2, was an unworthy course, the more so as most of
the explanations required were of a paltry description, even to the
expenditure of a single dollar in the purser's accounts--as though
amidst operations of such magnitude as had successfully resulted in the
accomplishment of every object proposed, my time could be occupied in
minor details, yet even to these I was compelled to attend, the
Government not furnishing me with a competent person to register the
expenditure of the squadron.

The explanations thus demanded, after a lapse of nearly twenty years,
were one hundred in number--no great amount in a series of accounts
extending over more than three years' prosecution of an arduous service,
during which I had to find the means of supporting the squadron, the
expenditure of which was now, for the first time, called into question.
The paltry character of many of the matters in dispute will be best
judged of from the following items:--

No. 4. Vouchers demanded for ten dollars' worth of mutton.
23 to 32. Certificates for cases of gin lost in the San Martin.
40. Deficiency of nine dollars in the pay-books of the Lautaro.
42. Do. of three dollars in the pay-books of the Independencia.
69. Error of three dollars in the valuation of goods captured at
Arica.
73. Forty dollars for repairing pumps at a time when the ships
could hardly be kept afloat.
75. Imputed error of _one dollar!_ in the purchase of 756 gals.
of gin, &c. &c.

In addition to many such petty items, I was accused of giving bounty to
seamen unauthorised--though the seamen had captured the very monies with
which they were rewarded--and was expected to refund some which had been
stolen. My having supplied rudders and rigging to the vessels cut out
from before the batteries at Callao, was called into question, though
the ships could not be sent from the port without re-equipment, the
Spaniards having dismantled them before their capture. I was expected,
after the lapse of sixteen years, to produce the pursers' books of the
division of stores captured, the books having been sent in due course to
the Minister of Marine's office; yet the Government had not furnished
the squadron with the necessary articles for the safety of the ships,
whether under sail or at anchor, whilst the stores which were taken from
the enemy and applied to the use of the expedition, were so much clear
gain to the State.