t your offers. My heart was
with you in the measures you adopted for their removal; and my
hand was only restrained by a conviction that my interference, as a
foreigner, in the internal affairs of the State, would not only have
been improper in itself, but would have tended to shake that confidence
in my undeviating rectitude which it was my ambition that
the people of Chili should ever justly entertain. Indeed, before I
was favoured with your communications, I had resolved to leave the
country, at least for a time, and return to England, but accident so
ordered it that at the very moment I was preparing to execute this
intention, I received an offer from the Emperor of Brazil to
command his navy, and conditionally accepted it.

Brazil has one great advantage over other South American States,
it is free from all question as to the authority of its Chief, who has
nothing to fear from the rivalry to which those elevated to power
are so frequently subject. I pray God that this may not be your
case. The command of the army will enable you to accomplish
great things without jealousy, but the possession of the Supreme
power of the State will hardly fail to excite the envy of the selfish
and ambitious to a degree that may operate to the destruction of
your expectations of doing good, and to the injury of the cause in
which you have embarked.

Permit me to add my opinion, that whoever may possess the
Supreme authority in Chili--_until after the present generation,
educated as it has been under the Spanish colonial yoke, shall have
passed away_, will have to contend with so much error, and so many
prejudices, as to be disappointed in his utmost endeavours to pursue
steadily the course best calculated to promote the freedom and
happiness of the people. I admire the middle and lower classes of
Chili, but I have ever found the Senate, the Ministers, and the
Convention, actuated by the narrowest policy, which led them to
adopt the worst measures. It is my earnest wish that you may
find better men to co-operate with you; if so, you may be fortunate,
and may succeed in what you have most at heart--the promotion of
your country's good.

Believe me that I am--with gratitude for the disinterested and
generous manner in which you have always acted towards me--
your unshaken and faithful friend,

COCHRANE.

To His Exc