Embark on a thrilling journey through the life of Lord Cochrane, a legendary Napoleonic-era sea captain. This volume brings to life his daring exploits as he aids the Chilean navy in defeating Spain and takes command of Brazils fleet. Cochranes extraordinary journey doesnt end there - he sails to Greece, joining the fight for their liberation from the Ottoman Empire. This is not just a biography, its an unfinished autobiography completed by his son and a renowned naval historian.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Appendix three of the Life of Thomas Lord Cochrane, tenth
Earl of Dundonald, Volume one by Henry Richard Foxbourne. This
LibriVox recording is in the public domain recording by Timothy
Ferguson Appendix three. The following letter, too long to be
quoted in the body of the work, but too important
to be omitted, was addressed by Lord Cochrane to the
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Brazilian Secretary of State. It gives memorable evidence of the
treatment which he was subjected by the Portuguese faction in Brazil.
Rio di Jeneio made the third eighteen twenty four, Most excellent, Sir,
I have the honor of your Excellency's reply to my
letter of the thirtieth of March, and as I am
thereby taught that the subjects on which I wrote are
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not now considered so intimately connected with your Excellency's department
as they were by your immediate predecessor, nor even so
far relevant as to justify a direct communication to your Excellency,
I should feel up my duty to avoid troubling you
father on those subjects, were it not that you, at
the same time have freely expressed such opinions with respect
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to my conduct and motives, as justice to myself requires
me to controvert and refute, with regard to your Excellency's
assurance that it has ever been the intention of his
Imperial Majesty and Counsel to act favorably towards me, I can,
in return assure your Excellency that I have never doubted
the justine benign intention of his Imperial Majesty himself. Neither
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have I doubted that a part of his Privy Council
has thought well of my services. And if I have
imagined that a majority has been prejudiced against me, I
have formed that conclusion merely from the effects which I
have seen and experienced, and not from any undue prepossession
against particular individuals, whether Brizilian or Portuguese. But when your
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Excellency adds that such transactions between the Late Minister and myself, which,
owing to their having been conducted verbally, have been ill understood,
have been invariably decided in a manner favorably to me,
I confess myself at a loss to understand your Excellency's meaning,
not having any recollection of such favorable decisions, and therefore
not feeling myself competent either to admit or deny, unless
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in the first place, Your Excellency shall be pleased to
dissent to particulars. I do indeed recollect that the late Ministers,
professing to have the authority of His Imperial Majesty, and
which from the personal countenance I have experienced from that
August personage, I am sure they did not clandestinely assume
proffered to me the command of the Imperial Squadron, with
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every privilege, emolument, and advantage which I possessed in the
command of the Navy of Chile. And this your Excellency
is desired to observe, was not a verbal transaction, but
a written one, and therefore not liable to any of
those misunderstandings which verbal transactions, as your Excellency observes, are
naturally subject now and chilling. My commission was that of
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Commander in chief of the Squadron, without limitation as to
time or any other restriction. My command, of course, was
only to cease by my own voluntary resignation, or by
sentence of Court Marshal, or by death or other uncontrollable event.
And accordingly, the appointment which I accepted in the service
of His Imperial Majesty, and in virtue of which I
sailed in command of the exposition to be hire, was
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the commander in chief of the whole squadron, without limitation
as to time or otherwise. And this, too, your Excellency
will be pleased to observe, was not a verbal transaction,
but a solemn engagement in writing, bearing date the twenty
sixth of March eighteen twenty three. And now in my
possession I had also the assurance in writing of the
Minister of Marine that the formalities of engrossment and registration
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of such appointment were only deferred from want of time,
and should be executed immediately after my return. And now
I most respectfully put it home to your Excellency whether
these engagements have or have not been fully confirmed and
complied with under the present administration. I ask your Excellency
whether the patent which I received, bearing the date the
twenty fifth November eighteen twenty three, did not contain a
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clause of limitation by which I might at any time
be dismissed from the service under any pretense or without
any pretense whatever, without even the form of a hearing
in my own defense. Then again, I ask your Excellency
whether my officer's commander in chief of the Squadron was
not reduced for a period of three months, as appears
by every official communication of the Minister of Marine to
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me during that period, to the command only of the
vessels of war anchored in this port rider's note footnote.
This was resorted to in order to prevent Lord Cochrane
from stationing the cruisers to annoy the enemy, to deprive
him of any interest in future captures, and prevent his
opposition to the unlawful restoration of the enemy's property. Footnote ends.
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Letter continues and further on this subject, I ask your
Excellency whether, after my repeated remonstrances against this adjurious limitation
of my stipulated authority, it was not pretended by the
decree published in the Gazette of the twenty eighth February,
that I was then, for the first time, as a
mark of special favor, elevated to the rank of Commander
in Chief of the Squadron, and that too during the
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period only of the existing war, although nothing less than
the chief command had been offered to me at the
first without any restrictionist a time and although it was
only in that capacity I had consented to enter into
the service and under a written appointment. As such, I
had then been in the service nearly twelve months. And
then I ask your Excellency whether the limitation introduced into
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the patent of the twenty fifth of November last in
violation of the original agreement, and confirmed and defined by
the decree published on the twenty eighth of February following,
to which may be out of the communication which I
received from your Excellency excluding me from taking the oath
and becoming a party to the Constitution, the one hundred
and forty ninth article of which provides for the protection
of officers until lawfully deprived by sentence of court martial.
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I say that I respectfully ask your Excellency whether these
proceedings were not well adapted for the purpose of casting
me off with the utmost facility at the earliest moment
that convenience might dictate, either with or without the admission
of those claims for the future to which past services
are usually considered entitled, as might best suit the inclination
of those with whom my dismissal might originate. And is
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it not most probable that their inclination would run counter
to those claims, especially when it is considered that my
letter of the sixth the March to the Minister of Marine,
in which I made the inquiry whether my right to
half pay would be recognized on the termination of the war,
has never been answered, although my application for a reply
was repeated. Rider's note footnote an answer was at last
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given a few days before Lord Cochrane's assistance was called
for to put down the revolution at Pernambuco, and half
of the originally granted half pay was decreed when he
should return after the termination of hostilities to his native country.
Ridder's note footnote ends. Letter continues, if then the explicit
engagements in writing between the late Minister of His Imperial
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Majesty and myself have, as I have shown, been set
aside by the present Ministry and Council, and other arrangements
far less favorable to me and destructive of the lawful
security of my present and future rights, have without my consent,
been substituted in their stead. Where I entreat your Excellency
Am I, to look for those favorable constructions of quote
ill understood verbal transactions end quote which your Excellency requires
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me to accept as a proof that the intentions of
the present Ministry and Council in respect to me have
ever been of the most favorable and obliging nature. I
would beg permission too to inquire how it happened that
the portarias reader's note footnote, Official Communications end footnote from
the Minister of Marine, charging me unjustly from time to
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time with neglecting to obey the command of his Imperial
Majesty were constantly made public, while my answers in refutation
were always suppressed. And why, when I remonstrated against this
injustice was I answered that the same course should be
persisted in and that I had no alternative but to
acquiesce or to descend to a newspaper controversy by publishing
my exculpations myself. Is it possible not to perceive that
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the expart publication of these accusatory portarias was intended to
luwer me in the public estimation and to prepare the
way to the exercise of that power of summary dismissal,
which were so unfairly acquired by the means above described.
On the subject of the prizes, your Excellency is pleased
to state their difficulties. Servans de jog mons de PRIs
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on nudes motifs si connus et positives quel est ESEs
de l'aure de la vois at trebueux a la maveise
volentte de conseil de sm I. To this, I replied
that I know of no just cause for the delay
which has arisen in the decision of the prizes, and
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consequently I have the right to impute blame for that
delay to those who have the power to cause it
or remove it. If the majority of voices in Council
had been for a prompt condemnation to the captors of
the prizes taken from the Portuguese nation, is it possible
that individuals of that nation would have been suffered to
continue to be the judges of those prizes after an
experience of many months has demonstrated either their determination to
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know nothing or nothing favorable to their captors. The repugnance
of puts Uguese judges to condemn property captured from their
fellow countrymen as a reward to those who have engaged
in hostilities against Portugal is natural enough and is the
only well known and positive cause of the delay with
which I am acquainted. But it is not such a
cause for delay as ought to have been permitted to
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operate by the Ministers and Council of His Imperial Majesty,
who are bound in honor and duty to act with
fidelity toward those who have been engaged as auxiliaries in
the attainment and maintenance of the independence of the Empire.
I did, however, inform your Excellency that I had heard
it stated that another difficulty had arisen in the apprehension
that this government might be under the necessity of eventually
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restoring the prizes to the original Portuguese owners as a
condition of peace. But this, your Excellency, assures me, proves
nothing but that I am a listener to raporteurs whom
I ought to drive from my presence. Unfortunately, however, for
this bold explanation of your Excellency, the individual whom I
heard make the observation was no other than his excellence
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see the present Minister of Marine, Francisco Villala Barboza. If
your Excellency considers that gentleman in the light of a
reporteur or tale bearer, it is not for me to object,
but the imputation of being a listener to or encourager
of tale bearers so rashly advanced by your Excellency against me,
is without foundation and truth. It may be necessary for
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Ministers of State to have their eavesdroppers and informers, but
mine is a straightforward course which needs no such precautions.
And if there are any who volunteer information or advice,
I can appreciate the value of it and the motives
of those who offer it. Those who know me much
better than your Excellency does will admit that I am
in the habit of thinking for myself, and not apt
to act on the suggestions of others, especially if officiously tendered.
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As to the successive appointment and removal of incompetent auditors
of Marine, for which your Excellency gives credit to the Council,
I can only say that the benefit of such repeated
changes is by no means apparent. And to revert again
to the difficulty of decision for which your Excellency intimates
there is a sufficient cause, I beg leave to ask
your Excellency what just reason can exist for not condemning
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these prizes to the captors. Can it be denied that
the orders under which I sailed for the blockade of
Bahia authorized me to act hostilely against the ships and
property of the Crown and subjects of Portugal. Can it
be denied that war was regularly declared between the two nations?
Was it not even promulgated under the sanction of His
Imperial Majesty in a document giving to privatey a certain
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privileges which it is admitted, were possessed by the ships
of war in the making and sale of captures. And
yet did not the prize tribunal, consisting chiefly as I
observed of Portuguese on the return of the Squadron eight
months afterwards, pretend to be ignorant whether His Imperial Majesty
was at war or at peace with the Kingdom of Portugal?
And did they not, under that pretense avoid proceeding to adjudication?
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Was not this pretense a false one? Or is it
one of those well founded causes of difficulty to which
your Excellency alludes? Can it be denied that the Squadron
sailed and acted in the full expectation, grounded on the
assurance and engagements of the Government, that all captures made
under the flag of the enemy, whether ships of war
or merchant vessels, were to be prize to the captors.
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And yet, when the prize judges were at length under
the necessity of commencing proceedings, did they not endeavor to
set aside the claims of the captors by their monstrous
pretense that they had no interest in their captures when
made within the distance of two leagues from the shore.
Will your excellency contend that this was a good and
sufficient reason? Was it founded in common sense or on
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any rational precedent, or indeed any precedent whatsoever? Was it
either honest to the squadron or faithful to the country?
Was it calculated to prevent the Squadron from ever again
assailing and invading enemy, or again expelling him from the
shores of the Empire. Then, in the next place, did
not these extraordinary judges pretend that at least all vessels
taken in ports and harbors should be condemned as droids
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to the crown, and not as prize to the captors.
Was this not another most initious attempt to deprive the
Imperial Squadron not only of its reward for the past,
but of any adequate motive for the risk of future enterprise,
and in effect, were not these successive pretenses calculated to
operate as invitations to invasions? Did they not tend to
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encourage the enemy to resume his occupation of the port
of Bahia, and generally to renew his aggressions against the
independence of the Empire on her shores and in her ports,
without the probability of resistance by the squadrons of his
Imperial majesty. And have not these same judges actually condemned
almost every prize's adroit to the Crown, thereby doing as
much in the Malay to defraud the squadron and to
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damp its zeal and destroy its energies. Nay, have not
the Auditors of Marine actually issued decrees pronouncing the captures
made at Maranho to have been illegal, alleging they were
seized under the Brazilian flag, although in truth the flag
of the enemy was flying at the time, both in
forts and ships, declaring me a violator of the law
of Nations and the law of the land, accusing me
of having been guilty of an insult to the Emperor
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and the ms Empire, and decreeing costs and damages against
me under these infamous pretenses? Can your Excellency perceive either
justice or decency in these decrees? Do they in any
degree breathe the spirit of gratitude for the union of
so important a province to the Empire? Or are they
at all in accordance with the distinguished approbation which His
Imperial Majesty himself has evinced of my services at Marano?
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Can it be unknown to your Excellency that the late Ministers,
acting doubtless under the sanction of His Imperial Majesty and
assuredly under the guidance of common sense, held out that
the value of ships of war taken from the enemy
was to be the reward of the enterprise of the captors.
And yet are we not now told that a law
exists decreeing all captured men of war to the Crown,
and so rendering the engagements of the late Ministers illegal
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and nugatory. Can anything be more contrary to justice, to
good faith, to common sense, or to sound policy? Was
it ever expected by any government employing foreign seamen in
a war in which they can have no personal rights
at stake, that those seamen will incur the risk of
attacking as superior or even an equal force, without a
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prospect of other reward than their ordinary pay. Is it
not notorious that even in England it is found essential,
or at least highly advantageous, to reward the officers and
seamen though fighting their own battles, not only with the
full value of captured vessels of war, but even with
additional premiums. And was it ever doubted that such liberal
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policy has mainly contributed to the surpassing magnitude of the
naval power of that little island and her consequent greatness
as a nation. Can your excellency deny that the delay,
the neglect, and the conduct generally of the prize judges
have been the cause of an immense diminution in the
value of the captures. Have not the consequences been a
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wanton and shameful waste of property by decay and plunder?
Can your excellency really believe in the existence of a
good and sufficient mond votive for consigning such property to destruction,
rather than at once awarding it to the captors in
recompense for their services to the Empire? Is it not
true that all control over the sales and cargoes of
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the vessels, most of which are without invoices, have been
taken from the captors and their agents, and placed in
the hands of individuals over whom they have no authority
or influence, and from whom they can have no security
of receiving a just account. And can it be doubted
that the gracious intentions of His Imperial Majesty, as announced
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by himself, of rewarding the captors with the value of
the prizes, are in the utmost danger of being defeated
by such proceedings. Since the twelfth day of February, when
His Imperial Majesty was graciously pleased to signify his pleasure
in his own handwriting that the prizes, though condemned to
the Crown, should be paid for to the captors, and
that valuators should be appointed to estimate the amount. Is
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it not true that nothing whatever up to the date
of my former Letterity or Ecxes Excellency, had been done
by his ministers and counsel in furtherance of such gracious intentions.
On the contrary, is it not notorious that since the
announcement of the imperial intention, numerous vessels and cargoes have
been arbitrarily disposed of by authority of the auditors of Marine,
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by being delivered to pretended owners and others without legal adjudication,
and even without the decency of acquainting the captors or
their agents that the property had been so transferred, and
has not the whole cost of litigation, watching and guarding
the vessels and cargoes been entirely at the expense of
the captors, notwithstanding the disposal of the property and the
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receipt of the proceeds by the agents of government and others.
So little hope of justice has been presented by the
proceedings of the Prize Tribunal that it has appeared quite
useless to label the stores found in the naval and
military arsenals of Maranjo, or the sixty six thousand dollars
in the chests of the Treasury and custom House with
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double that sum in bills, all of which was left
for the use of the province or permitted to be
disimbursed to satisfy the clamorous troops of Quiara and Piani.
Has any renuneration been offered to the Navy for these sacrifices,
of which ministers were duly informed by my official dispatches,
Or has any recompense been awarded for the Portuguese brig
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and schooner of war, both completely stored and equipped, which
were surrendered at Maranho, and which have ever since been
employed in the Naval service. To a proportion of all
of this I should have been entitled in Chile as
well as in the English service. And why I ask,
must I here be contented to be deprived of every
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hope of these fruits of my labors. In addition to
the prize vessels delivered to claimants without trial, have not
the Minister's appropriated others to the uses of the state
without valuation or recompense Ruder's note footnote. This conduct was
afterwards more flagrantly exemplified on the arrival of the new
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and noble prize Figate in Peratrice. The equipment whereof had
cost the captors twelve thousand mil rears, which some has
never been returned it, as note footnote ends. In short,
is it not true that, though more than a year
has elapsed since the sailing of the Imperial Squadron under
my command, and nearly half a year since its return
after succeeding in expelling the naval and military forces of
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the enemy from Bayer, and liberating the northern provinces and
uniting them to the Empire, I say, is it not
true that not one shilling of prize money has yet
been distributed to the Squadron, and that no prospect is
even now apparent of any distribution being speedily made? Is
it not true that the only substantial reward of the
officers and seamen of the Squadron for the important services
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that they have rendered, has hitherto been nothing more than
their mere pittance of ordinary pay, And even that, in
many instances vexatiously delayed and miserably curtailed. And with respect
to myself individually, is it not notorious that I necessarily
consume my whole pay in my current expenses, that my
official rank cannot be upheld with less, and that it
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is wholly inadequate to the due support of the dignity
of those high honors which His Imperial Majesty has been
graciously pleased to confer. Under all these circumstances, it is
in vain that I endeavor to make that discovery which
your Excellency assures me requires only a moment's reflection or rest.
Your Excellency says quaver x reflections on mommin seles trubere
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kilogovnma de s m I simplemint e niquement poor ferre
plazier a vill xi esset a three on inorme responsibility
desler engagement pray avex vi XCI. It is not one
moment only nor one hour that I have reflected on
these words. But without making the promised discovery or any
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profitable guess that your Excellency's mean, I would therefore entreat
your excellency to tell me what it is that the
government has engaged to do. All that I know is
that they have engaged to pay me a certain sum
per annum as commander in chief of the squadron. And
this engagement, I admit, they have so far fulfilled. But
the amount is little more than is received by the
commander in chief of an English squadron. And is it
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not found in that service, and in every regular or
established naval service, that for one officer qualified for any
considerable command, there are probably ten that are not qualified,
though all have necessarily been reared and paid at the
national expense. Whereas in this case, so far from your
having been at the expense of money in order to
procure a few that are effective you obtained at once,
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without any previous cost whatsoever, the services of myself and
the officers that accompanied me, all of whom were experienced
and efficient. Now, the united amount of salaries you are
engaged to pay to myself and the officers whom I
have brought with me does not exceed twenty five thousand
dollars a year. To speak of this as an enormals
responsibility as an empire requires more than a moment's reflection
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to be clearly understood. The government did, however, engage to
pay myself and my brother officers and seamen the value
of our captures from the enemy, pursuant to the practice
of all maritime belligerents. But this engagement has not hitherto
been fulfilled. If, however, your Excellency admits the responsibility of
the government to fulfill this engagement, also, I am still
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equally at a loss to conceive in what sense that
responsibility could be considered enormous, inasmuch as these prizes were
not the property of the state nor of individuals belonging
to this nation, but were the property of Portugal, with
whom this notion was and is engaged in lawful war.
The payment therefore of the value of these prizes to
the captors, supposing even the full value to be paid,
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does not in effect take one penny out of the
national treasury or out of the pocket of any Brazilian.
If it be false, and your Excellency appears to scout
the idea that any danger exists having to pay twice
for these prizes, if there really is no danger of
being compelled to purchase peace with the defeated enemy by
restoring them their forfeited property, it follows that the responsibility
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of the government in fulfilling its engagement with the captors
is so far from being enormous that it is literally nothing.
How the fulfillment of a lawful engagement by the simple
act of paying over to the squadron the value of
its prizes taken in time of war from the foreign
enemies of the state. Such payment, occasioning no expense and
no loss to the state itself, can be attended with
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an enormous responsibility. I am utterly unable to comprehend so
far as the engagements of the government with me or
with the captors in general, of the Portuguese prizes are
of a pecuniary nature. They appear to me to lay
no great weight of responsibility on the herculean shoulders of
this vast empire. And it is only in a pecuniary
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sense that I can conceive it to be possible for
your Excellency to have thought of complaining of the responsibility
attending the fulfillment of the engagements of the government with me.
It is no less difficult to comprehend how this supposed
enormous responsibility has been incurred simplement a unique mont poor
ferre placer to me. And it is still more difficult
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to comprehend how it happens that your Excellency, after all
you have heard and seen apreis siqui jer entendu et vous,
should be at a loss to know in what manner
I am to be contented jennet sire pa decuil maniere
on peaceable contentaire. If indeed your Excellency imagines I ought
to be contented with honorary distinctions alone, however highly I
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may prize them as the free gift of his Imperial majesty.
If your Excellency is of the opinion that I ought
with reverse a man as satisfaction to put up with
those honors in lieu of those stipulated substantial rewards, which
even those honors render more necessary. If your Excellency thinks
that I ought, like the dog in the fable, to
resign the substance for a grasp at the shadow, if
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this is all that your Excellency knows on the subject
of giving me content, it is then very true that
your Excellency does not know in what manner it is
to be done. But if quote, after all your Excellency
has heard and seen end quote, you would be pleased
to render yourself conversant with those written engagements under which
I was induced to enter into the service. All that
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your Excellency and the rest of the ministers and counsel
of His Imperial Majesty would then have to do in
order to content me to the full would be to
desist from evading the performance of those engagements, and to
cause them at once to be fully and honorably fulfilled.
And I do not believe that my quote correspondence official
unfair and do public and fair afoi, For I am
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not conscious that I have ever called on the government
to incur when farthing of expense on my account beyond
the fulfillment of their written engagements, which were the same
as those I had with Chile, which were formed precisely
on the practice of England. There was indeed a verbal
and conditional engagement with the late Ministers that certain the
losses which I might incur in the consequence of leaving
the service of Chile should be made good. Ruder's not footnote.
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As the Brazilian government had obtained possession of a new
corvette named the Maria de Gloria, which cost the Government
of Chile ninety thousand dollars without reimbursing to that state
one single farthing, and by the said act had deprived
Lord Cochrane of the benefit he would have derived as
Commander in Chief from the services of that ship in
the Pacific. The non fulfillment of this engagement seems more unjust.
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Rider's note footnote ends. Letter continues, and the question as
to the obligation of fulfilling that engagement I submitted in
my letter of the sixth March to the Minister of Marine.
To the consideration of their successes, it would be fortunate
for me if this should prove to be one of
those ill understood verbal transactions which your Excellency assures me
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the present ministers and counsel always decide in my favor.
I shall not, in that case be backward to receive
the benefit of the decision with thanks and satisfaction. But
I am willing to resign it rather than it should
add an overwhelming weight to that enormous responsibility which your
Excellency compliance has already been incurred. With a view to
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my contentment. I repeat that I have never asked for
more than I possessed in Chile, or than any officer
of the same rank is entitled to in England. Though
British officers have heretofore received in the service of Portugal
double the amount of their English pay, and though the
burning climate of Brazil is injurious to health, while those
of Chile and Portugal are salubrious. Your Excellency therefore is
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perfectly welcome to publish the whole of my official correspondence,
because instead of proving, as your Excellency asserts, the great
difficulty of contending me, it would go far to prove
the much greater difficulty of inducing those with whom I
have to do to take any one step for that purpose.
I confess, however, that in order to content me effectually,
it is necessary to fulfill not only all written engagements
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with myself individually, but generally with all the officers and
seamen with whom while I hold the command I consider
myself identified. And the more particularly because in my own
firm reliance on the good faith of the government, I
did in some sort become responsible for that good faith
to my brother officers and seamen. But with whom I
put it to, Your Excellency, has good faith been kept?
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Is it not notorious that previous to the departure of
the expedition to Bahia, declarations were made to the semen
in writing by the Late Minister of Marine through my media,
and in printed proclamations that their due should be paid
with all possible regularity, and although are is discharged immediately
on their return, And is not your Excellency aware that
specific contracts were entered into by the accredited agent of
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His Imperial Majesty in England with a number of officers
and seamen, who, in consequence were induced to quit their
native country and enter into them employ of His Imperial Majesty.
Can it be denied that these declarations and contracts written
and printed were known to and are actually in the
possession of the Ministers, or in the hands of the
officers of the Pay Department. And yet is it not
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true that they were neglected to be fulfilled for a
period of upwards of three months after the return of
the Pedro Primiero, And was not the tidly fulfillment which
at length took place procured by my incessant representations and remonstrances.
Permit me also to ask whether the good effects of
prompt payment were not illustrated on the arrival of the
frigates Nitherroy and Caroline, which happened just at the period
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I had succeeded in procuring payment to be made. Was
it not in consequence of immediate payment that the greater
part of the English crew of the Nitherroy remained quietly
on board and are now actually engaged on an important
service to His Imperial Majesty. And on the other hand,
is it not equally true that the English seamen of
the Pedro Primiero were so disenheartened and disgusted with the
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long delay which in their case had occurred, and the
manifest bad faith which had been evinced, that by far
the greater part of them actually abandoned the ship. And generally,
is it not true that the violations of promise, the
obstruction of justice, and the arbitrary acts of severity have
produced dissatisfaction and irritation in the minds of the officers
and seamen, and done infinite prejudice to the service of
(30:22):
His Imperial Majesty and to the interests and prospects of
the Empire. Can it be denied that the treatment to
which the officers are exposed is in the highest degree
cruel and unjust? Have they not, in many instances been
confined in a fortress or prisonship without being told who
is their accuser or what is the accusation? And are
they not kept for many months at a time in
(30:44):
that cruel state of suspense and restraint, without the means
or opportunity of justification not offense. Have not some of them,
all incarcerated in the fortress of the island of Cobras,
been deprived of their pay for a great length of time,
and even denied the provisions necessary for this absce exsistence.
And if, after all they are brought to trial, are
not their judges composed of the natives of a nation
(31:06):
with whom they are at war. Is it possible that
English or other foreign officers in the service can be
satisfied with such a system? Can your Excellency entertain a
doubt that open accusation, prompt trial, unsuspected justice, and speedy
punishment of merited are essential to the good government of
a naval service. Nay? Is it possible that your Excellency
(31:27):
should not know the system of government in the Naval
Service of Portugal is the most wretched in the world,
and consequently the last that ought to have been adopted
for the Naval Service of Brazil. And here I would
respectfully ask your Excellency whether you know of any one
thing recommended by me for the benefit of the Naval
service being complied with. Have the laws been revised to
(31:47):
adapt them to the better government of the service? Has
a Corps of Marine Artillery been formed and taught their duty?
Have young gentlemen intended for officers been sent on board
to learn their profession? Have young men been enlisted and
sent on board to be bred up as seamen? Or
has any encouragement been given to the employment of Brazilians
(32:07):
in the commerce of the coast Reader's note footnote it
was the policy of Portugal to navigate the coasting trade
of Brazil by slaves, and that of Spain to allow
none but Indians to exercise the trade of fishermen on
the shores of their South American colonies. Reader's note footnote
endsletter continues with regard to those difficulties, delays, and other
impediments of which I have complained as existing in the
(32:30):
Arsenal and other officers, and which your Excellency supposes me
to have represented as being caused or at least tolerated
by the Minister, and which you are pleased to characterize
as to to fante imaginaires at nanti autra sausque the
ambition saudid de quelqui intragan. I shall not now enter
into them again at any length. As much that I
(32:51):
have already written tends to refute your Excellency's notions on
the subject. That such abuses really do exist, I have
proved beyond the power of contradiction, and that they are
at least tolerated by those whomever they may be. You
possess without exercising the means of preventing does not require
the ingenuity of an intrigant to discover, as the fact
(33:11):
is self evident. I cannot therefore admit that either my
complaints or suspicions are to de fete imaginaires, or that
they are des petitesses, as your Excellency is pleased contemptuously
to term them. But whatever they are, they originate in
my own observation, without any assistance from the spectacles of
an intragrant with which I am so gratuitously accommodated by
(33:33):
your Excellency. In still further proof, however, of the real
existence of the evils in question, I may just observe that,
since the return of the Pedro Primiero, that ship has
been kept in constant disorder by the delay in commencing
and the idle and negligent mode of executing even the
trifling alterations in the channels which were necessary to enable
the rigging to be set up, and which after the
(33:55):
lapse of upward of five months, is now scarcely finished.
Though it might have been accomplish in forty eight hours,
even the time of calking was spun out to a
period nearly as long as was occupied last year. In
the accomplishment of that thorough repair which the ship then
underwent and the painting is far from being completed after
sixteen or eighteen days labor, though a British ship of
war is usually painted in a day. Even my own
(34:19):
cabin is in such a state that when I am
on board, I have no place to sit down in.
All these things may appear to your Excellency as des petitesses,
or even to its a fair imaginaires. But to me
they appear matters of a serious nature, injurious and disgraceful
to the service. I may not perhaps succeed in convincing
(34:39):
your Excellency, but I have the satisfaction of being inwardly
conscious that, independent of my natural desire to obtain justice
for myself and for all the officers and men of
the Squadron, nor a small part of my anxiety for
the fulfillment of the engagements of the Government, proceeds from
a desire to see the Navy of His Imperial Majesty
rendered deficient, which it can never be us. The same
(35:01):
good faith is observed with the officers and men as
is kept between the Government and Navy of England. And
unless indeed, many other important considerations are attended to which
appear to have hitherto escaped the regard of the Imperial government, Why,
for instance, is their indifference in regard to the clothing
of the men? What but discontent, debasement, and enervation can
(35:22):
the effects of that ragged and almost naked condition in
which they have so long been suffered to remain, notwithstanding
the numerous applications that have been made for necessary clothing.
I would also inquire the reason that officers and men,
strangers to each other and destitute of attachment and mutual confidence,
are hastily shipped together in vessels of war going on
active service, when better arrangements might easily be made. What
(35:45):
can be expected from the vessels of war just gone out,
in case they should meet with any serious opposition, but
disgrace to those by whom they were so imperfectly and
improperly equipped. If this communication were not already too long,
or if after the letter I have received from your Excellency,
it were possible for me to continue my representations in
the hope of redress, I could add to the list
(36:06):
of those causes of complaint which I had already pointed out,
many particulars which none but those who are blindly attached
to that wretched system which has been so injurious to
the Marine and Kingdom of Portugal could consider either trifling
or imaginary. But as my present object has been chiefly
to repel those imputations in which your Excellency has so
freely indulged, and believing that I have fully succeeded in
(36:29):
that object, and have shown clearly that your Excellency has
unjustly and untruly accused me of encouraging tale bearers, making
unfounded complaints, and of being of a nature so avaricious
as never to be satisfied, which latter, by the bye,
is an extraordinary accusation to prefer against me a man
whom your Excellency must know has not hitherto been benefited
(36:51):
after being more than a year in the service, to
the amount of one shilling for the important services he
has rendered, but who, on the contrary, as he can
show by his accounts, has necessarily expended more in his
official situation than he has received in the service, so
that the remercimens and the satisfaction which your Excellency accuses
(37:11):
him of being deficient in, can scarcely yet be due,
unless it is proper to be satisfied and grateful too
for less than nothing. Having I say fully repelled and
refuted these unjust accusations, I shall avoid troubling your Excellency
with any further detail, but a repeat that your Excellency
has my free consent to cause a whole of my
(37:31):
official correspondence to be published, For in all that I
have advanced with respect to the violations of contracts, and
on the subject of the unsatisfied claims of the Squadron,
and relative to the ill usage of officers under arrest,
and to the misconduct of the judges of prizes, and
those who have the management of the civil Department of
the Marine who does not footnote also Portuguese footnote ends.
(37:54):
And in all matters whatever in question between the Government
of Brazil and myself, I am confident that I am
safely rely on the decision of the public. And if
at the same time your Excellency can give me a
satisfactory explanation of the motives of that line of conduct
on the part of the Ministers and Council, which without
such explanation would have the appearance of originating in bad faith,
(38:16):
the publication would be doubly beneficial by placing the conduct
and character of all parties in a proper point of view.
I have the honor to be most excellent, Sir, your
respectful and most obedient servant Cochrane and Maranum, His Excellency
Joeyo Seriano Maciel de Costa, Secretary of State for the
Home Department, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. End of
(38:38):
Appendix three. End of the Life of Thomas, Lord Cochrane,
tenth Earl of Dundonald, Volume one by Henry Richard Foxbourne,
Appendix three of the Life of Thomas Lord Cochrane, tenth
Earl of Dundonald, Volume one by Henry Richard Foxbourne. This
LibriVox recording is in the public domain recording by Timothy
Ferguson Appendix three. The following letter, too long to be
quoted in the body of the work, but too important
to be omitted, was addressed by Lord Cochrane to the
(00:20):
Brazilian Secretary of State. It gives memorable evidence of the
treatment which he was subjected by the Portuguese faction in Brazil.
Rio di Jeneio made the third eighteen twenty four, Most excellent, Sir,
I have the honor of your Excellency's reply to my
letter of the thirtieth of March, and as I am
thereby taught that the subjects on which I wrote are
(00:42):
not now considered so intimately connected with your Excellency's department
as they were by your immediate predecessor, nor even so
far relevant as to justify a direct communication to your Excellency,
I should feel up my duty to avoid troubling you
father on those subjects, were it not that you, at
the same time have freely expressed such opinions with respect
(01:02):
to my conduct and motives, as justice to myself requires
me to controvert and refute, with regard to your Excellency's
assurance that it has ever been the intention of his
Imperial Majesty and Counsel to act favorably towards me, I can,
in return assure your Excellency that I have never doubted
the justine benign intention of his Imperial Majesty himself. Neither
(01:24):
have I doubted that a part of his Privy Council
has thought well of my services. And if I have
imagined that a majority has been prejudiced against me, I
have formed that conclusion merely from the effects which I
have seen and experienced, and not from any undue prepossession
against particular individuals, whether Brizilian or Portuguese. But when your
(01:45):
Excellency adds that such transactions between the Late Minister and myself, which,
owing to their having been conducted verbally, have been ill understood,
have been invariably decided in a manner favorably to me,
I confess myself at a loss to understand your Excellency's meaning,
not having any recollection of such favorable decisions, and therefore
not feeling myself competent either to admit or deny, unless
(02:07):
in the first place, Your Excellency shall be pleased to
dissent to particulars. I do indeed recollect that the late Ministers,
professing to have the authority of His Imperial Majesty, and
which from the personal countenance I have experienced from that
August personage, I am sure they did not clandestinely assume
proffered to me the command of the Imperial Squadron, with
(02:27):
every privilege, emolument, and advantage which I possessed in the
command of the Navy of Chile. And this your Excellency
is desired to observe, was not a verbal transaction, but
a written one, and therefore not liable to any of
those misunderstandings which verbal transactions, as your Excellency observes, are
naturally subject now and chilling. My commission was that of
(02:48):
Commander in chief of the Squadron, without limitation as to
time or any other restriction. My command, of course, was
only to cease by my own voluntary resignation, or by
sentence of Court Marshal, or by death or other uncontrollable event.
And accordingly, the appointment which I accepted in the service
of His Imperial Majesty, and in virtue of which I
sailed in command of the exposition to be hire, was
(03:11):
the commander in chief of the whole squadron, without limitation
as to time or otherwise. And this, too, your Excellency
will be pleased to observe, was not a verbal transaction,
but a solemn engagement in writing, bearing date the twenty
sixth of March eighteen twenty three. And now in my
possession I had also the assurance in writing of the
Minister of Marine that the formalities of engrossment and registration
(03:32):
of such appointment were only deferred from want of time,
and should be executed immediately after my return. And now
I most respectfully put it home to your Excellency whether
these engagements have or have not been fully confirmed and
complied with under the present administration. I ask your Excellency
whether the patent which I received, bearing the date the
twenty fifth November eighteen twenty three, did not contain a
(03:54):
clause of limitation by which I might at any time
be dismissed from the service under any pretense or without
any pretense whatever, without even the form of a hearing
in my own defense. Then again, I ask your Excellency
whether my officer's commander in chief of the Squadron was
not reduced for a period of three months, as appears
by every official communication of the Minister of Marine to
(04:16):
me during that period, to the command only of the
vessels of war anchored in this port rider's note footnote.
This was resorted to in order to prevent Lord Cochrane
from stationing the cruisers to annoy the enemy, to deprive
him of any interest in future captures, and prevent his
opposition to the unlawful restoration of the enemy's property. Footnote ends.
(04:36):
Letter continues and further on this subject, I ask your
Excellency whether, after my repeated remonstrances against this adjurious limitation
of my stipulated authority, it was not pretended by the
decree published in the Gazette of the twenty eighth February,
that I was then, for the first time, as a
mark of special favor, elevated to the rank of Commander
in Chief of the Squadron, and that too during the
(04:57):
period only of the existing war, although nothing less than
the chief command had been offered to me at the
first without any restrictionist a time and although it was
only in that capacity I had consented to enter into
the service and under a written appointment. As such, I
had then been in the service nearly twelve months. And
then I ask your Excellency whether the limitation introduced into
(05:17):
the patent of the twenty fifth of November last in
violation of the original agreement, and confirmed and defined by
the decree published on the twenty eighth of February following,
to which may be out of the communication which I
received from your Excellency excluding me from taking the oath
and becoming a party to the Constitution, the one hundred
and forty ninth article of which provides for the protection
of officers until lawfully deprived by sentence of court martial.
(05:40):
I say that I respectfully ask your Excellency whether these
proceedings were not well adapted for the purpose of casting
me off with the utmost facility at the earliest moment
that convenience might dictate, either with or without the admission
of those claims for the future to which past services
are usually considered entitled, as might best suit the inclination
of those with whom my dismissal might originate. And is
(06:03):
it not most probable that their inclination would run counter
to those claims, especially when it is considered that my
letter of the sixth the March to the Minister of Marine,
in which I made the inquiry whether my right to
half pay would be recognized on the termination of the war,
has never been answered, although my application for a reply
was repeated. Rider's note footnote an answer was at last
(06:25):
given a few days before Lord Cochrane's assistance was called
for to put down the revolution at Pernambuco, and half
of the originally granted half pay was decreed when he
should return after the termination of hostilities to his native country.
Ridder's note footnote ends. Letter continues, if then the explicit
engagements in writing between the late Minister of His Imperial
(06:45):
Majesty and myself have, as I have shown, been set
aside by the present Ministry and Council, and other arrangements
far less favorable to me and destructive of the lawful
security of my present and future rights, have without my consent,
been substituted in their stead. Where I entreat your Excellency
Am I, to look for those favorable constructions of quote
ill understood verbal transactions end quote which your Excellency requires
(07:09):
me to accept as a proof that the intentions of
the present Ministry and Council in respect to me have
ever been of the most favorable and obliging nature. I
would beg permission too to inquire how it happened that
the portarias reader's note footnote, Official Communications end footnote from
the Minister of Marine, charging me unjustly from time to
(07:29):
time with neglecting to obey the command of his Imperial
Majesty were constantly made public, while my answers in refutation
were always suppressed. And why, when I remonstrated against this
injustice was I answered that the same course should be
persisted in and that I had no alternative but to
acquiesce or to descend to a newspaper controversy by publishing
my exculpations myself. Is it possible not to perceive that
(07:52):
the expart publication of these accusatory portarias was intended to
luwer me in the public estimation and to prepare the
way to the exercise of that power of summary dismissal,
which were so unfairly acquired by the means above described.
On the subject of the prizes, your Excellency is pleased
to state their difficulties. Servans de jog mons de PRIs
(08:13):
on nudes motifs si connus et positives quel est ESEs
de l'aure de la vois at trebueux a la maveise
volentte de conseil de sm I. To this, I replied
that I know of no just cause for the delay
which has arisen in the decision of the prizes, and
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consequently I have the right to impute blame for that
delay to those who have the power to cause it
or remove it. If the majority of voices in Council
had been for a prompt condemnation to the captors of
the prizes taken from the Portuguese nation, is it possible
that individuals of that nation would have been suffered to
continue to be the judges of those prizes after an
experience of many months has demonstrated either their determination to
(08:55):
know nothing or nothing favorable to their captors. The repugnance
of puts Uguese judges to condemn property captured from their
fellow countrymen as a reward to those who have engaged
in hostilities against Portugal is natural enough and is the
only well known and positive cause of the delay with
which I am acquainted. But it is not such a
cause for delay as ought to have been permitted to
(09:17):
operate by the Ministers and Council of His Imperial Majesty,
who are bound in honor and duty to act with
fidelity toward those who have been engaged as auxiliaries in
the attainment and maintenance of the independence of the Empire.
I did, however, inform your Excellency that I had heard
it stated that another difficulty had arisen in the apprehension
that this government might be under the necessity of eventually
(09:38):
restoring the prizes to the original Portuguese owners as a
condition of peace. But this, your Excellency, assures me, proves
nothing but that I am a listener to raporteurs whom
I ought to drive from my presence. Unfortunately, however, for
this bold explanation of your Excellency, the individual whom I
heard make the observation was no other than his excellence
(10:00):
see the present Minister of Marine, Francisco Villala Barboza. If
your Excellency considers that gentleman in the light of a
reporteur or tale bearer, it is not for me to object,
but the imputation of being a listener to or encourager
of tale bearers so rashly advanced by your Excellency against me,
is without foundation and truth. It may be necessary for
(10:20):
Ministers of State to have their eavesdroppers and informers, but
mine is a straightforward course which needs no such precautions.
And if there are any who volunteer information or advice,
I can appreciate the value of it and the motives
of those who offer it. Those who know me much
better than your Excellency does will admit that I am
in the habit of thinking for myself, and not apt
to act on the suggestions of others, especially if officiously tendered.
(10:42):
As to the successive appointment and removal of incompetent auditors
of Marine, for which your Excellency gives credit to the Council,
I can only say that the benefit of such repeated
changes is by no means apparent. And to revert again
to the difficulty of decision for which your Excellency intimates
there is a sufficient cause, I beg leave to ask
your Excellency what just reason can exist for not condemning
(11:04):
these prizes to the captors. Can it be denied that
the orders under which I sailed for the blockade of
Bahia authorized me to act hostilely against the ships and
property of the Crown and subjects of Portugal. Can it
be denied that war was regularly declared between the two nations?
Was it not even promulgated under the sanction of His
Imperial Majesty in a document giving to privatey a certain
(11:25):
privileges which it is admitted, were possessed by the ships
of war in the making and sale of captures. And
yet did not the prize tribunal, consisting chiefly as I
observed of Portuguese on the return of the Squadron eight
months afterwards, pretend to be ignorant whether His Imperial Majesty
was at war or at peace with the Kingdom of Portugal?
And did they not, under that pretense avoid proceeding to adjudication?
(11:49):
Was not this pretense a false one? Or is it
one of those well founded causes of difficulty to which
your Excellency alludes? Can it be denied that the Squadron
sailed and acted in the full expectation, grounded on the
assurance and engagements of the Government, that all captures made
under the flag of the enemy, whether ships of war
or merchant vessels, were to be prize to the captors.
(12:11):
And yet, when the prize judges were at length under
the necessity of commencing proceedings, did they not endeavor to
set aside the claims of the captors by their monstrous
pretense that they had no interest in their captures when
made within the distance of two leagues from the shore.
Will your excellency contend that this was a good and
sufficient reason? Was it founded in common sense or on
(12:31):
any rational precedent, or indeed any precedent whatsoever? Was it
either honest to the squadron or faithful to the country?
Was it calculated to prevent the Squadron from ever again
assailing and invading enemy, or again expelling him from the
shores of the Empire. Then, in the next place, did
not these extraordinary judges pretend that at least all vessels
taken in ports and harbors should be condemned as droids
(12:54):
to the crown, and not as prize to the captors.
Was this not another most initious attempt to deprive the
Imperial Squadron not only of its reward for the past,
but of any adequate motive for the risk of future enterprise,
and in effect, were not these successive pretenses calculated to
operate as invitations to invasions? Did they not tend to
(13:16):
encourage the enemy to resume his occupation of the port
of Bahia, and generally to renew his aggressions against the
independence of the Empire on her shores and in her ports,
without the probability of resistance by the squadrons of his
Imperial majesty. And have not these same judges actually condemned
almost every prize's adroit to the Crown, thereby doing as
much in the Malay to defraud the squadron and to
(13:38):
damp its zeal and destroy its energies. Nay, have not
the Auditors of Marine actually issued decrees pronouncing the captures
made at Maranho to have been illegal, alleging they were
seized under the Brazilian flag, although in truth the flag
of the enemy was flying at the time, both in
forts and ships, declaring me a violator of the law
of Nations and the law of the land, accusing me
of having been guilty of an insult to the Emperor
(13:59):
and the ms Empire, and decreeing costs and damages against
me under these infamous pretenses? Can your Excellency perceive either
justice or decency in these decrees? Do they in any
degree breathe the spirit of gratitude for the union of
so important a province to the Empire? Or are they
at all in accordance with the distinguished approbation which His
Imperial Majesty himself has evinced of my services at Marano?
(14:24):
Can it be unknown to your Excellency that the late Ministers,
acting doubtless under the sanction of His Imperial Majesty and
assuredly under the guidance of common sense, held out that
the value of ships of war taken from the enemy
was to be the reward of the enterprise of the captors.
And yet are we not now told that a law
exists decreeing all captured men of war to the Crown,
and so rendering the engagements of the late Ministers illegal
(14:46):
and nugatory. Can anything be more contrary to justice, to
good faith, to common sense, or to sound policy? Was
it ever expected by any government employing foreign seamen in
a war in which they can have no personal rights
at stake, that those seamen will incur the risk of
attacking as superior or even an equal force, without a
(15:06):
prospect of other reward than their ordinary pay. Is it
not notorious that even in England it is found essential,
or at least highly advantageous, to reward the officers and
seamen though fighting their own battles, not only with the
full value of captured vessels of war, but even with
additional premiums. And was it ever doubted that such liberal
(15:28):
policy has mainly contributed to the surpassing magnitude of the
naval power of that little island and her consequent greatness
as a nation. Can your excellency deny that the delay,
the neglect, and the conduct generally of the prize judges
have been the cause of an immense diminution in the
value of the captures. Have not the consequences been a
(15:50):
wanton and shameful waste of property by decay and plunder?
Can your excellency really believe in the existence of a
good and sufficient mond votive for consigning such property to destruction,
rather than at once awarding it to the captors in
recompense for their services to the Empire? Is it not
true that all control over the sales and cargoes of
(16:12):
the vessels, most of which are without invoices, have been
taken from the captors and their agents, and placed in
the hands of individuals over whom they have no authority
or influence, and from whom they can have no security
of receiving a just account. And can it be doubted
that the gracious intentions of His Imperial Majesty, as announced
(16:32):
by himself, of rewarding the captors with the value of
the prizes, are in the utmost danger of being defeated
by such proceedings. Since the twelfth day of February, when
His Imperial Majesty was graciously pleased to signify his pleasure
in his own handwriting that the prizes, though condemned to
the Crown, should be paid for to the captors, and
that valuators should be appointed to estimate the amount. Is
(16:55):
it not true that nothing whatever up to the date
of my former Letterity or Ecxes Excellency, had been done
by his ministers and counsel in furtherance of such gracious intentions.
On the contrary, is it not notorious that since the
announcement of the imperial intention, numerous vessels and cargoes have
been arbitrarily disposed of by authority of the auditors of Marine,
(17:17):
by being delivered to pretended owners and others without legal adjudication,
and even without the decency of acquainting the captors or
their agents that the property had been so transferred, and
has not the whole cost of litigation, watching and guarding
the vessels and cargoes been entirely at the expense of
the captors, notwithstanding the disposal of the property and the
(17:40):
receipt of the proceeds by the agents of government and others.
So little hope of justice has been presented by the
proceedings of the Prize Tribunal that it has appeared quite
useless to label the stores found in the naval and
military arsenals of Maranjo, or the sixty six thousand dollars
in the chests of the Treasury and custom House with
(18:01):
double that sum in bills, all of which was left
for the use of the province or permitted to be
disimbursed to satisfy the clamorous troops of Quiara and Piani.
Has any renuneration been offered to the Navy for these sacrifices,
of which ministers were duly informed by my official dispatches,
Or has any recompense been awarded for the Portuguese brig
(18:23):
and schooner of war, both completely stored and equipped, which
were surrendered at Maranho, and which have ever since been
employed in the Naval service. To a proportion of all
of this I should have been entitled in Chile as
well as in the English service. And why I ask,
must I here be contented to be deprived of every
(18:43):
hope of these fruits of my labors. In addition to
the prize vessels delivered to claimants without trial, have not
the Minister's appropriated others to the uses of the state
without valuation or recompense Ruder's note footnote. This conduct was
afterwards more flagrantly exemplified on the arrival of the new
(19:04):
and noble prize Figate in Peratrice. The equipment whereof had
cost the captors twelve thousand mil rears, which some has
never been returned it, as note footnote ends. In short,
is it not true that, though more than a year
has elapsed since the sailing of the Imperial Squadron under
my command, and nearly half a year since its return
after succeeding in expelling the naval and military forces of
(19:27):
the enemy from Bayer, and liberating the northern provinces and
uniting them to the Empire, I say, is it not
true that not one shilling of prize money has yet
been distributed to the Squadron, and that no prospect is
even now apparent of any distribution being speedily made? Is
it not true that the only substantial reward of the
officers and seamen of the Squadron for the important services
(19:50):
that they have rendered, has hitherto been nothing more than
their mere pittance of ordinary pay, And even that, in
many instances vexatiously delayed and miserably curtailed. And with respect
to myself individually, is it not notorious that I necessarily
consume my whole pay in my current expenses, that my
official rank cannot be upheld with less, and that it
(20:12):
is wholly inadequate to the due support of the dignity
of those high honors which His Imperial Majesty has been
graciously pleased to confer. Under all these circumstances, it is
in vain that I endeavor to make that discovery which
your Excellency assures me requires only a moment's reflection or rest.
Your Excellency says quaver x reflections on mommin seles trubere
(20:37):
kilogovnma de s m I simplemint e niquement poor ferre
plazier a vill xi esset a three on inorme responsibility
desler engagement pray avex vi XCI. It is not one
moment only nor one hour that I have reflected on
these words. But without making the promised discovery or any
(20:58):
profitable guess that your Excellency's mean, I would therefore entreat
your excellency to tell me what it is that the
government has engaged to do. All that I know is
that they have engaged to pay me a certain sum
per annum as commander in chief of the squadron. And
this engagement, I admit, they have so far fulfilled. But
the amount is little more than is received by the
commander in chief of an English squadron. And is it
(21:20):
not found in that service, and in every regular or
established naval service, that for one officer qualified for any
considerable command, there are probably ten that are not qualified,
though all have necessarily been reared and paid at the
national expense. Whereas in this case, so far from your
having been at the expense of money in order to
procure a few that are effective you obtained at once,
(21:42):
without any previous cost whatsoever, the services of myself and
the officers that accompanied me, all of whom were experienced
and efficient. Now, the united amount of salaries you are
engaged to pay to myself and the officers whom I
have brought with me does not exceed twenty five thousand
dollars a year. To speak of this as an enormals
responsibility as an empire requires more than a moment's reflection
(22:05):
to be clearly understood. The government did, however, engage to
pay myself and my brother officers and seamen the value
of our captures from the enemy, pursuant to the practice
of all maritime belligerents. But this engagement has not hitherto
been fulfilled. If, however, your Excellency admits the responsibility of
the government to fulfill this engagement, also, I am still
(22:25):
equally at a loss to conceive in what sense that
responsibility could be considered enormous, inasmuch as these prizes were
not the property of the state nor of individuals belonging
to this nation, but were the property of Portugal, with
whom this notion was and is engaged in lawful war.
The payment therefore of the value of these prizes to
the captors, supposing even the full value to be paid,
(22:48):
does not in effect take one penny out of the
national treasury or out of the pocket of any Brazilian.
If it be false, and your Excellency appears to scout
the idea that any danger exists having to pay twice
for these prizes, if there really is no danger of
being compelled to purchase peace with the defeated enemy by
restoring them their forfeited property, it follows that the responsibility
(23:11):
of the government in fulfilling its engagement with the captors
is so far from being enormous that it is literally nothing.
How the fulfillment of a lawful engagement by the simple
act of paying over to the squadron the value of
its prizes taken in time of war from the foreign
enemies of the state. Such payment, occasioning no expense and
no loss to the state itself, can be attended with
(23:33):
an enormous responsibility. I am utterly unable to comprehend so
far as the engagements of the government with me or
with the captors in general, of the Portuguese prizes are
of a pecuniary nature. They appear to me to lay
no great weight of responsibility on the herculean shoulders of
this vast empire. And it is only in a pecuniary
(23:55):
sense that I can conceive it to be possible for
your Excellency to have thought of complaining of the responsibility
attending the fulfillment of the engagements of the government with me.
It is no less difficult to comprehend how this supposed
enormous responsibility has been incurred simplement a unique mont poor
ferre placer to me. And it is still more difficult
(24:18):
to comprehend how it happens that your Excellency, after all
you have heard and seen apreis siqui jer entendu et vous,
should be at a loss to know in what manner
I am to be contented jennet sire pa decuil maniere
on peaceable contentaire. If indeed your Excellency imagines I ought
to be contented with honorary distinctions alone, however highly I
(24:40):
may prize them as the free gift of his Imperial majesty.
If your Excellency is of the opinion that I ought
with reverse a man as satisfaction to put up with
those honors in lieu of those stipulated substantial rewards, which
even those honors render more necessary. If your Excellency thinks
that I ought, like the dog in the fable, to
resign the substance for a grasp at the shadow, if
(25:04):
this is all that your Excellency knows on the subject
of giving me content, it is then very true that
your Excellency does not know in what manner it is
to be done. But if quote, after all your Excellency
has heard and seen end quote, you would be pleased
to render yourself conversant with those written engagements under which
I was induced to enter into the service. All that
(25:26):
your Excellency and the rest of the ministers and counsel
of His Imperial Majesty would then have to do in
order to content me to the full would be to
desist from evading the performance of those engagements, and to
cause them at once to be fully and honorably fulfilled.
And I do not believe that my quote correspondence official
unfair and do public and fair afoi, For I am
(25:51):
not conscious that I have ever called on the government
to incur when farthing of expense on my account beyond
the fulfillment of their written engagements, which were the same
as those I had with Chile, which were formed precisely
on the practice of England. There was indeed a verbal
and conditional engagement with the late Ministers that certain the
losses which I might incur in the consequence of leaving
the service of Chile should be made good. Ruder's not footnote.
(26:15):
As the Brazilian government had obtained possession of a new
corvette named the Maria de Gloria, which cost the Government
of Chile ninety thousand dollars without reimbursing to that state
one single farthing, and by the said act had deprived
Lord Cochrane of the benefit he would have derived as
Commander in Chief from the services of that ship in
the Pacific. The non fulfillment of this engagement seems more unjust.
(26:40):
Rider's note footnote ends. Letter continues, and the question as
to the obligation of fulfilling that engagement I submitted in
my letter of the sixth March to the Minister of Marine.
To the consideration of their successes, it would be fortunate
for me if this should prove to be one of
those ill understood verbal transactions which your Excellency assures me
(27:00):
the present ministers and counsel always decide in my favor.
I shall not, in that case be backward to receive
the benefit of the decision with thanks and satisfaction. But
I am willing to resign it rather than it should
add an overwhelming weight to that enormous responsibility which your
Excellency compliance has already been incurred. With a view to
(27:21):
my contentment. I repeat that I have never asked for
more than I possessed in Chile, or than any officer
of the same rank is entitled to in England. Though
British officers have heretofore received in the service of Portugal
double the amount of their English pay, and though the
burning climate of Brazil is injurious to health, while those
of Chile and Portugal are salubrious. Your Excellency therefore is
(27:43):
perfectly welcome to publish the whole of my official correspondence,
because instead of proving, as your Excellency asserts, the great
difficulty of contending me, it would go far to prove
the much greater difficulty of inducing those with whom I
have to do to take any one step for that purpose.
I confess, however, that in order to content me effectually,
it is necessary to fulfill not only all written engagements
(28:07):
with myself individually, but generally with all the officers and
seamen with whom while I hold the command I consider
myself identified. And the more particularly because in my own
firm reliance on the good faith of the government, I
did in some sort become responsible for that good faith
to my brother officers and seamen. But with whom I
put it to, Your Excellency, has good faith been kept?
(28:30):
Is it not notorious that previous to the departure of
the expedition to Bahia, declarations were made to the semen
in writing by the Late Minister of Marine through my media,
and in printed proclamations that their due should be paid
with all possible regularity, and although are is discharged immediately
on their return, And is not your Excellency aware that
specific contracts were entered into by the accredited agent of
(28:52):
His Imperial Majesty in England with a number of officers
and seamen, who, in consequence were induced to quit their
native country and enter into them employ of His Imperial Majesty.
Can it be denied that these declarations and contracts written
and printed were known to and are actually in the
possession of the Ministers, or in the hands of the
officers of the Pay Department. And yet is it not
(29:14):
true that they were neglected to be fulfilled for a
period of upwards of three months after the return of
the Pedro Primiero, And was not the tidly fulfillment which
at length took place procured by my incessant representations and remonstrances.
Permit me also to ask whether the good effects of
prompt payment were not illustrated on the arrival of the
frigates Nitherroy and Caroline, which happened just at the period
(29:38):
I had succeeded in procuring payment to be made. Was
it not in consequence of immediate payment that the greater
part of the English crew of the Nitherroy remained quietly
on board and are now actually engaged on an important
service to His Imperial Majesty. And on the other hand,
is it not equally true that the English seamen of
the Pedro Primiero were so disenheartened and disgusted with the
(29:59):
long delay which in their case had occurred, and the
manifest bad faith which had been evinced, that by far
the greater part of them actually abandoned the ship. And generally,
is it not true that the violations of promise, the
obstruction of justice, and the arbitrary acts of severity have
produced dissatisfaction and irritation in the minds of the officers
and seamen, and done infinite prejudice to the service of
(30:22):
His Imperial Majesty and to the interests and prospects of
the Empire. Can it be denied that the treatment to
which the officers are exposed is in the highest degree
cruel and unjust? Have they not, in many instances been
confined in a fortress or prisonship without being told who
is their accuser or what is the accusation? And are
they not kept for many months at a time in
(30:44):
that cruel state of suspense and restraint, without the means
or opportunity of justification not offense. Have not some of them,
all incarcerated in the fortress of the island of Cobras,
been deprived of their pay for a great length of time,
and even denied the provisions necessary for this absce exsistence.
And if, after all they are brought to trial, are
not their judges composed of the natives of a nation
(31:06):
with whom they are at war. Is it possible that
English or other foreign officers in the service can be
satisfied with such a system? Can your Excellency entertain a
doubt that open accusation, prompt trial, unsuspected justice, and speedy
punishment of merited are essential to the good government of
a naval service. Nay? Is it possible that your Excellency
(31:27):
should not know the system of government in the Naval
Service of Portugal is the most wretched in the world,
and consequently the last that ought to have been adopted
for the Naval Service of Brazil. And here I would
respectfully ask your Excellency whether you know of any one
thing recommended by me for the benefit of the Naval
service being complied with. Have the laws been revised to
(31:47):
adapt them to the better government of the service? Has
a Corps of Marine Artillery been formed and taught their duty?
Have young gentlemen intended for officers been sent on board
to learn their profession? Have young men been enlisted and
sent on board to be bred up as seamen? Or
has any encouragement been given to the employment of Brazilians
(32:07):
in the commerce of the coast Reader's note footnote it
was the policy of Portugal to navigate the coasting trade
of Brazil by slaves, and that of Spain to allow
none but Indians to exercise the trade of fishermen on
the shores of their South American colonies. Reader's note footnote
endsletter continues with regard to those difficulties, delays, and other
impediments of which I have complained as existing in the
(32:30):
Arsenal and other officers, and which your Excellency supposes me
to have represented as being caused or at least tolerated
by the Minister, and which you are pleased to characterize
as to to fante imaginaires at nanti autra sausque the
ambition saudid de quelqui intragan. I shall not now enter
into them again at any length. As much that I
(32:51):
have already written tends to refute your Excellency's notions on
the subject. That such abuses really do exist, I have
proved beyond the power of contradiction, and that they are
at least tolerated by those whomever they may be. You
possess without exercising the means of preventing does not require
the ingenuity of an intrigant to discover, as the fact
(33:11):
is self evident. I cannot therefore admit that either my
complaints or suspicions are to de fete imaginaires, or that
they are des petitesses, as your Excellency is pleased contemptuously
to term them. But whatever they are, they originate in
my own observation, without any assistance from the spectacles of
an intragrant with which I am so gratuitously accommodated by
(33:33):
your Excellency. In still further proof, however, of the real
existence of the evils in question, I may just observe that,
since the return of the Pedro Primiero, that ship has
been kept in constant disorder by the delay in commencing
and the idle and negligent mode of executing even the
trifling alterations in the channels which were necessary to enable
the rigging to be set up, and which after the
(33:55):
lapse of upward of five months, is now scarcely finished.
Though it might have been accomplish in forty eight hours,
even the time of calking was spun out to a
period nearly as long as was occupied last year. In
the accomplishment of that thorough repair which the ship then
underwent and the painting is far from being completed after
sixteen or eighteen days labor, though a British ship of
war is usually painted in a day. Even my own
(34:19):
cabin is in such a state that when I am
on board, I have no place to sit down in.
All these things may appear to your Excellency as des petitesses,
or even to its a fair imaginaires. But to me
they appear matters of a serious nature, injurious and disgraceful
to the service. I may not perhaps succeed in convincing
(34:39):
your Excellency, but I have the satisfaction of being inwardly
conscious that, independent of my natural desire to obtain justice
for myself and for all the officers and men of
the Squadron, nor a small part of my anxiety for
the fulfillment of the engagements of the Government, proceeds from
a desire to see the Navy of His Imperial Majesty
rendered deficient, which it can never be us. The same
(35:01):
good faith is observed with the officers and men as
is kept between the Government and Navy of England. And
unless indeed, many other important considerations are attended to which
appear to have hitherto escaped the regard of the Imperial government, Why,
for instance, is their indifference in regard to the clothing
of the men? What but discontent, debasement, and enervation can
(35:22):
the effects of that ragged and almost naked condition in
which they have so long been suffered to remain, notwithstanding
the numerous applications that have been made for necessary clothing.
I would also inquire the reason that officers and men,
strangers to each other and destitute of attachment and mutual confidence,
are hastily shipped together in vessels of war going on
active service, when better arrangements might easily be made. What
(35:45):
can be expected from the vessels of war just gone out,
in case they should meet with any serious opposition, but
disgrace to those by whom they were so imperfectly and
improperly equipped. If this communication were not already too long,
or if after the letter I have received from your Excellency,
it were possible for me to continue my representations in
the hope of redress, I could add to the list
(36:06):
of those causes of complaint which I had already pointed out,
many particulars which none but those who are blindly attached
to that wretched system which has been so injurious to
the Marine and Kingdom of Portugal could consider either trifling
or imaginary. But as my present object has been chiefly
to repel those imputations in which your Excellency has so
freely indulged, and believing that I have fully succeeded in
(36:29):
that object, and have shown clearly that your Excellency has
unjustly and untruly accused me of encouraging tale bearers, making
unfounded complaints, and of being of a nature so avaricious
as never to be satisfied, which latter, by the bye,
is an extraordinary accusation to prefer against me a man
whom your Excellency must know has not hitherto been benefited
(36:51):
after being more than a year in the service, to
the amount of one shilling for the important services he
has rendered, but who, on the contrary, as he can
show by his accounts, has necessarily expended more in his
official situation than he has received in the service, so
that the remercimens and the satisfaction which your Excellency accuses
(37:11):
him of being deficient in, can scarcely yet be due,
unless it is proper to be satisfied and grateful too
for less than nothing. Having I say fully repelled and
refuted these unjust accusations, I shall avoid troubling your Excellency
with any further detail, but a repeat that your Excellency
has my free consent to cause a whole of my
(37:31):
official correspondence to be published, For in all that I
have advanced with respect to the violations of contracts, and
on the subject of the unsatisfied claims of the Squadron,
and relative to the ill usage of officers under arrest,
and to the misconduct of the judges of prizes, and
those who have the management of the civil Department of
the Marine who does not footnote also Portuguese footnote ends.
(37:54):
And in all matters whatever in question between the Government
of Brazil and myself, I am confident that I am
safely rely on the decision of the public. And if
at the same time your Excellency can give me a
satisfactory explanation of the motives of that line of conduct
on the part of the Ministers and Council, which without
such explanation would have the appearance of originating in bad faith,
(38:16):
the publication would be doubly beneficial by placing the conduct
and character of all parties in a proper point of view.
I have the honor to be most excellent, Sir, your
respectful and most obedient servant Cochrane and Maranum, His Excellency
Joeyo Seriano Maciel de Costa, Secretary of State for the
Home Department, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. End of
(38:38):
Appendix three. End of the Life of Thomas, Lord Cochrane,
tenth Earl of Dundonald, Volume one by Henry Richard Foxbourne,
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