INTRODUCTION. 39 
prospect of hastening the plans which had long been meditated for 
carrying the war out of the country. But the government, though 
gratified with this first success, and proud of the number of ships 
raised within seven months, still bitterly felt the want of competent 
officers. Their hopes were anxiously turned towards England, whence 
indeed the Galvarino* had lately arrived, and had been received 
into the service. Besides her commander, Captain Spry, she brought 
out Captain Guise, of the English navy, who was not without hopes 
of obtaining the command of the naval forces of the country ; and a 
number of followers were about him who were so much interested 
that it should be so, that they seemed to consider it as his right, and 
had partly persuaded him to think the same. Captain Forster, of 
the British navy, had also gone to Chile with similar hopes and 
similar fancied claims; and at that juncture the success of the late 
expedition had not rendered either Captain Wilkinson or Captain 
Worcester willing to yield to any junior officer in the Chileno 
employ. Where these disputes might have terminated it is idle 
to inquire: they were, for the present at least, silenced by the ar- 
rival of one of the ablest officers that even England had ever pro- 
duced. 
By one of those singular coincidences which not the fondest cal- 
culation for the benefit of Chile could have anticipated, the agents of 
the government of that country, who had been instructed, if possible, 
to procure the assistance of some able commander, (Sir H. Popham, 
was once named,) were fortunate enough to find Lord Cochrane at 
liberty to devote himself entirely to the cause of South American 
independence —A cause to which he could honestly give his talents 
and his time, without violating those principles of regulated freedom, 
from which he had never departed. 
The state of the Chilian navy required a man of prudence as well 
as courage, of temper as well as firmness, and in no one man did 
* Formerly the Hecate, an English 18-gun brig of war. Captains Guise and Spry 
bought her, and brought her to Chile on speculation. She was purchased from them by 
the government of Chile, after being refused at Buenos Ayres. 
