118 



PERU. 



and added to the numbers, of the Independent 

 party. 



18th of Feb. — I learned, when at Lima this 

 morning, that two officers of my ship had been 

 arrested at Callao on the evening before, and 

 were imprisoned in the Castle, on suspicion of 

 being spies from Lord Cochrane^s squadron, 

 though landed by my boat. In ordinary times, 

 had such a mistake happened, it would have been 

 easily explained ; but at a moment of such popu- 

 lar ferment, especially when the English were 

 held in universal distrust, it was likely to prove 

 a serious affair. All Lima was thrown into com- 

 motion by this circumstance ; every one implicit- 

 ly believed the story, and at Callao, the uproar 

 was described as infinitely worse. At the time 

 of receiving a report of this transaction from the 

 ship, a letter from the Viceroy was put into my 

 hands, stating that two persons, giving them- 

 selves out as officers of the Conway, had landed 

 in my boat ; and that, as five men at Callao had 

 recognized and sworn to their having belonged to 

 Lord Cochrane^s ship, they had been confined 

 in the Castle ; and the formal declarations of the 



