The Life of Thomas, Lord Cochrane by Earl of Dundonald Thomas Barnes Cochrane (best classic books to read .TXT) 📕

his beneficial services to Chili. He had done the great service for which he had been invited to South America. In the course of about three years he had scoured the Pacific of the Spanish ships, which had offered an obstacle too serious for the patriots to overcome by any force or wisdom of their own. He had made it possible for them to assert their independence of a foreign yoke, and, if their patriotism had been genuine enough, to work out internal reforms, by which the sometime colonies of Spain in South America might have been able to vie in greatness with the sometime colonies of England in the northern continent. The benefits which he conferred especially upon Chili were shared by all the liberated communities along the whole Pacific coastline up to Mexico. But all were alike ungrateful, except in fitful words and in sentiments that prompted to no action.

Shortly after his return to Chili, Lord Cochrane went to live upon the estates that had been conferred upon him. Soon, however, he was forced to go back to Valparaiso, there to look after the interests of the officers and crews who had served him and Chili during the previous fighting time. His earnest arguments on their behalf were not heeded. The poor fellows were left to starve and be perished by the cold of a South American winter, against which the pitiful rags in which they were clothed afforded no protection. And before long fresh incidents arose which made it impossible for him to persevere in fighting their battle.

General San Martin, having run his course of petty tyranny in Peru, was soon forced to resign his protectorate and seek safety in Chili. He reached Valparaiso on the 12th of October, and then Lord Cochrane, who had long before seen good reasons for suspecting it, was convinced that Zenteno and many other influential men in Chili were in league with him. He claimed that San Martin should be tried by court-martial for his treasons, known to all the world. Instead of that San Martin was loaded with honours, and fresh indignities were heaped upon his chief accuser. This monstrous action of the ministers led to a revolution, which, if Lord Cochrane had stayed to the end, might have proved much to his advantage. But the revolution, headed by General Freire, an honest man, had for its object the overthrow of O'Higgins, also an honest man, though too weak to withstand the influences brought to bear upon him by the bad men by whom he was surrounded. Lord Cochrane refused Freire's offers to join in opposition to O'Higgins, always, as far as his small powers permitted, his good friend. He preferred to abandon Chili, or rather to allow it to abandon one who had done for it so much and had received so little in return. "The difficulties," he said, in a dignified letter addressed to General O'Higgins, still nominally the Supreme Director, in which he virtually resigned his appointment as Vice-Admiral of the Republic, "the difficulties which I have experienced in accomplishing the naval enterprises successfully achieved during the period of my command as Admiral of Chili have not been mastered without responsibility such as I would scarcely again undertake, not because I would hesitate to make any personal sacrifice in a cause of so much interest, but because even these favourable results have led to the total alienation of the sympathies of meritorious officers—whose co-operation was indispensable—in consequence of the conduct of the Government. That which has made most impression on their minds has been, not the privations they have suffered, nor the withholding of their pay and other dues, but the absence of any public acknowledgment by the Government of the honours and distinctions promised for their fidelity and constancy to Chili; especially at a time when no temptation was withheld that could induce them to abandon the cause of Chili for the service of the Protector of Peru. Ever since that time, though there was no want of means or knowledge of facts on the part of the Chilian Government, it has submitted itself to the influence of the agents of an individual whose power, having ceased in Peru, has been again resumed in Chili. The effect of this on me is so keen that I cannot trust myself in words to express my personal feelings. Whatever I have recommended or asked for the good of the naval service has been scouted or denied, though acquiescence would have placed Chili in the first rank of maritime states in this quarter of the globe. My requisitions and suggestions were founded on the practice of the first naval service in the world—that of England. They have, however, met with no consideration, as though their object had been directed to my own personal benefit. Until now I have never eaten the bread of idleness. I cannot reconcile to my mind a state of inactivity which might even now impose upon the Chilian Republic an annual pension for past services; especially as an Admiral of Peru is actually in command of a portion of the Chilian squadron, whilst other vessels are sent to sea without the orders under which they act being communicated to me, and are despatched through the instrumentality of the governor of Valparaiso [Zenteno]. I mention these circumstances incidentally as having confirmed me in the resolution to withdraw myself from Chili for a time, asking nothing for myself during my absence; whilst, as regards the sums owing to me, I forbear to press for their payment till the Government shall be more freed from its difficulties. I have complied with all that my public duty demanded, and, if I have not been able to accomplish more, the deficiency has arisen from circumstances beyond my control. At any rate, having the world still before me, I hope to prove that it is not owing to me. I have received proposals from Mexico, from Brazil, and from a European state, but have not as yet accepted any of these offers. Nevertheless, the habits of my life do not permit me to refuse my services to those labouring under oppression, as Chili was before the annihilation of the Spanish naval force in the Pacific. In this I am prepared to justify whatever course I may pursue. In thus taking leave of Chili, I do so with sentiments of deep regret that I have not been suffered to be more useful to the cause of liberty, and that I am compelled to separate myself from individuals with whom I hoped to live for a long period, without violating such sentiments of honour as, were they broken, would render me odious to myself and despicable in their eyes."

That letter sufficiently explains the reasons which induced Lord Cochrane to resign his Chilian command. He had, as he said, received invitations to enter the service of Brazil, of Mexico, and of Greece. The Mexican offer he declined at once, as acceptance of it would involve little of the active work in fighting which, if for a good cause, was always attractive to him. Assistance of the Greeks who, a year and a half before, had begun to throw off their long servitude to Turkey, and who were now fighting desperately for their freedom, was an enterprise on which he would gladly have embarked, but the invitation from Brazil was more pressing, and he therefore conditionally accepted it. "The war in the Pacific," he said, on the 29th of November, in answer to two letters written on behalf of the newly-elected Emperor of Brazil, "having been happily terminated by the total destruction of the Spanish naval force, I am, of course, free for the crusade of liberty in any other quarter of the globe. I confess, however, that I have not hitherto directed my attention to the Brazils; considering that the struggle for the liberties of Greece, the most oppressed of modern states, afforded the fairest opportunity for enterprise and exertion. I have to-day tendered my ultimate resignation to the Government of Chili, and am not at this moment aware that any material delay will be necessary previous to my setting off, by way of Cape Horn, for Rio de Janeiro; it being, in the meantime, understood that I hold myself free to decline, as well as entitled to accept, the offer which has, through you, been made to me by his Imperial Majesty. I only mention this from a desire to preserve a consistency of character, should the Government (which I by no means anticipate) differ so widely in its nature from those which I have been in the habit of supporting as to render the proposed situation repugnant to my principles, and so justly expose me to suspicion, and render me unworthy the confidence of his Majesty and the nation."

In accordance with the terms of that letter, Lord Cochrane wrote as we have seen to the Supreme Director of Chili, not completely resigning his employment, but proposing to absent himself for an indefinite period. His proposal was at once accepted by the Chilian Government, to whom his honesty and his popularity with the people made him particularly obnoxious. He thereupon made prompt arrangements for his departure. He quitted Valparaiso on the 18th of January, 1823, in a vessel chartered for his own use and that of several European officers and seamen, who, like him, were tired of Chilian ingratitude, and who begged to be employed under him wherever he might serve.

Of the subsequent occurrences in the Western States, for which he had done so much, and tried to do so much more than was permitted, it is enough to say that Peru, sadly abused by San Martin, and almost won back to Spain, was rescued by the valour and wisdom of Bolivar, and that Chili, destined to much future trouble through the bad action of its false patriots, was temporarily benefited by the successful revolution which placed General Freire in the Supreme Directorship.

Lord Cochrane had not been absent three months before a new Minister of Marine wrote to inform him of Freire's accession and to solicit his return. From this, however, he excused himself, on the grounds that he had now entered into engagements with Brazil which he was bound to fulfil, and that his past treatment by the Chilian Government discouraged him from renewal of relations which had been so full of annoyance to him. "On my quitting Chili," he said in his reply, "there was no looking to the past without regret, nor to the future without despair, for I had learned by experience what were the views and motives which guided the counsels of the State. Believe me that nothing but a thorough conviction that it was impracticable to render the good people of Chili any further service under existing circumstances, or to live in tranquillity under such a system, could have induced me to remove myself from a country which I had vainly hoped would have afforded me that tranquil asylum which, after the anxieties I had suffered, I felt needful to my repose. My inclinations, too, were decidedly in favour of a residence in Chili, from a feeling of the congeniality which subsisted between my own habits and the manners and customs of the people, those few only excepted who were corrupted by contiguity with the court, or debased in their minds and practices by that species of Spanish colonial education which inculcates duplicity as the chief qualification of statesmen in all their dealings, both with individuals and the public. I now speak more particularly of the persons lately in power, excepting, however, the Supreme Director, whom I believe to have been the dupe of their deceit. Point out to me one engagement that has been honourably fulfilled, one military enterprise of which the professed object has not been perverted, or one solemn pledge that has not been forfeited. Look at my representations on the necessities of the navy, and see how they were relieved. Look at my memorial, proposing to establish a nursery for seamen by encouraging the coasting trade, and compare its principles with the code of Rodriguez, which annihilated both. You will see in this, as in all other cases, that whatever I recommended, in regard to the promotion of the good of the marine, was set at nought, or opposed by measures directly the reverse. Look to the orders which I received, and see whether I had more liberty of action than a schoolboy in the execution of his task. Sir, that which I suffered from anxiety of mind whilst in the Chilian service, I will never again endure for any consideration. To organize new crews, to navigate ships destitute of sails, cordage, provisions, and stores, to secure them in port without anchors and cables, except so far as I could supply these essentials by accidental means, were difficulties sufficiently harassing; but to live amongst officers and men discontented and mutinous on account of arrears of pay and other numerous