DON PEDRO DE ABADIA. 



15 



lished new laws and institutions ; and entirely 

 altered the general aspect of society. All stran- 

 gers were admitted to the port, and were in- 

 vited to establish themselves in the capital with- 

 out reserve or restriction ; and every one being 

 allowed perfect liberty of action, there was no 

 need of influence or management, and our excel- 

 lent friend's occupation was gone. He was no 

 longer sought for at the palace, nor chased in the 

 streets, nor blockaded in his house. During the 

 siege of Lima, and while its fall was still doubtful, 

 his goodwill had been sedulously courted by the 

 emissaries of the Patriots ; but when the conquest 

 was complete, his support was of less moment ; 

 and the old man, fallen from his high estate, had 

 not forbearance enough to conceal his chagrin ; 

 and probably, in conversation, expressed himself 

 indiscreetly with respect to the reigning powers. 

 Be this as it may, he soon received a severe lesson 

 of prudence. Two friars called upon him one mor- 

 ning, saying, they had come from that part of the 

 country where his mines lay, then occupied by 

 the Spanish forces. They gave out that they 

 were bearers of a message from the viceroy, 

 that, unless he sent back correct information 

 respecting the state of Lima, his steam-engines 

 and other works would all be destroyed. He 

 endeavoured to get rid of these friars without 

 committing himself so seriously as to give them 

 the intelligence they wanted, but they declared, 

 that they dared not return without something to 

 prove they had actually seen and conversed with 

 him. The old man resisted for a long time ; at 

 last, one of them took up a book with his name 

 upon it, and said that it would serve as a voucher, 

 and he unwittingly allowed them to take it away. 

 The friars, who were arrested in the course of the 

 same day, with the book in their possession, were, 

 at first, treated as spies, and it was expected they 

 would be hanged on the spot ; but, to the surprise 

 of every one, they were both released, and the Old 

 Spaniard alone imprisoned. This gave rise to the 

 notion, I believe unfounded, that they had been 

 employed merely to entrap our incautious friend. 

 It was soon known that he was to be tried by a 

 military commission, and alarm and distress spread 

 from one end of Lima to the other : indeed, had the 

 public sentiment been less universally expressed in 

 his favour, he would, in all probability, have been 

 put to death, for the purpose of striking terror into 

 the minds of all the remaining Spaniards, and 

 inducing them to leave the country. 



No one suspected this Old Spaniard of such 

 gross folly as giving political or military informa- 

 tion to these creatures of the viceroy ; but he very 

 naturally heard with much interest any informa- 

 tion they possessed respecting his mines ; and in 

 an unguarded moment was probably guilty of the 

 high indiscretion of sending some message to the 

 Spaniards in the interior about his steam-engines 

 and other property. 



While he was still in confinement, I went one 

 day to visit him, as soon as the interdict against 

 visitors was removed. He was as cheerful as 

 ever, though well aware of his danger. The 

 room in which he was confined was hung round 

 with old pictures, amongst which was one of St. 

 Francis by Velasquez, which he had been trying 

 to purchase from the friars, in the hope that I 

 would accept it, and hang it up in my ship. It 



was thus that his thoughts were at all times more 

 employed in seeking means to oblige other people, 

 than in attending to his own concerns ; an amiable 

 indiscretion, but unsuited to such times, and to 

 which, perhaps, he owed his ruin. 



In the end this excellent old man was released 

 from prison, but was ever afterwards watched 

 with a jealous eye ; and when the great perse- 

 cution commenced against the Spaniards in the 

 beginning of 1 822, he was banished, and his pro- 

 perty was confiscated. More unmerited misfor- 

 tune never befel a worthier man, whose greatest 

 crime, indeed, was indiscretion. His is one of the 

 innumerable cases, where we had the means of 

 knowing correctly, how severely and unjustly the 

 effects of the contest were sometimes directed. 

 In ordinary revolutions, most of the cruelty and 

 injustice generally result from lawless and tumul- 

 tuous assemblages of people ; and such is the 

 natural and looked- for consequence of placing 

 power in the hands of inexperienced men. But 

 in South America these political convulsions 

 have, with few exceptions, been kept under a 

 certain degree of control, and have generally 

 been directed by men having reasonable and 

 praiseworthy objects in view. Nevertheless, in 

 every possible case, a revolution is necessarily 

 a great temporary evil, and must always have 

 its full share of crime and sorrow ; private feel- 

 ings, interests, and rights, must on such occasions 

 take their chance of being swept away by the 

 torrent of innovation ; and of being sacrificed, 

 sometimes to public policy, and not unfrequently, 

 perhaps, to individual ill-will, avarice, or ambi- 

 tion. That things in South America can ever, 

 by any chance, revert to the melancholy state 

 they formerly were in, is impossible ; that they 

 will upon the whole improve, is equally manifest ; 

 in the meanwhile, notwithstanding this convic- 

 tion, it is difficult, when on the spot, to see only 

 the good, and to shut our eyes to the sufferings 

 which the country is exposed to, in its present 

 fiery ordeal. 



On the 14th, in the evening, there was a play, 

 but the people we had been wont to see there be- 

 fore the revolution were all gone ; and their places 

 occupied by Chilian officers, and by English, Ame- 

 rican, and French merchants, together with num- 

 berless pretty Limenas, a race who smile on all 

 parties alike. The actors were the same, and the 

 play the same, but everything else — dress, man- 

 ners, language, were different ; even the inveterate 

 custom of smoking in the theatre had been abo- 

 lished by a public decree. 



On Sunday, the 16th of December, the ceremony 

 of instituting the Order of the Sun took place in 

 the palace. San Martin assembled the officers 

 and civilians who were to be admitted members 

 of the order, in one of the oldest halls of the palace. 

 It was a long, narrow, antique room, with a dark 

 wainscotting covered over with gilt ornaments, 

 carved cornices, and fantastic tracery in relief along 

 the roof. The floor was spread with rich Gobelin 

 tapestry ; and on each side was ranged a long line 

 of sofas, and high-backed arm-chairs with gilded 

 knobs, carved work round the arms and feet, and 

 purple velvet covering on the seats. The windows, 

 which were high, narrow, and grated like those of 

 a prison, looked into a large square court thickly 

 planted with oranges, guavas, and other fruit-trees 



