44 



GENERAL SAN MARTIN. 



Serna to the viceroyalty, his influence prevailed 

 and the only opportunity for concluding the war 

 was lost. 



The interview between the two chiefs is described 

 as having been extremely interesting ; and from 

 all that passed, both parties appeared perfectly 

 sincere and cordial. 



Thus, as every proposition led in the end to 

 nothing, the armistice was dissolved about the 

 time of our arrival ; and the first news we heard 

 was, that the royalist army meant to abandon 

 the capital, and to retire to the interior, where 

 they were more certain of supplies. The truth 

 probably was, that the revolutionary principles 

 disseminated by San Martin had taken such deep 

 root in Lima, and the surrounding country, that 

 the Viceroy felt himself insecure in that quarter, 

 and was willing to try a different mode of warfare, 

 after having in vain endeavoured to stem the 

 torrent of new opinions which the expedition had 

 introduced. He well knew that San Martin's 

 great art consisted in winning to his cause all 

 persons within his reach, and in stimulating them 

 to assert their claim to independence. The policy 

 of the Royalists, therefore, required that some 

 change of plan should be adopted, and it was 

 resolved to yield for the present to the storm. 

 Whether these were the Viceroy's real motives 

 or not is immaterial. I had better and more 

 frequent opportunities of hearing what were General 

 San Martin's views, and therefore give them with 

 more confidence. How far his professions were 

 sincere, or, if sincere, his plans were wise, it is 

 now very difficult to say. They certainly appeared 

 to many people very judicious at the time, and 

 they were uniformly followed by the success which 

 he anticipated. I am therefore free to confess, 

 that whatever may have been his subsequent con- 

 duct, his measures at this juncture seemed to be 

 marked with much sagacity and foresight. The 

 political maxims by which he professed to be 

 guided will be given in detail, as well as his 

 subsequent conduct ; and although it be true, that 

 they were not eventually found, in every minute 

 detail, consistent with each other, his original 

 plans and professions were not, on that account 

 alone, less judicious or suitable to the particular 

 times. It is my present purpose to describe 

 merely what I actually saw, accompanied by such 

 reflections only as seem calculated to give clear- 

 ness to that description, without the most distant 

 view to the advancement of any party-question, 

 or mere political controversy. Even had my op- 

 portunities enabled me to collect adequate infor- 

 mation respecting all that was passing at the 

 moment, I must still have left the inquiry incom- 

 plete, on quitting the spot. 



On the 25th of June, I had an interview with 

 General San Martin, on board a little schooner, a 

 yacht of his own, anchored in Callao Roads for 

 the convenience of communicating with the deputies, 

 who, during the armistice, had held their sittings 

 on board a ship in the anchorage. There was 

 little, at first sight, in his appearance to engage 

 the attention ; but when he rose up and began 

 to speak, his great superiority over every other 

 person I had seen in South America was suffi- 

 ciently apparent. He received us in very homely 

 style, on the deck of his vessel, dressed in a 

 surtout coat, and a large fur cap, seated at a tabic 



made of a few loose planks laid along the top of 

 two empty casks. 



General San Martin is a tall, erect, well-pro- 

 portioned, handsome man, with a large aquiline 

 nose, thick black hair, and immense bushy whiskers, 

 extending from ear to ear under the chin : his 

 complexion is deep olive, and his eye, which is 

 large, prominent, and piercing, jet black ; his 

 whole appearance being highly military. He is 

 thoroughly well-bred, and unaffectedly simple in 

 his manners ; exceedingly cordial and engaging, 

 and possessed evidently of great kindliness of dis- 

 position : in short, I have never seen any person, 

 the enchantment of whose address was more irre- 

 sistible. In conversation he goes at once to the 

 strong points of the topic, disdaining, as it were, 

 to trifle with its minor parts : he listens earnestly, 

 and replies with distinctness and fairness, showing 

 wonderful resources in argument, and a most 

 happy fertility of illustration ; the effect of which 

 is to make his audience feel they are understood 

 in the sense they wish. Yet there is nothing 

 showy or ingenious in his discourse ; and he cer- 

 tainly seems at all times perfectly in earnest, and 

 deeply possessed with his subject. Several times 

 during this interview his animation rose to a high 

 pitch, and then the flash of his eye, and the whole 

 turn of his expression, became so exceedingly 

 energetic as to rivet the attention of his audience 

 beyond the possibility of evading his arguments. 

 This was most remarkably the case when the 

 topic was politics ; on which subject I consider 

 myself fortunate in having heard him express 

 himself frequently. But his quiet manner was 

 not less striking, and indicative of a mind of no 

 ordinary stamp : he could even be playful and 

 familiar, when such was the tone of the moment ; 

 and whatever effect the subsequent possession of 

 great political power may be supposed by some to 

 have had on his mind, I feel confident that his 

 natural disposition is kind and benevolent, and, 

 I conceive, far above the reach of such vulgar 

 influences. 



During the first visit I paid to San Martin, 

 several persons came on board his vessel privately, 

 from Lima, to discuss the state of affairs, upon 

 which occasion his views and feelings were dis- 

 tinctly stated ; and I saw nothing in his conduct 

 afterwards to cast a doubt upon the sincerity with 

 which he then spoke. The contest in Peru, he 

 said, was not of an ordinary description — not a 

 war of conquest and glory, but entirely of opinion ; 

 it was a war of new and liberal principles against 

 prejudice, bigotry, and tyranny. — " People ask," 

 said San Martin, " why I don't march to Lima at 

 once ; so I might, and instantly would, were it 

 suitable to my views — which it is not. I do not 

 want military renown — I have no ambition to be 

 the conqueror of Peru — I want solely to liberate 

 the country from oppression. Of what use would 

 Lima be to me, if the inhabitants were hostile in 

 political sentiment ? How could the cause of In- 

 dependence be advanced by my holding Lima, or 

 even the whole country, in military possession ? — 

 Far different ai'e my views. I wish to have all 

 men thinking with me, and do not choose to 

 advance a step beyond the gradual march of public 

 opinion. The capital is now ripe for declaring its 

 sentiments, and I shall give them the opportunity 

 of doing so in safety. It was in sure expectation 



