62 INTRODUCTION. 
As soon as Lord Cochrane arrived in Valparaiso, he despatched 
the Independencia and Araucana with every thing necessary for 
repairing the O’Higgins, and with orders to return with her to that 
port as soon as possible. The great expedition, so long looked for- 
ward to, for the coast of Peru was now to be undertaken. The 
political temper of the Peruvians, and especially of the people of 
Lima, was ripe for it. A considerable body of troops had been 
assembled, and the taking of Valdivia having driven the enemy from 
his last strong hold in Chile, it only remained to prepare and victual 
the fleet in order to attack the provincial capital itself; and it was 
resolved that immediately after the next rainy season the expedition 
should sail. * 
Meanwhile the ships were employed under Lord Cochrane’s own 
eye, in surveying the coast in the neighbourhood of Valparaiso ; par- 
ticularly the bays Concon and Quintero, the former at the mouth of 
a very large river, and which might be important as a port for em- 
barking produce brought down the river from the interior; the 
latter, as being a fine harbour, better defended from the winds than 
that of Valparaiso, and better situated with regard to the facility of 
wood, water, and provisions, though more distant from the capital. 
Some of the ships’ crews were also employed in forming piers for 
the embarkation of the troops, in fitting transports and other pre- 
parations for the expedition. 
But the short-sighted policy of the financiers of these new govern- 
ments who will not see that it is more profitable to purchase good- 
will and faithful service by punctual payment to the soldiers and 
sailors, than to retain the money in their hands, even if they trade 
with it, or lend it for usury, which is not uncommon, had nearly 
unmanned their squadron, and deprived them of half their officers. 
* The “instructions of the Viceroy Pezuela to the governor of Valdivia, found in the 
public office of the place, urge him strongly to maintain himself there; not only as pre- 
serving a footing in Chile, but as preventing the government from making the threatened 
attack on Peru, by diverting a considerable part of the forces. (See Gazette of the 22d 
and 29th of April, 1820.) 
+ On this occasion it was that Lord Cochrane offered the estate to be sold to pay the 
people. 
