16 



THE CHILIANS INVADE PERU. 



" An expedition equipped at the expense of 

 great sacrifices, is at length ready to proceed, and 

 the army of Chili, united to that of the Andes, is 

 now called upon to redeem the land in which sla- 

 very has longest existed, and from whence the latest 

 efforts have been made to oppress the whole con- 

 tinent. Happy be this day on which the record of 

 the movements and the action of the expedition 

 commences ! 



"The object of this enterprise is to decide 

 whether or not the time is arrived, when the influ- 

 ence of South America upon the rest of the world 

 shall be commensurate with its extent, its riches, 

 and its situation." 



As there will be occasion to make frequent use 

 of the terms Spaniard and Patriot, it may prevent 

 misapprehension to state, that, by the word Spa- 

 niard is exclusively meant a person born in Old 

 Spain ; and by Patriot one born in South America, 

 and attached to the independent cause. Persons 

 born in the colonies of Spanish parents, are, in 

 Europe, usually termed Creoles, but the use of this 

 word I have avoided, as a little offensive to South 

 American ears ; probably from its having been the 

 appellation given them during their dependent state. 

 In speaking of themselves, they use the word Ame- 

 rican, or Patriot ; but as the former might lead to 

 confusion with the inhabitants of the United States, 

 it seems least objectionable to use Patriot, when 

 speaking of persons born in the country, though 

 descended from Spaniards. The term Patriot, 

 indeed, in its strict sense, does not describe what, 

 in speaking of the south American States, it is 

 applied to ; but it has, of late years, been so uni- 

 versally adopted to designate all descriptions of 

 adherents to the cause opposed to the Spanish 

 authority in South America, that I shall constantly 

 use it in this sense, in preference to any more 

 exact, but less generally received appellation. The 

 language, it may be mentioned, spoken all over 

 the country, is Spanish, more or less corrupted 

 by local idiom and pronunciation. 



The expedition set sail for Peru on the 20th of 

 August and reached Pisco, a port about 1 00 miles 

 south of Lima, on the 7th of September, where, by 

 the 11th, the whole army was disembarked. The 

 Spanish troops, stationed in that neighbourhood, 

 had previously fallen back upon Lima, where the 

 Viceroy resolved to collect his whole force. At 

 first, therefore, the Liberating Army encountered 

 no resistance, and on the 26th, an armistice of 

 eight days being agreed to at the request of the 

 Viceroy Don Joaquim Pezuela, the commissioners 

 of both parties held a conference at Miraflores, a 

 village two or three leagues south of Lima. 



The real object of the Chilians in agreeing to 

 this armistice, was to gain time. The whole of the 

 artillery and 500 infantry had parted from the 

 fleet during the passage, and had not rejoined the 

 expedition. In order to allow these vessels to join, 

 the armistice was protracted as long as possible. 

 Besides, it was of the utmost importance to pro- 

 cure correct information respecting the state of 

 the country, and to distribute manifestoes and 

 other seductive and inflammatory papers amongst 

 the inhabitants. 



It was first proposed, on the part of the Viceroy, 

 " That the Government and people of Chili and the 

 army should swear to the constitution of the Spa- 



nish Monarchy, and should send deputies to the 

 Sovereign Congress of Spain, for the purpose of 

 availing themselves of the rights and privileges 

 granted to the colonies by the Cortes." 



This proposition the Chilian deputies declined to 

 discuss ; saying they were not authorised to nego- 

 tiate on such a basis, and that they could treat 

 only on grounds not at variance with the principles, 

 which the free Governments of South America 

 had laid down as the rule of their conduct. The 

 Royalist deputies next proposed, " That the Li- 

 berating Army should evacuate the territory of 

 Peru, and return to Chili ; under the express 

 engagement, that deputies should be sent with full 

 powers to Spain, to request his Majesty to grant 

 their wishes." This new proposal convinced the 

 Chilians that the government of Lima had no 

 serious intention of coming to terms ; in fact, they 

 never supposed the Viceroy in earnest ; but as the 

 deputies were instructed to leave nothing untried, 

 and, if possible, to discover the real extent of the 

 obstacles to peace, they proposed on the part of 

 Chili, " That the liberating Army should evacuate 

 Pisco, and retire beyond the river Desaguadero, 

 which lies in lat. 18° South, and forms the bounding 

 line of Chili and Peru ; and that the royal troops 

 should retire beyond the limits of the presidency 

 of Chili, as defined in 1810 ; that the political state 

 of Chili remaining unchanged, should send com- 

 missioners with full powers to Madrid, to treat 

 with his Most Catholic Majesty ; while hostilities 

 should cease both by sea and land, until three 

 months after the termination of the negotiations : 

 and finally, that the senior officer of his Britannic 

 Majesty's ships, and the senior officer of the ships 

 of the United States of North America, should be 

 requested to guarantee the fulfilment of these sti- 

 pulations." The Viceroy declined the essential 

 parts of this proposal, namely the evacuation of 

 the provinces of Potosi, Chuquizaka, Cochabamba, 

 and La Paz, as well as the guarantee of the naval 

 commanders-in-chief ; so that, after a long but 

 unimportant correspondence between the two 

 parties, the armistice was broken up on the 4 th of 

 October, and on the 26th the expedition proceeded 

 to the northward. 



San Martin's plan of the campaign was certain- 

 ly very skilful. By landing to windward of Lima, 

 (for the wind blows constantly from the south on 

 this part of the coast,) he retained the power of 

 making a descent upon the capital at any moment 

 he chose, should the Viceroy venture to quit it 

 with the main body of the Spanish army to repel 

 the invaders. The Viceroy was thus also pre- 

 vented from detaching any of his forces to inter- 

 cept a division of the Patriots' army, which San 

 Max-tin sent under Colonel Arenales into the inte- 

 rior. The subsequent removal of the Chilian 

 expedition to Ancon, situated to the northward 

 of Lima, occupied the attention of the Viceroy 

 still more closely, and gave Arenales full time to 

 effect his object of exciting the interior to revolt. 



In the meantime, while the Liberating Army 

 under San Martin were removing to Ancon, Lord 

 Cochrane, with part of his squadron, anchored in 

 the outer roads of Callao, the sea -port of Lima. 

 The inner harbour was guarded by an extensive 

 system of batteries, admirably constructed, and 

 hca ring the general name of the Castle of Callao. 

 The merchant-ships, as well as the men-of-war, 



