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 10th 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. 



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