ant vessels--money, provisions,
and stores to a great extent fell into our hands; all of which--though
our own stipulated right--were voluntarily devoted to state exigencies,
in the full conviction that, at the expiration of the war, the value of
our sacrifices would, as a point of national honour, be returned to us
by Chili. As regards Peru, our still unpaid for captures of ships-of-war
formed her first naval force, for which the only requital has been, a
vote of her first National Assembly--almost its inaugural act--ascribing
to me the double praise of her liberation from the Spanish yoke, and of
her subsequent deliverance from an intolerable military tyranny.

The volume contains another point, which forms a yet stranger sequel to
my services on the Western shores of South America. After the expiration
of thirty years, Chili granted me the absurdly inadequate sum of L.6,000
_in full of all my claims!_ And this, with the knowledge that, after my
return to England I was involved in litigation on account of the legal
seizure of vessels under the orders of her former Government--by which
I was subjected to a loss, directly and indirectly, of _more than three
times the amount_. The Chilian portion of this history, therefore,
resolves itself into the fact, that not only did I reap no reward
whatever, for the liberation of Chili and Peru, but that the
independence of both countries was achieved _at a heavy pecuniary
sacrifice to myself!_ in compensation for which, as well as for my
recognised services--Chili has thought its national honour sufficiently
vindicated by allotting me _one-third of my losses only_, without other
compensation of any kind! I regret to add, that my necessities at the
time, arising for the most part from the pecuniary difficulties to which
I had been subjected on Chilian account, compelled me to accept the
amount tendered.

The second volume is of a character somewhat similar. It narrates the
circumstances under which--by promises the most inviting, and
stipulations the most binding--I was induced to accept the command, or
rather organization of the first Brazilian navy. It details the complete
expulsion of all Portuguese armaments, naval and military, from the
Eastern shores of the South American Continent, by the squadron alone,
wholly unaided by military co-operation; in the course of which arduous
service, ships of war, merchant vessels, and valuable property to the
extent of several millions of