The Life of Thomas, Lord Cochrane - Earl of Dundonald Thomas Barnes Cochrane (guided reading books TXT) 📗

In the first burst of his enthusiasm at the intelligence of Lord Cochrane's action, San Martin was generous for once. "The importance of the service you have rendered to the country, my lord," he wrote on the 10th of November, "by the capture of the frigate Esmeralda, and the brilliant manner in which you conducted the gallant officers and seamen under your orders to accomplish that noble enterprise, have augmented the gratitude due to your former services by the Government, as well as that of all interested in the public welfare and in your fame. All those who participated in the risks and glory of the deed also deserve well of their countrymen; and I have the satisfaction to be the medium of transmitting the sentiments of admiration which such transcendent success has excited in the chiefs of the army under my command." "It is impossible for me to eulogize in proper language," he also wrote to the Chilian administration, "the daring enterprise of the 5th of November, by which Lord Cochrane has decided the superiority of our naval forces, augmented the splendour and power of Chili, and secured the success of this campaign."

A few days later, however, San Martin wrote in very different terms. "Before the General-in-Chief left the Vice-Admiral of the squadron," he said, in a bulletin to the army, "they agreed on the execution of a memorable project, sufficient to astonish intrepidity itself, and to make the history of the liberating expedition of Peru eternal." "This glory," he added, "was reserved for the Liberating Army, whose efforts have snatched the victims of tyranny from its hands." Thus impudently did he arrogate to himself a share, at any rate, in the initiation of a project which Lord Cochrane, knowing that he would oppose it, had purposely kept secret from him, and assign the whole merit of its completion to the army which his vacillation and incompetence were holding in unwelcome inactivity.

Lord Cochrane was too much accustomed to personal injustice, however, to be very greatly troubled by that fresh indignity. It was a far heavier trouble to him that his first triumph was not allowed to be supplemented by prompt completion of the work on which, and not on any individual aggrandisement, his heart was set—the establishment of Peruvian as well as Chilian freedom.

San Martin, having done nothing hitherto but allow his army to waste its strength and squander its resources, first at Pisco and afterwards at Ancon, now fixed upon Huacha as another loitering-place. Thither Lord Cochrane had to convey it, before he was permitted to resume the blockade of Callao. This blockade lasted, though not all the while under his personal direction, for eight months.

"Several attempts were now made," said Lord Cochrane, with reference to the first few weeks of the blockade, "to entice the remaining Spanish naval force from their shelter under the batteries by placing the Esmeralda apparently within reach, and the flagship herself in situations of some danger. One day I carried her through an intricate strait called the Boqueron, in which nothing beyond a fifty-ton schooner was ever seen. The Spaniards, expecting every moment to see the ship strike, manned their gunboats, ready to attack as soon as she was aground; of which there was little danger, for we had found, and buoyed off with small bits of wood invisible to the enemy, a channel through which a vessel could pass without much difficulty. At another time, the Esmeralda being in a more than usually tempting position, the Spanish gunboats ventured out in the hope of recapturing her, and for an hour maintained a smart fire; but on seeing the O'Higgins manoeuvring to cut them off, they precipitately retreated."

In ways like those the Spaniards were locked in, and harassed, in Callao Bay. Good result came in the steady weakening of the Spanish cause. On the 3rd of December, six hundred and fifty soldiers deserted to the Chilian army. On the 8th they were followed by forty officers; and after that hardly a day passed without some important defections to the patriot force.'

Unfortunately, however, there was weakness also among the patriots. San Martin, idle himself, determined to profit by the advantages, direct and indirect, which Lord Cochrane's prowess had secured and was securing. It began to be no secret that, as soon as Peru was freed from the Spanish yoke, he proposed to subject it to a military despotism of his own. This being resented by Lord Cochrane, who on other grounds could have little sympathy or respect for his associate, coolness arose between the leaders. Lord Cochrane, anxious to do some more important work, if only a few troops might be allowed to co-operate with his sailors, was forced to share some of San Martin's inactivity. In March, 1821, he offered, if two thousand soldiers were assigned to him, to capture Lima; and when this offer was rejected, he declared himself willing to undertake the work with half the number of men. With difficulty he at last obtained a force of six hundred; and by them and the fleet nearly all the subsequent fighting in Peru was done. Lord Cochrane did not venture upon a direct assault on the capital with so small an army; but he used it vigorously from point to point on the coast, between Callao and Arica, and thus compelled the capitulation of Lima on the 6th of July.

Again, as heretofore, he was thanked in the first moment of triumph, to be slighted at leisure. Lord Cochrane, on entering the city, was welcomed as the great deliverer of Peru: the medals distributed on the 28th of July—the day on which Peru's independence was proclaimed—testified that the honour was due to General San Martin and his Liberating Army. That, however, was only part of a policy long before devised. "It is now became evident to me," said Lord Cochrane, "that the army had been kept inert for the purpose of preserving it entire to further the ambitious views of the General, and that, with the whole force now at Lima, the inhabitants were completely at the mercy of their pretended liberator, but in reality their conqueror."

With that policy, however much he reprobated it, Lord Cochrane wisely judged that it was not for him to quarrel. "As the existence of this self-constituted authority," he said, "was no less at variance with the institutions of the Chilian Republic than with its solemn promises to the Peruvians, I hoisted my flag on board the O'Higgins, determined to adhere solely to the interests of Chili; but not interfering in any way with General San Martin's proceedings till they interfered with me in my capacity as Commander-in-Chief of the Chilian navy." He was not, therefore, in Lima on the 3rd of August, when San Martin issued a proclamation declaring himself Protector of Peru, and appointing three of his creatures as his Ministers of State. Of the way in which he became acquainted of this violent and lawless measure, a precise description has been given by an eye-witness, Mr. W.B. Stevenson.

"On the following morning, the 4th of August," he says, "Lord Cochrane, uninformed of the change which had taken place in the title of San Martin, visited the palace, and began to beg the General-in-Chief to propose some means for the payment of the seamen who had served their time and fulfilled their contract. To this San Martin answered that 'he would never pay the Chilian squadron unless it was sold to Peru, and then the payment should be considered part of the purchase-money.' Lord Cochrane replied that 'by such a transaction the squadron of Chili would be transferred to Peru by merely paying what was due to the officers and crews for services done to that State.' San Martin knit his brows and, turning to his ministers, Garcia and Monteagudo, ordered them to retire; to which his lordship objected, stating that, 'as he was not master of the Spanish language, he wished them to remain as interpreters, being fearful that some expression, not rightly understood, might be considered offensive.' San Martin now turned round to the Admiral and said, 'Are you aware, my lord, that I am Protector of Peru?' 'No,' said his lordship. 'I ordered my secretaries to inform you of it,' returned San Martin. 'That is now unnecessary, for you have personally informed me,' said his lordship: 'I hope that the friendship which has existed between General San Martin and myself will continue to exist between the Protector of Peru and myself.' San Martin then, rubbing his hands, said, 'I have only to say that I am Protector of Peru.' The manner in which this last sentence was expressed roused the Admiral, who, advancing, said, 'Then it becomes me, as senior officer of Chili, and consequently the representative of the nation, to request the fulfilment of all the promises made to Chili and the squadron; but first, and principally, the squadron.' San Martin returned, 'Chili! Chili! I will never pay a single real to Chili! As to the squadron, you may take it where you please, and go where you choose. A couple of schooners are quite enough for me.' On hearing this Garcia left the room, and Monteagudo walked to the balcony. San Martin paced the room for a short time, and, turning to his lordship, said, 'Forget, my lord, what is past.' The Admiral replied, 'I will when I can,' and immediately left the palace.[A] "One thing has been omitted in the preceding narrative," said Lord Cochrane. "General San Martin, following me to the staircase, had the temerity to propose to me to follow his example—namely, to break faith with the Chilian Government, to which we had both sworn, to abandon the squadron to his interests, and to accept the higher grade of First Admiral of Peru. I need scarcely say that a proposition so dishonourable was declined; when, in a tone of irritation, he declared that 'he would neither give the seamen their arrears of pay nor the gratuity he had promised.'"

[Footnote A: W.B. Stevenson, "Twenty Years' Residence in South
America." 1825.]

Lord Cochrane lost no time in returning to his flagship in Callao Roads. Thence, however, on the 7th of August, he wrote a letter to San Martin, couched in terms as temperate and persuasive as he could bring himself to use. "My dear General," he there said, "I address you for the last time under your late designation, being aware that the liberty I may take as a friend might not be deemed decorous to you under the title of Protector, for I shall not, with a gentleman of your understanding, take into account, as a motive for abstaining to speak truth, any chance of your resentment. Nay, were I certain that such would be the effect of this letter, I would nevertheless perform such an act of friendship, in repayment of the support you gave me at a time when the basest plots were laid for my dismissal from the Chilian service. Permit me to give you the experience of eleven years, during which I sat in the first senate in the world, and to say what I anticipate on the one hand, and what I fear on the other—nay, what I foresee. You have it in your power to be the Napoleon of South America; but you have also the power to choose your course, and if the first steps are false, the eminence on which you stand will, as though from the brink of a precipice, make your fall the more heavy and the more certain. The real strength of government is public opinion. What would the world say, were the Protector of Peru, as his first act, to cancel the bonds of San Martin, even though gratitude may be a private and not a public virtue? What would they say, were the Protector to refuse to pay the expense of that expedition which placed him in his present elevated situation? What would they say, were it promulgated to the world that he intended not even to remunerate those employed in the navy which contributed to his success?" Much more to the same effect Lord Cochrane wrote, urging honesty upon San Martin as the only path by which he could win for himself a permanent success, and making a special claim upon his honesty in the interests of the seamen and naval officers, to whom neither pay nor prize-money had been given since their departure from Chili nearly a year before.

It was all in vain. San Martin wrote, on the 9th of August, a letter making professions of virtue and acknowledging much personal indebtedness to Lord Cochrane and the fleet, but evading the whole question at issue. "I am disposed," he said, "to recompense valour displayed in the cause of the country. But you know, my lord, that the wages of the crews do not come under these circumstances, and that I, never having engaged to pay the amount, am