88 INTRODUCTION. 
perty, on the individual’s purchasing letters of citizenship. * Lord 
Cochrane’s proposals were therefore rejected, and his hopes of 
obtaining thereby a sufficient sum for the payment of the seamen, 
and the repair and refitting of his ships, were frustrated. + He 
therefore resolved on a bold measure, but one which in the relative 
circumstances of all parties appears to me to be perfectly just. It 
must be remembered, as I have stated before, that the squadron had 
been twelve months at sea in constant activity ; the men had received 
neither pay nor clothing; they had had no supplies of provisions but 
what they had captured, either on shore or at sea; some of the ships 
were leaky, and all were in want of stores of every kind; and, above 
all, the crews, who were at least half English, complained of the want 
of grog. The army, on the contrary, had been supplied with waste- 
ful profusion, and all the honours and all the advantages of the cam- 
paign had been bestowed on its soldiers; its general had thrown off 
his allegiance to the country to which both army and navy had 
sworn to be faithful, and now wished to buy that fleet of its officers, 
which was, in the first place, not theirs to dispose of, and which 
_ they were bound to maintain for the Chilian government. San Mar- 
tin had promised not only to pay but to reward the fleet ; but he had 
failed to do either, and now denied his engagement to that purpose. 
He had also claimed for his own use several of the prizes made by 
the squadron. 
Alarmed by the advance of Canterac’s troops, San Martin had sent 
all the money and bullion from the mint and treasury at Lima to 
Ancon, and shipped it on board the transports, by way of safety. 
* San Martin, after having gotten the old Spaniards into his power, exacted from them 
one-half of their property as a means of securing the rest; when they attempted to remove 
or transport the remainder, it was seized, and the persons of the Spaniards were, with few 
exceptions, imprisoned or murdered. 
+ A great number of Spanish fugitives, with their property, having taken refuge in the 
vessels, Lord Lynedoch and St. Patrick, which were detained on that account, Lord 
Cochrane permitted them to ransom themselves, applying the money to the supply of the 
squadron. One or two, who preferred trusting to San Martin, were afterwards cruelly 
treated, and deprived of all their property. 
