ho remained faithful to Chili--though my absence ought not to
have operated as a bar to such compensation as the Sovereign Congress
awarded to the generals and field officers of the army, who, though
restrained by General San Martin from effecting anything of importance
towards the liberation of the country, nevertheless received 500,000
dollars as a reward, whilst nothing was bestowed on myself or the
squadron, except thanks for "hazardous exploits on behalf of Peru,
hitherto," as the Congress expressed it, "under the _tyranny of military
despotism_, but now the arbiter of its own fate." To the "military
despot" himself, a pension of 20,000 dollars was granted, no doubt, as
has been said, in order to be rid of him; but it was I who gave the
death-blow to his usurped power, by seizing the treasure at Ancon to pay
the squadron, and by my constant refusal of his insidious overtures to
aid him in further treading under foot the liberties of Peru. It is
scarcely possible that the Government of Peru, even at this day, can
contrast with any degree of satisfaction, the empty thanks which were
alone given to one--to use the words of the Sovereign Congress in its
laudatory vote to myself--"by whose talent, worth, and bravery, the
Pacific Ocean has been liberated from the insults of enemies, and the
standard of liberty has been planted on the shores of the South"--and
its lavish reward to the enemy of that liberty, and even to those
officers who deserted from Chili to aid the specious views of the
Protector, of which rewards all who remained faithful to their duty were
wholly deprived.

Still more inconsistent has been the neglect of succeeding Peruvian
Governments in not fulfilling existing obligations. The Supreme Director
of Chili, recognising--as must also the Peruvians--the justice of their
paying, at least, the value of the _Esmeralda_, the capture of which
inflicted the death-blow on Spanish power, sent me a bill on the
Peruvian Government for 120,000 dollars, which was dishonoured, and
never since paid by any succeeding Government. Even the 40,000 dollars
stipulated by the authorities at Guayaquil as the penalty of giving up
the _Venganza_ was never liquidated, though the frigate was delivered to
Peru contrary to written stipulations previously adduced--and was thus
added to the Peruvian navy without cost to the State, but in reality at
the expense of the Chilian squadron, which ran it down into Guayaquil.
How the success