eavored, but failed, to retake Buenos
Ayres. During the siege a small detachment of Spanish troops under
Colonel James Butler, after a terrific conflict, in which they sold
their lives dearly, were all killed. Agreeably to Colonel Butler's
request his remains were buried on the spot he had so valiantly
defended, and his tombstone was visible there until 1818.

It is a remarkable fact that several of the South American countries,
Mexico, Peru, and Chile, were governed by viceroys of Irish birth in
the critical period preceding the Independence, although Spanish law
forbade such office to any but Spaniards born. It was in recognition
of gallant services in Spain, in combination with the Duke of
Wellington, that General O'Donoghue was made viceroy of Mexico in
1821, but the elevation of the great viceroy of Peru, Ambrose
O'Higgins, was due to the splendid talents of administration already
displayed by him during twenty years of service in Chile. He was born
at Summerhill, Co. Meath, about 1730. An uncle of his was one of the
chaplains at the court of Madrid, and at his expense O'Higgins was
educated at a college in Cadiz. He then entered the Spanish engineer
corps, and in 1769 was given the command of the commission sent to
Chile to strengthen the fortifications of Valdivia. He was made
captain-general of Chile in 1788, was subsequently created marquis of
Osorno, and in 1796 was nominated viceroy of Peru, a position which
he held until his death in 1801.

The great viceroy left only one son, Bernard O'Higgins, who succeeded
General Carreras in the supreme command of the patriot army against
the Spaniards in 1813. In 1817 O'Higgins took a principal part in the
victory of Chacabuco, and was almost immediately appointed supreme
director of Chile, with dictatorial powers. During his
administration, which lasted six years, he gave every proof of his
fitness for the position. But, alas! it was the misfortune of South
America to surpass the republics of antiquity in the ingratitude
shown towards its greatest benefactors. It is then not surprising to
find that the Father of his Country, as O'Higgins is affectionately
styled, was deposed by a military revolution, and obliged to take
refuge in Peru, from which country he never returned. General Miller
and Lord Cochrane, in their _Memoirs_, give frequent testimony to the
honesty and zeal of Bernard O'Higgins. He was always treated as an
honored guest in Lima, in which city he died