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. 



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