The volume contains another point, which forms a yet stranger sequel to my services on the Western shores of South America. After the expiration of thirty years, Chili granted me the absurdly inadequate sum of £.6,000 _in full of all my claims!_ And this, with the knowledge that, after my return to England I was involved in litigation on account of the legal seizure of vessels under the orders of her former Government--by which I was subjected to a loss, directly and indirectly, of _more than three times the amount_. The Chilian portion of this history, therefore, resolves itself into the fact, that not only did I reap no reward whatever, for the liberation of Chili and Peru, but that the independence of both countries was achieved _at a heavy pecuniary sacrifice to myself!_ in compensation for which, as well as for my recognised services--Chili has thought its national honour sufficiently vindicated by allotting me _one-third of my losses only_, without other compensation of any kind! I regret to add, that my necessities at the time, arising for the most part from the pecuniary difficulties to which I had been subjected on Chilian account, compelled me to accept the amount tendered.
The second volume is of a character somewhat similar. It narrates the circumstances under which--by promises the most inviting, and stipulations the most binding--I was induced to accept the command, or rather organization of the first Brazilian navy. It details the complete expulsion of all Portuguese armaments, naval and military, from the Eastern shores of the South American Continent, by the squadron alone, wholly unaided by military co-operation; in the course of which arduous service, ships of war, merchant vessels, and valuable property to the extent of several millions of dollars were captured under the Imperial order, and their value--in spite of previous stipulations--_refused to the captors_, on the falsely assumed ground that the provinces liberated were Brazilian--though a Brazilian military force had been recently beaten in an attempt to expel the Portuguese--and though these provinces were, at the period of my assuming the command, in the uninterrupted occupation of the very Portuguese fleets and armies afterwards expelled, it was falsely pretended that the property captured was not enemy's property--though expressly described as such in numerous Imperial decrees--and more especially by the instructions given to me by His Imperial Majesty to seize or destroy it wherever found.