g it a thing apart from official acts--but as the
Limenos themselves have forcibly alluded to it, I can say that in no
respect can their allegations be called in question.

The opinion of the roused Limenos, that for Monteagudo's plunders,
insults, and cruelties, there "must have been an impelling cause," is
correct, though it is rather surprising that they should not have more
justly estimated that cause. The vast amount of silver and gold which I
spared in the _Sacramento_ at Ancon, as being the property of the
Protector, shews the gulf which swallowed up his plunder of the
inhabitants. The costly extravagance of the Government--amidst which the
degraded Minister's ostentation was even more conspicuous than that of
the Protector himself--could have had no other source but plunder, for
of legitimate revenue there was scarcely enough to carry on the expenses
of the Government--certainly none for luxurious ostentation; which,
nevertheless, emulated that of the Roman Empire in its worst period--but
without the "_panem et circenses_."

The "impelling cause" was the Protector himself. Ambitious beyond all
bounds, but with a capacity singularly incommensurate with his ambition,
he believed that money could accomplish everything. Monteagudo supplied
this literally by plunder and cruelty, whilst San Martin recklessly
flung it away in ostentation and bribes. In return for the means of
prodigality, the Minister was permitted to carry on the Government just
as he chose, the Protector meanwhile indulging in the "_otium cum
dignitate_" at his country palace near La Legua--his physical powers
prostrated by opium and brandy, to which he was a slave, whilst his
mental faculties day by day became more torpid from the same
debilitating influence. This was well known to me, and alluded to in my
letter to him of August 7th, 1821, in which I adjured him to banish his
advisers and act as became his position. I now mention these things, not
to cast a slur on San Martin, but for the opposite purpose of averting
undue reproach, though my bitter enemy. The enormities committed in his
name were for the most part not his, but Monteagudo's; for, to
paraphrase the saying of a French wit, "San Martin reigned, but his
Minister governed." Duplicity and cunning were San Martin's great
instruments when he was not too indolent to wield them; and while he was
wrapped in ease, his Minister superadded to these qualities all the
cruelty and ferocity which s