ention the
circumstance to the President. Freire received me in a very friendly
manner, and so confidently affirmed the project attributed to his
officers, to be a mere "coinage of the brain" of my informant, that I
trusted to his opinion, and thought no more of it, especially as our own
ball had furnished a proof how easily the silliest and most groundless
reports could gain credit.

After leaving the President, I passed the remainder of the day, and
slept, at the house of my friend Mendiburu. As I was preparing to go to
bed, I heard a gentle knock at my room door; I opened it, and a servant
of the house came timidly in. He told me that he was a Spaniard, and had
been a sailor on board a frigate captured by the Chilians, and that his
present master had taken him into his service, when a prisoner of war.
He then gave me, under the most earnest injunctions not to betray him,
the same caution which I had before received, adding some curses on the
Chilian Government and people, whom he declared to be altogether a set
of vagabonds and thieves. This repeated warning was too striking not to
excite some apprehension. I took all the circumstances into
consideration; and though the motive for such a proceeding remained
perfectly incomprehensible, I still resolved to take measures for my
security, in case it should be really attempted. I passed a sleepless
night, and early in the morning bade adieu to my kind host, to whom I
was unable to impart my new cause of anxiety, and hastened back to
Talcaguana. On my arrival there, I found cards inviting myself and all
my officers to a ball on the following evening: so far, therefore, the
information I had received was correct. To avoid the appearance of
suspicion, I accepted the invitation, and went to the ball accompanied
by a few of my officers. The rest remained on board the ship, having
placed her so as to bring her guns to bear upon the house in which the
ball was given, and to command the respect of the neighbourhood. Thus
Talcaguana was at our mercy; nor had we any thing to fear, either from
the armed corvette, or the battery on shore; the former being so
situated that it must needs have struck to our first broadside, and the
latter mounting only six guns quite unfit for use, and resting upon
broken carriages. We had also removed our observatory, and conveyed all
our effects on board. These imposing preparations did not in all
probability remain unobserved; at all events, the ball