n paced the room
for a short time, and, turning to his lordship, said, 'Forget, my
lord, what is past.' The Admiral replied, 'I will when I can,' and
immediately left the palace.[A] "One thing has been omitted in
the preceding narrative," said Lord Cochrane. "General San Martin,
following me to the staircase, had the temerity to propose to me
to follow his example--namely, to break faith with the Chilian
Government, to which we had both sworn, to abandon the squadron to his
interests, and to accept the higher grade of First Admiral of Peru.
I need scarcely say that a proposition so dishonourable was declined;
when, in a tone of irritation, he declared that 'he would neither give
the seamen their arrears of pay nor the gratuity he had promised.'"

[Footnote A: W.B. Stevenson, "Twenty Years' Residence in South
America." 1825.]

Lord Cochrane lost no time in returning to his flagship in Callao
Roads. Thence, however, on the 7th of August, he wrote a letter to San
Martin, couched in terms as temperate and persuasive as he could bring
himself to use. "My dear General," he there said, "I address you
for the last time under your late designation, being aware that the
liberty I may take as a friend might not be deemed decorous to you
under the title of Protector, for I shall not, with a gentleman of
your understanding, take into account, as a motive for abstaining to
speak truth, any chance of your resentment. Nay, were I certain that
such would be the effect of this letter, I would nevertheless perform
such an act of friendship, in repayment of the support you gave me
at a time when the basest plots were laid for my dismissal from the
Chilian service. Permit me to give you the experience of eleven years,
during which I sat in the first senate in the world, and to say what I
anticipate on the one hand, and what I fear on the other--nay, what
I foresee. You have it in your power to be the Napoleon of South
America; but you have also the power to choose your course, and if the
first steps are false, the eminence on which you stand will, as though
from the brink of a precipice, make your fall the more heavy and the
more certain. The real strength of government is public opinion. What
would the world say, were the Protector of Peru, as his first act, to
cancel the bonds of San Martin, even though gratitude may be a private
and not a public virtue? What would they say, were the Protector to
refuse to pay the expense of that expedi