On the twenty-first we weighed, his lordship giving orders to Captain Crosbie to trip the anchor, and to kedge down the river, by which means he would have a better opportunity to mark the channel, and form a plan of it, should it ever become necessary to ascend it without the assistance of a pilot. The second tide took us to the Puná, where we remained till the twenty-fifth, the boats being employed in bringing water and some provisions from Balao, on the opposite side of the river.
Having left Guayaquil river on the twenty-fifth of March, we arrived on the twelfth of April at the small port of Huambacho, on the coast of Peru, where to our surprise and astonishment the alcalde of the village shewed his lordship a written order from San Martin, stating that should any of the vessels of war belonging to Chile touch at the said port, he was to forbid their landing, and to deny them any assistance whatever, and not even to allow them to wood or water there.
Exasperated at this conduct, his lordship proceeded to Callao, but not before he had convinced the alcalde, that he had not the power to enforce such orders from his master. We arrived at Callao on the twenty-fifth, where the first object of instability in the new government which we observed was five different Peruvian flags flying in the bay and on the batteries.
We here found the Prueba under Peruvian colours, and commanded by one of the captains who had deserted the Chilean squadron; but such was the dread that Lord Cochrane would take possession of her, that she was immediately hauled close in shore under the batteries, her guns housed, her ports closed, and so crammed she was with soldiers, for her defence, that three men died with suffocation the night after our arrival. I was assured, that no less than two thousand men were crowded on her upper deck, as if such a mob could have intimidated Lord Cochrane, had he been authorized to take possession of her, after she had been driven into the bay of Callao by his efforts, and there purchased from her traitorous crew by the Peruvian government.
CHAPTER XIII.
Commercial Code at Lima....Provincial Statutes announced....Liberty of the Press....Foreigners declared amenable to the Laws....Institution of the Order of the Sun....New Commercial Rules....Titles changed....Order to convene the Constituent Congress....San Martin delegates his Authority to the Marquis de Torre Tagle....San Martin leaves Lima and returns....Army defeated under Tristan at Ica....State of Lima on our Arrival....Visit of Monteagudo to Lord Cochrane....San Martin annuls the Treaty at Guayaquil....Exile of Spaniards from Lima....Lord Cochrane leaves Callao for Valparaiso....Spanish Vessels that surrendered to the Chilean Squadron....Convention of Chile meets....Monteagudo exiled from Lima....Disturbances in Chile....San Martin arrives at Valparaiso....O'Higgins abdicates....Lord Cochrane leaves the Pacific.
On the eighth of October, 1821, the provisional commercial code or reglamento was published; but, agreeably to the short sighted colonial system, only Callao and Huanchaco were declared free ports to all friends and allies. This reglamento established, that all vessels should within ten hours after their arrival deliver up their bills of lading; within forty-eight begin to unload, or leave the port within six days.
Within the said forty-eight hours a consignee, being a citizen of Peru, was to be named by the captain or supercargo. All goods in foreign bottoms were to pay twenty per cent. on the value of the whole, according to the prices current in Peru. All goods introduced in vessels under the flags of Chile, Buenos Ayres, or Colombia, to pay in the same manner eighteen per cent., and those under the flag of Peru sixteen. All manufactured goods which might injure the industry of the country to pay double duty. Coined silver to pay the exportation duty of five per cent. and gold two and a half: the exportation of gold and silver in bar or wrought absolutely prohibited. The produce of Peru exported in foreign vessels to pay five per cent.; in vessels belonging to Chile, Buenos Ayres, or Colombia, three and a half, and in Peruvian three per cent. The payment of importation duties to be in three equal parts, one at forty days after debarkation, one at a hundred and twenty, and one at a hundred and eighty. All consignees absolutely prohibited the retailing of their consignments.