468 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 public 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 they fell in his power, and shown his generosity and greatness 

 of mind only to such as could comprehend and appreciate them, he would 



