36 INTRODUCTION. 
deepened into horror against some of the individuals. It must be 
confessed, that the severity was useless; and useless severity in go- 
vernments, is always criminal. Their authority is conferred, that 
they may increase and guard the happiness of the community with 
the smallest possible abridgment of freedom, or happiness to indivi- 
duals. But even while the struggle for independence was going on, 
the new governors became so intoxicated with power, that, with the 
name of freedom on their lips, they oppressed and murdered, and, 
while they gratified their own base passions, they called it public 
duty. 
The Carreras were neither good nor useful citizens, but the two 
who had now suffered were, at least, harmless, and might surely with 
their families have been permitted to breathe in some climate, where 
they could not have interfered with the soldiers or governors of 
Chile. * 
Meantime, the Spaniards had blockaded the port of Valparaiso by 
means of the frigate Esmeralda of 40 guns, and the brig Pezuela; 
but as the government had purchased a large vessel, called the Lau- 
taro, armed and manned as a ship of war, and had given the command 
of it to Mr. George O’Brian, a lieutenant in the British navy, he 
resolved to go out and attack the enemy on the 27th of April, 1818 ; 
he did so accordingly, and both vessels had actually struck: but 
Captain O’Brian, having headed the boarders, who had taken pos- 
session of the deck of the Esmeralda, was shot by a man from below, 
whose life he had just spared. This sad event, by which Chile lost an 
active and intelligent officer, together with the confusion occasioned 
by the Esmeralda taking fire, obliged the Lautaro to retire without 
her prizes who escaped, but the port remained free from blockade. 
This little, though brilliant action, raised the spirits of the Chilenos 
to the highest pitch ; and they redoubled their efforts to raise money 
to procure and equip a squadron. ‘Taxes, voluntary loans, and sub- 
scriptions were all resorted to, and all were paid cheerfully for the 
* See Mr. Yates’s paper, in the Appendix. 
