The Life of Thomas, Lord Cochrane, Earl of Dundonald Thomas Barnes Cochrane [ebook reader 8 inch .txt] 📗

state government. It consisted of five members, whose functions were to remain only during the first struggles of the country for independence; but this body had now assumed a permanent right to dictatorial control, whilst there was no appeal from their arbitrary conduct, except to themselves. They arrogated the title of 'Most Excellent,' whilst the Supreme Director was simply 'His Excellency;' his position, though nominally head of the executive, being really that of mouthpiece to the senate, which, assuming all power, deprived the Executive Government of its legitimate influence, so that no armament could be equipped, no public work undertaken, no troops raised, and no taxes levied, except by the consent of this irresponsible body. For such a clique the plain, simple good sense of the Supreme Director was no match. He was led to believe that a crooked policy was a necessary evil of government, and, as such a policy was adverse to his own nature, he was the more easily induced to surrender its administration to others who were free from his conscientious principles." Those sentences explain the treatment to which, now and afterwards, Lord Cochrane was subjected.

He was allowed, however, to do further excellent service to the nation which had already begun to reward him with nothing but ingratitude. As soon as the Chilian Government could turn from its spiteful exercise to its proper duty of consolidating the independence of the insurgents from Spanish dominion, it was resolved to despatch as strong a force as could be raised for another and more formidable expedition to Peru, whereby at the same time the Peruvians should be freed from the tyranny by which they were still oppressed, and the Chilians should be rid of the constant danger that they incurred from the presence of a Spanish army in Lima, Callao, and other garrisons, ready to bear down upon them again and again, as it had often done before. In 1819 Lord Cochrane had vainly asked for a suitable land force with which to aid his attack upon Callao. It was now resolved to organize a Liberating Army, after the fashion of that with which Bolivar had nobly scoured the northern districts of South America, and to place it under the direction of General San Martin, in co-operation with whom Lord Cochrane was to pursue his work as chief admiral of the fleet. San Martin had fought worthily in La Plata, and he had earned the gratitude of the Chilians by winning back their freedom in conjunction with O'Higgins in 1817. Vanity and ambition, however, had since unhinged him, and he now proved himself a champion of liberty very inferior, both in prowess and in honesty, to Bolivar.

His army, numbering four thousand two hundred men, was collected by the 21st of August, and on that day it was embarked at Valparaiso in the whole Chilian squadron. Lord Cochrane proposed to go at once to Chilca, the nearest point both to Lima and to Callao. San Martin, however, decided upon Pisco as a safer landing-place, and there the troops were deposited on the 8th of September. For fifty days they were detained there, and the fleet was forced to share their idleness, capturing only a few passing merchantmen. On the 28th of October they were re-embarked, and Lord Cochrane again urged a vigorous attack on the capital and its port. Again he was thwarted by San Martin, who requested to be landed at Ancon, considerably to the north of Callao, and as unsuitable a halting-place as was the southerly town of Pisco. Lord Cochrane had to comply; but he bethought him of a plan for achieving a great work, in spite of San Martin. Sending the main body of his fleet to Ancon with the troops, no the 20th, he retained the O'Higgins, the Independencia, and the Lautaro, with the professed object of merely blockading Callao at a safe distance. "The fact was," he said, "that, annoyed, in common with the whole expedition, at this irresolution on the part of General San Martin, I determined that the means of Chili, furnished with great difficulty, should not be wholly wasted, without some attempt at accomplishing the object of the expedition. I accordingly formed a plan of attack with the three ships which I had kept back, though, being apprehensive that my design would be opposed by General San Martin, I had not even mentioned to him my intentions. This design was, to cut out the Esmeralda frigate from under the fortifications, and also to get possession of another ship, on board of which we had learned that a million of dollars was embarked."

The plan was certainly a bold one. The Esmeralda, of forty-four guns, was the finest Spanish ship in the Pacific Ocean. Now especially well armed and manned, in readiness for any work that had to be done, she was lying in Callao Harbour, protected by three hundred pieces of artillery on shore and by a strong boom with chain moorings, by twenty-seven gunboats and several armed block-ships. These considerations, however, only induced Lord Cochrane to proceed cautiously upon his enterprise. Three days were spent in preparations, the purpose of which was known only to himself and to his chief officers. On the afternoon of the 5th of November he issued this proclamation:—"Marines and seamen,—This night we shall give the enemy a mortal blow. To-morrow you will present yourself proudly before Callao, and all your comrades will envy your good fortune. One hour of courage and resolution is all that is required for you to triumph. Remember that you have conquered in Valdivia, and have no fear of those who have hitherto fled from you. The value of all the vessels captured in Callao will be yours, and the same reward will be distributed amongst you as has been offered by the Spaniards in Lima to those who should capture any of the Chilian squadron. The moment of glory is approaching. I hope that the Chilians will fight as they have been accustomed to do, and that the English will act as they have ever done at home and abroad."

A request was made for volunteers, and the whole body of seamen and marines on board the three ships offered to follow Lord Cochrane wherever he might lead. This was more than he wanted. "A hundred and sixty seamen and eighty marines," said Lord Cochrane, whose own narrative of the sequel will best describe it, "were placed, after dark, in fourteen boats alongside the flag-ship, each man, armed with cutlass and pistol, being, for distinction's sake, dressed in white, with a blue band on the left arm. The Spaniards, I expected, would be off their guard, and consider themselves safe from attack for that night, since, by way of ruse, the other ships had been sent out of the bay under the charge of Captain Foster, as though in pursuit of some vessels in the offing.

"At ten o'clock all was in readiness, the boats being formed in two divisions, the first commanded by Flag-Captain Crosbie and the second by Captain Gruise,—my boat leading. The strictest silence and the exclusive use of cutlasses were enjoined; so that, as the oars were muffled and the night was dark, the enemy had not the least suspicion of the impending attack.

"It was just upon midnight when we neared the small opening left in the boom, our plan being well-nigh frustrated by the vigilance of a guard-boat upon which my launch had unluckily stumbled. The challenge was given, upon which, in an undertone, I threatened the occupants of the boat with instant death if they made the least alarm. No reply was made to the threat, and in a few minutes our gallant fellows were alongside the frigate in line, boarding at several points simultaneously. The Spaniards were completely taken by surprise, the whole, with the exception of the sentries, being asleep at their quarters; and great was the havoc made amongst them by the Chilian cutlasses whilst they were recovering themselves. Retreating to the forecastle, they there made a gallant stand, and it was not until the third charge that the position was carried. The fight was for a short time renewed on the quarterdeck, where the Spanish marines fell to a man, the rest of the enemy leaping overboard and into the hold to escape slaughter.

"On boarding the ship by the main-chains, I was knocked back by the sentry's musket, and falling on the tholl-pin of the boat, it entered my back near the spine, inflicting a severe injury, which caused me many years of subsequent suffering. Immediately regaining my footing, I reascended the side, and, when on deck, was shot through the thigh. But, binding a handkerchief tightly round the wound, I managed, though with great difficulty, to direct the contest to its close.

"The whole affair, from beginning to end, occupied only a quarter of an hour, our loss being eleven killed and thirty wounded, whilst that of the Spaniards was a hundred and sixty, many of whom fell under the cutlasses of the Chilians before they could stand to their arms. Greater bravery I never saw displayed than by our gallant fellows. Before boarding, the duties of all had been appointed, and a party was told off to take possession of the tops. We had not been on deck a minute, when I hailed the foretop, and was instantly answered by our own men, an equally prompt answer being returned from the frigate's main-top. No British man-of-war's crew could have excelled this minute attention to orders.

"The uproar speedily alarmed the garrison, who, hastening to their guns, opened fire on their own frigate, thus paying us the compliment of having taken it; though, even in this case, their own men must still have been on board, so that firing on them was a wanton proceeding. Several Spaniards were killed or wounded by the shot of the fortress. Amongst the wounded was Captain Coig, the commander of the Esmeralda, who, after he was made prisoner, received a severe contusion by a shot from his own party.

"The fire from the fortress was, however, neutralized by a successful expedient. There were two foreign ships of war present during the contest, the United States frigate Macedonian and the British frigate Hyperion; and these, as had been previously agreed upon with the Spanish authorities in case of a night attack, hoisted peculiar lights as signals, to prevent being fired upon. This contingency being provided for by us, as soon as the fortress commenced its fire on the Esmeralda, we also ran up similar lights, so that the garrison did not know which vessel to fire at. The Hyperion and Macedonian were several times struck, while the Esmeralda was comparatively untouched. Upon this the neutral vessels cut their cables and moved away. Contrary to my orders, Captain Gruise then cut the Esmeralda's cables also, so that there was nothing to be done but to loose her topsails and follow. The fortress thereupon ceased its fire.

"I had distinctly ordered that the cables of the Esmeralda were not to be cut, but that after taking her, the force was to capture the Maypeu, a brig of war previously taken from Chili, and then to attack and cut adrift every ship near, there being plenty of time before us. I had no doubt that, when the Esmeralda was taken, the Spaniards would desert the other ships as fast as their boats would permit them, so that the whole might have been either captured or burnt. To this end all my previous plans had been arranged; but, on my being placed hors de combat by my wounds, Captain Gruise, on whom the command of the prize devolved, chose to interpose his own judgment and content himself with the Esmeralda alone; the reason assigned being that the English had broken into her spirit-room and were getting drunk, whilst the Chilians were disorganized by plundering. It was a great mistake. If we could capture the Esmeralda with her picked and well-appointed crew, there would have been little or no difficulty in cutting the other ships adrift in succession. It would only have been the rout of Valdivia over again, chasing the enemy, without loss, from ship to ship instead of from fort to fort."

Lord Cochrane's exploit, however, though less complete than he had intended, was as successful in its issue as it was brilliant in its achievement. "This loss of the Esmeralda," wrote Captain Basil Hall, then commanding a British war-ship in South American waters, "was a death-blow to the Spanish naval force in that quarter of the world; for, although there were still two Spanish frigates and some smaller vessels in the Pacific, they never afterwards ventured to show themselves, but left Lord Cochrane undisputed master of the coast." The speedy liberation of Peru was its direct consequence, although that good work was seriously impaired by the continued and increasing misconduct of General San Martin, inducing troubles, of which Lord Cochrane received his full