During the first month after the revolution Guayaquil experienced the oppression of its governor Escobedo, who, being at the head of the military force, constituted himself the supreme political and military chief; but the cabildo circulated the necessary convocation for a meeting of the deputies of the different towns: they met, and Escobedo was deposed, and sent to San Martin's head quarters. A Junta was now formed of three individuals, by the general vote of the deputies; at the head, as president, was placed Dr. Olmedo, the other two being Ximena and Roca, who were governing the province on our arrival; but the people were very much divided in their opinions. Some were in favour of an incorporation with Peru, under San Martin; others with Colombia, under Bolivar; while a third party were equally loud in favour of absolute independence, and seemed to support their opinions with the most solid arguments.
A division of the Colombian army was stationed, at this time, at Babaoyo, commanded by General Sucre, with the view of invading Quito as soon as the season should permit; yet, excepting such troops as had been sent from Guayaquil, and placed under the command of General Sucre, the armed force was under the direction of the government; but the fear of being invaded by the Spaniards under Aymerich, the president of Quito, was very visible, and, as a defence to the city, a large fosse had been cut to the northward of Cuidad Vieja.
The arrival of the Chilean vessels of war gave the government of Guayaquil an opportunity of addressing themselves to the Quitenos, "assuring them, that Peru was entirely free, and that the liberating naval force had arrived at Guayaquil for the protection of that part of the new world." This was a ruse de guerre not uncommon in the new world, and under similar circumstances practised even in the old. On our arrival General Sucre sent Colonel Ibarra to compliment Lord Cochrane, as the hero of the Pacific, the magnanimous supporter of Colombian liberty.
The repairs of the vessels of war being completed so far as they could be, on the first of December we left Guayaquil, but to our great annoyance we found, that the leak in the O'Higgins was as bad as ever; indeed, such was the state of this frigate, that ever since our arrival at Pisco a hundred and fifty men had been constantly kept at the pumps.
It may be asserted, that no expedition ever left port under such peculiarly disadvantageous circumstances as the present. The flag-ship was as rickety as an old basket; indeed it need only be told, that she was a Russian built fir vessel, nine years old, and was one of those presented by the Emperor to the King of Spain. Scarcely a bolt could be found that was not loose, her foremast and bowsprit were both rotten in the step, the dry rot had taken possession of the greater part of her timbers; and, it may be added, her crew was composed of every thing but sailors; for we had only thirteen men on board who could be said to merit the name, especially if we except the officers. Such was her state, that when his lordship was asked at Guayaquil, by a gentleman, if he would come into action with the Spanish frigate Prueba?—"yes," he answered, "I will lay the O'Higgins alongside the Prueba, and tell our crew that on board the enemy there are no pumps; this will be quite sufficient to secure the victory." The crews of the Independencia, Valdivia, and Araucano were composed of the same materials as that of the O'Higgins. They had just a sufficient number of seamen to steer them, natives of different parts of America, marines and runaway negroes, with about half their complements of officers; yet such was the persevering spirit of the Admiral, and such his determination to extinguish the last remains of the Spanish naval force in the Pacific, that his only wish was to come to close quarters with them.
Having left the Guayaquil river, we touched at a small port in the province of Guayaquil, called Salango, where we watered the ships, not having done this before because his lordship wished to drop down the river as light as possible; besides, at the Puná it is very difficult to procure a sufficient quantity of good water. On the eleventh, we reached the small island of Cocos, so called from the abundance of palms which grow there. Lord Cochrane landed, and a Felucca hove in sight; a signal was immediately made to the Valdivia to chase, and having captured her, she proved to be a deserter from Callao. The men on board informed his lordship, that after the departure of the Chilean vessels of war, San Martin not only objected to pay them their arrears, even those who left the Valdivia at Ancon without the year's pay given to the rest, and the reward or premium promised, but the foreign seamen at Callao, who had served in the Chilean fleet, were pressed into the service of Peru.
The felucca had been thus manned and sent to the Chorillos, to prevent all kinds of smuggling; but she had taken up a cargo of contraband goods, part of which were still on board. When the captain was on shore, the crew rose and took possession of the vessel, which they immediately named the Retaliation, and went to sea. Their pretence was, that they were in search of the squadron; this was ridiculous; but as they had committed no depredations his lordship did not feel himself justified in punishing them, but allowed them afterwards to escape from the vessels of war. On the fourteenth we made the coast of Mexico, the leak of the O'Higgins increasing daily, and on the nineteenth we fortunately entered the bay of Fonseca or Amapalla, with five feet water in the hold, the pumps choaked and worn out, without a carpenter on board, without buckets to bale her, and without a cooper; some beef casks were slung, and by using every exertion, the frigate was brought to an anchor under a small island in the bay. Two pumps were now taken out of the Valdivia, but they proved to be too short for the O'Higgins. Under these circumstances his lordship ordered two holes to be cut through her sides, on a level with the birth deck, and two old pumps were placed in them to carry off the water. She was thus kept from sinking; but on examining the magazine a great part of the powder had been damaged by the water, and the remainder was taken on shore and exposed in the sun to dry.
While at anchor here, a canoe came to the island, having two indians on board, and a young man of a respectable appearance, who informed me, that every thing was in the most perfect state of tranquillity in Mexico, and all under the regularly established royal authorities. The fact was, the young man had been sent from San Miguel, to learn who and what we were; but of this, by order of the Admiral, I kept him ignorant, and he began to fear, on hearing the Spanish language spoken, that ours was a Spanish force sent from Manilla. After conversing a considerable time, and having been repeatedly assured by him that all was under the kingly authority in Mexico, I asked him why he bore the tri-coloured ribbon in his hat; he blushed, hesitated, and then said, "it is too late to deceive you, the whole of Mexico is independent of Spain; Mexico declared its independence on the thirteenth of June last, Guadalaxara on the fourteenth, Tepec on the seventeenth, and San Blas on the nineteenth; the provinces of Guadalaxara, Tlascala, Guanajuato, Puebla, Zacatecas, Oajaca, Valladolid, Bajio, Purnandia, and Vera Cruz, have also declared themselves independent of the capital."
All things being ready, we left the bay of Fonseca on the twenty-eighth of December, and on the following night and the five successive ones, we were delighted with the sight of a volcano in its greatest state of activity. The streams of ignited lava rolled down the sides, and at intervals enormous masses of fiery matter were thrown into the air, and falling on the sides of the mountain rebounded and fell to the bottom.