eople
are invariably cowards.

On my arrival at Santiago, I found the Supreme Director on the point of
resigning his high office from the opposition he had to encounter by
adhering to a ministry which in one way or other was constantly bringing
his Government into discredit, and from being supposed to favour the
designs of General San Martin, though to this I attached no credit,
believing that his high sense of principle led him to take upon himself
the obnoxious acts of his Ministers, who were partisans of the
Protector. The dissatisfaction increasing, the Supreme Director at
length tendered his resignation to the Convention, who, being unprepared
for this step, insisted on reinstating him in the supreme executive
authority.

Being indisposed to mingle in the conflicting state of parties which
distracted Chili after my return, and being in need of relaxation after
the two years and a-half of harassing anxiety which I had encountered, I
requested permission of the Government to retire to my estate at
Quintero, intending also to visit the estate which had been conferred
upon me at Rio Clara as an acknowledgment of services rendered at
Valdivia; my object being to bring it into a state of cultivation, which
might give an impetus to the low condition of agriculture in Chili.

At this juncture, the _Rising Star_, the steamer which was spoken of as
having been left behind in England, arrived in Valparaiso, too late,
however, to take any part in the operations which were now brought to a
close by the surrender of the Spanish navy. This delay had been caused
by want of funds to complete her equipment, which could not even now
have been accomplished, had not large means been furnished to the
Chilian agent in London, by my brother, the Hon. Major Cochrane, who, to
this day, has not been reimbursed a shilling of the outlay advanced on
the faith of the accredited Chilian Envoy! Though the _Rising Star_ was
now of little use as regarded naval operations, she was the first
steamer which had entered the Pacific, and might, had she not been
repudiated by the Government, have formed the nucleus of a force which
would have prevented an infinity of disasters which shortly after my
departure from Chili befel the cause of independence, as will presently
be seen.

The political fruits of our successes in Chili and Peru now began to
manifest themselves in the recognition of the South American Republics
by the United States, so that Chil