eason to
believe that his visit was unfriendly to me, he being falsely persuaded
that my incessant demands for the payment of the squadron was an act of
hostility to himself, instead of a measure of justice to the officers
and men.

Finding me determined, after what had occurred, to procure the payment
of the squadron, the now tottering Government gave in, and thus far
decided on doing justice; but even in this--as I had reason to
believe--the counsels of San Martin induced them to adopt a plan of
making the payments ashore, and paying the men and petty officers
first--after which, they were to be allowed a furlough of four months.
As this plan was palpably meant to unman the squadron, and thus place
the officers and myself at the mercy of the intriguers, I would not
suffer it to be carried into effect, the men were therefore paid on
board their respective ships.

A new system of annoyance was hereupon practised towards me by Zenteno,
who had again assumed the office of Minister of Marine. From the neglect
to repair the ships--which were left in the same wretched condition as
when they returned from Peru and Mexico--the _Independencia_ was alone
seaworthy; and was sent to sea by Zenteno without even the formality of
transmitting the requisite orders through me.

But a crisis was now at hand. The insult offered to General Freire, by
sending Santa Cruz to supersede him, will be fresh in the reader's
recollection. Soon after this the Provincial Convention of Conception
met, and passed a vote of censure upon the Council of Government at
Santiago, for re-electing General O'Higgins as Supreme Director after
his resignation--an act which it considered illegal, as no such power
was vested in the Ministry--and it became known that General Freire was
about to march with the troops under his command to enforce these views.
On the 17th, General Freire had advanced his troops as far as Talca, and
a division of the army at Santiago was ordered to be in readiness to
meet him. The marines belonging to the squadron, under the command of
Major Hind, were also ordered to reinforce the Director's troops.

I was at this time at my country residence at Quintero, but learning
what was going on, I immediately went to Valparaiso and resumed the
command of the squadron, to which I found that orders had been issued at
variance with the arrangements which had been entered into in regard to
the prize-money due to the officers and men--the _Galv