PORTER^S JOURNAL, 



11B 



P. S. To give you a correct idea of the state of the 

 Essex at the time of her surrender, I send you the 

 boatswain's and carpenter's report of damages ; I also 

 send you a report of the divisions. 



It will be perceived by the foregoing narrative, that 

 ©very means was resorted to on my part, to provoke 

 the enemy to offer battle with his single ship, but without 

 effect. For this I do not blame Captain Hillyar, since the 

 interests of his country ought to have been, and undoubt- 

 edly were, paramount to every other consideration, on this 

 occasion. The reader, however, will judge for himself, 

 whether Captain Hillyar's attack on the Essex, then in a 

 crippled state, and within the hmits of a neutraHty, which 

 he had pledged himself to respect, was, setting aside the 

 question of legality, either brave or magnanimous. 



It was my intention to have explained the alteration in 

 the conduct of the Chilian government towards myself, 

 evinced in denying me a right to the protection accorded 

 me by the laws of nations. But this would swell my nar- 

 rative beyond the limits I had prescribed myself. The 

 explanation may be found in those changes which have 

 been so common in that country, torn by different factions, 

 and in the meanness of that spirit, which takes part ever 

 with the strongest. When 1 commanded the most power- 

 ful force in the Pacific, all were willing to serve me : but 

 when Captain Hillyar appeared, with one still stronger, it 

 became the great object to conciliate his friendship, by 

 evincing hostility to me. It will be recollected, by those 

 conversant with the history of the Chilian Revolution, that 

 my particular friends theCarreras, were stripped of power^ 

 and thrown into prison, the government of Chili being 

 usurped by their most inveterate enemies. Added to all 

 this. Captain Hillyar was acting in the character of media- 

 tor between the viceroy of Peru, and the officers of the 

 Chilian government ; in which capacity, he at length 

 caused the country to be delivered up to the royal troops, 

 under a promise of a general and free pardon to those 

 then in possession of power. For this service. Captain 

 Hillyar was made an Hidalgo, and honoured with a con- 



