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

not obliged to do so. That debt is due from Chili, whose Government engaged the seamen."

Lord Cochrane knew that Chili would decline to pay for work that, if intended to be done in its interests, had been perverted from that intention; and his crews, also knowing it, became reasonably mutinous. After much further correspondence—in which San Martin suggested as his only remedy that Lord Cochrane should accept the dishonourable proposal made to him, and, becoming himself First Admiral of Peru, should induce the fleet to join in the same rebellion against Chili to which the army had been brought by its general, and in which Captains Guise and Spry, always evil-minded, had already joined—Lord Cochrane adopted a bold but altogether justifiable manoeuvre. A large quantity of treasure, seized from the Spaniards, having been deposited by San Martin at Ancon, he sailed thither, in the middle of September, and quietly took possession of it. So much as lawful owners could be found for was given up to them. With the residue, amounting to 285,000 dollars, Lord Cochrane paid off the year's arrears to every officer and man in his employ, taking nothing for himself, but reserving the small surplus for the pressing exigencies and re-equipment of the squadron.

It is unnecessary to detail the angry correspondence that arose out of that rough act of justice. Before the money was distributed, treacherous offers to restore it and enter into rebellious league with San Martin were made to Lord Cochrane; and with these were alternated mock-virtuous complaints and bombastic threats. Both bribes and threats were treated by him with equal contempt.

"After a lapse of nearly forty years' anxious consideration," he wrote in 1858, "I cannot reproach myself with having done any wrong in the seizure of the money of the Protectorial Government. General San Martin and myself had been in our respective departments deputed to liberate Peru from Spain, and to give to the Peruvians the same free institutions which Chili herself enjoyed. The first part of our object had been fully effected by the achievements and vigilance of the squadron; the second part was frustrated by General San Martin arrogating to himself despotic power, which set at naught the wishes and voice of the people. As 'my fortune in common with his own' was only to be secured by acquiescence in the wrong he had done to Chili by casting off his allegiance to her, and by upholding him in the still greater wrong he was inflicting on Peru, I did not choose to sacrifice my self-esteem and professional character by lending myself as an instrument to purposes so unworthy. I did all in my power to warn General San Martin of the consequences of ambition so ill-directed, but the warning was neglected, if not despised. Chili trusted to him to defray the expenses of the squadron, when its objects, as laid down by the Supreme Director, should be accomplished; but, in place of fulfilling the obligation, he permitted the squadron to starve, its crews to go in rags, and the ships to be in perpetual danger for want of the proper equipment which Chili could not afford to give them when they sailed from Valparaiso. The pretence for this neglect was want of means, though, at the same time, money to a vast amount was sent away from the capital to Ancon. Seeing that no intention Existed on the part of the Protector's Government to do justice to the Chilian squadron, whilst every effort was made to excite discontent among the officers and men with the purpose of procuring their transfer to Peru, I seized the public money, satisfied the men, and saved the navy to the Chilian Republic, which afterwards warmly thanked me for what I had done. Despite the obloquy cast upon me by the Protector's Government, there was nothing wrong in the course I pursued, if only for the reason that, if the Chilian squadron was to be preserved, it was impossible for me to have done otherwise. Years of reflection have only produced the conviction that, were I again placed in similar circumstances, I should adopt precisely the same course."

In spite of his treachery to the Chilian Government, General San Martin professed to retain his functions as Commander-in-Chief of the Chilian liberating expedition to Peru; and, accordingly, when he found it useless to make further efforts, by bribes or threats, to seduce Lord Cochrane from his allegiance, he ordered him to return at once to Valparaiso. This order Lord Cochrane refused to obey, seeing that the work entrusted to him—the entire destruction of the Spanish squadron in the Pacific—had not yet been completed.

He determined to complete that work, first going to Guayaquil to repair and refit his ships, which San Martin would not allow him to do in any Peruvian port. He was thus employed during six weeks following the 18th of October, 1821.

On his departure, a complimentary address from the townsmen afforded him an opportunity of offering some good advice on a matter in which his long and intelligent political experience showed him that they were especially at fault. The inhabitants of Guayaquil, like many other young communities, sought to increase their revenues and strengthen their independence by violent restrictions upon foreign commerce and arbitrary support of native monopolists. Lord Cochrane eloquently propounded to them the doctrine of free trade. "Let your public press," he said, "declare the consequences of monopoly, and affix your names to the defence of your enlightened system. Let it show, if your province contains eighty thousand inhabitants, and if eighty of these are privileged merchants according to the old system, that nine hundred and ninety-nine persons out of a thousand must suffer because their cotton, coffee, tobacco, timber, and other productions, must come into the hands of the monopolist, as the only purchaser of what they have to sell, and the only seller of what they must necessarily buy; the effect being that he will buy at the lowest possible rate and sell at the dearest, so that not only are the nine hundred and ninety-nine injured, but the lands will remain waste, the manufactories without workmen, and the people will be lazy and poor for want of a stimulus, it being a law of nature that no man will labour solely for the gain of another. Tell the monopolist that the true method of acquiring general riches, political power, and even his own private advantage, is to sell his country's produce as high, and foreign goods as low, as possible, and that public competition can alone accomplish this. Let foreign merchants, who bring capital, and those who practise any art or handicraft, be permitted to settle freely. Thus a competition will be formed, from which all must reap advantage. Then will land and fixed property increase in value. The magazines, instead of being the receptacles of filth and crime, will be full of the richest foreign and domestic productions; and all will be energy and activity, because the reward will be in proportion to the labour. Your river will be filled with ships, and the monopolist degraded and shamed. You will bless the day in which Omnipotence permitted to be rent asunder the veil of obscurity, under which the despotism of Spain, the abominable tyranny of the Inquisition, and the want of liberty of the press, so long hid the truth from your sight. Let your customs' duties be moderate, in order to promote the greatest possible consumption of foreign and domestic goods; then smuggling will cease and the returns to the treasury increase. Let every man do as he pleases as regards his own property, views, and interests; because each individual will watch over his own with more zeal than senates, ministers, or kings. By your enlarged views set an example to the New World; and thus, as Guayaquil is, from its situation, the central republic, it will become the centre of the agriculture, commerce, and riches of the Pacific."

Lord Cochrane left Guayaquil on the 3rd of December, and cruised northwards in search of the Prueba and the Venganza, the only two remaining Spanish frigates, which had made their escape from Callao and gone in the direction of Mexico. He sailed along the Colombian and Mexican coasts as far as Acapulco, where he called on the 29th of January, 1822, without finding the objects of his search. He there learned, on the 2nd of February, from an in-coming merchantman, that the frigates had eluded him and were now somewhere to the southwards. Upon that he at once retraced his course, and, in spite of a storm which nearly wrecked his two best ships, one of them being the captured Esmeralda, now christened the Valdivia, was at Guayaquil again on the 13th of March. There, as he expected, from information received on the passage, he found the Venganza. Both the frigates had been compelled, by want of provisions, to run the risk of halting at Guayaquil, whither also an envoy from San Martin had arrived, instructed to tempt the Guayaquilians into friendship with Peru and jealousy of Chili. On the appearance of the Spanish frigates, he had persuaded their captains, as the only means of averting the certain ruin that Lord Cochrane was planning for them, quietly to surrender to the Peruvian Government. In this way Chili was cheated of its prizes, although Lord Cochrane's main object, the entire overthrow of the Spanish war shipping in the Pacific, was accomplished without further use of powder and shot. The Prueba had been sent to Callao, and the Venganza was now being refitted at Guayaquil.

Lord Cochrane had now done all that it was possible for him to do in fulfilment of the naval mission on which he had quitted Chili a year and a half before. Proceeding southward, he anchored in Callao Roads from the 25th of April till the 10th of May. San Martin's Government, fearing punishment for their misdeeds, prepared to defend Callao. Lord Cochrane, however, wrote to say that he had no intention of making war upon the Peruvians; that all he asked was adequate payment for the services rendered to them by his officers and seamen. In the same letter he denounced the new treachery that had been shown with reference to the Venganza and the Prueba.

The answer to that letter was a visit from San Martin's chief minister, who begged Lord Cochrane to recall it, and impudently repeated the old offers of service under the Peruvian Government, adding that San Martin had written a private letter to the same effect. "Tell the Protector from me," said Lord Cochrane, "that if, after the conduct he has pursued, he had sent me a private letter, it would certainly have been returned unanswered. You may also tell him that it is not my wish to injure him, that I neither fear him nor hate him, but that I disapprove of his conduct."

Lord Cochrane's brief stay off Callao sufficed to convince him that, though the people of Peru were being for the time subjected to a tyranny almost equal to that practised by Spain, no one was likely to be long in fear of San Martin, as his treacheries and his vices were already bringing upon him well-deserved disgrace and punishment. To that purport Lord Cochrane wrote to O'Higgins on the 2nd of May. "As the attached and sincere friend of your excellency," he said, "I hope you will take into your serious consideration the propriety of at once fixing the Chilian Government upon a base not to be shaken by the fall of the present tyranny in Peru, of which there are not only indications, but the result is inevitable—unless, indeed, the mischievous counsels of vain and mercenary men can suffice to prop up a fabric of the most barbarous political architecture, serving as a screen from whence to dart their weapons against the heart of liberty. Thank God, my hands are free from the stain of labouring in any such work; and having finished all you gave me to do, I may now rest till you shall command my further endeavours for the honour and security of my adopted land."

CHAPTER IX. LORD COCHRANE'S RETURN TO VALPARAISO.—HIS FURTHER ILL-TREATMENT BY THE CHILIAN GOVERNMENT.—HIS RESIGNATION OF CHILIAN EMPLOYMENT, AND ACCEPTANCE OF EMPLOYMENT UNDER THE EMPEROR OF BRAZIL.—HIS SUBSEQUENT CORRESPONDENCE WITH THE GOVERNMENT OF CHILI.—THE RESULTS OF HIS CHILIAN SERVICE.

[1822-1823.]

Lord Cochrane returned to Valparaiso on the 3rd of June, 1822, having been absent more than twenty months. An enthusiastic welcome awaited him. Medals were struck in his honour, and in various ephemeral ways the public gratitude was expressed.

It was, however, only ephemeral. There was no substantial recognition of his great services. His men were left unpaid, and he himself was subjected to further indignities of the sort already described. It is not necessary here to give any detailed account of them, or to enter into a particular rehearsal of his efforts during the next six months to continue