rder of "the Sun," and
telling me how much better it would be for me to be First Admiral of a
rich country like Peru, than Vice-Admiral of a poor province like Chili.
He assured me, as one of the Commissioners of confiscated property, that
it was the intention of the Protector to present me with a most valuable
estate, and regretted that the present unlucky difference should form an
obstacle to the Protector's intentions to confer upon me the command of
the Peruvian navy.

Perceiving that he felt nervously uneasy in his attempt at negotiation,
I reminded him that the Peruvian navy had no existence except in
imagination; that I had no doubt whatever of his desire for my
prosperity, but that it might be more agreeable to him to join me in a
bottle of wine than to reiterate his regrets and lamentations. After
taking a glass he went into his boat, and pulled off, glad no doubt to
escape so easily, not that it occurred to me to resent the treachery of
visiting the ships of the squadron in the dark, to unsettle the minds of
the officers and men.

This, however, and other efforts proved but too successful, twenty-three
officers abandoning the Chilian service, together with all the foreign
seamen, who went on shore to spend their pay, and who were either
forced, or allured by promises of a year's additional pay to remain, so
that the squadron was half unmanned.

The fortress, notwithstanding the supplies so successfully introduced by
General Cantarac, having again--by the vigilance of the squadron--been
starved into surrender, I received an order immediately to quit Callao
and proceed to Chili, although the Peruvian Government believed that
from the abandonment of the squadron by the officers and foreign seamen,
it would not be possible to comply with the order. The following is
Monteagudo's letter conveying the commands of the Protector:--

Lima, Sept. 26th, 1821.
My Lord,

Your note of yesterday, in which you explain the motives
which induced you to decline complying with the positive orders of
the Protector, _temporarily_ to restore the money which you forcibly
took at Ancon, has frustrated the hopes which the Government
entertained of a happy termination to this most disagreeable of all
affairs which have occurred during the expedition.

To answer your Excellency in detail, it will be necessary to enter
into an investigation of acts which cannot be fully understood without
referring