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 living 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 1st, 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 



