Page:Royal Naval Biography Marshall sp4.djvu/192

  persons of Lima was sent to invite San Martin formally to enter the capital. To this requisition the Liberating General assented, but delayed his entry till four days after. “On our way back to Lima,” says Captain Hall, “we were threatened with an attack from a body of a dozen robbers; men let loose upon society by the events of the day. Our party consisted of four gentlemen, each armed with a pistol. As we rode up the great approach of the city, we saw the robbers pull three people off their horses, and strip them of their cloaks, after which they formed a compact line across the road, brandishing their cudgels in defiance. We cantered on, however, right against them, with our pistols cocked and held in the air. The effect was what we expected: an opening was made for us, and the robbers, seeing their purpose frustrated, turned about, and suddenly became wonderfully good patriots, calling out, ‘Viva la Patria! Viva San Martin!’”

The 12th July, 1821, is memorable in the annals of Peru, from the entry of General San Martin into the capital on that day. The ceremonies of proclaiming, and swearing to, the independence of the state, took place sixteen days afterwards, and were witnessed by Captain Hall, whom we subsequently find visiting Conception, the frontier town on the coast of Chili; and Aranco, the capital of an unconquered Indian district of that name, from which little city, Benavides, a piratical chief, had very recently fled, leaving it and his prizes in flames, and taking with him into the interior a number of North American and British seamen whom he had captured while they were employed in whaling. On the 14th Nov. 1821, Captain Hall, then at Valparaiso, received orders to proceed again to Lima, and to call at the intermediate ports on the coasts of Chili and Peru. The object of this cruise was to inquire into the British interests at those places; to assist and protect any of his Majesty’s trading subjects; and, in a general way, to ascertain the commercial resources of the coast. The Conway accordingly visited Coquimbo, in the neighbourhood of which bay are several series of horizontal beds, along both sides of a valley, resembling the “Parallel Roads of Glen Roy, in the Highlands