90 



PERU. 



The following is a translation of the answer which 

 he made to the congress, on their invitation to him 

 as generalissimo. 



" At the close of my public life, after having 

 resigned into the hands of the august Congress of 

 Peru the supreme authority of the state ; nothing 

 could have flattered me so much as the solemn 

 expression of your confidence, in naming me ge- 

 neralissimo of the national forces, by sea and land^ 

 which I have just received by a deputation from 

 your house. I have had the honour to signify 

 my profound gratitude to those who made me this 

 communication ; and I have since had the satis- 

 faction to accept the title alone, because it marks 

 your approbation of the brief services which I have 

 rendered to this country. 



But, not to act as a traitor to my own feel- 

 ings, and the best interests of the nation, allow 

 me to state, that a painful and long course of ex- 

 perience has taught me to foresee, that the distin- 

 guished rank to which you wish to raise me, far 

 from being useful to the nation, were I to exer- 

 cise the authority, would only frustrate your own 



intentions, by alarming the jealousy of those who 

 II 



