allowed them for private expenses. 
 
 In the meantime Carrera was lodged in the dungeon with Colonel Bene- 
 vente (who was taken the morning after the revolution), and bound with 
 irons and cords in the most brutal manner : he knew that he should in a few 
 days suffer the same fate as his brothers, but bore his misfortune with the 
 same serenity of mind for which he was always distinguished. He seemed to 
 have no concern for himself; but spoke of the misfortunes of his wife, and 
 the friends who were partakers of his hardships, with the greatest regret. 
 
 Albin Gutierres, who commanded the force of Mendoza, desisted from his 
 cruelties whilst he supposed that Carrera had escaped ; but when he received 
 the letters of the conspirators relative to the revolution they had made, he 
 
APPENDIX. 4g5 
 
 gave a loose to his infernal rage : at every halt his army made in their 
 return to Mendoza, parties of prisoners were brought out and shot ; for 
 which cruelty he accounted to the provinces, by saying that all those soldiers 
 had fallen on the field of battle fighting : he did us much more honour 
 than we merited, in order to add to his own, and cover his wanton barbarity. 
 
 It would be doing an injustice to Albin Gutierres to neglect noticing his 
 family, and the eariier occupations of his youth, &c. Like most of the 
 people in power in America, he started up from the dregs of society. The 
 most that is known of him is, that his first employment in active life was that 
 of picador ; i. e. a person whose duty it is to sit in front of a cart with a long 
 cane or pole, pointed with a nail or spike, in order to prevent the bullocks 
 from going to sleep, and make them quicken their pace occasionally. The 
 carts in which he served as peon were employed in the commerce between 
 Buenos Ayres and Mendoza ; hence he imbibed his love for traffic. His 
 first promotion was from picador to the rank of arriero, or muleteer, in the 
 wine trade. He, with his savings, purchased a mule ; and was allowed by his 
 employers to take with him in every journey to Buenos Ayres one cargo or 
 two barrels of wine, there to seller his account and risk ; the return of which 
 he always employed in buying up something proper for the market of Men- 
 doza. Having saved some money in this trade, he left it off, and became 
 pulpero, or wine retailer ; in which he was so fortunate as to amass a consider- 
 able quantity of money, and soon established himself as wine-merchant on 
 a pretty large scale. As he was acquainted with every branch of the busi- 
 ness, from gathering the grapes to driving the mules with the produce, and 
 was uncommonly industrious, it is not surprising that in a few years he 
 became one of the richest men in Mendoza. When San Martin was captain- 
 general of the province of Aryo, he conferred on him the rank of colonel of 
 militia for some services which are not ascertained. 
 
 Such was the general who had the credit of humbling us, after our having 
 defeated the best and bravest generals of the country ! He was an arrant 
 coward, and as cruel as he was timid. But he was successful, and crowned 
 with honours. 
 
 As to Carrera, he showed the greatest resignation to his fate, from the 
 moment he was made prisoner ; he was aware that his longest respite would 
 not exceed four or five days, yet he conversed, ate, drank, and slept, as if 
 nothing were to happen to him. 
 
 3 o 
 
^QQ APPENDIX. 
 
 On the third day after our arrival in Mendoza, the ringing of bells and 
 firing of the artillery announced the arrival of Gutierres, who immediately 
 ordered that the sentence of death should be read to General Carrera and 
 Colonels Benevente and Alvarez in the dungeon; and 11 o'clock next day 
 was appointed for their execution. There was no formality of a trial, because 
 they could not be tried by officers of inferior rank ; and as all in town were 
 inferior, there Could be no court-martial : the sentence was therefore given 
 in the name of the general and officers of the army of Mendoza. Godoy 
 Cruz, the governor, denied having any part in the death of Carrera, and said 
 he was obliged to comply with the wUl of the town. 
 
 Priests were sent to the dungeon to prepare the souls of the condemned 
 for the other world. Carrera would allow no priest to speak with him, unless 
 he were allowed the confessor of Madame Fuentacilla, his mother-in-law, who 
 had been banished Chile and resided in the town. This was denied him. 
 He then requested of the government permission to have a short interview 
 with his mother-in-law, which the Governor was pleased to grant ; but she 
 found herself too weak for so affecting a scene, and declined coming to see 
 him : however she procured him permission to write to his wife, and to 
 deposit the letter in her hands. 
 
 The morning appointed for his execution (Sept. 5th) had come ; and Car- 
 rera was busily employed writing his last letter to his wife, when an adjutant 
 of the plaza came into the dungeon, and informed him that he was reprieved 
 by the government, and that his only punishment would be banishment. 
 Carrera did not appear elated at this news, but threw aside the letter he was 
 writing, and commenced a new one on another sheet ; but in about fifteen 
 minutes afterwards the guards came to take them out to be shot. He re- 
 quested of the officer but a few moments before he would accompany himj 
 and laying aside the letter he had before him, he took the first he had been 
 writing, and finished it by informing her, that in that moment he was about 
 to accompany his executioners to the banco. He requested that whatever 
 love she had for him would henceforward be directed to their children, and 
 particularly to his son ; whom he ordered to be sent to England or the United 
 States, when he should have attained his seventh year, that he might in one 
 of those countries receive his education. 
 
 The reason of the government for reprieving (or pretending to reprieve) the 
 life of Carrera a few minutes previous to his execution was, that these sudden 
 changes in his hopes might enervate him in sight of the populace, by whom 
 
APPENDIX. 467 
 
 he was venerated. But the stratagem caused no alteration in Carrera ; he 
 showed neither terror nor anxiety at meeting death. He heartily despised 
 all friars ; however they thronged round him in his last moments, in order to 
 re-convert him, that he might die a good Christian. Passing through the 
 plaza, they employed all their logic in proving the existence of hell, and the 
 torments of the damned. He reprimanded them for their insolence in offer- 
 ing and imposing their unasked advice; and continued steadfastly to view 
 the troops, and make his observations on the strength of the town to the 
 officer who giiarded him. 
 
 Coming up to the seat on which he was to be shot, and hearing his name 
 softly pronounced, he raised his eyes, and saw on the house-top some ladies 
 who had come to see him and were about to retire : supposing that some of 
 them knew him, he saluted them ; they returned his bow, and retired much 
 affected. 
 
 Carrera, still unchanged, stood by his seat on the same ground on which 
 his brothers had bravely died. The padres renewed their suit for the safety 
 of his soul, which he told them was his care, not theirs. Finding all their 
 remonstrances useless, they requested he would forgive the town for the in- 
 juries which himself and family had received in it; and also to ask forgive- 
 ness for the injuries which he had caused it. He replied, that if his forgive- 
 ness could mitigate the wrongs, or make less glaring the injustices, which his 
 family had sustained, he freely granted it ; but that he, conscious of the 
 rectitude and honour of his actions through life, could never think of solicit- 
 ing the forgiveness of any of his most ungenerous enemies, of whom he 
 considered the Mendocinos the most barbarous and illiberal. 
 
 He then took off a valuable poncho, which he delivered, with his watch, to 
 be deposited by the father confessor of Madame Fuentacilla in her hands, 
 to be delivered as the only legacy and remembrancer of the unfortunate 
 father to his son. He then sat down on the seat ; and when the executioner 
 came to tie his arms, he stood up rather indignantly, and ordered him to 
 retire ; asking the officer who stood by to have him shot, when he had seen 
 an honourable officer tied by a ruffian ? He also refused to have his eyes 
 covered ; and sitting down calmly, he placed his right-hand on his breast, and 
 requested the soldiers to despatch him. They fired, — he received two balls 
 in the forehead,— two passed through his hand and entered his heart : he fell, 
 and expired almost without a pang ; and, after decapitating him and cutting 
 off his right arm, his body was given to his mother-in-law, and interred in the 
 
 So 2 
 
4QS APPENDIX. 
 
 tomb of his brothers. His head was placed on the cabildo, and his arm 
 close under the clock which belonged to that building. 
 
 Carrera was aged 35 years : his person was tall and graceful. He had 
 dark hair, a high forehead, dark piercing eyes, and aquiline nose : his coun- 
 tenance was serene, and extorted respect even from his enemies. He was 
 enterprising, honourable, and brave ; unreserved with his friends ; free from 
 dissimulation or envy ; compassionate and generous to a fault. His temper 
 was mild and even ; neither adversity nor good fortune having the power to 
 make any evident suppression or elevation on his mind. His humanity was 
 such as did not deserve the name of virtue ; for, passing the bounds which 
 prudence would have prescribed to it, it degenerated into an unaccountable 
 failing or weakness. An enemy, however criminal he might be, was treated 
 with generosity and compassion by Carrera ; even assassins, who had mur- 
 dered our soldiers, were frequently taken and brought before him : — he 
 always protected their lives at the expense of justice itself, and not unfre- 
 quently made opportunities for them to escape himself^ when he could not 
 trust to another to do it ; thus affording them the means of a farther exercise 
 of their depredations. 
 
 From Pueyrredon down to the most insignificant of Carrera's enemies, 
 there were few whose persons or property did not at some time fall into his 
 hands ; the former were always protected by him, the latter ever scrupu- 
 lously respected. 
 
 This strange passion of Carrera, this mercy where it ought not to be exer- 
 cised, can only be accounted for by supposing it to have for its origin and 
 basis a species of ambition or self-love. Perhaps he believed that by treat- 
 ing his enemies with kindness, and loading them with obligations, they would 
 become his friends ; if that were his idea he was miserably deceived, and 
 proved himself in a great measure ignorant of the character of his country. 
 
 That magnanimity which would have immortalized Carrera in any other 
 country was but lost in America, where such a virtue is little acknowledged 
 and less practised. His generosity was attributed by his enemies to fear ; 
 and in some of their pubHc papers they had the impudence to call the man 
 a coward who, with 140 men and the resources of his great mind, made every 
 government and governor totter, from the Atlantic to the Pacific. 
 
 Had Carrera given every traitor the punishment which justice would 
 dictate when tliey fell in his power, and shown his generosity and greatness 
 of mind only to such as could compreliend and appreciate tliem, he would 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 469 
 
 never have died under their hands, nor his friends have suffered for the ima^ 
 ginary crimes which were attributed to them by his enemies. 
 
 If his ambition was to live without any imputation of blood, cruelty, or in- 
 justice on his character, he perfectly succeeded in his desire of deserving such 
 a character ; but 'tis more than probable that his enemies will deny that he 
 possessed any good quality. During three years of his government in ChUe, 
 and in all his campaigns, he never had the life of a man taken away. The 
 only person Carrera sentenced to death in ChUe was a near relation of his 
 own, whose crime in any other person would have been overlooked and 
 forgiven. His life was begged by the Congress of Chile ; and he was trans- 
 ported to the Brazils, and is now an officer of much merit in the Portuguese 
 service. 
 
 Colonel Alvarez, who was executed with Carrera, died a penitent Catholic, 
 and evinced resignation and character in his last moments : he was also 
 beheaded, and the head sent to Bustos ; that by exposing it he might destroy 
 the hopes and repel the exertions of the Cordoveses, who so much venerated 
 the old man Alvarez, and called him their father and protector. 
 
 Colonel Benevente, who expected to have been shot with General Carrera, 
 was surprised, on the morning appointed for their execution, to find himself 
 left behind in the dungeon. His brother, Don Juan Jose Benevente, mer- 
 chant of Mendoza, with all the principal men of Mendoza, waited on the 
 governor, Cruz, and begged the life of the Colonel; which was granted, in case 
 Gutierres the general would ratify it. They immediately waited on Gutier- 
 res ; but the old muleteer was inexorable, and resolved to have his vengeance 
 on a man whom he would tremble to behold in other circumstances. The 
 citizens retired disgusted with their new-created general, and without further 
 hopes of obtaining the hfe of Benevente. However, another experiment 
 was tried by the ladies of the town, and succeeded. The wife of Don Juan 
 Jose Benevente, accompanied by all the matrons and young women of the 
 town, in mourning, waited on Gutierres, at his house; and after flattering the 
 old wretch, by persuading him that he was brave, generous, &c., he became 
 flexible, and granted to them in writing the life they solicited. The fair 
 deputation immediately proceeded to the dungeon, and informed Benevente 
 that they had procured his life from Gutierres, and would alleviate the 
 inconvenience of his prison by all means in their power. The Colonel was 
 so struck with their humanity and generosity, that he was for some time 
 
470 APPENDIX. 
 
 unable to reply. Thus receiving his life aflFected him more than he could 
 have been affected by losing it on the banco. 
 
 We were all closely confined, and expected to be shot or privately assassinated 
 every day; nevertheless we were not dispirited, but were determined to 
 emulate each other in dying with resolution. We were all resolved to 
 imitate the noble example of our chief, who viewed death without terror, 
 and met him rather as a friend who was to release him from the insolence 
 and ingratitude of an ungrateful country. — But no ! Chile was not, nor 
 ever can be, ungrateful to Carrera ! Oppression may shackle her, and 
 tyranny break the spirit of her inhabitants ; yet her best sons, to the latest 
 posterity, will venerate his name who first drew the sword in defence of her 
 rights. 
 
 The government at Buenos Ayres sent a reprimand to Mendoza for then- 
 barbarous conduct towards us ; saying, that no such power existed in the 
 government of Mendoza as to authorise them in such an absolute manner to 
 dispose of the lives of Americans ; and that in the numerous revolutions of 
 Buenos Ayres, there could not be produced, to degrade the Portenian cha- 
 racter, a single circumstance similar to the death of Carrera. 
 
 A large proportion of the inhabitants of Mendoza were in our favour, and 
 openly declared we should not be put to death. The Indians also (who had 
 been in search of us) came to the frontier near San Carlos, and sent a de- 
 putation into Mendoza to demand our liberty. The government had the 
 head and arm of Carrera taken down immediately, and delivered to Madame 
 FuentacUla, who had them interred with his body, lest the Indians should 
 see them. They succeeded in deceiving the Indian deputies, by assuring 
 them that we were not in the town, and telling them that we were all in 
 Chile. 
 
 Five of our ofiicers had been taken by the San Juaninos on the field of battle 
 at Punto del Medano. The governor of San Juan was enraged with his 
 officers for sparing their lives, and knew not how he could with an appear- 
 ance of justice put them to death. He, however, soon found a plan which 
 answered his purpose : he sent for them to the barrack, where they were pri- 
 soners, to wait on him at his house ; and coming there, he gave them billets 
 to certain houses, where they might live at their liberty. The officers were 
 grateful for the favour which they received, and retired ; but two days after 
 were taken up, brought to the plaza, and shot, for having formed a revolu- 
 tion to depose Governor Sanches, their Uberator ! 
 
APPENDIX. 471 
 
 Similar fabrications were forged against us ; but they meditated a revolu- 
 tion in Mendoza, and the fear of retribution prevented them from assassinat- 
 ing us. 
 
 Albin Gutierres received from the government of Chile, in consequence of 
 having defeated us, the rank and pay of brigadier-general, and member of 
 the legion of merit. Doctor Godoy Cruz, governor of Mendoza, a super- 
 stitious motilon (the lowest rank of friar), who never wore a sword, or saw 
 an enemy, was also initiated into the legion, and honoured with the rank 
 and pay of brigadier-general of the army of Chile. — How happy the country 
 which can without resentment behold such honours conferred on the very 
 persons who assisted in riveting her chains ! 
 
 In the Chilian gazette there was published a large but false account of our 
 last action, in which it appeared that the General and all the officers had been 
 taken by the Mendocinos on the field of battle ; and that the assassination 
 of our soldiers, and many of our oflficers, was merely in self-defence, &c. 
 
 p. S. — I believe in the account of our last action with the Mendocinos in 
 the Punto del Medano, I omitted to insert the number of their force, — they 
 had 600 infantry, and between 5 and 600 cavalry. 
 
 The above paper was written at my request by Mr. Yates, a young Irish 
 gentleman, who, with his friend Mr. Doolet, was engaged in the service of 
 Carrera. After the death of their chief, they were sent as prisoners to San 
 Martin in Peru ; and there, after suffering great hardships on board the 
 prison-ship in which they were transported from Chile, they were imprisoned 
 in the castle of Callao. Their wretched situation moved the Honourable 
 Captain F. Spencer to apply to San Martin for their release ; who gave an 
 order to that effect, on condition that they should not land again in Spanish 
 South America. Accordingly, they both remained on board of one or other 
 of the British ships of war on the station,^ until the Doris conveyed them to 
 Brazil ; where they are now both in the service of His Imperial Majesty 
 
 Don Pedro. 
 
 The paper is printed without any kind of alteration. 
 
APPENDIX II. 
 
 EXTRACTS 
 
 FROM THE 
 
 COREESPONDENCE BETWEEN VICE-ADMIRAL LORD COCHRANE AND 
 
 THE VICEROY PEZUELA. 
 
 (Referred to in p. 46. of the Introduction.) 
 I. 
 
 This correspondence began March 4>th, 1819, on account of the prisoners of 
 Chile detained in Peru, 'who were extremely ill used. In the first letter are 
 the following expressions, used by Lord C. in his remonstrance to the Viceroy : — 
 " The undersigned, neither according to the orders of the supreme 
 government of Chile, whose cause he prides himself on having adopted 
 and supported, nor according to his own principles, can ever permit him- 
 self to make war otherwise than in that liberal manner prescribed by the 
 enlightened manners of the age, and consecrated by the practice of civilised 
 nations. But at the same time, he thinks it a duty to declare, that if the 
 irregular conduct of the enemies of his government should force him to 
 adopt a principle of retaliation, he will not hesitate to impose silence on the 
 best sentiments of our nature, and to follow with firmness those measures 
 which have taught even barbarians to respect the rights of humanity." 
 
 II. 
 
 The Viceroy's answer to the letter, from which the above extract is made, 
 defends himself, from the charge of any unusual severity to the prisoners ; and 
 justifies severity, if such were employed, on the ground that the Spanish 
 government treated as rebels and pirates all persons taken in arms against 
 the King, and under banners not recognised by regular governments. He then 
 proceeds : — 
 
APPENDIX. 473 
 
 " The regulating principles of the proceedings of the Viceroy shall always 
 be those of such gentleness and condescension, as shall not derogate from the 
 dignity of his official situation ; and he will not now comment on the occu- 
 pation of a nobleman of Great Britain, a country in alliance with the Spanish 
 people, employing himself in commanding the naval forces of a government 
 hitherto unacknowledged by any nation on the globe." 
 
 III. 
 
 The Admiral's second letter., dated the 'Jth March, begins by proving the 
 truth of the accusations against the Peruvian government of cruel treatment to 
 the prisoners ; and then proceeds to quote the different codes of maritime laws, 
 from that of Rhodes downwards, to show that the subjects of a regular 
 government independent de facto, are not to be treated as pirates, notwith- 
 standing that the mother country may not have recognised its legitimacy, 
 and giving as instances the conduct of the various nations of Europe at the 
 time of the emancipation of North America. He then refers to his own pro- 
 ceedings on the coast of Peru, leaving to time the manifestation of their result. 
 
 " Meantime," he says, " His Excellency the Viceroy does well not to 
 make any comment on the employment of a British nobleman in the great 
 cause of Southern America. A British nobleman is a free man, capable of 
 judging between right and wrong, and at liberty to adopt a, country and a 
 cause which aim at restoring the rights of oppressed human nature. Without 
 failing in any duty, and without incurring any species of responsibility, Lord 
 Cochrane was honourably competent to adopt the cause of Chile with the 
 same freedom with which he refused the offered station of high admiral of 
 Spain, which was made to him by the Spanish ambassador in London." 
 
 His Lordship then anew proposes the exchange of the prisoners of the brig 
 Maypu for those he has on hoard the squadron. 
 
 IV. 
 
 The Viceroy's reply evades present compliance with the proposed exchange 
 of prisoners, and artfully endeavours to convince Lord Cochrane, that the 
 British government, so far from being favourable to the cause of South 
 American emancipation, is inimical to it ; and points his attention to the pro- 
 clamations forbidding the enlistment of soldiers and sailors in foreign services, 
 and to the conduct of the French government on the occasion. He says, that 
 
 3p 
 
474 APPENDIX. 
 
 though the neutrality of the British commanders in the Pacific^ may be in 
 obedience to their government, 8^c. S^c. ; yet, 
 
 " To suppose that because a few provinces, legitimately belonging to a 
 monarchy, find themselves independent de facto, that they have a right to 
 nationize (nacionalizer') as if they had arrived at the rank of acknowledged 
 governments, is a frenzy offensive to the moral sense of all society, and a 
 conclusion as equivocal as unjust." 
 
 And then- goes on to maintain that the Chilian and Buenos Ayrian ships of 
 tear are pirates, 8^c. 
 
 V. 
 
 Lord Cochrane 'writes his last letter on this subject, on the l^th March, 1819. 
 In it he returns to the subject of the prisoners, and regrets the rejection of his 
 terms by the Viceroy, no less than the mistaken views 'which cause the deso- 
 lation of South America ; insists on the real nature of the neutrality of his 
 awn country, and tells him that nothing but an act of parliament could legally 
 prevent his countrymen from embracing any cause they pleased to support. 
 
 I had intended to have given literal translations of the greater part of these 
 letters ; but on more mature thought, it appears to me that the above abstract 
 and extracts are sufficient in this place. If, hereafter, a more detailed 
 history of this part of the Great South American struggle should be necessary, 
 the correspondence wiU then serve as an illustration of the principles and 
 ideas which were entertained by the contending parties, and will account 
 for much that would otherwise appear either improbable or impossible. 
 
APPENDIX III. 
 
 No. I. 
 
 i HE following proclamation I print, partly because it shows the views held 
 out by the revolutionary chiefs to the natives, partly because there are few 
 printed specimens of the ancient language of the Incas : — 
 
 The Supreme Director of the State of Chile to the Natives of Peru. 
 
 Brothers and Countrymen ! The day of the freedom of America is arrived ; 
 and from the Mississippi to Cape Horn, comprehending nearly half the globe, 
 the independence of the New World is proclaimed. Mexico is in arms ; 
 Caraccas triumphs ; Santa Fe is organising and receiving large armies ; Chile 
 and Buenos Ayres have reached -the goal of their career, — they enjoy the 
 fruits of their liberty ; and are considered by the nations of the universe, who 
 emulously bring to them the products of their industry, their improvements, 
 their weapons, and even their hands ; giving worth to our fruits, and develop- 
 ing our talents. Employments, honours, and riches, are already distributed 
 among ourselves, and are no longer the patrimony of our oppressors. 
 
 Meanwhile, though sweet liberty marches either in peace or in victory 
 through the regions of the South, she is obliged to suspend her beneficent 
 and majestic steps from the plains of Quito to Potosi, and to change her 
 double influence for the affliction and the grief occasioned by the ravages 
 of the Spaniards in Cochabamba, Puno, La Paz, Cuzco, Guamanga, Quito, 
 and other provinces of our delicious country. There remain the tombs and 
 the illustrious manes of Pumacagua, Angulo, Camargo, Cabezas, and so 
 many other heroes, who now, as tutelary angels, solicit your happiness and 
 independence before the throne of the Most High: — there offer up your 
 
 3p 2 
 
476 APPENDIX. 
 
 VOWS with ours against the impious policy with which the Spaniard, after mur- 
 during you, drags away your sons to fight against their brethren, who are 
 struggling for the liberty of their country ; and oblige us to destroy one 
 another in order to rivet our chains. 
 
 But the hour destined by the God of justice and mercy for the happiness 
 of Peru is arrived, and your brethren in Chile have hastened to make their 
 utmost sacrifices in order to protect you by a respectable squadron ; which, 
 guarding your coasts, will present aid tQ you wherever it is called for by 
 your necessities or by the sacred voice of liberty. A large army, composed 
 of the brave soldiers of Chacabuco and Maypu, destined to secure the pos- 
 session of your right, will also occupy your territory. 
 
 Peruvians ! These are the pacts and conditions on which Chile, in presence 
 of the Supreme Being, and calling on all nations to witness, and to revenge 
 their violation, will front death and toil to save you. — You shall be free and 
 independent : you shall frame your government and your laws by the sole and 
 spontaneous will of your representatives. No influence, civil or mihtary, 
 direct or indirect, shall be exercised by these your brothers over your social 
 institutions. You shall dismiss the armed force which is going to protect you 
 the moment you wish it ; and no pretext of your peril or your safety shall 
 serve to keep it there without your will. No military division shall ever 
 occupy a free town, unless called for by its magistrates ; and those peninsular 
 opinions and parties which may have existed before your liberation, shall 
 neither be punished by us nor by our help ; and, ready to destroy the armed 
 force which resists your rights, we pray that you will forget all offences before 
 the day of your glory, and reserve severer justice for obstinacy and future 
 insult. 
 
 Sons of Manco Capac, Yupanqui, and Pachacutec ! These venerable shades 
 are the witnesses of the conditions which the people of Chile offer you by my 
 voice, and of the alliance and fraternity we seek, in order to consolidate our 
 independence, and to defend our rights in the day of peril. 
 
 Bernardo O'Higgins. 
 
 El Supremo Director del Estado de Chile a los Naturales del Peru. 
 
 Hermanos y compatriotas : ha Uegado el dia de la libertad de America, y 
 desde el Misisipi hasta el Cabo de Hornos en una zona que casi ocupa la 
 mitad de la tierra se proclama la independencia del Nuevo mundo. Megico 
 
APPENDIX. 477 
 
 lucha ; Caracas triunfa ; Santa Fe organiza y recibe considerables egercitos, 
 Chile y Buenos Ayres tocan el termino de su carrera, gozan los frutos de su 
 libertad, y considerados por las Naciones del Universe, se presentan estas a 
 porfia conduciendoles el producto de su industria, sus luces, sus»armas, y aun 
 sus brazos ; dando nuevo valor a nuestros frutos, y desarrollando nuestros 
 talentos. Ya los empleos, el honor y las riquezas se distribuyen entre nosotros, 
 y no son el patrimonio de nuestros opresores. 
 
 Entretanto, y cuando la dulce libertad marcha, 6 tranquila 6 victoriosa por 
 las regiones del Sud, se ve precisada a suspender sus benefices y magestuosos 
 pasos, desde las campanas de Quito a Potosi ; y a trocar su doble influjo por 
 la afliccion y el dolor que le ocasionan los destrozos de los espanoles, en Co- 
 chabamba, Puno, la Paz, Cuzco, Guamanga, Quito, y demas Provincias de 
 riuestro delicioso suelo. Alii divisa las tumbas y los ilustres manes de Puma- 
 cagua, Angulo, Camargo, Cabezas, y otros tantos heroes, que hoy son los 
 genios protectores, que ante el trono del Altisimo reclaman vuestra felicidad 
 e independencia : alii presentan vuestros votos y los nuestros contra la impia 
 politica con que el espanol, despues de degollaros, arrancan vuestros hijos 
 para pelear con sus hermanos, que luchan por la libertad de estos paises, obli- 
 gandonos a destruirnos mutuamente para remachar nuestras cadenas. 
 
 Pero llego la epoca destinada por el Dios de la justicia y las misericordias 
 a la felicidad del Peru, y vuestros hermanos de Chile han apurado sus ultimos 
 sacrificios para protegeros con una escuadra. respetable, que asegurando estas 
 costaS, OS presente recursos en todos los puntos donde escuche vuestras nece- 
 sidades, y el sagrado clamor de la libertad. Inmediatamente ocupara tambien 
 vuestro suelo un respetable egercito de los valientes de Maypu y Chacabuco, 
 destinado a consolidar el goce de vuestros derechos. 
 
 Peryanos, he aqui los pactos y condiciones con que Chile, delante del Ser 
 Supremo, y poniendo a todas las Naciones por testigos, y vengadores de su 
 violacion, arrostra la muerte y las fatigas para salvaros. Sereis libres e inde- 
 pendientes, constituireis vuestro gobierno y vuestras leyes por la unica, y 
 espontanea voluntad de vuestros representantes : ninguna influencia militar 6 
 civil, directa 6 indirecta, tendran estos hermanos en vuestras disposiciones 
 sociales : despedireis la fuerza armada que pasa a protegeros, en el momenta 
 que dispongais, sin que vuestro peligro, 6 vuestra seguridad sirva de pretesto, 
 sino lo hallais por conveniente, : jamas alguna division mUitar ocupara un 
 pueblo libre, sino es Uamadapor sus legitimes Magistrados ; ni por nosostros, 
 ni con nuestro auxilio, se castigaran las opiniones 6 partides peninsulares, que 
 
^^g APPENDIX. 
 
 hayan precedido a vuestra libertad : y prontos a destrozar la fuerza armada 
 que resista vuestros derechos, os rogaremos, que olvideis todo agravio anterior 
 al dia de vuestra gloria, y reserveis la mas severa justicia para la obstinacion y 
 los futuros insultos. 
 
 Hijos de Manca Capac, Yupanqui, y Pachacutec : estas sombras respetables 
 seran los garantes de las condiciones que por mi voz os propone el Pueblo de 
 Chile ; asi como de la alianza y fraternidad, que os pedimos para consolidar 
 nuestra mutua independencia, y defender nuestros derechos el dia del 
 
 peligro. 
 
 Bernardo O'Higgins. 
 
 Hatun Chile Llactacc Apunmi, quellcamuyqui : Tucuy hatun Quichua, 
 Aymara, Puquina Llacctacunapi causaccunaman, tucuy, tucuyman. 
 
 Llacctamasiy, Gauqueicuna: Chayamuniian punchau allpanchis cunapi sa- 
 marispa guequenchis tucucunanpac. Tucuimi yachanchis Llactanchiscunaca 
 ashuan atunmin uc Llactacunamanta Mamacochac ccallariscanmanta puchu- 
 canancama. Chayraycutacmi ashuan hatun nocanchispa allpanchis. Hina- 
 tacmi ari llapallan samariyta munaspa Llacctanchiscunamanta aucanchis 
 pucacuncacunata carconopac, Mexicollacctapi macanacuscancu ; Caracas- 
 llacctapi, na atipancuna ; Santa Fellac'ctapi guatecmanta ccallarinanpac, 
 hagua llactacunamanta ppuyo hina hunanacuscancu. Cay Chile Uacctay- 
 quichispi, Buenos Ayres piguan, guauquentin urpi munanaccoc hina, atipas- 
 ccanmanta samarispa, sumac causaita, iia nucchuscaycuna. Chayta yachaspa 
 asguan carullacctacunamanta, mamacochata chimpaspa, iman munascaicuta 
 apamuancu, Amauttancunatapas pusamuspan, mana imatapas pacaspa, ama 
 astaguan auccanchiscuna cutimunampac yanapahuancu. Hina tacmi apancu, 
 cai Llacctamanta tai-puscaicuta, uihuascaycuta, aguascaicuta, hampi cora- 
 cunatapas cusicuspatacmi llacctancuman apancu. nan nocaycoca manapi- 
 mampas hullpuycuspa tiaicuchicuyco Apucunata, Cuscachaccunata, Quip- 
 pocamayoccunata, tucuy cargoyoccunata Llacctamasinchiscunallamantatac. 
 Chairaicun, ccoUqueyco, corriico, iiocaico uccupi cuti ticraspa manana lloc- 
 cincho Espana llacctaman. 
 
 Hiiiain ari, cay misqui cusicausaita auccanchiscunata, allpac sonccompi 
 chincarichispa, iia samarispaiia, na cusicuspaha, chay manchay llactayquichispi 
 gLiequencuanmi pampata chaschuscan guauqueiquicuna, nicta uyarispa, cusi 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 479 
 
 causaita saquespa, na iiacarec iia maccanacoc, QuitoUactamanta, Potosfilac- 
 tacama cai munacc sonccoycu aisariguaycuiia. Ymamantac rinqui mosoc- 
 manta naccarcc iiispa tapuycunacuicu. Pinacuspan cutichihuancxi, guau- 
 quenchiscunan manchay, manchayta, manan yanapacninta tariita atispa, 
 guanuyllahuahan ampinacuncu Cochabampi, Punopi, Chuquiagopi, Coscopi, 
 Chuquisacapi, Quitopi, Guamangapi Uapan ucchuy llacctacunapihuampas : 
 Chay yaguargueque ccochapin tuituscan Pumaccaguac tuUun, Angulocpa, 
 Camargocpa, Cabezaspa, Jose Gabriel Tupamarucpa ; manan yuyai canchu 
 chaicchica manchaypuitu Apucunac sutimpac. Caicunac muchainintactni 
 Pachaccamacpa ccayllampi cutichimuanchis aucanchiscunamanta quesppi- 
 nanchispac. Cutirisun ari, muchaicusun ari imainan Apunchiscunata uyarin, 
 hinatacc ari iiocanchistapachas nyarihuasun. Hina ari tucucunca putinanchis, 
 hanchinanchis, mana astaguan naccahuasunchisnachu, manaiia guauquenchista 
 giiaguanchista soncconchismanta quechuspa, iioccanchis ucuUapitac macana- 
 cunampac fiierro guascacunahuan guatahuasunchu ; manchay mana sacsac 
 pucacuncacunari mana astaguan camachihuasunilachu. 
 
 Chayamusunquichisiian Diosninchispa ccuyayninhuan camasoan mitta, 
 paipa Justiciamraycu cusi causacunayquichispac Peruanocuna ; nocaicu guau- 
 queyqui Chilenocunari, fiatacmin camaricuscaicuila, mana guainuytapas na- 
 liuicupi cascactin manchaspa, cancunata yanapanaycuraycu, uccuicumanta 
 horcorcocuspa Mamacochapi pahuac guasicunata hascata churaicu, sinchi 
 atuchac hillapayocmi sapa guasi, atunmanta huchuicama. Cai guasicunan 
 ■ auccancliiscuna amocta chincarichispa, iman mnnascanchista maipi ccactin- 
 chispas, hagna Uacctamanta aparcamonca. Paycunaraicutacmin cusi causai- 
 ninchis mana tucucuncachu. natacmi Chacabucopi, Maypopi auccanchis- 
 cunata ccosiiita hina chincaricheccuna, chay Uactaiquicunaman cachamusac- 
 cuiia, chay mana casocniyquicunata uUppuycuchinampac. 
 
 Peru llacctayoccuna : Suttillantan cai quellcaipi, cai Chile Uaccta riraai- 
 cusunqui, Imainan Pachacamac Diosiiinchispa ccaillampipas rimascaicuman 
 hina : Chairaicu paipa ccaillampitacmi, tucuy hatun hagua Uaccta cunac 
 Apuncunata churaicu, mana chaina cactin, nocaicuman Uapallancu cutiri- 
 nancupac. Atariy ari, mana naccariyta, ni guanuytapas manchaspa : ques- 
 pispa, cusi causaita yachaspa, samarinaiquichispac : chaipachamari cancunal- 
 lamantatac Apuyquichispac accllaricunqui, ccapac Diosninchispa camachiscan 
 simita hunttaspa ; cancuna uccupi pampachanapac quellcata churanqui 
 Amauttaiquicunahuan : cay guauqueiquicunari cancunahuan cascaspapas 
 maccanacoccuna, manan macanaccocunapas, manan hayccaspas allintan ru- 
 
480 APPENDIX. 
 
 ranqui, manan allintachu ruranqui nisunquichu acUacunaiqui punchaupi, 
 ni naupacpi, ni quepapi, tucuy ccochuylla canca. Ripuichisna nihuactiquihis 
 cay hatun callpanhuan maccanascupa yanapachiiquicunata, ima punchaucha 
 munanqui hina ripusaccu ; manatacmin nocaicuri callpayocmin canqui, \i 
 manan callpayocmin canqui liispa cutichiscayquicuchu : manataccmin huchuy 
 callpa, u hatun callpapas mayquen Uactayquichispipas, fia cusi tiacoctiyqui- 
 chis caypi queparicusun niscaiquitacchu ; cancunac Apuyquichis guacyactinri 
 yuyai chincaihuan chaipi casaccu : manatacmi ari, noccaicuchu, ni nocayccoc 
 ccallpaicuhuanchu cuscachanquichis 6 manapas cusccachanquichu liaccari- 
 checniyquicuna pucacuncacunata, u anansaya, u urinsaya llaccta masiyqui- 
 cunatapas : nocaicuri yuyaininchis hinan camaricusaccu cunainiiquita suyaspa, 
 picunapas mana hullpuycuspa camachis caiquichista ruractin huanachinay- 
 cupac, chayhuau mana naupa hinachu pipacpas, ni pimanpas ccumuycun- 
 quichischu : hinatac muchaicuiquichis iiaupac iiaccariscaiquichispi huchayoc- 
 cunata pampachanaiquipac chay samariy punchaupi ; quepaman huchallicuc- 
 cunata manana pampachaspa, asguan hatun huchata hina ucchuyllacactimpas, 
 sinchita huanachinanchispac. 
 
 Mancoccapacpa, Tuppa-Yupanquecpa, Pachacutecpa Guaguancuna : chay 
 manchay Apu-Yncacunac Uantuntaracmi yuyainiyman apamuni cai quell- 
 cayta hunttanaipac : cay ChUellacta runacunari simiyhuanmin rimaicusunqui, 
 imainan llampusonco Taytacunapas nucnu guaguancunata mascan ; hinatac 
 ari manaichis cai cusi causai punchay ninchis chayamuspa, ama hayccacpas 
 tutucunanpac ; guequepunchau chayamoctinri, sinchi puyuan, hatun puyu- 
 huan hunuicucuspa hina macanacunanchispac. Esccon Quilla Guarancca 
 pusacc pachag chunca escconnioc Guata. 
 
 Bernardo O'Higgins. 
 
APPENDIX. ^gj^ 
 
 No. 11. 
 
 " Proclamation of Don Jose de San Martin, ^c. ^c. to the Limenians and other 
 
 Inhabitants of Peru. 
 
 " Countrymen ! I do not now address you solely by the right that every 
 free man possesses of comforting the oppressed. The events which have 
 crowded on each other for the last nine years have conferred the solemn 
 title by which the independent states of Chile, and the United Provinces of 
 South America, now order me to enter your territory in defence of the cause 
 of your independence : it is identified with their own, and with the cause 
 of human nature ; and the means entrusted to me, in order to save you, are 
 as efficacious as appropriate to this most sacred object. 
 
 " As soon as the will to be free declared itself in any part of South America, 
 the agents of Spanish power exerted themselves to smother the lights by 
 which the Americans might perceive their chains. The beginning of the 
 revolution presented a monstrous assemblage of good with evil ; and in con- 
 sequence of its advance, the Viceroy of Peru endeavoured to persuade you 
 that he had been able to annihilate, in the inhabitants of Lima and its de- 
 pendencies, even the soul to feel the weight and the ignominy of the yoke. 
 The earth was shocked to see American blood shed by Americans : it doubted 
 if the slaves were as culpable as the tyrants ;- or if freedom had to complain 
 most of those whose barbarous daring invaded it, or of the slaves who had 
 the stupid folly not to defend it. War followed, destroying the innocent 
 ■country ; but in spite of all the combinations of despotism, the gospel of the 
 rights of man was preached in the midst of the confusion. Hundreds of 
 Americans have fallen in the field of honour, or by the hands of unnatural 
 executioners ; but opinion, fortified by noble passions, must always cause its 
 triumphs to be felt. And thus. Time, the regenerator of political societies, 
 has brought about the great moment which must decide the problem of 
 Peruvian sentiment and the fate of South America. 
 
 '/ My proclamation is not that of a conqueror, who would systematise a new 
 slavery : the force of things has prepared this great day of your political eman- 
 cipation ; and I can be no other than a casual instrument of justice and an 
 agent of destiny. Sensible of the horrors which war inflicts on humanity, I 
 have always endeavoured to accomplish my ends in the manner most recon- 
 cileable with the true interest of the Peruvians, After a complete victory 
 
 3q 
 
482 APPENDIX. 
 
 on the plains of Maypu, without attending to the feelings of a most righteous 
 vengeance on a barbarous aggressor, or the right of reprisal for the evUs 
 caused in Chile, as a complete proof of my pacific wishes I wrote to your 
 Viceroy on the 11th of April of this year — that I felt for the situation in 
 which he was placed ; wished him to consider the extent of the resources of 
 two states intimately united, and the superior amount of their armies ; and, in 
 a word, the inequality of the struggle which threatened him. I made him 
 responsible to the inhabitants of the land for the effects of the war ; and in 
 order to avert them, I entreated him to call together the illustrious neighbour- 
 hood of Lima, to represent the sincere wishes of the governments of Chile and 
 the United States ; to hear their complaints and the exposition of their rights ; 
 and that the people should he freely permitted to adopt "what form of govern- 
 ment they wished ; and that the spontaneous expression of the will of such an 
 assembly should be the supreme law of my actions, ^c. This liberal proposal 
 was answered by insults and threats ; and thus the order of justice as well as 
 common safety forced me to adopt the last rational resource, — the u^e of a 
 protecting force. The blood, therefore, that may be shed will rest solely on 
 the heads of the tyrants and their proud satellites. Nor were my intentions 
 less apparent after the day of Chacabuco. The Spanish army was entirely 
 routed : Chile became completely an independent state ; and its inhabitants 
 began to enjoy the security of their property and the fruits of liberty. This 
 example of itself is the surest warrant for my conduct. Tyrants accus- 
 tomed to disfigure facts, in order to kindle the torch of discord, have not 
 been ashamed to say, that the moderation observed by the victorious army in 
 Chile was for its own interest. In God's name, let it be so ! For what is that 
 but to say, that our interest is one with that of the people ? Is not this a 
 fresh guarantee, and a new reason for confidence ? Doubtless this army will 
 root out the tyrants of Lima ; and the result of its victory wUl be, that the 
 capital of Peru will, for the first time, see her sons united, freely electing tlieir 
 government, and appearing on the face of the globe in the rank of nations. 
 The union of the three states will teach Spain to feel her weakness, and all 
 other powers to esteem and respect us. The first steps of your political 
 existence being secured, a central congress, composed of the representatives 
 of the three states, will give to the organisation of each new stability ; and 
 the constitution of each, as well as its perpetual alliance and federacy, will be 
 established in the midst of universal harmony, intelligence, and hope. The 
 annals of the world do not record any revolution more holy in its end, more 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 483 
 
 necessary to man, and more august on account of the union of hearts and 
 hands. 
 
 " Then let us proceed, confident in the destiny that Heaven has prepared for 
 us. Under the empire of new laws and new powers, the very activity of the 
 revolution will be converted into the wholesomest engagement to undertake 
 every kind of toil that may maintain and multiply the products and benefits 
 of society. On the first return of peace, those very ravages that spring 
 from the great political convulsion of this continent will be hke the lavas of 
 of the volcano, which become a principle of fecundity in the very fields 
 which they have overwhelmed. So your plains will be covered with all the 
 riches of nature ; your multiplied cities will adorn themselves with the splen- 
 dour of science and the magnificence of art ; and commerce will freely spread 
 its movements over the immense space that nature has assigned to us. 
 
 " Americans ! The victorious army of an insolent tyrant can only cast terror 
 over the people subject to his triumphs ; but the legions I have the honour to 
 command, forced to make war against the tyrants they combat, can only promise 
 friendship and protection to brethren whom victory is about to free from ty- 
 ranny. I engage my most sacred honour, that this promise shall be scrupulously 
 fulfilled. I have declared to you my duties and designs ; your conduct will 
 tell us if you will fulfil yours, and deserve the illustrious name of true sons 
 of your'country. 
 
 " European Spaniards ! My proclamation is not that of your ruin : I come 
 not into this land to destroy it. The object of the war is to preserve and 
 facilitate the increase of the fortune of every peaceable and honest man. 
 Your good fortune is bound up with the prosperity and independence of 
 America ; your misfortunes will be the effect of your own obstinacy : you 
 know it. Spain now finds herself reduced to the last degree of imbecility 
 and corruption : the resources of that kingdom are dilapidated ; the state is 
 charged with a monstrous debt ; and, what is worse, terror and distrust form 
 the basis of public morals, and have forced the nation to become melancholy, 
 pusillanimous, stupid, and mute. The freedom of Peru alone can offer to you 
 a safe country. To the intimate ties which unite you to the Americans you 
 have only to add your wishes and your conduct, in order to form a great , 
 family of brothers. Respect for persons, for property, and for the holy 
 Roman Catholic rehgion, are the sentiments of the United Provinces. I 
 assure you of them in the most solemn manner. 
 
 " Inhabitants of Peru ! The eyes of more than three parts of the world are 
 
 3q 2 
 
484 APPENDIX. 
 
 upon your present actions. Will you confirm the suspicions which have 
 arisen against you during the last nine years ? If the world sees that you 
 know how to profit by this happy moment, your revolution will be as im- 
 portant to it as the united force of the whole continent. Value it, for the 
 sake of the millions of generations which may come after you. When the 
 rights of man, so long lost sight of in Peru, shall be re-established, I shall 
 congratulate myself on the power of belonging to institutions which may con- 
 secrate them : I shall have satisfied the dearest wish of my heart, and have 
 achieved the noblest work of my life. 
 
 •' Jose de San Martin. 
 
 " Head-quarters, Santiago de Chile. 
 Nov. 13. 1818."' 
 
 No. III. 
 
 " The Supreme Director of Chile to the Inhabitants of Peru. 
 
 " Liberty, tlie daughter of Heaven, is about to descend on your beautiful 
 country ; and under her shadoxv you will take that high rank among the nations 
 of the earth to 'which your opulence entitles you. The Chilian squadron, which 
 is in sight of your ports, is only the precursor of the expedition which is to 
 secure your independence. The moment wished for by all generous 'hearts is 
 approaching. The territory of Chile, and its adjacent isles, now breathe 
 freely, delivered from the yoke of the oppressor. Our naval forces are able 
 to contend with those of all Spain, as well as against her commerce ; and in 
 them you will find a firm support. 
 
 " It will be an inscrutable enigma to posterity, that the enlightened Lima, 
 far from favouring the progress of Columbian independence, has endeavoured 
 to paralyse the noble and generous efforts of her brethren, and to deprive them 
 of the enjoyment of their imprescriptible rights. But it is time to wash out 
 this stain, and to avenge the innumerable outrages that you have received 
 from despotism as the reward of your blindness. Cast your eyes on the ruin 
 that has been spread by the tyrants over your delicious land : you will see it 
 engraven in indelible characters, in the depopulation, the want of industry, 
 the monopolies, the hard oppression, and the contempt under which you have 
 so long groaned. Run to your arms; and overturning, in your just indig- 
 nation, the colossus of despotism which weighs you down, you may arrive at 
 the height of prosperity. 
 
APPENDIX. 485 
 
 " Do not imagine that we mean to attempt to treat you as a conquered people. 
 Such an idea could never have entered the heads of any but the enemies of 
 our common happiness. We only aspire to see you free and happy. You will 
 frame your own government, electing the fr); m most congenial to your habits, 
 your situation, and your inclinations : you will be your own legislators ; and 
 consequently you will constitute a nation as free and as independent as our- 
 selves, 
 
 " What are you waiting for, Peruvians ? Hasten to break your chains. 
 Come ; and at the tombs of Tupac- Amaru, and Pumacahua, of those illus- 
 trious martyrs to liberty, swear to the contract which is to secure your inde- 
 pendence and our eternal friendship. 
 
 " Bernardo O'Higgins." 
 
 No. IV. 
 
 " Countrymen ! — Yes, I will flatter myself that it cannot be long before I 
 give you this delightful name. The echoes of the cry of liberty in South 
 America have resounded even to the shores of cultivated Europe, more espe- 
 cially to those of Britain ; and I could not resist the mighty temptation to 
 defend a cause which, interesting human nature, involving the happiness of 
 half the' globe, and of millions of generations, has decided me to take in it a 
 personal and effective part.~ The republic of Chile has consequently entrusted 
 her maritime forces to my direction and command. The dominion of the 
 Pacific is consigned to them, as well as the co-operation in the long-wished-for 
 bursting of the chains which have oppressed you. Doubt not of the near ap- 
 proach of that great day on which, together with the dominion of tyranny, the 
 degrading condition of Spanish colonies which now disgraces you will be at an 
 end • and you will occupy among the nations that noble place to which you 
 are called by your population, your riches, your geographical position, and the 
 course of circumstances. But you must be our coadjutors in preparing for 
 success, in removing obstacles, and opening to yourselves the path of glory ; 
 secure of the cordial assistance of the government of Chile, and of your true 
 
 y. . 1 " Cochrane." 
 
 friend. 
 
 The above proclamations were published before the sailing of the great 
 expedition to Peru. They are referred to in the Introduction, and show the 
 hopes held out to the Peruvians by the invading chiefs. 
 
486 APPENDIX. 
 
 The violation of all the promises made in these proclamations by San 
 Martin, produced that spirit of disgust against him which forced him to fly 
 from Lima. It is curious, that within a very few days of his flight, the fol- 
 lowing address to Lord Cochrane was sent by the new government of 
 Lima : — 
 
 " The Sovereign Constituent Congress of Peru, 
 
 " In consideration of the services rendered to Peruvian freedom by the 
 Right Honourable the Lord Cochrane, — owing to whose genius, worth, and 
 bravery, the Pacific is freed from the insults of enemies, and the standard of 
 freedom is planted on the shores of the South, — 
 
 " Resolves, 
 
 " That the Supreme Junta shall, in the name of the nation, offer to Lord 
 Cochrane, Admiral of the Chilian squadron, its most sincere acknowledg- 
 ments of gratitude for his achievements in favour of the people of Peru, 
 heretofore under the tyranny of military despotism, but now the arbiter of 
 its own fate. 
 
 " The Supreme Junta, on being informed of this resolution, wUl da what 
 is needful for carrying it into effect ; causing it to be printed, published, 
 and circulated. 
 
 " Given in the Chamber of Congress at Lima, 
 27th September, 1822. 
 
 (Signed) " Xavier de Lima Pizaero, President. 
 " Jose Sanches Caeion, Secretary. 
 " Francisco Xavier Marcateque, Secretary. 
 
 " We order the same to be presently executed. 
 
 (Signed) " Jose de la Mar, 
 
 " Felipe Antonio Alvarado, 
 " El Conde de Veste Florida. 
 
 " By order of his Excellency, 
 
 " Francisco Valdivieso." 
 
 Lord Cochrane had the satisfaction of receiving the above just before he 
 left Chile. 
 
APPENDIX IV. 
 
 EXTRACTS 
 
 FROM THE 
 
 Correspondence printed in the Government Gazette of Chile, Feb. 24:th, .1821, 
 
 BETWEEN 
 
 THE BRITISH COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF, AND ZENTENO, THE CHILIAN 
 
 MINISTER OF MARINE, 
 
 ON THE SUBJECT OF THE BLOCKADE OF THE PORTS OF PERU. 
 
 The British Commander's letter is dated Buenos Ayres, September "Jth, 1820. 
 It begins by mentioning the news of blockade transmitted by Captain Searle. 
 It goes on to say — 
 
 " The British government knows very well that a blockade is not illegal on 
 account of its mere extension ; but the illegality depends, according to the 
 law of nations, on the adequacy of the blockading force to maintain the 
 ports and coasts it pretends to blockade in so constant a state of blockade, 
 that no ship may enter or sail without eminent peril of being detained ; that 
 if the force be inadequate to maintain the blockade generally, that is to say, 
 in all its parts, it becomes null and of no effect ; and the blockading ships may 
 not form it partially where they may chance to find themselves, as I have 
 pointed out in the instructions given to Captain Searle, and of which a copy 
 was sent to Your Excellency. 
 
 " In consequence of the neutrality which His Britannic Majesty wishes to 
 obsei've between the contending parties in South America, His Majesty's 
 subjects have been allowed to establish friendly correspondences with the 
 people of Chile : nor can I resist the right which the government of Chile 
 has to establish and maintain blockades, on the footing that other belligerents 
 establish and maintain them consistently with the principles acknowledged 
 by the law of nations. But it is clear, that if the state of Chile claims the 
 exercise of this right, it must submit to exercise it within the limits, and 
 subject to the restrictions, imposed by political rights. 
 
488 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 " According to these principles, the alleged blockade of the coast in question 
 must be considered and held absolutely illegal, in the opinion of the govern- 
 ment of His Britannic Majesty ; so that it cannot operate on the ships or 
 property of His Majesty's subjects, without a violation of the law of nations. 
 I consequently feel obliged to protest formally against the legality of the 
 blockade, for the reasons above stated. I hope that Your Excellency will 
 have the goodness to order your decree of blockade to be so modified and 
 altered ; and that such orders shall be given to the commander of your squa- 
 dron as shall prevent any kind of coercion not permitted by the law of 
 nations against the British ships and property, under pretence of keeping up 
 the blockade. 
 
 " I am sure I need not repeat here to Your Excellency the assurance of my 
 ardent wish to preserve, as heretofore, our amicable relations with the govern- 
 ment of Chile and its local authorities, so necessary for the protection of the 
 subjects of His Britannic Majesty who are engaged in lawful commerce, and 
 to maintain that neutrality which His Majesty wishes should be observed by 
 all those acting under his orders. 
 
 " I have the honour to subscribe myself, 
 
 " With the highest respect and, consideration, 
 
 " Your Excellency's most obedient humble servant, 
 
 (Signed) "T.W.Hardy, 
 
 " Commodore and Commander-in-chief of the ships and vessels of 
 "His Britannic Majesty on the coast of South America." 
 
 To this Zenteno answers, on the 6th of December, 1820. His letter begins 
 by ackno'wledging the receipt of Sir Thomases letter, and saying that of course 
 neutral property would be respected according to the law of nations ; and his 
 opinions on that head quite agree with the English commander's wishes. 
 Zenteno then says, — 
 
 " But even if this agreeable coincidence had not been, as it is, sufficient to 
 satisfy the pretensions of Your Excellency in all respects, the prosperity that 
 has attended our arms has, n fact, set at rest all question and cause of doubt. 
 Our petty force, perhaps diminished in apparent magnitude by distance, was not 
 believed sufficient to maintain the blockade in all its extent ; yet it has had the 
 glory of setting at liberty, and of placing in the hands of the American inde- 
 pendents, all the ports and coast of Peru, including Guayaquil, and also 
 much of the interior of the country, excepting only the port of Callao ; and 
 
APPENDIX, 4g9 
 
 moreover, from the very centre of that port, from under the fire of its 
 batteries, the Spanish ship of war Esmeralda, of 40 guns, has been cut out 
 by our naval forces ; and our strength thereby augmented, while that of the 
 enemy is reduced to nothing. 
 
 The rest of the letter is Jilled with professions of friendship to the British 
 nation and the British commander, and is signed by order of the Supreme 
 Director. 
 
 " Jose Ignacio Zentenq." 
 
 There was no farther question about the right to blockade. 
 
 3 R 
 
APPENDIX V. 
 
 It is always a melancholy task to record ingratitude ; but the consequences 
 of that shown both by the Protector of Peru, and the Director of Chile, have 
 been so fatal to their own power, that it may serve as a warning to the future 
 governors of those new countries. Happily the good cause must survive and 
 flourish 'spite of those hindrances caused by the base passions of individuals. 
 The good and heroic who suffer will, as much as is in human nature, dis- 
 regard their own personal disgusts ; reflecting, that scarcely in any case has 
 the founder of a great general good enjoyed the benefit of his own labours ; 
 but posterity profits by them, and that secondary immortality, fame on earth, 
 will pursue their steps. 
 
 I venture, therefore, to print the following address to the government of 
 Chile from the officers of the squadron ; convinced that while it states their 
 services and grievances, endured at the hands of individuals, the ill will not 
 be attributed to the sacred cause in which it was suffered, but to the unfor- 
 tunate circumstances that placed such a man as San Martin in a situation to 
 curb the generous efforts of our countrymen in the cause of South America, 
 and to over-rule the timid but well-meaning rulers of Chile. The opinions 
 entertained by Peru and Chile are sufficiently proved in the address from 
 the government of Lima to Lord Cochrane, and by the notice of the squa- 
 dron in the Chilian state paper given in the Postscript to the Journal. 
 
 " Memorial presented to the Chile Government, October, 1822. 
 " "We, the captains of the Chilian navy, beg leave to lay most respectfully 
 before the government a brief statement of our services, privations, and suffer- 
 ings ; not with the view of enhancing our merits, but that justice may be 
 done, and that the pay and stipulated emoluments to which we are entitled 
 may no longer be withheld, and that our minds may be tranquillized as to 
 
APPENDIX. 491 
 
 future fate ; anxiety and doubt as to which, being of all things most dis- 
 tressing. 
 
 "First, then, it is known that since the capture of the Isabel, the dominion 
 of the Pacific has been maintained by the Chilian navy ; and that such have 
 been the exertions of our commander and ourselves, that with Chileno crews, 
 unaccustomed to the arts of navigation, and a few foreign seamen whom we 
 alone could controul, not only the shores of this land have been effectually 
 protected from injury or insult, but the maritime ports of the enemy have 
 been closely blockaded in the face of a superior naval force. By means of 
 the navy the important province, fortifications, and port of Valdivia, were 
 added to the republic. By the same means the Spanish power in Peru was 
 brought into contempt, and the way opened for the invasion of that country ; 
 which, so far as the navy was concerned, was crowned with success. The 
 ships of war of the enemy have all fallen into our hands, or have been com- 
 pelled by our means to surrender. Their merchant vessels have been seized 
 from under their batteries ; whilst the Chilian transports and trading vessels 
 have been afforded such perfect security, that no one, even of the smallest, 
 has been compelled to haul down its flag. Among these achievements, that 
 of the Esmeralda has reflected lustre on the Chilian marine equal to any 
 thing recorded in the naval chronicles of ancient states, greatly adding to its 
 importance in the eyes of Europe ; and by the vigilance of the naval blockade, 
 the fortifications of Callao were compelled to surrender. 
 
 " The happy event of such surrender, so long hoped for, was deemed by all 
 to complete our labours in Peru, and entitle us, if not to a remuneration fronsj 
 that state, as in the case of those officers who abandoned the Chilian service, 
 yet at least to a share of the valuable property taken by our means ; as 
 awarded under similar circumstances by other states, who, by experience, are 
 aware of the benefit of stimulating individuals by such rewards for great 
 enterprises for the public good. But, alas ! so far from either of these modes 
 of remuneration being adopted, even the pay so often promised was withheld, 
 and food itself was denied, so that we were reduced to a state of the greatest 
 privation and suffering ; so great indeed, that the crew of the Lautaro aban- 
 doned their vessel for want of food, and the seamen of the squadron, natives 
 as well as foreigners, were in a state of open mutiny, threatening the safety of 
 all the vessels of the state. We do not wish to claim merit for not relieving 
 ourselves from this painful situation by an act that woidd have been of a 
 doubtful nature as to its propriety ; namely, by acquiescence in the intentions 
 
 3b 2 
 
492 APPENDIX. 
 
 of the general commanding in chief the expeditionary forces ; who, having 
 declared us officers of Peru, oifered, through his aides-de-camp Colonel Pa- 
 roissieu and Captain Spry, honours and estates to those who should in that 
 capacity promote the further views he then entertained. Nor do we envy 
 those who received estates and honours. But, having rejected these, we may 
 fairly claim the approbation of government for providing the squadron of 
 Chile with provisions and stores at Callao, out of monies in our band justly 
 due for the capture of the Esmeralda, when such supplies bad been refused 
 by the said general and commander-in-chief. We may justly claim similar 
 approbation for having repaired the squadron at Guayaquil, and for equip- 
 ping and provisioning it for the pursuit of the enemy's frigates Prueba and 
 VengauZa, which we drove from the shores of Mexico in a state of destitu- 
 tion to the shores of Peru ; and if they were not actually brought to ChUe, 
 it was because they were seized by our late general and commander-in-chief, 
 and appropriated in the same manner as he had previously intended with 
 respect to the Chilian squadron itself. We may add, that every endeavour, 
 short of actual hostilities with the said general, was made on our part, to 
 obtain the restitution of those valuable frigates to the government of ChUe. 
 In no other instance throughout the whole course of our proceedings has any 
 dispute arisen but what has terminated favourably to the interests of Chile, 
 and to the honour of her flag; and we may justly observe, that while private 
 friendships have been preserved with the naval officers of foreign powers, no 
 point has been conceded that we could justly maintain, consistently with the 
 maritime laws of civilised nations ; by which our conduct has been scrupu- 
 lously guided, even in its exercise towards the subjects of our native land. 
 And it is no less true, that such has been the caution with which we have 
 acted, that no act of violence contrary to the law of nations, nor any im- 
 proper exercise of power, can in any one instance be laid to our charge. 
 
 " We may add, that during our connection with the squadron, the Chilian 
 flag has waved in triumph, and with universal respect, from tlie southern ex- 
 tremity of the nation to the Californian shore ; while the population, and 
 the value of all property in and contiguous to the naval port, liave been 
 increased at least three fold ; and the commerce and the revenue it produces 
 have augmented in a far greater proportion : which commerce, so productive 
 to the state, might, without the protecting aid of its navy, be annihilated by a 
 few of those miserable privateers which the terrors of its name alone deters 
 from approaching. 
 
APPENDIX. 493 
 
 " The period has now arrived at which it is essential for the wellbeing of 
 the service in general, and indispensable to our private concerns, that our 
 arrears, so long uncalled for, should be liquidated ; and, far as it is from our 
 desires to press our claims upon the government, yet we cannot abstain from 
 so doing, in justice to the state we have the honour to serve, as well as to 
 ourselves : because the want of regularity in the internal affairs of a naval 
 service is productive of relaxation of discipline, seeing that just complaint 
 cannot be repressed, nor the complainants chastised ; and because discontent 
 spreads like a contagious disease, and paralyses the system, 
 
 " If the Supreme Government would permit us to entreat their attention to 
 the relative conduct of Great Britain and Spain in the management of their 
 naval affairs, and the respective effects of such different management to the 
 interests of those nations, we might notice the extraordinary fact, that the 
 navy of Spain, though well equipped, provisioned, and stored, and though 
 navigated under scientific officers, and with seamen equally conversant in 
 nautical affairs with those of England ; yet, from being placed under the su- 
 perintendance of military and civil governors, and the total want of stimulus 
 to individual exertion, did never, from the commencement of the Spanish 
 wars with Britain, capture from the numerous fleets, squadrons, and detached 
 vessels of that nation, which were intercepting their commerce and blockad- 
 ing their ports, one single ship of war of any description whatsoever, Spain 
 allowed no reward for the capture of ships of war ; vainly imagining that 
 large bodies of men might, for successive periods of years, be made to undergo 
 hardships and privations, and to encounter dangers and death, for no other 
 reward than their provisions, and that pittance in the shape of pay which 
 they could as readily obtain by following the safe and ordinary, and compara- 
 tively easy, avocations of Hfe : while, on the other hand, it has been the 
 policy of England to pay to her navy the entire pecuniary value of all its 
 prizes, ships, fortifications, and captures of every description ; and not only 
 so, but even to grant, as a further stimulus to exertion, an additional bounty 
 out of the public treasury. 
 
 " The consequence is, that England, though a small island, derives from the 
 maritime strength a power and influence in the affairs of the world extending 
 to every extremity of the globe, while Spain has not only lost most of her 
 foreign acquisitions, but almost her own existence as an independent nation. 
 It would seem, however, from the last account of the proceedings of the 
 government of that country, that the importance of reviving a maritime 
 
494 APPENDIX. 
 
 power, which their own negligence and impolitic parsimony has brought to 
 decay, is now clearly perceived; and that they even propose to send out a 
 respectable naval force to the Pacific. When it is considered that the 
 squadron of Chile is promised only a moiety of the prize-money, the whole 
 being granted to the English navy, and without any of that emolument in the 
 shape of bounty-money which is allowed in England ; and when it is also 
 considered that Chile has been at no cost in our professional education, but 
 has been totally exempt from expense in rearing and educating officers for 
 her naval service, an expense to which England and all other naval powers 
 are subject; — it is not too much to require that our stipulated pay and prize- 
 money, which have been so long withheld, should immediately be paid. We 
 reject, with indignation, the opinion attempted to be impressed on the minds 
 of the officers and men by agents on shore— that every public mark of ap- 
 probation, of reward, and even our pay, have been withheld in consequence of a 
 notification from the Peruvian government, that unless the accusations against 
 those who have remained faithful to Chile is attended to with a view to 
 justify that government in the measures they pursued, the government of 
 Chile will incur the displeasure of those who have made themselves powerful 
 at their expense. But though we indignantly reject such an opinion, we 
 cannot help observing, that the exertions made in Peru to rear a navy, the 
 measures they have taken, and the success they have had, present a remark- 
 able contrast to that disregard and neglect which are here so prevalent, and 
 which tend so fatally to the downfal of a navy already reared. And if we^ 
 the captains, were longer to abstain from informing the government that 
 such is the state of the ships of war that no operation of any difficulty or 
 danger could be commanded, and that even their safety, if ordered to sea, 
 would be endangered, we should not continue to deserve that confidence 
 which it has ever been our ambition to merit. Nor, if we were to dwejl 
 solely on our own claims to the attention of the government, should we acquit 
 ourselves of our duty. 
 
 " Permit us, therefore, to call to your notice, that since our return to Val- 
 paraiso with our naked crews, even clothes were withheld until the fourth 
 month had expired; and during all this period no payment was made • 
 whereby the destitute seamen and marines could not procure blankets or 
 ponchos, or any covering to protect them from the cold of the winter so 
 much more severely felt on returning from the hot climates in which they 
 had been for nearly three years employed. 
 
APPENDIX. 495 
 
 " The two months' pay which was offered the other day to the seamen could 
 not now effect any such purpose, the same, and more, being due to the 
 pulperia-men ; to whose benefit, and not that of the seamen, it must have 
 immediately accrued. Judge, then, of the irritation produced by such pri- 
 vations, and the impossibility of relieving them by such inadequate payment ; 
 and whether it is possible to maintain order and discipline among men worse 
 circumstanced than the convicts of Algiers ! And we are persuaded, that 
 we shall stand acquitted of any suspicion of giving a colouring to facts 
 beyond reality, when we affirm, that confidence will be for ever gone, and the 
 squadron entirely ruined, if measures of preservation are not immediately 
 resorted to. 
 
 " With respect to the offer of one month's pay to ourselves, after our faith- 
 ful and persevering services, after undergoing privations such as never were 
 endured in the navy of any other state, and would not have been tolerated in 
 our own, we are afraid to trust ourselves to make any observations ; but it is 
 quite impossible that it could have been accepted under any circumstances : 
 nor, if it had been received, would it have placed us in a better situation with 
 respect to our arrears than if, upon our arrival here four months ago, we had 
 actually paid three months' salary to the government for the satisfaction of 
 having served it, during a period of two years, with unremitting exertions and 
 fidelity. 
 
 " In conclusion, we have most respectfully to express our ardent hope, that 
 the Supreme Goyernment will be pleased to take all that we have stated into 
 their serious consideration ; and more especially that they will be pleiased.tp 
 comply with their existing engagements to us with the same alacrity and 
 fidelity with which we have acted towards tbem, the duties of each beklg 
 reqiprocal, and equally binding on both parties." 
 
APPENDIX VI. 
 
 Account of the useful Trees and Shrubs of Chile, drawn up for the Court of 
 Spain, in obedience to the Royal Edict of July 20th, 1789 ; and forwarded 
 with Samples of the Woods, S^c. lOth December, 1792. 
 
 The Copy whence this was translated was lent me by a gentleman who was then Secretary 
 to the Captain-General, and in whose office it had remained. 
 
 !• Arellano, Quadria Avelana, grows in the neighbourhood of Valdivia, 
 Conception, and Maule. It grows to the height of six yards, and one in 
 circumference ; three or four yards from the ground it divides into branches 
 of considerable size, and very leafy. Its timber lasts but a short time ; it is 
 used for bands to sieves, for oars and linings to vessels, and for turnery. The 
 flower is like that of the hazel of Spain. The nut is six or seven lines in 
 diameter, covered with a hard shell, containing a loose kernel of two lobes 
 within one pellicle, as large as coffee, but rounder, oily, pleasant, and agree- 
 able; which is eaten roasted, or ground into flour, or in sauces. The shell, 
 powdered and boiled, is said to be good in dysentery, and the smoke is useful 
 in faintings : chewing it is recommended to sweeten the breath. 
 
 2. Aceytunillo, is found in the districts of Conception and Colchagua • 
 it grows eight yards high, and one thick. The fruit, which is of the size of 
 the olive, is not eaten ; but the wood is used for turnery. 
 
 3. Albarcoque, Apricot, is found all over the country, and is the same 
 with that of Spain ; but the fruit has less flavour. The wood is used for cabinet 
 work ; it is grey mottled with yellow, and rather brittle. 
 
 4. Albergilla, a kind of Cytisus, is low, delicate, but very strong ; it 
 grows in Conception. 
 
APPENDIX. 497 
 
 5. Alerce, the red Cedar of Molina. This tree is only found in Valdivia. 
 There is a great deal of it, but it grows at a considerable distance from the 
 port, in the skirts of the Corderillas. It yields plank of from eight to ten 
 yards in length, from. twelve to eighteen inches in breadth, and from four to 
 six in thickness ; it is brittle, being liable to split on driving nails into it. It 
 is used to plank ships, and for floors and roofs of houses, and lasts well : for 
 which reason it is much used, large quantities of it being embarked in Chiloe 
 for Conception, Valparaiso, Callao, and other places on the coast. There is 
 reason to believe that it would make excellent water-casks ; because the 
 Abbe Molina says, in his work on the natural history of Chile, published in 
 Bologna, 1782, that the water contained in casks made of it, and carried to 
 Europe when he went thither, far from having grown bad (while that con- 
 tained in other barrels had become rotten several times), acquired a delicate 
 taste, and was only accidentally tinged by the colour of the wood ; and staves 
 for casks have been furnished to several vessels of war, at their particular 
 request. 
 
 6. Algaiiobilla, is small and delicate ; the seed is used to make writing 
 ink : it grows in greatest abundance near Rancagua and Guasco. 
 
 7. Algaroba, grows in the dry plains to the northward of the capital 
 (St. lago) ; it grows four yards high, and half a yard in thickness. It pro- 
 duces yellow pods, three inches long and two lines thick, which are eaten by 
 sheep, who fatten well on them : the wood lasts very long, even under 
 water ; and is used for door-sills and thresholds, for axle-trees, and for mdls. 
 
 8. Algodon Gosipium, Cotton, thrives every where, if well treated. That 
 of Guasco and Copiapo is the best, on account of its softness and the length 
 of its staple. 
 
 9. Almendro, Almond, is most abundant in the district of Santiago ; it is 
 exactly the same with that of Spain, and its fruit is used for the same pur- 
 poses : the wood is too brittle for use. 
 
 10. Arayan, Myrtle, is found from Conception to Coquimbo. There are 
 two principal kinds ; the white, called also chequen, and the red. Each of 
 of these grows to six yards high, and half a yard in girth. The wood is little 
 used on account of its crookedness : in medicine it is used as in Spain. Its 
 fruit is a black berry, the flesh of which is white and rather dry. The natives 
 make a pleasant drink from it. If it were cultivated in walks or pleasure- 
 grounds, it would be charming by its beauty and fragrance. 
 
 11. Belloto, Achras Mammoso, is only found in the neighbourhood of 
 
 2 s 
 
498 APPENDIX. 
 
 Quillota and that of Rancagua ; its height and size are such as to allow the 
 fishermen to make canoes of a single piece of it, and it lasts long in the water : 
 troughs for salting meat, washing, and other domestic uses, are also formed 
 of it. It produces bellotas, which are used for feeding pigs. 
 
 12. BoLDo, Ruizia, grows in the province of Conception, and eveiy where 
 to the southward of Santiago ; its height is eight yards, and its girth above one. 
 A bath, with an infusion of the leaves of this tree, is good in cutaneous 
 disorders, swelling of the glands, and rheumatism and dropsy. These leaves, 
 bruised and heated in wine, are useful in defluxions of the head ; the juice of 
 them, dropped into the ear, alleviates pain. Its fruit is of the size of a pea ; 
 it is sweet, but has little flesh : the stones serve for making rosaries. The wood 
 is. not generally used ; but it is excellent for pipes for wine, which it ame- 
 liorates. M. Frezier, quoted by the Abbe Molina, probably did not observe 
 the inner bark of this tree carefully, especially in the season when it seems 
 perfectly to resemble the Oriental cinnamon. 
 
 13. BoLLEN, Kaganeckia, abounds in Maule, Rancagua, and Quillota ; it 
 grows >to the height of four or five yards, and its girth is about a foot : the 
 wood is close-grained, and serves for turnery. 
 
 14. Canelo, South American Cinnamon, grows in every province from 
 Valdivia to Coquimbo, and in both Juan Fernandez and Mas Afuera ; it 
 commonly grows about fifteen yards high, and is two in circumference. It is 
 a sacred tree among the Indians ; who assemble under it in their religious and 
 political ceremonies, and also whenever they invoke their deity Pillam. 
 Besides the superstitious purposes to which they apply this tree, they use it in 
 medicine. The bark, which is five lines thick, is juicy, but pungent ; the 
 pith is whitish, and is about an inch in circumference. The green wood is 
 spongy ; but when dry it is hard, and fit for any use which does not expose it 
 to water : it affords straight planks for house-timber, and preserves goods 
 from moths. When it is burnt it emits a smoke that is hurtful to the eyes, 
 but which has an agreeable smell, not unlike cinnamon ; the name of which it 
 has borrowed. On being cut, an aromatic gum, like incense, distils from the 
 tree ; and, exposed to the sun, the same gum forms itself into globules 
 between the wood and the bark. The decoction of the leaves or bark of this 
 tree is good to bathe in, in paralytic and other weakening disorders ; taken 
 into the mouth it eases the tooth-ache, cures cancer, and heals ulcers in the 
 throat. If the decoction is very strong, it is corrosive ; and applied as a 
 lotion, is good for the itch, scurvy, and ringworm. Mixed with salt and urine. 
 
APPENDIX. 499 
 
 it kills lice in horses, and cures the scab. A fumigation of canelo dries up 
 pustules and ulcers of the worst kind ; and finally, it is useful in spasmodic 
 affections, convulsions, and debility of nerves. It destroys all noxious in- 
 sects, and dissipates contagion : an infusion of its branches freshens and 
 restores the colour of indigo when turned green. 
 
 15. Carbon, grows in the districts of Guasco, Coquimbo, and Cuzcuz, 
 It is short and thick, and used for small articles of turnery; but it is incom- 
 parable for firewood : two logs, that might not each be more than three- 
 quarters of a yard long and one-third thick, suffice to keep a stew boiling, 
 night and day, besides other kettles, even enough for eight or ten people. 
 
 16. Cardon, Pourretia Coarctata. Its leaves are great massesj from three 
 to four palms long, sharp, and furnished with short, sharp, curved prickles. 
 In spring it produces a single stem from fourteen to sixteen palms high, and 
 three or four inches thick, the bark of which is strong ; but the pith is spongy, 
 and nearly equal to cork, though less solid. Its flower is beautiful yellow, and 
 contains a portion of fragrant and pleasant honey, with a resinous dust on 
 the stamens. This honey applied to the ear alleviates pain and restores 
 hearing. The decoction of the pith of the trunk is as beneficial as that of 
 the herb caliguala : it grows all over the state. 
 
 17. Castano, Chesnut, is the same with that of Spain ; from whence it was 
 brought. There are several orchards of them about the capital and near 
 Quillota. 
 
 18. Chacay, is found from Conception to Coquimbo j it grows six yards 
 high, and half a yard thick : it is thorny. The wood is incorruptible ; and with 
 it ranchos are built. The infusion of its bark is good against imposthumes. 
 
 19. Chanar, or Chilimuco, a species ofAcliras (Lticumo Espinoso), abounds 
 in Coquimbo and the other northern districts. It grows eight yards high, 
 and one thick ; it is a crooked tree, and grows in very thick bushes. Its 
 fruit is very sweet, in the shape of a date ; but it gives the head-ache to those 
 who eat of it. The wood is used for small turners' ware ; and, for want of 
 better, it is the common wood used for building houses at Copiapo. 
 
 20. Chari, grows near Coquimbo ; it is about four yards high : its wood is 
 weak, and is only used in constructing ranchos. 
 
 21. Chilco, is a small shrub ; in Conception, where it grows, the decoc- 
 tion of it is reckoned cooling. 
 
 22. Chonta, a wild cane found in the islands of Juan Fernandez, fourteen 
 yards long and a quarter of a yard in diameter, at the foot ; it is hollow 
 
 Ss2 
 
500 APPENDIX. 
 
 from the solid part walking-sticks are made, which are esteemed for their 
 weight, and their shining black and yellow spots. 
 
 23. Citron, grows in the neighbourhood of Santiago, the same with that 
 of Spain. 
 
 24. Cypres, grows in the districts of Valdivia, Conception, Maule, Col- 
 chagua, Rancagua, and Santiago ; it is very like that of Spain, and in the 
 CordUleras attains to the height of fifty yards, and to the circumference of 
 three and a half : the branches begin to shoot off at the height of five or six 
 yards. Its wood is used for beams, doors, pillars, and ornamental planking ; 
 it is more solid and tough than that of Spain, but not so fragrant, and the 
 smell is apt to afflict the workmen employed to cut it with head-ache : it 
 bears exposure to the sun and rain well. Its colour is red : it is resinous and 
 fit for marine uses, being light and durable. It is aromatic ; balsamic and 
 vulnerary gum exudes from it. The decoction of its leaves is good in hypo- 
 chondria, dysentery, and tooth-ache. The bruised leaves, applied as a cold 
 plaister, stop bleeding. 
 
 25. CiRUELO, Plum-tree, the same as that of Spain ; whence many 
 varieties, which flourish in all parts of Chile, have been imported. 
 
 26. CoiHUE o CoiBO, grows in Valdivia, Conception, and the neighbour- 
 hood of Santiago ; it is very large, since it grows thirty yards high, and from 
 four to six in thickness. It is said there is one in Chilian fifteen yards in 
 girth. It is used for knee-timber for ships ; and canoes of two yards wide 
 are formed from it. It also affords planks and cart-wheels. The fruit is of 
 the size and texture of a white fig, but is neither eaten nor applied to any 
 other purpose. A fungus upwards of a foot broad, and of a semicircular 
 form, which is the best tinder, grows on this tree. The bark makes a red 
 dye, and is used to close wounds. 
 
 27. CoLEU, Rattan, is a solid cane ; the smaller one, palled Butre, 
 grows six yards long, and an inch thick : it is chiefly used instead of lath in 
 roofing houses. That of the Cordilleras grows to ten yards in length, and two 
 inches in thickness : it is principally used for lances. It gi'ows abundantly 
 in Conception, and in the heights of Valparaiso : the first kind is also found 
 in some parts of the province of Santiago. 
 
 28. CoLiGUAY. Thei'e are two sorts which grow from Conception to Co- 
 quimbo. It grows about four yards high, and half a yard thick. The wood 
 is weak, and is used only for ranchos, and for firewood ; when burnt it is 
 
APPENDIX. 5QJ 
 
 as fragrant as incense: its leaves contain an acrid milky juice, which causes 
 blindness if it accidentally falls into the eye. 
 
 29. CopADo, is diminutive on the coasts ; but grows to three yards high, 
 and furnishes thorns • nine inches long, slender, and strong as those of the 
 quiscos (a variety of torch thistle), of which there is also abundance in the 
 country : its stem is of no use whatever. 
 
 30. CoRCOLEN. Both the red and the yellow variety are found in Concep- 
 tion ; the red grows four yards high, and a quarter of a yard thick ; the 
 yellow is equally thick, but only two yards high. Its branches are beautiful, 
 full of leaves ; it is abundant of flowers, yellow, and fragrant as those of the 
 aroma: it is fit for shrubberies. The wood is good, but has no pecuhar 
 destination. 
 
 SI. Crucero {like the English caper), grows about Rancagua ; it is low 
 and slender : the plant is used as a purgative. 
 
 32. CucuLi, is found in Rancagua; its size is sufiicient to furnish good 
 plank, but it is not abundant. 
 
 33. CuLEN, Cytisus Arborea, grows to the height of four yards, and the 
 thickness of a foot ; it is both cultivated and wild, and very abundant : the 
 leaves and bark are medicinal. It is used like tea, and is good for complaints 
 in the bowels, flatulency, and indigestion ; the dry leaves in powder, or the 
 green leaves mashed, used as a plaister, are good to close wounds. A whole- 
 some and palatable drink is made from the buds. In spring resinous glo- 
 bules exude from the bark, which the shoemakers use instead of wax. 
 
 34. Datil, newly discovered in Conception ; so that its uses are not yet 
 known. 
 
 35. DuRASNO, Peach, grows everywhere, and produces all the varieties of 
 fruit known in Spain. 
 
 36. EsPiNiLLO, is only found in Juan Fernandez ; it grows five or six yards 
 high, and half a yard thick : the wood is extremely light, but it is useless, 
 even as firewood, burning very dully. 
 
 37. EspiNO, Mimosa. It grows in abundance all over the country : it grows 
 commonly from three to five yards high, and is as thick as that one man can 
 barely stretch his arms roimd it. The wood is solid, heavy, hard, and tough, 
 yellow without, and red at heart ; it makes the best charcoal, and is exceed- > 
 ingly profitable to the owners of the thickets, on account of the abundant 
 
 * These thorns are used as pins, and as knitting needles. 
 
502 APPENDIX. 
 
 firewood it furnishes. It is excellent for large enclosures for cattle, for 
 house-timber, and for espaliers for vines, because it does not rot under ground, 
 although the yellow part becomes worm-eaten in the air. It is also used for 
 turnery, for cart-wheels, and for lintels for doors. The flower is like the aroma, 
 of exquisite perfume. The fruit is a black seed in a pod, very good for cattle; 
 if bruised- and spit upon, it emits so intolerable a smell, that it is necessary to 
 bum paper in the room. It makes excellent writing-ink, being steeped in 
 water and bruised, and mixed with copperas, and placed in the sun.* 
 
 38. Floripondio, Datura Arborea, is very common ; it grows five yards 
 high, and a quarter thick, with many branches. Its flower is beautiful, and 
 smells very sweet ; but the wood is of no use. It takes grafts of the cherimoya, 
 which thrive well on it ; but the fruit has not been tried, for fear of poison, 
 because that of the floripondio itself destroys dogs. 
 
 39. GoDOcoiPO, is rather a rare tree in the neighbourhood of Rancagua ; 
 it grows to the height of four yards, and the thickness of two feet : it is used 
 by the cabinet-makers. 
 
 40. GuAUTRU, grows in Conception, three yards high, and nine inches 
 thick ; the bark is used in hysteric affections. 
 
 41. GuAYACAN, is found about, Coquimbo, Cuzcuz, andQuillota; grows four 
 yards high, and half a yard thick : its solid wood is as good as box, and is 
 veined with blue and yellow. Combs, bowls, balustrades, and other domestic 
 articles, are made of it. The infusion of it is astringent, and is good in many 
 complaints. 
 
 42. GuAYO grows in Conception to the height of eight yards, and is one 
 yard in girth ; the wood is white, compact, tough, and fit for turnery. Sticks 
 are made of it ; which, being steeped in urine, acquire a red, shining colour. 
 From the seed a purgative medicine is prepared ; and the bark tans peltry, 
 and dyes it red. 
 
 43. GuAYUN, a small rare shrub, growing on the banks of rivers. The leaf is 
 large and whitish, and is furnished with a spine at the top. The seed is 
 purple. 
 
 44. GuiGNAN, or GoiGAN, is found in Conception, Rancagua, and some other 
 districts ; it grows four yards high, and three quarters in circumference. Its 
 wood is very useful. Its seed is of the size, shape, smell, taste, and strength 
 of pepper ; the infusion of it is agreeable and stomachic, useful in the begin- 
 
 * The same shrub grows abundantly in the Mahratta mountains. 
 
APPjENDIX. 503 
 
 ning of dropsy, and in child-bearing. From this tree an .aromatic gum ^xudes, 
 which is used as a cataplasm for pains in the head, strains of the muscles or 
 tendons, and in disorders proceeding from bad air, with even better effect 
 than the oil of Maria. The bark yields a balsamic vulnerary essence, which 
 is useful in gout, rheumatism, sciatica, pains in the limbs, and even coldness 
 of feet. 
 
 45. GuiLLi Patagua, is found in Conception, Maule, Colchagua, and Quil- 
 lota ; it resembles the service-tree of Spain, and grows eight yards high, and 
 three quarters in girth : the bark serves for tanning, and is a powerful emetic. 
 The leaf, dried before the fire, is as pleasant as the herb of Paraguay ; taken 
 green, it is used in certain disorders with effect. Its fruit is insipid, and is 
 not used. 
 
 46. GuiNDO, Cherry, is like that of Spain, except that the fruit is not so 
 good. Dried cherries are prepared in Chile for the Lima market ; and cherry- 
 water is much esteemed as a refrigerent. There are wild cherry trees in 
 Conception, whose bark is white ; their growth is like that of the cypress, and 
 the fruit is green, with little flesh, but pleasant to the taste. 
 
 47. Fig, is exactly that of Spain. 
 
 48. HuERiL, is found in various parts of the country. It is a shrub whose 
 bark is thought the best refrigerent. 
 
 49. JuNco, only found at Rancagua ; it is short, delicate, and of no espe- 
 cial use. 
 
 50. Laurel, grows in Valdivia, Conception, Maule, and Colchagua; it likes 
 damp situations, and strikes its roots deep. Its usual height is twenty yards, 
 and one and a half in girth. Planks of fourteen yards in length are obtained 
 from it, and the wood is fit for carved work, being white, phable, and incor- 
 ruptible ; in the centre are dark veins, whose ramifications are pretty : it is 
 useless in water. It is very light when dry, but will bear Uttle weight, and 
 is brittle. The flower, leaf, and bark, are all fragrant, and are used in colds 
 and headaches : from the inner bark sneezing powders of great efiicacy are 
 made. The warm decoction of the leaves is good in glandular diseases, and 
 as a bath strengthens the nerves ; the fumigation with it is useful in paralytic 
 affections, convulsions, and spasmodic complaints : a drink composed of it is 
 useful in some severe disorders. 
 
 51. LiLEN, is found in the districts of Cuzcuz and Coquimbo, six yards 
 high and one thick ; it is used in building, and is excellent for wood-work in 
 mines. 
 
504 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 52, 53. LiMO y Limon, Lemon and Lime, the same as in Spain. 
 
 54. LiNGUE, LiGUE, or LiNEA. It grows twenty-four feet high and two 
 thick ; its solid marbled wood is used for capstans, troughs, trays, and even 
 masts of small ships, and other purposes where it is not exposed to worms. 
 It rots in water. The bark is good for tanning ; dyes shoe-heels and walking- 
 sticks red. The flowers and fruit, or bean-like seeds, are sweet ; they make 
 the ffesh of birds bitter : they are bad for cattle and horses ; but the country 
 people are fond of a drink made from an infusion of them. 
 
 55. Litre o Pilco, Laurus Caustica, is very common ; it grows to four 
 yards high, but is very slender : the wood is close-grained and hard ; it is 
 used for knee-timber in ships, wheels, axletrees, and ploughshares, in- 
 stead of iron. The shade of this tree is noxious, producing great swelling on 
 those who rest under it ; and to touch it causes blains and sores. Anodynes 
 and refrigerents are the proper cure. From the small berry it produces, the 
 Indians make a very agreeable chicha and sweetmeats. The root is very thick, 
 with knots three quarters of a yard thick, and furnishing marble slabs fit for 
 inlaying ; also for centre-pieces for wheels. 
 
 5Q. LoLMATA, Cactus, Great Torch-thistle, also called Quisco, is common 
 everywhere ; it grows five or six yards high, and three quarters thick : it 
 produces spines nine inches long, so smooth and hard, that they are used for 
 knitting-needles. The wood is used for small planking, looms, and the huts of 
 the poor ; it is very durable when kept dry. 
 
 57. LucuMO, Achrces Lucumo (of which two kinds are cultivated, the 
 Bifera and the Turbinata). This appears to be a tree imported from Peru ; 
 it grows best in the neighbourhood of Coquimbo, but flourishes at Quillota : 
 the fruit it bears is very sweet, of a pale orange colour within, with a large 
 shiny seed very much resembling a chesnut. 
 
 58. LuM, of two kinds ; the first, called Lum, or Siete Camisas, is the Ste- 
 ryoxyhn rubrum, and the White Lum, or BarracOj the Steryoxylon revo- 
 lutum, of the Flora Peruviana et Chilena : these trees grow six or seven 
 yards high and a foot thick. The wood is solid, and the bark is a purgative. 
 
 59. Luma *, grows in Valdivia and Conception : it is used for tillers, bits, 
 bolts for ships ; for nuts and screws ; for presses, axletrees, and shafts for carts ; 
 also, for hand-spikes. It is a durable wood ; and the trees give spars of from 
 eight to ten yards long, and from six to ten inches square : it is crooked, and 
 
 * I suspect the same with the lust. 
 
APPENDIX. 505 
 
 hard to cut down. There are two kinds, the red and the white : the latter 
 is very inferior. (The King having heard of the excellence of this wood in 
 1789, ordered a quantity to be sent to Spain, which was done accord- 
 ingly.) 
 
 60. Manzana, Apple, the same as in Spain ; the silk- worm will feed on it. 
 
 61 . Maniu, or Manihue, grows in Conception ; it arrives at the height of 
 twenty yards, and the girth of three. The stem is clean and straight for five 
 or six yards from the ground, where it throws out a beautiful head seven or 
 eight yards in diameter ; the leaf is narrow, soft, and pointed, and perfectly 
 green on both sides ; the wood is white, solid, and strong, and a little brittle : 
 it is used in buildings under cover, for the rain rots it j in working it splits 
 like pine, which it resembles in colour, for which reason the people of Val- 
 divia call it by the same name. 
 
 62. Maqui, is found in most provinces of the state; the sap which 
 exudes from its buds cleanses wounds and sores ; and the leaves, dried and 
 powdered, heal and cicatrize them : the fresh leaves mashed clean and cure 
 ulcers in the mouth. The wood is light and sonorous, fit for musical instru- 
 ments and the ornamental parts of furniture; it is admirable for lathing 
 for roofs, as it hardens with time, and is exceedingly durable. The bark 
 steeped furnishes strong filaments, from which better twine is made than from 
 those of spartum. Of its dark-purple berries, something like pimento, the 
 country people make a preserve, which is much sought after even in the 
 towns ; mixed with the grape when pressed, it communicates to the wine 
 an agreeable flavour ; infused in water; it is a powerful refHgerent. 
 
 63. Mardono. This tree is found in Conception and Rancagua ; it grows 
 to the height of three yards, and about a quarter thick; it produces no 
 useful fruit : it rots easily, and therefore only serves for firewood. 
 
 64. Mayo, grows in Conception and the southern provinces; it grows 
 seven yards high, and about three feet thick ; the wood is light : in Juan 
 Fernandez they make small vessels of it ; its bark yields a yellow dye. 
 
 65. Mayten, is found all over Chile ; it rises to the height of ten or twelve 
 yards, and grows to two yards in thickness ; its trunk is straight and clean, 
 and its roots run deep : the timber is white without and red within ; it is 
 tough and easily worked, and very proper for all curious purposes. The tree 
 is beautiful in pubHc walks and shrubberies, being always green and leafy. 
 Sheep and cattle are fond of the young branches ; the decoction of its leaves 
 is a febrifuge, and bruised they are anodyne. 
 
 3 T 
 
506 APPENDIX. 
 
 66. Membrillo, Quince. This and the fruitful Lucumo are much alike, 
 being both delicate in their growth, and furnishing excellent tough twigs for 
 basket-work ; the fruits of both are alike in size and colour, but not in taste, 
 one being bitter and the other sweet. (The Quince is also much larger, and 
 its shape like that of Europe : the shape of the Lucumo is like an orange.) 
 
 67. MicHAY, grows in Valdivia, Conception, Juan Fernandez, and in the 
 neighbourhood of Santiago. It grows as thick as a man's arm, and is about 
 a yard high ; it yields a lively and lasting yellow dye. A kind of caterpillar 
 like the silk-worm forms its coccoon in this shrub. This wood serves for in- 
 laying. 
 
 68. MiTRiN, is low and scarce ; it yields a black colour. 
 
 69. MoLLE, Schinus Molk, is found in Rancagua, Quillota, Cuzcuz, and 
 Coquimbo. It grows little more than eight yards high, and two and a half 
 in girth. The heart of this tree is very solid, and is used for pillars, for the 
 axletrees of waggons, and gables and corner-posts of dwellings. Where a 
 part is buried under ground it takes root and thereby secures the building 
 better. This tree yields a gum which, applied to the head as a plaister, re- 
 lieves spasms. If the bark be wounded a liquor flows from it; which becom- 
 ing thick, is excellent for nervous complaints, and affords a good stomachic 
 and cardiac medicine. 
 
 70. Mora, Mulberry, grows in Coquimbo and Santiago ; is like that of Spain : 
 the timber is durable, and good for carving, though it seldom produces fruit. 
 The tree grows so readily, that dry fences of it in Coquimbo sprouted in- 
 differently above or below wherever they were placed. 
 
 71. MuDEU, grows in Conception ; it is a lofty tree, and grows three yards 
 thick. We do not know its peculiar uses. 
 
 72. Narangillo, grows in Aconcagua ; it is sixteen or twenty yards high, 
 and of sufficient girth to cut logs of eighteen inches square and twenty-one 
 feet in length. The timber is tough, and applicable to most uses. In medi- 
 cine it is said that, infused in baths, it relieves rheumatic pains. 
 
 73. Naranjo, Orange. Both the bitter and sweet like those of Spain. 
 
 74. Natrx, is a tree of Conception, of whose qualities we are ignorant. 
 
 75. Nipa, grows every where from Conception to Coquimbo ; it grows five 
 yards high, and one half thick : the wood is useful for all common purposes, 
 and baths and fumigations of all parts of the plant ai-e wholesome. 
 
 76. NoGAL, Walnut,' is the same as that of Spain. 
 
 77. Notru, is called Cirnellillo in Conception, where it is most common. 
 
APPENDIX. 507 
 
 It grows four or five yards high, and one quarter thick : the wood is red and 
 fit for ornamental work. The decoction of its bark and leaves is good in 
 glandular affections, and for coldness of the feet. The steam of this plant is 
 good for toothache, &c. 
 
 78. Olivillo, is found iti Conception ; its greatest height is twelve yards, 
 and its girth is one. The leaf is like that of the olive, but it produces no 
 fruit. The timber is excellent and durable, and is used in mines ; and in 
 Coquimbo and Guasco, where it grows stunted and crooked, it is considered 
 as the best fuel for smelting metals. 
 
 79. Olivo, Olive, grows well all over the country ; and is exactly that of 
 Europe. 
 
 80. Palma, the Date Palm, is rare, and grows in Quillota ; and its nearly 
 tasteless fruit is without a stone. The most comnlon and useful palm in Chile 
 is that of the small cocoa-nut: the nut resembles the large one in all but size, 
 and is used in confectionary. When the trunk is cut down, one end being 
 placed in the fire a delicious honey exudes from the other. The wood is 
 useless ; the stem is tall, straight, and large. This tree does not reach its 
 full growth in less than fifty years. 
 
 81. PALMiLtA, is found in Conception; is pretty, about four yards high, 
 and useless. 
 
 82. Palo Negro, grows in Conception ; it is a small shrub, the' wood of 
 which is used for handles to axes and other tools. 
 
 83. Palpal, is a low shrub of Conception, of whose uses we are ignorant. 
 
 84. Palqui, a shrub with a large root ; the branches are about as thick as 
 a finger. The bark, steeped in water, is good both externally and internally 
 for cutaneous diseases. It is said to be unwholesome for cattle who browse 
 on it. (There are two varieties near Quintero ; one with purple flowers, which 
 grow in clusters about the size and shape of yellow jasmine, smells very 
 sweet during the night. The whole plant yields excellent ashes for the soap- 
 boiler.) 
 
 85. Patagua, grows in the neighbourhood of Santiago, Rancagua, and 
 Conception. It is good for silk- worms. It loves moist situations : it grows 
 about ten yards high, and one and a half thick. The wood is useful for 
 building, for farm purposes, arid for furniture. It has five or six coats of 
 bark, each of five lines thick : it is used for tanning. An infusion of it is 
 said to be serviceable in internal abscesses. 
 
 St 2 
 
508 APPENDIX, 
 
 86. Payhuen, abounds in the hilly country round Aconcagua ; it grows 
 three yards high, and one thick. It furnishes excellent browsing for cattle, 
 and when burnt emits a very fragrant odour ; but we know of no other use 
 for it. 
 
 87. Pellin, a tree of Conception and Valdivia, whose height and size 
 allow of cutting spars of sixteen yards long, and twelve inches square. It 
 spreads its roots widely on the surface, but does not strike them deep. The 
 timber serves for gun-carriages, for keels and false keels to ships, also for 
 bolts, on account of its lasting qualities, whether in air, earth, or water. 
 The bark dyes wool of a deep mulberry colour. 
 
 88. Pela, or Pilo, grows, in Valdivia and Conception, to six yards in 
 height, and one in girth : the wood is white, solid, and durable ; it is good 
 for ploughshares, axle-trees, &c. The seed dyes black. 
 
 89. Peral, Pear, the same as that of Spain. The decoction of its leaves is 
 good for swelled feet ; and the decoction of a species of polipody (Quintral) 
 that grows on it is good for bruises. 
 
 90. Perallillo, a middling-sized tree of Juan Fernandez, where it is not 
 very plentiful ; it yields a middling kind of timber. 
 
 91. Peumo, grows both in Chile and Peru. It grows very upright to the 
 height of sixteen yards, and thi-ee yards in girth. The timber lasts well 
 under water. The bark is used by tanners, it yields an orange-coloured 
 dye,' and is applied in cataplasms to broken limbs. The fruit, being steeped 
 in tepid water, is supposed to reHeve dropsy. The tree is proper for pubhc 
 walks and shrubberies, on account of its beauty, especially when amidst its 
 tufted leaves its abundant red or white berries are seen. 
 
 92. PicHi, grows in Conception, and raises its twisted trunk of two feet 
 thick to the height of five or six yards ; the bark is ragged, and the head 
 very bushy. The seed is about the size of a kidney-bean, and horses and 
 oxen are extremely fond of it. 
 
 93. Pino, Pine. Large woods of it are found in the Andes of Valdivia and 
 Conception, and it is cultivated in many places ; it rises to the height of 
 forty yards, and is four in girth. The wood is very desirable for masts of 
 ships. Its nut is larger than that of Europe, and is the principal harvest 
 of the mountain Indians. The cone is not so close as that of Europe, so 
 there is no need to put it to the lire to open it ; but when ripe the seed falls 
 out : women eat it to increase their milk. The resin of this tree is believed 
 
APPENDIX. 509 
 
 to be good for headaches. The timber of this pine is thought better than 
 that of the Baltic, for masts and other naval purposes. In 178I a great deal 
 was cut for the squadron of Don Antonio Bacaro ; and samples being sent to 
 Spain, the King ordered that it might be used. 
 
 94. PiNosiLLO, is low and scarce. We did not learn its use in Conception, 
 where it grows. 
 
 95. PiTRA, is found in all places to the south of Santiago ; it grows eight 
 or ten yards high, and one thick : the wood is weak when green; it rots under 
 ground, and is little used except for fuel for baking pottery and bricks. The 
 trunk is full of knots ; below the outer bark there is a kind of soft fretwork 
 covering, that serves excellently for tinder. Bruised in wine this bark is 
 good for contusions, &c. The decoction of the leaves and bark is good in 
 pains of the legs, and coldness of the extremities. 
 
 96. Quebracho, is most plentiful about Maule, but grows freely in other 
 places, especially between Valparaiso and Concon. It is little more than a 
 shrub : the wood is of a fine grain and heavy, so it is used for carvers and 
 turners' work. 
 
 97- QuELEN QuELEN, a small delicatQ shrub ; it is found in the districts 
 of Colchagua, Rancagua, and Valparaiso. The leaf is narrow and pointed ; 
 the flower blueish ; the root like liquorice, but with little taste. The gum of 
 this plant is used for various illnesses proceeding from cold ; the wood is 
 looked upon as antiepileptic. The whole plairt is used for firewood. 
 
 98. QuEULi, is a sort of Achras. It is only found in Conception ; it grows 
 twenty-five yards high, and three in girth; it loves a damp situation. The 
 timber is dark-red, easy to work, and takes a good polish. The fruit is like 
 a long bellota, composed of a large firm husk, and a sweet yellow pulp, 
 which is eaten both raw and boiled : it is esteemed unwholesome. 
 
 99. QuiLLAY, is found in most parts of the country; it grows eight yards 
 high, and two thick. The bark of this tree is used to clear colours in dyeing 
 goods, and to cleanse wOollen and silk clothes : beaten between two stones 
 and mixed in water, it makes a lather like soap. It is cortsidered wholesome 
 in hysterical affections. The timber is apt to become worm-eaten in the sun, 
 but it lasts well either under water or under ground ; hence it is used in 
 mines and for mill-wheels, and also for cart-wheels. (The authors of the 
 Flora of Peru and Chile call this tree Smegdadermos, I think. The bark 
 does not contain alkali, but a gum or mucilage, which froths as beer does ; 
 
510 APPENDIX. 
 
 besides some other astringent substance, of which no person yet seems to 
 know the nature.) 
 
 100. Quisco, the same as Lolmata. 
 
 101. Radan, a large tree, which is found in the district of Colchagua ; it 
 does not grow high : it is little used. 
 
 10^. E-ASAL, is like a wild walnut. We have not seen its flower or fruit. 
 The wood is light and fit for musical instruments : the leaves and bark boiled, 
 give a good black dye. 
 
 103. Rauli, grows in Conception and Maule, thirty or forty yards high, 
 and five thick. It does not divide into branches till near the top. The tim- 
 ber is of a fine red colour ; it is easUy wrought, and is used by coopers and 
 carvers. The bark gives a red dye. 
 
 104. Resino, a bush that grows in Juan Fernandez ; it produces a gum 
 applied to plaisters for various weaknesses, and is used to burn in churches 
 instead of frankincense. 
 
 105. Retamo, Broom, grows three or four yards high, and a quarter in 
 thickness; its wood is used for balls : it is like Spanish broom, but more leafy; 
 oxen and sheep are very fond of it. The seed-vessel is globular, about the 
 size of a hazle-nut. 
 
 106. RoBLE. When this tree is a sapling, it is called GualleyaA. its mature 
 age, it is Roble ; and when old, Pellin. It grows in the province of Concep- 
 tion, and in the southern part of that of Santiago, but is most abundant on the 
 banks of the Maule, where there are impenetrable forests of it. The common 
 height of the roble is thirty yards : some of the trees grow to that of fifty 
 yards, and from three to five in thickness. The timber is excellent both for 
 civil and naval architecture, with the exception of masts and yards. Wheels 
 and trucks for carts and gun-carriages are made of it. The bark is used for 
 tanning ; and, prepared with lime, it dyes leather red. 
 
 106, Romero, Rosemary, grows everywhere, of the same sort as that m 
 Spain. There is an indigenous kind called Romarilla, which grows about 
 three yards high, and h^lf a yard thick ; it is very bushy ; it serves for hoops 
 for casks, for brooms, and other similar purposes. 
 
 107. Sandalo, Sandal'Wood, is found in Juan Fernandez ; the wood is very 
 odoriferous, and it is used for various purposes. We do not know if it has 
 any peculiar properties : there is but little of it. 
 
 Sauce, Willow. Th^re are three kinds ; one like that of Europe ; 
 another called Simaroon ; and a third Mimbre. They are very common, and 
 
APPENDIX. 511 
 
 grow to nine yards in height, and one in girth. The decoction of the leaves, 
 when cold, is cooling and good for the stomach ; it is also good for biUous 
 complaints, and expels worms. The wood is used for carved stirrups, also for 
 charcoal for gunpowder. 
 
 108. Sauco, is common, and is much used by apothecaries. 
 
 109- Talinay, a large tree, so called from the name of the hill near Co- 
 quimbo where it is most abundant. It is only durable in water. 
 
 110. Tava, is a small shrub of Rancagua and Coquimbo. The wood is of 
 no use, but the seed mixed with copperas makes good writing ink. 
 
 111. Tebo, a sort of Myrtle, which grows to a very large size in the pro- 
 vince of Aconcagua. The timber is yellow, and very solid. 
 
 112. Temu, or Palo Colorado, Red-wood, is found in Conception, 
 Quillota, and Juan Fernandez ; it rises to the height of from eight to twelve 
 yards, and grows to the thickness of one : it is like a myrtle, but more bushy. 
 The gum which exudes from its buds mixed with salt, and injected into the 
 eye, is said to cure cataract. It produces a largish fruit of a red and yellow 
 colour, which is said to cause abortion. 
 
 113. TiNco, grows in Conception to the height of twelve yards, and the 
 girth of one and a half; the timber is full of resin, and is fit for small vessels. 
 A great deal of it is sent from Valdivia to Peru. 
 
 114. TiQUE, a middling-sized tree produced in Cuzcuz. It is not very 
 serviceable. 
 
 115. Tralhuen, in the provinces of Conception and Santiago, is a small, 
 dry, thorny, and durable shrub, with a twisted and rugged trunk ; it is close- 
 grained and fit for turnery. It serves for posts in vineyards where the vines 
 are trained high. The wood gives out a red dye, little used. 
 
 116. Traruboqui, Coquilboqui, Codunoboqui. There are two kinds of 
 this, one of which is a ground creeper ; it is very curious and red, and is as 
 thick as the finger ; it is used for lath-work in roofs, and other places : it 
 does not decay in water, and it makes ligatures as tough and lasting as hide. 
 The other climbs to the tops of trees ; its branches are as pliable as thread, 
 and are used for lashing joists of houses and roofs : the seed is small, sweet, 
 and highly flavoured. 
 
 1 17. Triaca, grows ten yards high, and eighteen inches thick j it grows 
 very straight, and its timber is used for rafts. 
 
 118. Ulme, grows ten yards high and eighteen inches thick ; the wood is 
 used for boat-timbers, and when it is green it burns like oil. 
 
512 APPENDIX, 
 
 119. Yaque, it is a thorny plant of two yards high ; it is used to make lie 
 for washing linen. 
 
 " This list was drawn up in obedience to the order of His Majesty, dated 
 July 1789, and was forwarded 10th December, 1792. 
 
 (Signed) " Jude Thaddeus de Reyes." 
 
 •' Given to me at Santiago de Chile, by Don D. R., in 1822. 
 
 " M. Graham." 
 
 THE END. 
 
 London : 
 
 Prinujd by A.& K. Spottiswoodc, 
 
 New-Street-Square. 
 

 :-aiH:-ir2i2£§i&:«.