Page:The History of San Martin (1893).djvu/508

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Captain Basil Hall, who paid a visit to San Martin, in the month of June, 1821, on board the schooner Montesuma, then at anchor in the Callao Roads, thus describes his personal appearance :—

"General San Martin is a tall, erect, well-proportioned, handsome man, with a large aquiline nose, thick black hair and immense bushy- whiskers, extending from ear to ear under the chin; his complexion is deep olive, and his eye, which is large, prominent, and piercing, jet black; his whole appearance being highly military. He is thoroughly well bred, and unaffectedly simple in his manners; exceedingly cordial and engaging, and possessed evidently of great kindliness of disposition ; in short, I have never seen any person the enchantment of whose address was more irresistible."

"It has been stated that the filling of the tubes was, from motives of parsimony, entrusted to Spanish prisoners, who, as was found on examination, had embraced every opportunity of inserting handfuls of sand, sawdust, and even manure at intervals in the tubes, thus impeding the progress of combustion; whilst in the majority of instances they had so thoroughly mixed the neutralizing matter with the ingredients supplied, that the charge would not ignite at all, the result being complete failure in the object of the expedition." — Autobiography of a Seaman, by Lord Dundonald.

"... This bridge is curious from its simplicity, and from the close resemblance it bears to the iron bridges of suspension recently introduced into England, to which, in principle, it is precisely similar. It consists of a narrow roadway of planks, laid crosswise, with their ends resting on straight ropes, suspended by means of short lines to a set of thicker ropes drawn across the stream from bank to bank.