said, "I hope
you will take into your serious consideration the propriety of at once
fixing the Chilian Government upon a base not to be shaken by the
fall of the present tyranny in Peru, of which there are not only
indications, but the result is inevitable--unless, indeed, the
mischievous counsels of vain and mercenary men can suffice to prop up
a fabric of the most barbarous political architecture, serving as a
screen from whence to dart their weapons against the heart of liberty.
Thank God, my hands are free from the stain of labouring in any such
work; and having finished all you gave me to do, I may now rest till
you shall command my further endeavours for the honour and security of
my adopted land."

CHAPTER IX.

LORD COCHRANE'S RETURN TO VALPARAISO.--HIS FURTHER ILL-TREATMENT BY
THE CHILIAN GOVERNMENT.--HIS RESIGNATION OF CHILIAN EMPLOYMENT, AND
ACCEPTANCE OF EMPLOYMENT UNDER THE EMPEROR OF BRAZIL.--HIS SUBSEQUENT
CORRESPONDENCE WITH THE GOVERNMENT OF CHILI.--THE RESULTS OF HIS
CHILIAN SERVICE.

[1822-1823.]

Lord Cochrane returned to Valparaiso on the 3rd of June, 1822, having
been absent more than twenty months. An enthusiastic welcome awaited
him. Medals were struck in his honour, and in various ephemeral ways
the public gratitude was expressed.

It was, however, only ephemeral. There was no substantial recognition
of his great services. His men were left unpaid, and he himself was
subjected to further indignities of the sort already described. It is
not necessary here to give any detailed account of them, or to enter
into a particular rehearsal of his efforts during the next six months
to continue his beneficial services to Chili. He had done the great
service for which he had been invited to South America. In the course
of about three years he had scoured the Pacific of the Spanish ships,
which had offered an obstacle too serious for the patriots to overcome
by any force or wisdom of their own. He had made it possible for
them to assert their independence of a foreign yoke, and, if their
patriotism had been genuine enough, to work out internal reforms, by
which the sometime colonies of Spain in South America might have been
able to vie in greatness with the sometime colonies of England in the
northern continent. The benefits which he conferred especially upon
Chili were shared by all the liberated communities along the whole
Pacific coastline up to Mexico. But all were alike ungrateful, except