Lord Cochrane is too well known to require any encomium from my pen. His services to his native country entitled him to the honour of knighthood in the military Order of the Bath; being the only captain in the British navy, who enjoyed this distinguished badge of national glory. In the new world, when his services were not needed in the old, his career of glory has been as brilliant as his most important services were necessary; and I do not hesitate in asserting, that but for his assiduity and unremitting attention, his military knowledge, and determined valour, the western shores of America would have still been in the possession of Spain; her fleet would have now commanded the Pacific, and "British Commerce" would have been excluded from the extensive market which it enjoys. Chile, Peru, and Columbia have repeatedly expressed their gratitude, the high sense they entertain, and the just appreciation which they hold of the merits of this hero; this supporter of their rights; this defender of their liberty—and if the name of Cochrane can ever be forgotten in the old world, or his services not duly requited, it will be found enrolled in the imperishable archives of the new, enshrined in the gratitude of the present and future generations. "Lord Cochrane is such a miracle of nautical skill and courage; his cause of banishment from his country is so lamentable—his adventures have been so romantic—and his achievements so splendid, that no Englishman can read them without pride, that such things have been done by his countryman; and without solemn concern that such talents and genius should be lost to the land that gave them birth."[6]
Don Juan Gregorio de las Heras, Major-general, and second in command of the army, had established his character as a soldier and a commander, by his boldness and intrepidity at Talcahuano, in 1817. This general merited the applause of every one, and his conduct in Peru endeared him to every soldier, and every lover of the cause in which he fought;—there can be no doubt that had he been the commander in chief, those torrents of blood which have been shed in Peru since 1820, would most certainly have been spared. In his actions Las Heras was mild, affable, and unassuming, and in his manners he was a perfect gentleman. In his general character he was sincere and candid; uniting always such qualities as made him beloved by his friends, and feared by his enemies; in fine he is an ornament to society, and an honour to his birth-place, Buenos Ayres, where his patriotic virtues have been rewarded with the Supreme Magistracy.
Don Bernardo Monteagudo was one of those individuals who too often appear on the stage in revolutionary times, who "without feeling mock at all who feel." He is a native of Upper Peru, of the lowest rank in society, of spurious offspring, and African genealogy; he applied himself to the study of the law, and his mind is composed of the very worst materials which characterize the sullen zambo; his imagination is active and aspiring, like that of the mulatto, a composition which is formed to fulfil the Spanish adage, "tirar la piedra, y esconder la mano, throw the stone, and hide the hand." He had been repeatedly employed by his master San Martin to gild over, under the forms of law, such proceedings as even he, with a blushless cheek was ashamed to avow. The murder of the two Carreras at Mendosa, and that of the Spanish officers confined at San Luis, are examples of what one monster can execute, and another defend. His subsequent conduct in Peru will better serve to define his true character than what I dare even venture to attempt—for fear it should be supposed that prejudice has acted as a stimulus.
The talents and literature of Monteagudo have been held up as possessing considerable perfection; but it was justly said by Un Limeño[7] in his Alcance al Postillon, printed at Santiago, September 5th, 1822, "that his productions were impertinent comparisons, formed for benumbed and monotonous newspaper paragraphs."
The expedition having left Valparaiso, the O'Higgins entered the bay of Coquimbo, where the Araucano and a transport had been sent to embark some troops; these joined the rest, and we proceeded to our rendezvous, Pisco, and entered the bay on the seventh of September. On the eighth the troops began to disembark, but such was the prudence of General San Martin, that they were not allowed to proceed towards the town of Pisco, until about three thousand were landed; these advanced on the ninth, formed in three solid squares, under the command of Major-general las Heras, while San Martin ran down the coast of the bay, in the schooner Montezuma, to observe the operations of the enemy, which was composed of forty regulars, and two hundred militia, commanded by the Count of Monte-mar. This extraordinary prudence gave the inhabitants of Pisco time to retire, which they did, and took with them even the furniture from their houses, while they drove before them their slaves and their cattle into the interior. San Martin, not willing to attribute the absence of the inhabitants, and the loss of provisions, to his own tardy movements, but to the inimical feelings of the Peruvians, was very much chagrined, and stated it as his belief, that he had been deceived with respect to the accounts he had received from different parts of Peru; and, in fact, he began to doubt of the success of the expedition. What a contrast was this to the landing of the gallant Lieutenant-colonel Charles, about a year before; who, with less than one-tenth of San Martin's troops, disembarked, and in three hours possessed himself of the battery and town of Pisco. But this was considered an imprudent act, and a want of generalship: and so it was, if the greatest skill consists in avoiding danger, and in sparing both friends and enemies for a more convenient occasion, to which may be added, that Charles lost his life.
On the day on which the expedition arrived at Pisco, the constitutional government had been restored in Lima, and the Viceroy was at the theatre when he received the first news: he immediately retired, after having heard the old Spanish adage frequently repeated, "a cada cochino gordo, le llega su San Martin—for every fat hog, San Martin, will arrive;" alluding to the fairs held in Spain on the day of Saint Martin for the sale of hogs. The idea, that "all was not right in Denmark," induced Pesuela to send immediately for the manager of the theatre, and to examine the prompter's book; when convinced that there was no collusion between the South American hero and the clown of the Lima stage, his excellency dismissed the manager, stating, that being a native of Spain, he could not doubt his loyalty. Had he been an American, he would perhaps have been sent to prison for the prophetic crimes of Calderon, the author of the comedy.
On the fourteenth, part of the convoy which had been separated from us at sea arrived; and in the evening a Spanish vessel of war, bearing a flag of truce, having on board a Spanish officer, was sent by the Viceroy to San Martin to solicit a cessation of hostilities, and to appoint commissioners to conciliate the interests of Spain and America. On the twenty-sixth, the deputies met at Miraflores, two leagues to the southward of Lima, and signed an armistice of eight days; but at their conferences nothing was agreed to, the Spanish deputies requesting an acknowledgment of the constitutional government of Spain, and the evacuation of the Peruvian territory by the Chilean forces; and the patriots that of the absolute independence of the country. Such being the respective basis on which the conciliating deputies were ordered to insist, the conference ended on the fourth of October, and on the fifth hostilities again commenced.
On the arrival of the expedition at Pisco, several proclamations were issued: that of the supreme director of Chile contained the following paragraph:
"Peruvians,—behold the pact and conditions on which Chile, in the face of the Supreme Being, and calling on all the nations of the earth as witnesses and revengers of a violation, faces fatigues and death to save you. You shall be free and independent; you shall constitute your own laws by the unbiassed and spontaneous will of your representatives; no military nor civil influence, either direct or indirect, shall be exercised by your brethren in your social dispositions; you shall discharge the armed force sent to protect you at the moment you choose, without any attention to your danger or security, should you think fit; no military force shall ever occupy a free town, unless it be called in by a legitimate magistracy; neither by us nor through our assistance shall any peninsular or party feelings, that may have preceded your liberty, be punished: ready to destroy the armed force which resists your rights, we pray you to forget, on the day of your glory, all past grievances, and to reserve the most severe justice for future obstinate insults."