QUINTERO. 345 



10th. — 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 rHest pas tout d'etre aimc ; ilfaut etre ajjprecie :" 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. 110. 



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