SOUTH AMERICA. 



237 



from Peru; the Spaniards had got possession of Con- 

 ception^ in Chili, and were joined by the inhabitants; 

 the people of Buenos Ayres were distracted by fac- 

 tions, and on the eve of another revolution, while the 

 greatest cruelty had been manifested by the present 

 leaders to his family, in consequence of the attach- 

 men^t of the people, and their wish to have them as 

 their chiefs. When we first saw him, he spoke of Pu- 

 errydon with an apparent candor and generosity, 

 which excited surprise; he declared him to be the 

 fittest man in the country to be at the head of the go- 

 vernment, and observed, with respect to the charge of 

 oppression, for having deposed some of the citizens of 

 Buenos Ayres, ^^in this he has done right — they were 

 bad men,^^ and then drew the character of each in re- 

 volting colors, with what justice, or truth, I shall not 

 pretend to say. He spoke in the most unfavorable 

 manner of the people of Buenos Ayres, whom he 

 seemed cordially to detest. I afterwards remarked 

 some inconsistency in his language, when he and his 

 companion. White, took every means in their power 

 to prejudice our minds against Puerrydon, San Mar- 

 tin, O^Higgins, &c.; whom they represented as a pack 

 of scoundrels, which, with respect to the first, I thought 

 strange, after telling us, that he was the most fit man 

 to be at the head of the government. I might have re- 

 conciled the contradiction, by supposing him to mean 

 that he was suited to the people; but I could not un- 

 derstand how, on principle, he could justify the ban- 

 ishment of the citizens of Buenos Ayres already spo- 

 ken of; I concluded, therefore, that his seeming can- 

 dor and liberality, was merely intended to enable him 

 the more effectually to prejudice our minds against the 



