3410 JOURNAL. 
convention is doing its utmost to raise money &c., and to oppose 
O’ Higgins, and has actually sent 20,000 dollars to Freire. 
After dinner we generally walk to the sea-side to enjoy the pros- 
pect and the music of the sea, which comes, “ like the joys that are 
‘‘ past, sweet and mournful to the soul.” To-day we sat long on the 
promontory of the Herradura, to see the last sun of 1822 go down into 
the Pacific, and we watched how long his rays gilded the tops of the 
Andes after he himself was hid in ocean. The sea was beating 
nearly round us; as far as the eye could reach, there was but the 
ruins of one human habitation; the deep shadows of evening con- 
cealed the narrow traces of cultivation, that here and there encroach 
on the wild thickets, bounded by the mountains ; the cattle had re- 
tired to the woods; and nothing living but the night-birds flitting 
round us, told that we still belonged to a living race. My thoughts 
naturally went back to times when life and its enjoyments were 
young; when I had hearts that sympathised, friends that felt with 
me. Nay, even the last sun of the last year went down with hope, 
almost with confidence, for me. But now, the generous feeling of 
almost a stranger, alone bestows a momentary comfort on me. 
Misery and death have been busy with me: my best hopes have 
been disappointed ; and I have to seek new interests, ere life itself 
can be otherwise than burthensome. 
My companion at length roused me to recollection, by naming 
the hour. A silent walk home, with a not unpleasant feeling of sad 
remembrance, ended this, perhaps the most disastrous, year of my 
life. . 
January 1st, 1823. — Well might Young exclaim, “ Tired Nature’s 
“ sweet restorer, balmy sleep!” This fine, fresh, fair morning has 
awakened me to life, and light, and hope, and at least the certainty 
that come what will, this year cannot be so disastrous as the last. I 
have now nothing to lose, and every common enjoyment must be a 
gain to me. 
The inconvenience of dwelling with so many people is begin- 
ning to increase, as our packages are made up. Therefore Lord 
