GENERAL SAN MARTIN PROTECTOR. 



13 



nothing lasting had been substituted ; and, as 

 circumstances were varying every hour, no new 

 habits had as yet been confirmed. In appearance, 

 also, everything was different. Instead of the 

 formal, dilatory style of doing business, that pre- 

 vailed in former days, all was decision and activity ; 

 even the stir in the streets looked to our eyes 

 quite out of Peruvian character : the shops were 

 filled with British manufactured goods ; the pave- 

 ment was thronged with busy merchants of all 

 nations, to the exclusion of those groups of indo- 

 lent Spaniards, who, with cigars in their mouths, 

 and wrapped in their cloaks, were wont, in bygone 

 days, to let the world move on at its own pleasure, 

 careless what turned up, so that it cost them no 

 trouble. The population appeared to be increased 

 in a wonderful degree ; and the loaded carts and 

 mules actually blocked up the thoroughfares. 



While viewing all this, the probable result 

 becomes a curious but intricate subject for specu- 

 lation. That eventual good must spring out of 

 the increased knowledge and power of free action 

 which the recent changes have introduced, there 

 could be no sort of doubt ; but in what manner 

 it might be modified, and when or how brought 

 about ; into what state, in short, the government 

 might settle at last, could not be predicted. In 

 the midst, however, of the great confusion and 

 uncertainty which prevailed in these countries, 

 it was satisfactory to think, that, in every variety 

 of aspect under which they could be viewed, there 

 was none in which the advantages of free trade 

 were not likely to be insisted on by the people ; 

 who acquired, with wonderful quickness, a clear 

 and comprehensive view of the subject, as distin- 

 guished from the ancient system of restriction. 

 There was no need of time, indeed, or of education, 

 to teach people of every class the direct benefits 

 of having a large and constant supply of useful 

 merchandise at low prices ; and although the 

 means of purchase, and the disposition to spend 

 capital in that way, must be greatly increased by 

 the establishment of a steady government ; yet, 

 even in the most ill-regulated and unsettled state 

 of public affairs, there will always be found, in 

 those countries, extensive means to make adequate 

 commercial returns. It is not, as I conceive, any 

 want of power to pay for imported goods that is 

 to be apprehended; but rather the absence of those 

 wants, tastes, and habits, the hope of gratifying 

 which is, in every country, the surest stimulus to 

 industry. The mining and agricultural resources 

 of South America are very great, as we already 

 know, by what they produced even when under 

 the unfavourable circumstances of the ancient 

 system ; and, from all we have seen of late years, 

 it is highly improbable, that, with the worst form 

 of government likely to be established, these 

 resources will be less productive than heretofore. 

 The desire to enjoy the luxuries and comforts, 

 now, for the first time, placed within reach of the 

 inhabitants, is probably the feeling most generally 

 diffused amongst them, and would be the least 

 easily controlled, or taken away. Perhaps the 

 wish for independence was, at the moment I speak 

 of, a stronger emotion, but it was not yet so 

 extensively felt as the other. To the great mass 

 of the people, indeed, abstract political ideas, 

 standing alone, are quite unintelligible ; but, when 

 associated with the practical advantages alluded 



to, they acquire a distinctness unattainable by any 

 other means. Had the Spaniards, some years 

 ago, been judicious enough to concede a free com- 

 merce to the colonies, there can be little doubt, 

 that, although they would, by that means, have 

 involuntarily sown the seeds of future political free- 

 dom, by giving the inhabitants a foretaste of its 

 enjoyments, they might have put off what they 

 considered the evil day to a much later period ; 

 and the cry for independence, now so loud and 

 irresistible, might perhaps not have yet been heard 

 in South America. 



It may be remembered, that, when we left Peru 

 on the 10th of August 1821, General San Martin 

 had entered Lima and declared himself Protector, 

 but that Callao still held out, and, as long as this 

 was the case, the Independent cause remained 

 in imminent hazard. San Martin, therefore, em- 

 ployed every means of intrigue to reduce the 

 castle, as he had no military force competent to 

 its regular investment. It was supposed, that, 

 in process of time, he would have succeeded in 

 starving the garrison into terms ; but, on the 

 10th of September, to the surprise of every one, 

 a large Spanish force from the interior marched 

 past Lima and entered Callao. San Martin drew 

 up his army in front of the capital as the enemy 

 passed, but did not choose to risk an engagement. 

 The Spaniards remained but a few days in Callao, 

 and then retired to the interior for want of provi- 

 sions, carrying off the treasure which had been 

 deposited in the castle. As they repassed Lima, 

 another opportunity was afforded for attacking 

 them ; but San Martin still declined to take ad- 

 vantage of what many of the officers of the army 

 and some other persons conceived a most favour- 

 able moment for gaining an important advantage 

 over the Royalists. A great outcry was in con- 

 sequence raised by all parties against him, on 

 account of this apparent apathy ; and his loss of 

 popularity may be said to take its date from that 

 hour. 



The fortress of Callao, nevertheless, surrendered 

 to San Martin a few days afterwards, and with 

 this he declared himself satisfied. Being all 

 along, as he declared, certain of gaining this most 

 important object, by which the independence of 

 the country was to be sealed, he did not conceive 

 it advisable to bring the enemy to action. It is 

 asserted, indeed, by many who were present, that 

 San Martin's army was much superior in num- 

 bers to that of Canterac, the Spanish general : 

 but his friends, while they admit this, assert, 

 that it was at the same time necessarily defective 

 in discipline and experience; since more than 

 two-thirds of the original expedition had sunk 

 under the effects of the climate at Huaura, and 

 the new levies consisted of raw troops recently 

 collected from the hills, and the surrounding 

 countries. Canterac's army, on the other hand, 

 consisted entirely of veterans, long exercised in 

 the wars of Upper Peru. San Martin, therefore, 

 thought it better to make sure of the castle, than 

 to risk the whole cause upon the doubtful and 

 irremediable issue of one engagement. With 

 Callao in their possession, and the sea open, 

 the Patriots could never be driven out of Peru. 

 But the slightest military reverse at that mo- 

 ment must at once have turned the tide ; the 

 Spaniards would have retaken Lima ; and the 



