INTRODUCTION. "5 
third of them died of fever during the many months they continued 
there. 
Meantime Don Tom4s Guido and Colonel Luzuriago were de- 
puted to Guayaquil to return the compliments paid to the liberating 
chiefs by Escobedo, the chief of that city, who had offered all the 
assistance of the rich province of which it is the capital, towards the 
accomplishment of their designs. Other views were also in San 
Martin’s contemplation: the extraordinary successes of Bolivar in 
the north had given rise to the idea that his indefatigable zeal might 
lead him to the provinces of Peru. But it was by no means the wish 
of San Martin that such an expedition should be so far successful 
as to deprive him of any part of the empire he had now begun to 
contemplate for himself. His deputies, therefore, represented that 
on the fall of Lima, Guayaquil would become the principal port of 
a great empire, that the establishment of the docks and arsenals 
which San Martin’s navy would require, must enrich not only the 
individuals actually concerned in them, but the whole city ; whereas, 
if Guayaquil were subdued by Bolivar, it would be considered only 
as a conquered province, and of scarcely any importance to the 
immense state of Columbia. The existing government was therefore 
persuaded to form a militia, and to take every measure for keeping 
out any Columbian invader. 
This was not the only negotiation carried on from head-quar- 
ters at Supe: a correspondence, voluminous enough for the whole 
states of South America, took place between San Martin and the 
viceroy, sometimes concerning the exchange of prisoners, sometimes 
that of titles of honour, and now and then the liberator complains 
of the petty abuse of the Lima newspapers, which complaints are 
retorted by the viceroy. 
Nor was the press of Supe idle; besides the bulletins of the liberat- 
ing army, edicts were published calling upon slaves to join the army, 
and promising to pay their masters; and flattering proclamations 
addressed to the European Spaniards. 
Since the departure of the expedition from Chile, the director and 
senate had been uniformly engaged in endeavours to increase the 
L 2 
