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 THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 LOS ANGELES 
 
 GIFT OF 
 
 COMMODORE BYRON MCCANDLESS
 
 Mm of 
 
 DUNDONALD
 
 THE KARL OF DUNDONALD 
 After the Picture by STROEHLING
 
 DUNDONALD 
 
 HON. J. W. FORTESCUE 
 
 Hontion 
 
 MACMILLAN AND CO. 
 
 AND NEW YORK 
 1895 
 
 A II rights resen'ed
 
 College 
 Library 
 
 ' 
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 PAGE 
 
 ANCESTRY BIRTH BOYHOOD ENTRANCE INTO THE 
 
 NAVY (1775-1793) . 1 
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 EARLY SERVICES CRUISE OF THE "SPEEDY" (1793- 
 
 1801) . ... .11 
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 QUARREL WITH THE ADMIRALTY CRUISE OF THE 
 "PALLAS" CORVETTES IN THE GARONNE (1801- 
 1806) . ,.32 
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 ELECTION TO PARLIAMENT CRUISE OF THE " IM- 
 
 PERIEUSE" ROSAS (1806-1809) . . 49 
 
 CHAPTER V 
 Aix ROADS (1809) . ... 67 
 
 1C433GO
 
 via DUNDONALD 
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 PAGE 
 
 THE GAMBIER COURT-MARTIAL PARLIAMENT THE 
 
 STOCK EXCHANGE TRIAL (1809-1817) . . 84 
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 SERVICE IN CHILI AND PERU VALDIVIA THE 
 
 "ESMERALDA" (1817-1820) . . . .106 
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 CLOSE OF SERVICE IN CHILI AND PERU (1820-1823) 127 
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 SERVICE IN BRAZIL BAHIA MARANHAM (1823) . 142 
 
 CHAPTER X 
 CLOSE OF SERVICE WITH BRAZIL (1823-1825) . 159 
 
 CHAPTER XI 
 SERVICE IN GREECE (1826-1827) . . . 173 
 
 CHAPTER XII 
 FURTHER SERVICE IN GREECE (1827-1828) . . 190
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER XIII 
 
 PAGE 
 
 RETURN TO ENGLAND RESTORATION TO RANK 
 
 DEATH (1829-1860) 199 
 
 CHAPTER XIV 
 
 CHARACTER . . ... 208
 
 CHAPTEE I 
 
 ANCESTRY BIRTH BOYHOOD ENTRANCE INTO THE 
 NAVY 
 
 1775-1793 
 
 "TRADITION," says Lord Dundonald in his Auto- 
 biography, "has assigned to the Cochranes a derivation 
 from one of the Scandinavian sea-rovers who, in a 
 remote age, settled in the lands of Renfrew and Ayr." 
 With such a tradition the biographer of a great sea-king 
 will feel little disposed to quarrel. Nevertheless for 
 authentic record one must needs wait until the year 
 1262, when the name of Waldenne de Coveran first 
 struggles into light among the tale of witnesses to an 
 ancient deed. A grant of King Robert the Second dated 
 1389, confirming to William de Cochrane the lands of 
 Cochrane in Renfrewshire, to be held by him as by his 
 progenitors, gives sufficient proof of the antiquity of the 
 family and of the origin of its name. 
 
 Robert Cochrane, grandson of this William, was the 
 first of his clan to win a place in history. He appears 
 in the year 1456 to have resigned his estates to his son, 
 and to have betaken himself to the study and practice 
 of architecture, in which art he is said to have displayed
 
 DUNDONALD 
 
 no little skill. He was, however, not less distinguished 
 for uncommon boldness and great physical strength ; and 
 having become known to King James the Third through 
 some duel in which he had been engaged, he was invited 
 to the Court, where he showed that talent as an archi- 
 tect was not incompatible with diligence and ability as 
 a courtier. In a short time he rose to be the King's 
 chief adviser, and was rewarded with the Earldom of 
 Mar, an accession of dignity which gave deep offence to 
 the old Scottish nobles. Cochrane, however, was high- 
 handed and defiant ; he slighted the great lords on all 
 occasions, reserved his patronage for his own adherents, 
 and flaunted his great station in the face of the nobility 
 by sumptuous magnificence. Such a career could have 
 but one end. The Court being assembled at Lauder, 
 the Scottish peers met in secret conclave one morning 
 in the church, and took their decision. On the same 
 afternoon Cochrane too went down in great state to the 
 church to attend the Council. He knocked and was 
 admitted. Forthwith the Earl of Angus advanced to 
 him, and plucked his gold chain from his neck, saying, 
 "A rope will become thee better." Others of the peers 
 offered no less ominous insults. "My lords," said the 
 astonished Cochrane, "is it jest or earnest?" "It is 
 earnest, and so thou shalt find it," was the reply ; and 
 with that the King's favourite was straightway haled 
 to Lauder Bridge. The dead bodies of his chief fol- 
 lowers already hanging thereon told him sufficiently 
 the fate that awaited him, but he showed no fear ; he 
 asked only that, as became his rank, he might be 
 hanged with one of the silken cords of his own pavilion. 
 The petition was refused. Rope was scarce ; but a
 
 1775-93 THE COCHRANES 3 
 
 hundred bridle reins were offered for the service, so 
 bitter was the feeling against him; and presently his 
 body also swung over Lauder Bridge. So died the first 
 eminent man of the Cochranes. 
 
 Five generations later the descendants of this Eobert 
 were reduced to a single heiress, for whom her father 
 made a " prudent and discreet " match with a cadet of 
 the Blairs of that ilk. The choice was a good one, for 
 Alexander Blair took to himself not only the name of 
 Cochrane, but a Cochrane's zeal for the welfare of the 
 family, which he now started afresh with a progeny of 
 seven sons and two daughters. Of these seven sons six 
 were fighting men, all (for we are now arrived at the 
 Civil War) in the service of King Charles the First. 
 One, indeed, had learnt his trade under a great captain 
 admired of all Englishmen, Gustavus Adolphus, before 
 he drew sword against his own countrymen. As might 
 be expected, the family gained little by its loyalty to 
 the Stuarts. The title of Lord Cochrane of Cowden 
 was indeed granted to the second son and heir pre- 
 sumptive in 1641, and supplemented in 1647 (only a 
 few months before the end) by the further dignity of 
 Baron Cochrane of Dundonald. But between loans to 
 Charles Stuart and fines to Oliver Cromwell the 
 Cochranes paid heavily to both sides for their part in 
 the Civil War. 
 
 After the Restoration Lord Cochrane was sworn a 
 Privy Councillor, and by other favours was enabled to 
 set his affairs once more in order, and even to acquire 
 additional wealth. He was evidently a man of integrity 
 and of capacity for business, qualities which gained for 
 him the management of the Scotch estates of the Duke
 
 DUNDONALD CHAP, i 
 
 of Monmouth. We recognise the character of Alexander 
 Blair, the prudent and discreet, in Lord Cochrane's 
 advice to Monmouth to refrain from signing anything 
 but what should be most maturely advised by himself. 
 In 1667 Lord Cochrane was advanced to be Earl of 
 Dundonald, and prosperity seemed to be assured to the 
 family. But it was not to be. In 1683 the Earl's 
 second son John was discovered to be in complicity with 
 the Eye House Plot, and was compelled to fly for his 
 life to Holland, whence he returned but two years later 
 to take part in a still more desperate venture, the 
 insurrection of Argyll. He was of course taken 
 prisoner, and led with every degradation by the hang- 
 man through the streets of Edinburgh; but a large 
 bribe from his father to the priests of James the Second 
 had efficacy to save his life. The old Earl died in the 
 following year (1686); but the son lived on, and after 
 the Revolution seems even to have lived in peace. It 
 is from this same John, the turbulent, dissatisfied 
 Whig, that the subject of this memoir traces his 
 descent. 
 
 The first line of the Cochranes came to an end with 
 the death of Archibald, seventh Earl, who was killed at 
 the siege of Louisburg, in a sortie made by a drunken 
 party of the garrison on July 9th, 1758. His successor, 
 Thomas, eighth Earl, grandson of the rebellious John, 
 likewise began life in the army, but retired with no 
 higher rank than that of major. Twice married, he 
 was the father of fifteen children, of whom many died 
 in infancy, and but five require to be named here : 
 Archibald, ninth Earl, the father of the famous Dun- 
 donald; Charles, a colonel in the army and aide-de-
 
 1775-93 A SCIENTIFIC FATHER 5 
 
 camp to Lord Cornwallis, who was killed at Yorktown 
 in 1781 ; Basil, a civil servant of the East India 
 Company ; Alexander Forrester, the distinguished 
 admiral and Knight of the Bath ; and lastly, Andrew, 
 who subsequently added the name of Johnstone to his 
 own patronymic, a colonel in the army, who threw up 
 the service in disgust and became Member of Parlia- 
 ment for Grampound. With all of these, excepting the 
 second, we shall meet again. The last two, Alexander 
 and Andrew, were the men who wrought most to make 
 and to mar the life of their famous nephew. 
 
 Archibald, the ninth Earl, was born in 1748. Obedient 
 to the traditions of his race he, too, entered the army, 
 becoming at the age of sixteen a cornet in the Third 
 Dragoons, but, forsaking this career, turned to the 
 sister service, wherein he remained long enough only to 
 become an acting -lieutenant. A cruise on the west 
 coast of Africa bred in him a dislike for the profession, 
 which not only caused his own retirement, but went 
 near to deprive England of one of her greatest naval 
 officers. In truth Archibald was not designed for the 
 profession of arms. His bent lay towards natural 
 science, in which province he was sufficiently an adept 
 to hold intimate communication with such men as Caven- 
 dish, Priestley, and Watts, and even to make valuable 
 discoveries on his own account. In his way he was a 
 man of genius, but genius of the disastrous kind that 
 knows not its own limitations ; one of those men, in 
 fact, on whom the doors of their laboratory, library, 
 studio, or workshop should be kept permanently closed, 
 giants within their walls, but babes without. 
 
 In October, 1774, Archibald married Anna, daughter
 
 DUNDONALD CHAP. I 
 
 of Captain Gilchrist of the Royal Navy, a distinguished 
 officer who in 1758 had been the hero of a remarkably 
 brilliant frigate -action; and on December 14th, 1775, 
 was born at Annsfield, Lanarkshire, their first child, 
 Thomas, whose name as Lord Cochrane was destined to 
 fill so large a place in the world. The boy's early years 
 must have been curious enough. The family estates, 
 through loans to one generation of Stuarts and fines to 
 another, had been sadly impoverished. Lord Dundonald, 
 however, was in the full blast of scientific discovery; 
 and seeing therein, as he fancied, the means of restor- 
 ing the fallen fortunes of his race, he leaped with one 
 bound from scientific to mercantile speculation, and 
 established manufactories wherein the result of his 
 researches should be practically applied. Extraction of 
 soda from common salt, improved production of alumina, 
 preparation of British gum as a substitute for gum 
 Senegal, manufacture of sal ammoniac and of white 
 lead, distillation of tar from coal, such were the ven- 
 tures, all simultaneously pursued, and all on a ruinous 
 scale compared with his means, whereby Archibald, ninth 
 Earl, sought to recall prosperity to his house. They 
 could have but one result. One can picture few 
 spectacles more sad than this of the gifted enthusiast, 
 plunging deeper and deeper into the mire which was to 
 engulf him, the sanguine expectations of husband and 
 wife, the stories told to little Tom of a father who was 
 the cleverest man in the world, and would be the richest 
 man in the world some day ; and yet with every year 
 the reduction of comfort, the accumulation of embarrass- 
 ment, the father's indignation against the stupidity of 
 his fellows, and the mother's sickening anxiety for her
 
 1 775-93 EARLY ED UCA TION ^ 
 
 born and unborn children. Swiftly the patrimony of 
 the Cochranes melted away, and regularly every year 
 came a new baby Cochrane into the world to share it. 
 In 1782, when Thomas Cochrane was seven years old, 
 Lord Dundonald moved to his estate at Culross Abbey, 
 in order the better to superintend the distillation of coal- 
 tar in his own collieries. While there he accidentally 
 made the one discovery which might have retrieved his 
 fortune, that, namely, of the illuminative power of coal- 
 gas ; but, though generally keen to seize a new fact, he 
 failed to grasp the significance of this, and was never 
 a jot the richer for it. 
 
 In 1784 Lady Dundonald died, a heavy misfortune 
 for the four little boys who alone of her seven children 
 survived her. They were now of an age to require 
 education ; but the family means were unequal to the 
 burden, and but for the devotion of their grandmother, 
 Mrs. Gilchrist, who set apart a portion of her own small 
 income for the purpose, they would have received scant 
 teaching. Through her aid two tutors, one British and 
 one French, were duly obtained ; but with small result. 
 The first knew little of his business ; and the second, 
 who was a Catholic, got into trouble with the Kirk and 
 with his neighbours through firing a gun at some cherry 
 stealing magpies on the Sabbath. From the Kirk Lord 
 Dundonald protected this tutor, but from general ill- 
 feeling he could not shield him ; and the poor French- 
 man was compelled to abandon his charge before the 
 boys had learned even the rudiments of French. The 
 course even of this imperfect education was broken off 
 for Thomas Cochrane by his father, who insisted on 
 taking him with him to London, where he hoped to push
 
 DUNDONALD CHAP, i 
 
 the sale of his coal-tar. On the way they paid a visit 
 to James Watt at Hands worth, where the boy heard a 
 long discussion on the newly-discovered inflammability 
 of coal-gas. Arrived in London, father and son went 
 together to various shipbuilding yards to show forth the 
 merits of coal-tar as a protection for ships' bottoms 
 against the ravages of the worm (teredo navalis). 
 Great as those merits undoubtedly were before the days 
 of copper-sheathing, neither the Admiralty nor the 
 trade would hear of them. " My Lord," said one ship- 
 builder, " we live by repairing ships as well as building 
 them ; and the worm is our best friend. Sooner than 
 use your preparation I would cover ships' bottoms with 
 honey to attract worms." 
 
 Ruined and disappointed Lord Dundonald for the 
 moment abandoned his darling inventions, and turned 
 to his eldest son. The boy's natural inclination leaned 
 strongly to the navy ; but his father, having a kinsman 
 of influence at the Horse Guards, had already destined 
 him for the army, and now managed to procure for 
 him a commission in the Hundred -and -Fourth Foot. 
 Then came a course' of discipline which reminds us 
 of the training of Frederick the Great. Young 
 Cochrane was placed in charge of an old sergeant, 
 who was specially ordered to pay no attention to his 
 whims. The boy's hair was cut, plastered with tallow 
 and flour, and trained into a queue after the fashion 
 of the barrack -yard ; his neck was buckled into a 
 tight leather stock, and his body encased in a pseudo- 
 regimental suit, a costume designed apparently as a 
 sartorial summary of the parental opinions. The coat 
 was blue with scarlet collar and cuffs, similar to the
 
 1775-93 AN UNHAPPY BOYHOOD g 
 
 Windsor uniform and therefore emblematic of loyalty ; 
 but lest loyalty should be carried too far, the royal 
 colours yielded place in the waistcoat and breeches to an 
 uncompromising Whig yellow ; of which hue (as a final 
 touch of exquisite cruelty) the boy was charged to be 
 never ashamed. Small wonder that a proud and sensitive 
 youth conceived a loathing for the profession which his 
 father had identified with such a garb. One day, after 
 enduring the agonies of outspoken criticism on his 
 appearance from a mob of street boys at Charing Cross, 
 he rushed home and entreated his father with tears to 
 release him from the pigtail and yellow breeches, and 
 send him to sea with his uncle. The only answer was a 
 sound cuffing ; and the only result in the boy an intenser 
 hatred of the army. Nevertheless, though his father 
 was obdurate, his uncle, Captain Alexander Cochrane of 
 the navy, had noted the lad's true feelings, and quietly 
 entered his name in his ship's books as a common 
 seaman, in order to give him some standing in the 
 service. 
 
 In 1788 Lord Dundonald married a second wife, 
 and having thus increased his income was able to 
 send Cochrane and his brother Basil to school. Thus 
 Cochrane at the age of thirteen was able to combine 
 in his single person the ensign of the Hundred- 
 and- Fourth Foot, the seaman of H.M.S. Caroline, 
 and the humble pupil at a Kensington seminary. 
 Unfortunately this did not last long. Lord Dun- 
 donald resumed his manufacturing speculations; and 
 after six months the boys were withdrawn from school 
 through want of money to defray their fees. They were 
 then taken up to Scotland, where they spent four years
 
 DUNDONALD CHAP, i 
 
 and a half as best they might, no further effort being 
 made to give them any regular training. Nevertheless, 
 to their immense credit, they had worked hard at school ; 
 and Thomas Cochrane in those barren years in Scotland 
 laboured incessantly to attain such meagre knowledge as 
 lay within his reach. For young as he was he had made 
 up his mind to two things : that he must depend upon 
 his own efforts for his success in life ; and that whatever 
 his career, it should not be that of an officer in the 
 army. What he learned, in his father's laboratory or 
 elsewhere, we know not, though it is certain that he 
 shared his father's predilection for natural science, and 
 that, whatever his task, he worked hard. 
 
 Pleased with his son's industry and overcome by his 
 firmness Lord Dundonald at last consented that Cochrane 
 should join his uncle's ship and go to sea. Then came 
 the difficulty of providing him with an outfit, a difficulty 
 which was only overcome by the kindness of Lord 
 Hopetoun, who advanced 100 for the purpose. Thus 
 hardly did one of Britain's greatest sailors enter into 
 his country's service. Once finally equipped he left 
 Scotland, and refusing all invitations to stay in London, 
 joined H.M.S. Hind at Sheerness on June 27th, 1793. 
 Cochrane was in his eighteenth year, and the great Avar 
 of the Revolution had just begun. One must never 
 forget of this man that he was born four months after 
 Bunker's Hill, and joined the navy during the Reign of 
 Terror.
 
 CHAPTEK II 
 
 EARLY SERVICES CRUISE OF THE "SPEEDY" 
 
 1793-1801 
 
 COCHRANE'S introduction to his first ship was not alto- 
 gether promising. The first-lieutenant, who received him, 
 was dressed as an ordinary seaman, and with a marling- 
 spike round his neck and a lump of grease in his hand was 
 busily engaged in setting up the rigging. This officer, 
 whom we know by no other name than that of Jack 
 Larmour, was a man who had risen by sheer superiority 
 of seamanship from the forecastle to the quarterdeck, 
 and was not likely to be pleased with the aspect of an 
 oldish midshipman, over six feet high, the nephew of his 
 captain and a lord to boot. After a few words of forced 
 civility he ordered Cochrane down to the midshipman's 
 berth and bade him "get his traps below." Cochrane 
 was hardly gone when the first-lieutenant broke out 
 with : " This Lord Cochrane's chest ! Does Lord 
 Cochrane think he is going to bring a cabin aboard? 
 The service is going to the devil." Then there was a 
 sound of sawing, and Cochrane returned to find one end 
 of his chest sawn off just beyond the keyhole, and to 
 hear the first-lieutenant's criticisms on the lubberliness of
 
 DUNDONALD CHAP, n 
 
 shoregoing folks in not placing keyholes where they 
 could most easily be got at. With affected simplicity 
 Cochrane thanked him ; but the first-lieutenant fortun- 
 ately was too dull to observe the sarcasm, or Cochrane's 
 passion for a telling reply might have brought him into 
 trouble even earlier than it did. 
 
 Despite this unpromising entry, however, it was great 
 good fortune for Cochrane to begin his service under 
 such an officer as rough old Jack Larmour. For Jack, 
 though his ideas might be bounded strictly by the bow 
 and stern of a ship, was at any rate a past master of 
 his profession, who never gave a man an order which he 
 could not better execute himself. Such an instructor 
 was invaluable to a keen young officer who was anxious 
 to learn his duty. Very soon each discovered the 
 virtues of the other, and the two became fast friends. 
 Another of the lieutenants, Mr. Murray, also gave 
 Cochrane timely help by lending him money wherewith 
 to supply deficiencies in his ill-chosen outfit ; a kindness 
 no less difficult than thoughtful to a penniless, proud, and 
 sensitive boy. In fact the Hind was a happy ship. 
 The captain, though a strict disciplinarian, liked his 
 young officers to enjoy themselves when they could; 
 and as the destination of the Hind was to search the 
 Norway fiords for French privateers, there was plenty 
 of useful duty to be learned on board, and abundance 
 of pleasure, such as delights the midshipman's heart, to 
 be found ashore. The cruise, though as war -service 
 uneventful, for the ship had not the luck to fall in with 
 privateers, was to the younger officers a perpetual 
 holiday. One small incident alone marred Cochrane's 
 enjoyment. He had made up his mind from the first
 
 LEARNING DUTY 13 
 
 never to commit any act worthy of punishment ; but 
 Jack Larmour had likewise made up his mind that there 
 existed no such thing as a faultless midshipman. Jack 
 proved to be right; and for a slight neglect of duty 
 Cochrane spent his first sojourn at the masthead on a 
 bitter day with the thermometer below zero. He never 
 gave Jack a chance of mastheading him again. 
 
 After a few months the Hind returned from Norway, 
 and Captain Alexander Cochrane was appointed to 
 command a larger frigate, the Thetis, which was ordered 
 to equip at Sheerness. Jack Larmour, whose favourite 
 relaxation was to relinquish his own work and do that 
 of an ordinary seaman, of course stayed on board to fit 
 out his new ship, and Cochrane begged his permission 
 to do likewise. This favour was graciously conceded, 
 on condition that he, like the first-lieutenant, should put 
 off the officer and assume the garb of a seaman. Coch- 
 rane asked for nothing better ; so with knife in belt and 
 marling-spike in hand he set to work, under the tuition 
 of the captain of the forecastle. These matters are not 
 mentioned without a purpose ; we shall find Cochrane's 
 mastery of the details of his profession of priceless value 
 to him in the days of his highest command. 
 
 The Thetis when ready for sea joined a squadron 
 under Admiral Murray, which was ordered to the 
 coast of North America to intercept American vessels 
 laden with provisions for French ports. This cruise 
 again was for Cochrane wholly uneventful and inglorious, 
 but none the less saw him rise rapidly in rank. On 
 January 14th, 1795, after little more than a year's 
 service, he was appointed acting third-lieutenant of the 
 Thetis ; three months later he was, on the application of
 
 14 DUNDONALD CHAP, n 
 
 Captain Rodham Home, promoted to be acting-lieutenant 
 of the Africa, with a provisional commission confirming 
 his rank ; and finally, on the 5th of January, 1796, on the 
 promotion of the first-lieutenant of the Thetis, he was 
 transferred to his uncle's ship once more. While 
 Cochrane was making his passage from the Africa to the 
 Thetis in H.M.S. Lynx, the captain of the last-named 
 ship one day observed a quantity of stable -litter float- 
 ing on the surface of the sea, and following the track 
 thereof, overtook, as he had expected, and captured a 
 vessel laden with transport animals for one of the French 
 possessions. That Cochrane should have recorded this 
 little incident shows the keenness of his appreciation for 
 what (to borrow a metaphor from the chase) may be 
 termed the woodcraft of war. No man, when his oppor- 
 tunity came, showed a more complete mastery of that 
 most entertaining though difficult of arts. 
 
 On rejoining the Thetis Cochrane, thanks to the false 
 service gained by his uncle's formal entry of his name on 
 his ship's books, was able to offer himself for examination 
 as lieutenant, and to qualify formally for that grade, 
 after little more than two years' service. Such a trans- 
 action can only be described as a job ; and it is note- 
 worthy as the only job which Cochrane, in a life's 
 crusade against jobbery, ever saw reason to defend. 
 But we need not now dwell on the irony of the situation, 
 for jobbery is sometimes, as in Cochrane's case, well 
 justified of her children. After the examination Coch- 
 rane was appointed by Admiral Vandeput to a lieuten- 
 ancy on board his flagship, the Resolution, and there he 
 spent the rest of his dreary service on the North Ameri- 
 can station, finally returning to England in the Thetis
 
 1793-1801 IN THE MEDITERRANEAN 15 
 
 in 1798. So far all had gone well with him; he had 
 served on happy ships and gained credit with his 
 superiors. We now enter on his first period of really 
 active service, and on the beginning of his troubles. 
 
 Towards the close of 1798 Admiral Lord Keith, who 
 had been appointed to relieve Lord St. Vincent in the 
 command of the Mediterranean fleet (though not of the 
 Mediterranean station), offered to take Cochrane with 
 him on board the flagship as a supernumerary. Coch- 
 rane gladly accepted, and on his arrival at Gibraltar 
 was presented to Lord St. Vincent, who received him 
 kindly and appointed him to Lord Keith's new flagship 
 the Barfleur. The chief business then on hand being 
 the blockade of the Spanish fleet in Cadiz, Lord Keith's 
 squadron anchored within seven miles of that port, 
 waiting for the time when the Spaniards, who had 
 twenty-two ships to the British twelve, should come 
 out and fight. But the Spaniards would not come out ; 
 so there the British ships lay for four long months, 
 some of their number being occasionally detached to 
 Tetuan to provide the fleet with water and provisions. 
 Readers of Marryat will remember Mr. Midshipman 
 Easy's visit to Tetuan and his cruise with a cargo of 
 bullocks ; it was these same Tetuan bullocks that first 
 brought Cochrane into trouble. The officers of the 
 Barfleur, knowing the commercial value of raw hides, 
 made a practice of slaughtering bullocks for the whole 
 squadron on board the flagship, and stowing away the 
 hides in empty casks with a view to future sale. The 
 not unnatural result was that the Barfleur grew to be 
 known as the " Stinking Scotch Ship." Cochrane, as 
 junior lieutenant and therefore saddled with the
 
 i 6 DUNDONALD 
 
 main burden of the dirty work, as a smart officer, 
 and finally as a Scotchman, strongly objected to the 
 practice (wherein he was undoubtedly right), and as was 
 his nature took good care that his sentiments should be 
 known. Either from this or from some other irritat- 
 ing cause he became embroiled in an angry dispute over 
 a trifling matter with the first -lieutenant, a dispute 
 which went so far that Cochrane finally closed it with 
 a challenge. The first-lieutenant naturally appealed to 
 the captain, who very sensibly tried to smooth matters 
 over by suggesting that Cochrane should apologise to his 
 superior officer, and that therewith the affair should end. 
 Cochrane declined to apologise ; he was, he said, in the 
 right, and therefore there was no occasion for apology. 
 Such is not the logic of the British NaA r y. The first- 
 lieutenant demanded a court-martial, which was perforce 
 granted by Lord Keith ; and Cochrane, though acquitted, 
 was admonished to be more careful in future. " Now 
 pray, Lord Cochrane," afterwards said Lord Keith to him 
 privately, " pray avoid for the future all flippancy towards 
 superior officers." Surely kindlier warning was never 
 uttered to a man who had shown, under some provocation 
 it is true, not flippancy but temper. A junior lieutenant, 
 however much in the right, who rejects his captain's 
 good offices towards healing a breach with a superior is 
 fortunate to find a second friend in the Admiral. The 
 service was not unkind to Cochrane in this the first of 
 his quarrels. 
 
 Weary of waiting for the Spaniards to meet him, 
 Lord Keith, in the spring of 1799, drew off the whole 
 of his ships to Tetuan. Immediately on his return 
 intelligence came that five Spanish ships had slipped out
 
 1793-1801 IN PURSUIT OF THE FRENCH 17 
 
 of Ferrol, and that the French fleet under Admiral 
 Bruix, having eluded Lord Bridport's blockade of Brest, 
 was on its way down to join the Spanish fleet in Cadiz. 
 On the morning of May 6th the French fleet appeared, 
 thirty-three sail in all, making, with the twenty-two 
 Spanish ships in Cadiz, fifty-five ships against the British 
 sixteen. With superb audacity Keith stepped in between 
 the two fleets and offered battle, with twice his numbers 
 in his front and a superior force in his rear; surely 
 the grandest position, for this was daring without fool- 
 hardiness, ever taken by British admiral. The French, 
 however, declined the combat, and made away to the 
 southward, whither Keith, hoping to catch them before 
 they reached Toulon, followed them with all possible 
 haste. For this raid of Admiral Bruix, absolutely fruit- 
 less though it proved to be, was the most critical event 
 of the whole war at sea. The British ships, expecting 
 no such movement, were dispersed before Cadiz, Minorca, 
 Palermo, Naples, and Acre, in small detachments, each 
 one of which might, if Bruix had been a Nelson or a 
 Cochrane, have been annihilated in detail. Fully alive 
 to the danger Lord St. Vincent took measures to con- 
 centrate his scattered forces, and Keith's squadron, 
 as we have seen, made its way, by his orders, to Gib- 
 raltar, arriving there on May 10th. 
 
 On the 12th, after hurried preparations, this same 
 squadron once more took up the pursuit of the French 
 fleet; of which pursuit Cochrane, in the interest of 
 Lord Keith, or rather in prejudice of Lord St. Vincent, 
 gives a long and minute account. As every reader of 
 naval history knows, Lord Keith was censured at the 
 time for his failure to catch Bruix, and this censure has 
 
 C
 
 1 8 DUNDONALD 
 
 been endorsed by so eminent an authority as Captain 
 Mahan. Cochrane's account, on the other hand, lays 
 the whole blame of the failure not on Keith, but on St. 
 Vincent. There is no profit in enlarging upon the 
 controversy in this place ; it must suffice that Keith, no 
 matter through whose fault, failed to catch the Toulon 
 fleet, and that Cochrane, 1 no incompetent critic where 
 his judgment was unclouded by political prejudice, held 
 St. Vincent to be primarily responsible. 
 
 After throwing supplies into Genoa Bruix doubled 
 back on his course, passed through the Straits of Gib- 
 raltar, and triumphantly effected his junction with 
 the Spaniards, previously so nobly foiled by Keith at 
 Carthagena. Without a moment's hesitation Keith 
 steered to cut them off at Brest ; but he arrived, just 
 twenty -four hours too late, to find them safely at anchor 
 in Brest harbour. Thus baffled at all points, Keith 
 sailed for Torbay, and joined the Channel fleet under 
 Sir Alan Gardner. 
 
 To those who have read Cochrane's autobiography 
 his impatience at the failure of Lord Keith's cruise can 
 be no surprise. Nor, so far as we can judge, was such 
 irritation confined to him; for there is no campaign, 
 however successful, in which mistakes are not made, 
 and in which there are not moments when every one is 
 dissatisfied. On reaching Torbay Cochrane was sent 
 on board the Commander-in-Chief's ship with despatches. 
 He was received by the flag-captain, as he tells us 
 credibly enough, with an overbearing manner and an 
 
 1 It should be added that if Cochrane's dates be correct, his 
 story is utterly irreconcilable with Captain Mahan's, and that 
 Colliugwood held St. Vincent and Keith to be alike blamable,
 
 1793-iSoi A LESSON FROM NELSON 19 
 
 uncalled-for reprimand, to which, as was his unfortunate 
 way, he returned a "plain-spoken" answer. So trivial 
 a matter would not be worth chronicling but that Coch- 
 rane himself, after an interval of fifty years, records it 
 with a perennial freshness of bitter feeling that gives a 
 clue to his character. 
 
 Luckily the matter went no further; and in De- 
 cember Cochrane returned with Lord Keith to Gibraltar, 
 proceeding thence to Palermo. There he met Nelson, 
 at that time the darling of the Neapolitan Court, with 
 whom, though debarred by fate from the honour of 
 service, he had many a conversation. From him 
 Cochrane received and treasured one thoroughly Nel- 
 sonic maxim for combat with the French. "Never 
 mind manoeuvres; always go at them." Let no one 
 mistake the meaning of this counsel, for it is the voice 
 of genius addressed to genius. To dispense with 
 manoeuvring is the highest of all manoeuvres, only less 
 difficult to learn, perhaps, than the power to command a 
 " band of brothers." 
 
 Shortly after Cochrane was entrusted with his first 
 independent command, being sent as prize -master on 
 board the Gdndreux, a French seventy-four lately captured 
 by Nelson's squadron, with orders to take her into Port 
 Mahon. This short voyage proved to be a critical one. 
 The vessel's rigging was in a most defective state, and 
 her crew was made up of the sick and invalided men of 
 the fleet, so that she was in no condition to face heavy 
 weather. As luck would have it, however, she immedi- 
 ately encountered a severe gale. The masts swayed so 
 violently with every roll of the ship that it was danger- 
 ous to go aloft; indeed, the men refused to do so
 
 20 DUNDONALD CHAP, n 
 
 until Cochrane himself, with his brother Archibald, 
 showed them the way. Fortunately the weather moder- 
 ated, or the G4n6reux could hardly have arrived, as she 
 did, in safety at Mahon. By this most perilous passage, 
 however, Cochrane was delivered from the miserable 
 fate which presently overtook his shipmates of the 
 flagship ; for very soon after he had left her the Queen 
 Charlotte perished by an accidental fire, and with her 
 three-fourths of her officers and crew. Nor was this 
 passive advantage the only one gained by him, for, on 
 the arrival of the G6n6reux, Lord Keith was so well 
 pleased with his conduct in command that he appointed 
 him to the command of a prize -brig, the Speedy, then 
 lying in Port Mahon. A far finer ship had been origin- 
 ally destined for him, but was made over, perhaps not 
 quite fairly, to another officer. But the Speedy was at 
 any rate a ship, and that, though insufficient for lesser 
 men, was enough for Cochrane. 
 
 This famous brig was, to use Cochrane's own words, 
 little more than a burlesque on a man-of-war even in 
 the year 1800, being of about the size of an average 
 coasting brig, with a burden of no more than one 
 hundred and fifty -eight tons. She was "crowded 
 rather than manned " with a crew of eighty - four 
 men and six officers, Cochrane himself included, and 
 was armed with fourteen four -pounders, "a species 
 of gun little larger than a blunderbuss." Indeed, on 
 one occasion Cochrane derisively walked the quarter- 
 deck with a whole broadside of the Speedy 9 s shot in his 
 pockets. The commanding officer's cabin was but five 
 feet high, somewhat strait accommodation for a man of 
 six feet two ; and Cochrane found that the only practic-
 
 1793-1801 HIS FIRST COMMAND 21 
 
 able method of shaving was to remove the skylight and 
 make a toilet -table of the quarterdeck. But for such 
 trifles he cared, in the pride of his first command, but 
 little. He did, indeed, try to improve the Speedy's 
 armament, but found that there was neither space in 
 her to work larger guns, nor sufficient strength in her 
 timbers to stand the concussion of their discharge. 
 With her rig he was more fortunate. Having made a 
 requisition for a new mainyard, he was supplied with 
 the fore-topgallant yard of the G6n6reux ; but even this 
 spar was held by the dockyard authorities to be too large, 
 and to require cutting down. Cochrane, anxious at all 
 events to preserve a large spread of canvas, eluded the 
 order by causing the yardarms to be planed, so as to 
 give them the appearance of having been cut ; and with 
 this imaginary truncation the authorities were unwit- 
 tingly content. Thus equipped the Speedy sailed from 
 Mahon to Cagliari, and captured her first prize on the 
 10th of May. She was then kept with Lord Keith's 
 squadron before Genoa for a week or two until the 
 close of Massena's heroic defence (June 4th), and finally 
 detached ten days later with orders to cruise down the 
 coast. 
 
 The cruise opened prosperously enough. Within 
 ten days Cochrane was at Leghorn with two prizes : a 
 week later found him at Mahon with a third ; and by 
 the 3rd of August he was again at Leghorn with three 
 more. Lord Keith, whose flagship was lying in Leghorn 
 roads, received him with much encouragement, and on 
 the 16th of August despatched him once more, this time 
 to the Spanish coast, with orders to harass the enemy's 
 shipping to the utmost of his power. To give even
 
 DUNDONALD 
 
 a summary of the innumerable captures and minor 
 exploits of the Speedy would be tedious. The following 
 may serve for a single specimen : " 25th June Quitted 
 Leghorn, and on the 26th were off Bastia, in chase of a 
 ship which ran for that place and anchored under a fort. 
 Made at her and brought her away. Proved to be the 
 Spanish letter of marque Assuncion of ten guns, and 
 thirty-three men. On taking possession five gunboats 
 left Bastia in chase of us ; took the prize in tow, and 
 kept up a running fight with the gunboats till after 
 midnight, when they left us." But it must be noted 
 that Cochrane's method of fulfilling his instructions was 
 both original and daring. The ordinary movements 
 of cruisers consisted in coming inshore by day and 
 standing off at night. Cochrane, contrary to all pre- 
 cedent, made a practice of keeping out of sight in the 
 offing all day, and running in shore just before dawn. 
 The process sounds simple and, indeed, obvious, inas- 
 much as the enemy's coasters generally crept out at 
 night in order to avoid capture ; but Cochrane was the 
 first to hit upon it, or, it may be, the first who had the 
 nerve always to keep close in shore at night. He had, 
 indeed, a positive passion for night -attacks; and we 
 shall see later that his genius for planning and 
 executing them, thus early ripened, bore in later days 
 astonishing fruit. On the Spanish coast he wrought 
 from the first such havoc among the enemy's coasting 
 craft that when, after barely two months' cruising, he 
 returned to Mahon he learned that the Speedy was a 
 marked ship, and that several armed vessels were on 
 the look-out to capture her on her reappearance. 
 
 Unable to strengthen the armament of the miserable
 
 1793-iSoi A NARROW ESCAPE 23 
 
 little vessel, Cochrane fell back on stratagem. He 
 painted the Speedy in imitation of a Danish brig which 
 was well known on the coast, and shipped a Danish 
 quartermaster with, more important still, the uniform 
 of a Danish officer. This done he sailed once more for 
 his old station, and captured prizes, armed and unarmed, 
 with a rapidity that made him the terror of the coast ; 
 and, as every prize meant money, he reaped a golden 
 harvest for his officers and ship's company. Once his 
 eagerness went near to compass his destruction. Seeing 
 a large ship inshore which had the appearance of a 
 heavily-laden merchantman, he at once gave chase, only 
 to find on coming up with her that she was a powerful 
 Spanish frigate heavily armed and crowded with men. 
 To attack her was hopeless, to escape impossible. 
 With imperturbable coolness Cochrane hoisted Danish 
 colours, and spoke the frigate ; but the Spaniards were 
 not satisfied, and sent off a boat to board the Speedy. 
 Then the Danish quartermaster was brought forward in 
 his Danish uniform, and at the same time the Speedy 
 hoisted the quarantine flag. The horror of the plague, 
 always strong in the Spanish mind, was at once effectu- 
 ally roused by the sight of the yellow bunting ; and the 
 boat, instead of boarding the Speedy, was glad to hail 
 her from a distance. Whereupon the pseudo- Danish 
 officer explained that his ship was but two days out 
 from Algiers, where the plague was raging furiously. 
 This was enough : the Spaniards hastily wished him a 
 pleasant voyage, and pulled back to the frigate ; and 
 the Speedy made off to resume her usual avocations. 
 
 In January, 1801, while making a short stay at Malta, 
 Cochrane narrowly escaped a premature ending to his
 
 24 DUNDONALD CHAP, n 
 
 career. The occasion was ridiculous enough. It happened 
 that the officers of a French Royalist regiment were 
 patronising a fancy-ball at Valetta. Cochrane likewise 
 presented himself, in the costume of a British ordinary 
 seaman complete, as he assures us, to the minutest detail. 
 The French officers objected to his appearance in that 
 dress ; Cochrane, always ready with an answer, argued 
 that it was as legitimate as that of an Arcadian shepherd. 
 Finally one of the officers tried to expel him by force : 
 Cochrane answered with a blow ; and in a moment all 
 was uproar. Next morning the two combatants met 
 behind the ramparts and exchanged pistol - shots. 
 Cochrane shot the Frenchman through the thigh ; the 
 Frenchman's bullet, passing through Cochrane's coat, 
 waistcoat, and shirt, bruised his side. Fighting man 
 though he was, such a tragical close to a harmless frolic 
 was little to Cochrane's taste ; and he took the affair not 
 a little to heart, as well he might, for more serious 
 work lay before him. 
 
 Returning once more to the Spanish coast, Cochrane 
 resumed his depredations with great effect. In March 
 the Speedy narrowly escaped capture by a Spanish frigate, 
 and was only saved by her captain's resource. Having 
 made shift to keep ahead of his pursuer during a twenty- 
 four hours' chase, he eluded her, when darkness canie 
 on, by dropping overboard a tub with a light in it to 
 occupy the Spaniard's attention, and then sailing away 
 on a different course. Unable to catch the hated Speedy 
 by other means, the Spaniards now endeavoured to 
 entrap her by stratagem. On the 5th of May, on arriving 
 at Barcelona, Cochrane was surprised to see a swarm of 
 Spanish gunboats, craft that generally took care to keep
 
 1793-1801 A DARING ACTION 25 
 
 out of his way, come boldly out against him. He at 
 once pursued, and the gunboats turning fled into the 
 harbour. But Cochrane, suspecting some trick, would not 
 follow them inside, and on standing in to the harbour 
 next morning he discovered, as he had expected, that a 
 large Spanish frigate was waiting for him within. Most 
 men would have blessed their good genius and made the 
 best of their retreat. Cochrane, on the contrary, resolved 
 to attack. His officers (a remarkable proof of their faith 
 in him) had been ill content that he had frightened away 
 a former frigate with the quarantine flag instead of 
 attacking her ; and he now told them that they should 
 have the fight that they desired. The decision was the 
 bolder in that the crew of the Speedy, through the 
 absence of many men in prizes, was reduced to fifty- 
 four souls, including all officers. 
 
 Hoisting American colours in order to puzzle the 
 frigate until the brig had reached a favourable position, 
 Cochrane suddenly ran up the British ensign and made 
 straight for her. The Spaniards fired two broadsides 
 without result, and then the Speedy, running in under her 
 lee, locked her yards in the Spanish rigging. Cochrane, 
 who had reserved his fire till this moment, now poured 
 in his broadside with great effect. The Spanish guns, 
 as he had foreseen, owing to the greater height of the 
 frigate out of the water, could not be depressed so as to 
 play effectively on the Speedy ; and while their shot flew 
 harmlessly over the heads of the British, the Speedy's 
 guns, elevated and trebly shotted, told with formidable 
 execution on the Spaniard's main deck. Twice the 
 Spanish officers gave the order to board, and twice the 
 British, hearing the order, sheered off just at the moment
 
 26 DUNDONALD 
 
 of its execution, at the same time giving the Spaniards 
 a broadside and a volley before they could recover 
 themselves. The enemy, seeing the futility of attempt- 
 ing to board, now returned to their guns, cutting up 
 the Speedy's sails and rigging, but doing little further 
 damage. But after an hour of this work Cochrane saw 
 that, if he meant to succeed, he must end the action 
 forthwith. Telling the men that they must take the 
 frigate at once or be taken themselves, he ordered some 
 of them to blacken their faces and then called all hands 
 to board. The doctor, Mr. Guthrie, gallantly volunteered 
 to take the helm, and to remain for the time the only 
 soul on board the Speedy. All was soon ready. The 
 doctor laid the Speedy alongside with admirable skill, 
 and in a few seconds the whole of the little British crew 
 was on the enemy's deck. The bulk of the Spaniards 
 were stationed to repel men who might board by the 
 head; but when they saw the blackened faces break 
 through the white smoke of the bow guns they were for 
 the moment transfixed to the deck with horror at so 
 diabolical an apparition. Cochrane had counted on 
 Spanish superstition for the gain of a momentary advan- 
 tage, and he was not deceived. Before the Spaniards 
 could recover themselves the rest of the Speedy's men 
 had fallen upon their rear, and the whole mass was 
 engaged in a gallant but confused struggle in the frigate's 
 waist. Seeing the Spanish colours still flying, Cochrane 
 ordered them to be hauled down. The Spaniards, sup- 
 posing the act to be that of their own officers, without 
 further ado surrendered ; and the Gamo, of thirty-two 
 heavy guns and three hundred and nineteen men, was 
 the prize of the Speedy, of fourteen four-pounders and
 
 1793-1801 CAPTURE OF THE ' GAMO' 27 
 
 fifty -four men. Even so the victory was hardly com- 
 plete, for there were two hundred and sixty -three 
 unharmed Spanish prisoners on board and but forty- 
 five British sailors to guard them. Cochrane drove 
 the Spaniards forthwith into the hold, and there kept 
 them at bay by means of one of thek own guns pointed 
 down the hatchway, with men standing over them with 
 lighted matches. The Barcelona gunboats which had 
 witnessed the action made no attempt to rescue the 
 frigate, or the British might have fared badly enough. 
 Then Archibald Cochrane, who had boarded by his 
 brother's side, was placed in charge of the Gamo with 
 a crew of thirty men, and the Speedy sailed triumphant 
 with her prize to Port Mahon. The British loss in the 
 action was one man killed, Lieutenant Parker and seven 
 men wounded; that of the Spaniards included the 
 captain and thirteen men killed, and forty -one men 
 wounded. To this day the capture of the Gamo remains 
 unmatched in the. annals of naval warfare for skill, 
 calculation, and daring. 
 
 After some days spent in refitting the Speedy, Cochrane 
 was preparing to return to his old cruising-ground, when 
 he received orders to sail to Algiers, and there remon- 
 strate with the Dey against the high-handed behaviour 
 of his cruisers. What possible weight such remonstrance 
 could carry when backed by no more imposing force 
 than one of the smallest and worst ships in the service, 
 it was and still is difficult to see. Still there was 
 nothing for it but to obey; so to Algiers Cochrane 
 went, and remonstrated as best he could. The Dey's 
 answer was that he might go away again, and think 
 himself fortunate to have escaped an Algerian dungeon
 
 2 8 DUNDONALD CHAP. H 
 
 for his impertinence. Very thankfully Cochrane 
 went, and resumed his depredations on the Spanish 
 coast. 
 
 His next prize was a Spanish privateer of six guns, 
 which he fitted out at his own expense as a tender to 
 the Speedy, and placed under the command of his 
 brother Archibald. Shortly after, the two ships fell 
 in with H.M.S. Kangaroo, Captain Pulling, who, being 
 Cochrane's senior, was of course his commanding officer. 
 With him Cochrane planned an attack on a Spanish 
 xebec of twenty guns, three Spanish gunboats, and 
 a convoy of ten merchantmen, which were lying at 
 Oropesa under the guns of a fort. Cochrane as usual 
 was for doing the business by night, but was overruled 
 by Pulling. Accordingly at noon on June 9th the 
 three ships ran boldly into Oropesa, the Kangaroo 
 engaging the fort, and the Speedy and her tender the 
 four war-vessels. The Spanish fire was just beginning 
 to fail under the superior fire of the British, when 
 suddenly a Spanish felucca of twelve guns and two more 
 gunboats arrived to the rescue. Nothing daunted, the 
 British began the action afresh, and handled the new 
 arrivals so roughly that for a time they were beaten 
 off. Cochrane then returned to his original adversaries, 
 and after an hour's more firing succeeded in sinking 
 all four of them, as well as three of the convoy. This 
 was no sooner done than the three rescuing ships came 
 up to the fray once more. By this time the action 
 had lasted nine hours ; and both Kangaroo and Speedy, 
 having expended almost the whole of their ammunition, 
 were in a very critical position. Both commanders, 
 however, were equal to the occasion. The Kangaroo
 
 1793-1801 A DISAPPOINTMENT 29 
 
 shifted in closer to the fort than before ; while the 
 Speedy, with not half a dozen rounds left wherewith 
 to continue the action, rushed open-mouthed at the 
 felucca and gunboats. This was enough; the Spanish 
 fort was abandoned, and the Spanish ships turned 
 and fled. Of the convoy three were sunk, four were 
 stranded, and the remainder were carried off by the 
 little British squadron to Port Mahon. 
 
 Greatly to his disappointment Cochrane found, on 
 his arrival there, that the Gamo had not been purchased 
 into the service, as he had hoped, but sold to the 
 Algerines. " To have obtained command of the Gamo, 
 even as a means of deception on the Spanish coast," 
 he writes, " I would scarcely have changed places with 
 an admiral." We can hardly suppress a feeling of 
 regret that such an opportunity of exercising his 
 peculiar form of genius was denied him, for with an 
 effective ship under his command it is difficult to think 
 what he could not have done. As it was, however, 
 he was left in the Speedy, and ordered, much to his 
 disgust, to convoy a packet-ship, which was a notoriously 
 bad sailer, with her mails to Gibraltar. Seeing no 
 reason why he should not combine a little legitimate 
 business with his unwelcome duty, Cochrane, in cruel 
 disregard of the packet-master's feelings, ran along the 
 Spanish coast right in the track of hostile privateers, 
 examining every bay for Spanish ships as he went. 
 Near Alicant he found some vessels at anchor, and 
 made towards them; whereupon, evidently knowing 
 their enemy, they deliberately ran ashore. Unable, 
 under his instructions, to delay in order to get them 
 off, Cochrane set them on fire. One of the vessels
 
 30 DUNDONALD CHAP, n 
 
 being laden with oil, the result was a blaze which 
 illumined the sky for miles round. 
 
 Most unfortunately there were three French line- 
 of-battle ships, the Indomitable, Formidable, and Dessaix, 
 in the vicinity, which, attracted by the flare of the burn- 
 ing vessels, ran in shore to see what was the matter. 
 At daybreak on the morning of July 3rd these ships 
 were observed at a distance from the Speedy, and were 
 judged by the heated imaginations on board to be Spanish 
 galleons from South America. Thereupon the paltry 
 little brig at once prepared to chase. With the coming 
 of the day, however, the galleons assumed their true 
 character, and then it became clear that the Speedi/s 
 fate was sealed. It was not the first time that the 
 hope of prize-money had lured Cochrane into dangerous 
 situations; and on this occasion fortune sided against 
 him. The Speedy fled away to windward, but the 
 French ships at once gave chase, and separated on 
 different tacks so as to give her the least possible 
 chance of escape. In vain Cochrane tried all the shifts 
 that seamanship could suggest to him, sacrificing first 
 guns and then stores in order to lighten his ship ; the 
 enemy gained on her continually, firing from time to 
 time ineffectual broadsides and cutting up her rigging 
 with their bow-chasers. After upwards of three hours 
 thus spent within gunshot of the Dessaix, Cochrane 
 suddenly bore up and made a last effort to slip past 
 his pursuers before the wind, but without success. The 
 Dessaix tacked likewise in pursuit, and approaching 
 within musket-shot, discharged a complete broadside, 
 which, had it taken full effect, would inevitably have 
 sunk the Speedy. Seeing the uselessness of further
 
 1793-1801 THE END OF THE 'SPEEDY 31 
 
 efforts to escape, Cochrane hauled down his colours, 
 and became prisoner to the French. The captain 
 of the Dessaix, however, refused to accept the sword 
 of "an officer who had for so many hours struggled 
 against impossibility." 
 
 So ended the cruise of the Speedy after thirteen 
 months of active mischief, during which time she had 
 taken or retaken more than fifty vessels, one hundred and 
 twenty-two guns, and more than five hundred prisoners. 
 There is no need to dilate on the skill and daring of her 
 young commander ; we need only to be on our guard lest 
 the apparent ease and simplicity wherewith his exploits 
 were achieved should blind us to the enormous diffi- 
 culties whereby they were beset. Little less remarkable 
 than the even course of his success is the promptitude 
 with which he forthwith developed an original plan of 
 action. Precedent and experience could be of little 
 value for guiding the movements of such a wretched 
 craft as the Speedy ; yet Cochrane was hardly in command 
 of her before she became the terror of the coast. His 
 whole scheme of operations was found, thought out, and 
 matured at a stroke ; in fact it may be said that his 
 genius no sooner felt the warm ray of independent 
 command than it blossomed out full blown almost in 
 an hour.
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 QUARREL WITH THE ADMIRALTY CRUISE OF THE 
 " PALLAS " CORVETTES IN THE GARONNE 
 
 1801-1806 
 
 BY good fortune Cochrane did not long remain a prisoner. 
 After the capture of the Speedy the \Dessaix and her 
 consorts proceeded to Algesiras, with the intention of 
 passing the Straits of Gibraltar. There on July 6th 
 they were caught by a British squadron of nine ships 
 under Sir James Saumarez ; and Cochrane enjoyed the 
 unusual opportunity of witnessing an action between 
 French and English from the quarterdeck of a French 
 ship ; an action, moreover, wherein the British, owing to 
 an astonishing chapter of accidents, suffered heavy loss. 
 One British ship, the Hannibal, ran aground, and was 
 compelled to strike to three French ships, all of which 
 were aground. The French, on boarding their prize, for 
 some reason hoisted not French colours, but the Union 
 Jack upside down ; whereupon the dockyard authorities, 
 knowing nothing of what had passed and seeing only 
 a signal of distress, sent off almost the whole of the 
 reserve seamen and dockyard artificers to her assistance. 
 Captain Palliere of the Dessaix was at first in doubt
 
 1801-1806 A CHAPTER OF ACCIDENTS 33 
 
 whether this flotilla of boats was not designed to recap- 
 ture the Hannibal, and sought the advice of Cochrane, 
 who, seeing the mistake, advised him by all means to 
 warn them off by a gun. But the Frenchman was too 
 astute to be easily taken in. The boats were permitted 
 to come alongside the Hannibal, and then quietly and 
 unostentatiously captured, one after another, until 
 almost the entire naval establishment of Gibraltar had 
 surrendered without a blow. This extraordinary occur- 
 rence led to negotiations for an exchange of prisoners, 
 whereby Cochrane was enabled to proceed to Gibraltar 
 on parole. A few days later (July 12th) the French 
 fleet, which had meanwhile been reinforced by the 
 Spanish Admiral from Cadiz, set sail from Algesiras and 
 was again engaged by Saumarez. On this occasion the 
 chapter of accidents told tragically against the Spaniards. 
 Captain Keats of the Superb, who led the British van, 
 disdaining to fire more than a couple of broadsides, right 
 and left, at the two sternmost Spanish ships, dashed on 
 past them against the main body. Thereupon these 
 two ships, the Heal Carlos and the Hermengildo, each 
 mistaking the other for the aggressor, began a fierce 
 engagement. Before the mistake could be rectified the 
 Real Carlos caught fire : the Hermengildo, in the confusion, 
 fell on board her and caught fire likewise ; and both 
 ships blew up with almost every soul on board them. 
 Keats meanwhile went on and captured a third ship, the 
 San Antonio, a feat which, among other results, restored 
 to Cochrane his liberty ; his release being obtained 
 in exchange for that of the second captain of the 
 prize. 
 
 On his return home Cochrane and his relations began 
 D
 
 34 DUNDONALD 
 
 to press the Admiralty for promotion. In the ordinary 
 course advancement to post -rank might have been ex- 
 pected to follow directly on such an action as the capture 
 of the Gamo ; but in Cochrane's case it was withheld 
 until three months after the engagement, while other 
 officers, his juniors, were promoted over his head. Lord 
 Dundonald repeatedly urged his son's claims, and Sir 
 Alexander Cochrane backed them ; but the First Lord 
 put them off with excuses and evasions until his own 
 good time. According to his biographer's statement : 
 " Lord St. Vincent was so much pressed on the subject 
 of Lord Cochrane's promotion for taking the Gamo, that 
 it became almost a point of honour with the earl not to 
 make him a captain." There may be some truth here, but 
 other motives must have been also at work. Cochrane had 
 made no secret of his contempt for St. Vincent's failure 
 to catch the French fleet under Bruix, and of his opinion 
 that it was he, and not Keith, who was to blame for the 
 fiasco. It is hardly possible that his criticisms should 
 not have reached St. Vincent's ears ; an examination 
 of Cochrane's record would naturally follow, and would 
 show that he had been tried by court-martial for 
 disrespect to a superior officer ; whence the not wholly 
 unjust conclusion would be drawn that Cochrane was 
 over -prone to insubordination. St. Vincent was not 
 the man at any time, and least of all when irritated 
 by personal pique, to pass lightly over such a failing. 
 Let us not misjudge St. Vincent. The unbending old 
 warrior who watched the mutineer swing at the yard- 
 arm, and raised his hat with the grim comment, 
 "Discipline is preserved, sir," could cordially uphold a 
 complaint against the Admiralty from such a man as
 
 i8oi-i8o6 QUARREL WITH ST. VINCENT 35 
 
 Collingwood. But Cochrane was no Collingwood ; and 
 St. Vincent knew it. 
 
 The quarrel between Cochrane and the First Lord 
 was soon still further embittered. Before leaving the 
 Mediterranean Cochrane had applied for the promotion 
 of his first-lieutenant, Parker, who had been severely 
 wounded in the affair of the Gamo. Receiving no 
 reply, he wrote again on his return home with the same 
 result ; and finally, in answer to a third letter, received 
 an intimation, "That it was unusual to promote two 
 officers for such a service; besides which, the small 
 number of men killed on board the Speedy did not 
 warrant the application." A more monstrous sentence 
 than this last was never* penned. The vulgar world 
 has ever judged, and will ever judge, of military 
 operations by the "butcher's bill." It is unfortunate, 
 but it is inevitable, for the world knows of no better 
 standard ; but that a master of the art of war 
 like St. Vincent should have endorsed such a doctrine 
 was unpardonable. It was as though Michael Angelo 
 should rebuke Eaphael for producing a finer drawing 
 with five strokes of the pencil than a commonplace artist 
 with fifty. Even if the blame be shifted from St. Vincent 
 to some obscure clerk, the letter remains inexcusable for 
 its violation of the sound official rule which refuses all 
 reasons for an unreasonable decision. 
 
 Cochrane, not unnaturally, was intensely irritated by 
 this reply ; and, as fate would have it, the material for 
 a crushing retort lay ready to his hand. He wrote again 
 to St. Vincent to say that by his lordship's own showing 
 Lieutenant Parker had earned promotion, inasmuch as 
 the casualties on board the Speedy were greater than
 
 36 DUNDONALD CHAP, in 
 
 those of the flagship in the great action which had given 
 his lordship his title. The shaft no doubt flew home, 
 for the Victory had lost but one man killed in the action 
 off St. Vincent ; and there were not wanting critics in 
 the navy to exalt Nelson's share in the victory at the 
 expense of the Commander-in-Chief. Cochrane ad- 
 mitted later that this letter was imprudent ; it was more, 
 it was insulting. Whatever the provocation, and it was 
 undoubtedly great, whatever the temptation to so obvious 
 and telling a repartee, and this we must admit to have 
 been great likewise, such a letter from a young post- 
 captain, even of the most brilliant promise, to a man like 
 St. Vincent was insufferable. But Cochrane did not 
 stop there. Not content with making an enemy of the 
 First Lord, he pursued his application to the Board of 
 Admiralty collectively, with renewed criticisms of St. 
 Vincent's original reply. No notice being taken of this, 
 he wrote again with more moderation, and was informed 
 that it was not for officers so to correspond with the 
 Board. Persisting further with a third letter, he was 
 snubbed with the peculiar official thoroughness that 
 closes a correspondence as effectually as an editor's note. 
 The person who suffered most from the quarrel was, as 
 might have been expected, the unfortunate Parker, upon 
 whom the Admiralty visited the sins of his patron with a 
 meanness and jealousy that finally broke his heart. 
 
 Thus deprived, and mainly it must be confessed through 
 his own fault, of all chance of present employment, 
 Cochrane turned his attention to the abuses of the navy. 
 We have no intention here of giving details of the appal- 
 ling corruption that pervaded the naval departments in 
 general, and the dockyards in particular, of ships hired
 
 I8oi-i8o6 NAVAL ABUSES 37 
 
 and never used, ships built and never bolted, stores paid 
 for and never supplied. Whole crews went to the bottom, 
 because men drove the heads and ends of bolts only, and 
 made profit out of the rest of the metal; sick and wounded 
 men were robbed of the few comforts allowed them out 
 of the national purse; prisoners of war were starved 
 that greedy favourites or hungry voters might grow fat. 
 One of the greatest curses of war is that it is the non- 
 combatant rogue's opportunity. War means extraordinary 
 expenditure, and extraordinary expenditure, particularly 
 if defrayed by loan, breeds rapacity and dishonesty as 
 surely as drought produces dust. In the England of that 
 day, through the long training of Parliament in the 
 school of corruption, there was but one way in which the 
 Government could be carried on, namely, by the purchase 
 of votes ; and, though the old-fashioned cash-system was 
 not yet fallen obsolete, political support was purchased 
 largely by licenses to plunder the army and navy. 
 No officer on active service could fail to see these abuses, 
 nor could hope that he would not suffer from them. 
 St. Vincent himself in those very days was striving, with 
 better will than intelligence, to grapple with them at the 
 Admiralty. Cochrane, too, had felt them ; and he now 
 set himself to ferret them out, and note them down for 
 display at some fitting opportunity. He was already 
 bitten with the ambition of making a figure in Parlia- 
 ment, and possessed with the old Eadical faith that 
 salvation lies in extension of the franchise. 
 
 These researches ended, he betook himself to the 
 University of Edinburgh. Fully alive to the incomplete- 
 ness of his early education, he determined to make good 
 deficiencies while he might ; and, accordingly, took his
 
 38 DUNDONALD CHAP, in 
 
 place among the students (Palmerston being one of them) 
 who sat at the feet of Dugald Stewart. Like all earnest 
 men who begin their education late, his only thought was 
 how to turn his time to best account ; and he records 
 with pride that he never but once was absent from 
 lectures, and then (the excuse will, we fear, bring a smile 
 to the face of an English undergraduate) in order to 
 attend the funeral of a near relative. Naturally he saw 
 little of his fellow-students; a man who has studied 
 human nature in the school of war does not seek a 
 university to make friendships with boys. Moreover, 
 he was saving up money for the purchase of a seat in 
 Parliament ; so that economy, as well as study, dictated 
 seclusion and a quiet life. There is something rather 
 pathetic in the submission of this proud spirit to every 
 man from whom he could hope to learn anything. He had 
 found a Jack Larmour to teach him his work in the navy ; 
 and he now sought instructors in a far more difficult art. 
 It was not enough for him to command disciplined men 
 in war : he must needs sway the undisciplined in peace ; 
 and to that end he was persuaded that knowledge was 
 power. Unfortunately the knoAvledge that he needed 
 was not taught at Edinburgh ; it comes only, as Juvenal 
 says, from heaven. 
 
 The course of these studies was broken by the re- 
 newal of the war in 1803. Cochrane applied for a ship, 
 suggesting the names of several that would suit him, but 
 was given to understand that the navy contained no 
 ship for him, until at last, by the threat of returning to 
 Edinburgh, he succeeded in extorting an appointment. 
 The vessel assigned to him proved to be the Arab, a 
 collier purchased into the service for political ends,
 
 I8oi-i8o6 THE ADMIRALTY'S REVENGE 39 
 
 which sailed so badly as to be useless for a cruiser. 
 Cochrane's ardent desire was to harass Napoleon's flotilla 
 of invasion, which at that time was in process of con- 
 centration at Boulogne ; but to cruise inshore with a 
 vessel that " sailed like a haystack," was out of the 
 question. He reported accordingly that the Arab was 
 worthless for such service, and thereupon received orders 
 to convoy the Greenland whaling-fleet from Shetland, 
 and then cruise in the North Sea to protect the fisheries. 
 The commission was a bitter jest, inasmuch as in the 
 quarter assigned to him there were no fisheries to protect. 
 Cochrane's fate, to use his own words, was " exile in a 
 tub at the expense of the nation." In such wise did the 
 Admiralty take, meanly enough, its revenge, and bring 
 home to him the fact (which he ought to have known 
 already) that a subordinate who attacks the department 
 that controls him simply runs his head against a stone 
 wall. We must needs bear a grudge against the Admiralty 
 for robbing us of the spectacle of a duel between Cochrane 
 and Napoleon, though we cannot hold Cochrane alto- 
 gether guiltless of the catastrophe. As to the com- 
 parative patriotism of the department and the officer 
 we shall be in a better position to form a judgment at 
 a later stage. 
 
 The penal servitude in the Arab lasted from October, 
 1803, to December, 1804, by which time Lord St. Vincent 
 had resigned the post of First Lord to Lord Melville. 
 Through the good offices of his kinsman the Duke of 
 Hamilton Cochrane was now appointed to the command 
 of the Pallas, a new fir-built frigate of thirty-four guns ; 
 and, as compensation for previous ill-treatment, he was 
 ordered to cruise for a month off the Azores. Determined
 
 40 DUNDONALD CHAP, m 
 
 to make the most of his month, Cochrane ran across 
 the Bay of Biscay, and thence worked up towards the 
 Azores in the track of ships bound from the West Indies 
 to Cadiz. The Pallas had hardly altered her course, 
 when she picked up a rich prize (February 6th) ; and 
 before a fortnight had elapsed she had captured three 
 more, and narrowly missed a fourth which carried a 
 million of dollars on board. Cochrane had promised 
 plenty of "pewter and cobs" (ingots and dollars) to 
 seamen who would sail with him, and as usual fulfilled 
 his engagement. Let us, however, not omit to add that, 
 finding that the captain and supercargo of one prize had 
 embarked their all in the venture, he appealed to his 
 officers and men to join him in restoring to them five 
 thousand dollars apiece. "Aye, aye, my lord, with all our 
 hearts," answered the ship's company, and gave the 
 unlucky foreigners three cheers. 
 
 On her way home the Pallas, like the Speedy of 
 former days, narrowly escaped capture at the hands of 
 three French line - of - battle ships, against which she 
 stumbled in the course of a spell of hazy weather. The 
 chase had hardly begun, when the wind rose with a 
 heavy sea. The Pallas was so crank, and leaned over 
 so far to leeward under the force of the gale, that her 
 maindeck guns, and even her quarterdeck carronades, 
 were under water. Yet the hostile ships came up with 
 her so fast that it was imperative for her, by some 
 means or other, to carry more sail. Cochrane ordered 
 every spare rope in the frigate to be got up to the 
 mastheads and hove taut, in order to secure the masts, 
 and then set every possible stitch of canvas. The 
 Pallas buried herself forecastle under in the sea, but
 
 1801-1806 A FEA7* OF SEAMANSHIP 41 
 
 still the line-of-battle ships gained on her, though they 
 too were pitching so heavily that they could not fire a 
 gun. There was now nothing for it but a manoeuvre 
 which would try the security of the masts to the 
 utmost. Cochrane, having ordered his crew to stand 
 by, suddenly gave the word to clew up and haul down 
 every sail at the same instant, and at the same time put 
 the helm hard a-weather, so as to wear the Pallas round 
 as quickly as possible. With his perfectly trained men 
 the order was executed with beautiful precision, and 
 though the frigate, thus suddenly brought up, shook 
 from stem to stern in crossing the trough of the sea, 
 yet the masts stood the strain. The Frenchmen, unpre- 
 pared for such a manoeuvre, of course shot past the Pallas 
 at full speed, and were several miles beyond her before 
 they could shorten sail or tack in pursuit. Meanwhile 
 Cochrane made sail with all speed in the opposite 
 direction ; and, to make assurance doubly sure, at night- 
 fall he had recourse to his old trick of turning adrift a 
 cask with a lantern in it to divert the attention of his 
 pursuers. Thus, by sheer nerve and resource, he made 
 his escape ; and a few days later the Pallas sailed into 
 Plymouth, with a golden candlestick five feet high 
 (Spanish church-plate captured in one of his prizes) at 
 each masthead. If there were any vacancies on board 
 the frigate we may guess that there was no difficulty 
 in finding men to fill them. 
 
 On landing Cochrane employed himself for a few 
 weeks with the search for a suitable borough wherein 
 to launch his candidature at the approaching General 
 Election. Honiton was the nearest in point of distance, 
 and to Honiton accordingly he wended his way. The
 
 42 DUNDONALD CHAP, in 
 
 port-admiral, who by rather sharp practice had managed 
 to entitle himself to half of Cochrane's prize-money, 
 made no difficulty about granting him leave ; and the 
 borough, filled with glowing reports of the said prize- 
 money, received him with uncommon rapture. Greatly 
 to the disappointment of the free and independent 
 electors, Cochrane refused to offer a penny for a vote ; 
 and as those were the honest days when candidates 
 bribed with ready money from their own pockets, 
 instead of with promises of plunder from the pockets 
 of others, he was of course defeated. The contest over, 
 he sent the bellman round the town to proclaim that 
 all electors who had voted for Lord Cochrane might 
 repair to his agent and receive ten guineas, being 
 twice the amount of the fee paid by the successful 
 candidate. To the credit of Honiton, his supporters 
 had been more numerous than he had expected; and 
 his agent, evidently wounded in his professional feelings, 
 assured him that the expenditure of a smaller sum 
 before the election would have ensured his return. 
 "Nay," answered Cochrane, "that would have been 
 bribery, with which I, who stand as a reformer of abuses, 
 can have nothing to do ; my ten guineas are a reward 
 for resisting the temptation of a bribe." And having 
 thus cast his bread on the waters he returned to his 
 ship. 
 
 The Pallas put to sea again on May 28th, 1805, 
 bound for Quebec in charge of a convoy. The 
 outward voyage was not without a dangerous interest, 
 inasmuch as dockyard economy had surrounded the 
 ship's compass with iron instead of copper bolts, thereby, 
 of course, rendering it utterly untrustworthy ; but in
 
 1801-1806 THE BAFFLED INVENTOR 43 
 
 other respects the duty was thankless and unproductive, 
 except as a stimulus to the inventive faculty which 
 Cochrane had inherited from his father. Knowing 
 from painful experience the ease with which convoys 
 lost sight of their protecting frigate at night through 
 want of a guiding-light of sufficient power, he set him- 
 self to construct a lamp which should supply this want, 
 and after some experiments succeeded. He then sub- 
 mitted the lamp to the Admiralty. For a time no 
 notice was taken of it ; but on a prize of fifty pounds 
 being offered for the best lamp for this same purpose, 
 Cochrane submitted his invention once more, but this time 
 not in his own name. The lamp was tested exhaustively 
 against many lamps of rival inventors, declared to be the 
 best, and selected as the winner of the prize. But 
 Cochrane's triumph was short-lived ; for, when it became 
 known that he was the inventor, not a lamp was ordered. 
 One must needs record such matters, not because they 
 are unique or indeed rare in the history of public 
 offices all the world over, but because it is necessary to 
 keep account of the score in the eternal match between 
 Cochrane and the Admiralty. 
 
 In January, 1806, the Pallas was employed for a 
 month in the Channel, and after a further month's 
 duty with Admiral Thornborough's squadron parted 
 company for an independent cruise on the 24th of March. 
 Then began a repetition on the French coast of the 
 raids formerly practised by the Speedy, made doubly 
 effective by the use of a galley specially designed by 
 Cochrane for work of this kind. The boat required 
 eighteen hands at the oars, and being beautifully 
 modelled and built, was so swift that no coasting-craft
 
 44 DUNDONALD CHAP, in 
 
 could hope to escape from her. Very soon she became 
 so notorious, that at the mere sight of her the 
 French skippers ran their ships ashore, and took to 
 the boats to save themselves from capture. Thus the 
 prizes were taken without risk or trouble, and the 
 French coasting-traffic paralysed without firing a shot. 
 There is no point more remarkable in Cochrane's genius 
 for war than his power not only of taking what he 
 wanted from the enemy, but of forcing the enemy in 
 sheer despair to make him a present of it. 
 
 More serious work came in April. Acting on 
 information as to the movements of a number of French 
 corvettes, Cochrane sailed for the Garonne. Having 
 ascertained on his arrival that one of these corvettes 
 was lying some way up the river, he sent away the 
 whole of his crew, with the exception of about forty 
 men, in the boats to cut her out. The expedition, as 
 was the rule with Cochrane, was despatched at night ; 
 and before daybreak of April 6th the Tapageuse of 
 fourteen guns was, in spite of a gallant resistance, prize 
 to the boats of the Pallas. The action was hardly over, 
 when two more French corvettes unexpectedly came 
 down to rescue the Tapageuse, but were beaten off by 
 the fire of her guns. While all this was going forward, 
 Cochrane, who had remained with the Pallas at anchor 
 by the river's mouth, was aware soon after daylight of 
 three more sail making for the Garonne. These were 
 soon discovered also to be French corvettes; and then 
 the position of the Pallas, with but forty men aboard, 
 became critical in the extreme. Without a moment's 
 hesitation Cochrane sent his few hands aloft to tie up 
 the furled sails with rope-yarn, and ordered them to
 
 1801-1806 'PALLAS' OFF THE GARONNE 45 
 
 stand by with their knives. All was soon ready : the 
 word was given to let fall ; and in an instant the yarn 
 was cut away, and down fell the whole cloud of the 
 frigate's canvas together, as though not forty, but four 
 hundred perfectly drilled men were aboard her. The 
 sight was too much for the three corvettes. They turned 
 and ran off along shore ; and away started the defenceless 
 Pallas in pursuit, while her handful of men, all grin- 
 ning their broadest as we may guess, strained every 
 nerve to sheet home. Had the Frenchmen noticed 
 how slowly this was done they might have discovered 
 the trick, but they were scared beyond all power of 
 observation. Very soon the Pallas came up with one 
 of the flying corvettes, and opened fire from her bow- 
 guns. She could not have manned more for want of 
 men, but these were amply sufficient. After half a 
 dozen shots the French captain deliberately ran his 
 ship ashore, and the crew, taking to the boats, made 
 all haste for the land ; had they made for the Pallas 
 instead, they could not, by Cochrane's own admission, 
 have failed to capture her. The stranded vessel 
 having been dismasted by the shock, the Pallas ranged 
 up alongside, and was engaged in completing the wreck 
 by firing into her hull, when the other two corvettes 
 came up to the rescue of their consort. Again the 
 same trick was repeated, with the same result. The 
 Pallas dashed straight at the nearest ; and a second 
 corvette was run ashore in desperation and dismasted. 
 Leaving her to take her chance Cochrane was returning 
 to the river in order to pick up his men, when he observed 
 the third corvette making for the river likewise. Finding 
 herself intercepted, she, too, was run ashore and aban-
 
 46 DUNDONALD 
 
 doned ; and thus three corvettes, mounting between them 
 sixty-four guns, deliberately committed suicide before a 
 defenceless frigate, through sheer fright at the fall of 
 her sails. It is one of the curiosities of war. 
 
 A fortnight later the Pallas joined the squadron 
 before Basque Roads, and stood in to reconnoitre the 
 French fleet that lay at anchor therein. As she 
 approached, a French frigate, the Minerve, and three 
 brigs got under way, but, in spite of their superiority, 
 declined an engagement, and took refuge under the shore 
 batteries. After waiting for them for five hours, Coch- 
 rane completed his reconnaissance and wrote his report. 
 It was a more fateful document than he imagined, for 
 after enumerating the thirteen French vessels anchored 
 in the roads, he proceeds forthwith with the sentence, 
 " They may easily be burned." For the present, how- 
 ever, the French fleet was left unmolested, and 
 Cochrane then applied himself to a new method of 
 harassing the enemy by the destruction of the French 
 semaphore signal - stations, which, being admirably 
 organised along the whole length of the coast, kept the 
 coasting - craft informed of all movements of British 
 cruisers. One day sufficed for the demolition of a 
 couple of stations ; and, having thus broken the chain of 
 the telegraph, he returned to the Isle d'Aix to reconnoitre 
 the French fleet once more, and make a fresh attempt to 
 bring the Minerve to action. Determined that she should 
 not take refuge under the batteries a second time, 
 Cochrane ran in close to them, and was rewarded by 
 seeing the frigate come out to meet him with three 
 brigs, as before, in support. The Minerve herself 
 mounted forty guns against the thirty-four of the Pallas,
 
 I8oi-i8o6 IN THE AIX ROADS 47 
 
 and the three brigs each sixteen more ; but Cochrane, 
 calmly awaiting them and watching his opportunity, dis- 
 mantled one brig with a single broadside, and then turned 
 to engage the rest. The difficulties of navigation prevented 
 a continuous action, but after an hour's fighting the fire 
 of the Pallas began to tell; and at last, by skilful 
 manoeuvring, Cochrane contrived to pour in two or three 
 broadsides so destructive that the Minerve prepared to 
 beat a retreat. But Cochrane was not the man to allow 
 her to escape. Quickly, as fate would have it too 
 quickly, for the Minerve, unobserved by him, had 
 grounded on a shoal, he laid the Pallas alongside her, 
 and fell on board his helpless antagonist with a crash 
 that dismantled both vessels. In this position the 
 Pallas poured in a last broadside with crushing effect ; 
 the French sailors fled below, leaving their captain, 
 gallant man, alone on the deck. The Minerve was 
 conquered, but she was not to be taken : at that 
 moment two more French frigates bore down to her 
 assistance ; and the Pallas, herself a wreck, was com- 
 pelled to make what sail she could and save her- 
 self. The Kingfisher (Captain Seymour) came down and 
 took her in tow, and the engagement was over. But 
 for the unfortunate grounding of the Minerve at the 
 moment of collision, this would have been accounted one 
 of the most brilliant of Cochrane's actions. The losses of 
 the Pallas were one man killed, one officer and three men 
 wounded ; a sufficient proof of the skilful handling of 
 the ship and the superb gunnery of the men. Let us 
 before quitting the action take note of Captain Seymour 
 of the Kingfisher, afterwards known as Admiral Sir 
 George Seymour, for we shall before long find him again
 
 48 DUNDONALD CHAP, in 
 
 at a far more critical time by Cochrane's side in these 
 same Aix Roads. 
 
 Four days after the action the Pallas was sent home 
 with a convoy, and on May 27th Cochrane found 
 himself at Plymouth, at the close of a most brilliant 
 cruise. His resource had proved itself to be inex- 
 haustible, and his invention to be fertile in expedients 
 even for the most unexpected contingencies. One 
 small detail, too characteristic to be omitted, must be 
 given as an example. Among other devices for the 
 embarrassment of the French Government, the British 
 resorted to the distribution of seditious proclamations 
 among the French people. Every British captain on 
 the coast was equipped with a number of these pro- 
 clamations, but the difficulty was to distribute them. 
 Cochrane's method was original enough. He made a 
 bundle of proclamations fast to a kite, which was flown 
 over the land with a slow match attached to it, which 
 match, when burned to the end, consumed the retaining 
 string and set the kite free to scatter proclamations 
 broadcast. The device was eminently successful, and 
 gave the French Government much annoyance, greatly 
 to the satisfaction of Cochrane, who delighted in a prank 
 of this kind. Yet neither for this, nor for the destruction 
 of the signal-stations, nor for two brilliant actions, did 
 he receive commendation from the Admiralty. Admiral 
 Thornborough wrote with enthusiasm of the affair with the 
 corvettes in the Garonne, and St. Vincent admitted that 
 it called for the highest approbation ; but the Admiralty 
 gave no word of praise, nor penny of reward. The plot 
 now began to thicken, for Cochrane was nearly ready 
 with a new weapon against the obnoxious department.
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 ELECTION TO PARLIAMENT CRUISE OF THE 
 " IMPERIEUSE " ROSAS 
 
 1806-1809 
 
 SHORTLY after the return of the Pallas a General Election 
 came in prospect, and Cochrane lost no time in proceed- 
 ing to Honiton, where, with a large retinue of officers and 
 seamen, who had volunteered to support him for the 
 occasion, he made a triumphant entry into the town. 
 The recollection of the ten-guinea fee paid to his sup- 
 porters in the previous year was sufficiently fresh in 
 the memory of the borough to secure his return by a 
 large majority ; but when, the contest over, his clients 
 inquired what might be their reward for this great 
 victory, they were informed that bribery was against 
 Lord Cochrane's principles, and that they would not 
 receive one farthing. Finding that no cash was to be 
 obtained from the new member, his constituents begged 
 that, at least, he would give them a public supper. " By 
 all means," answered the guileless Cochrane ; " it is a 
 great satisfaction to me to know that so rational a dis- 
 play of patriotism has superseded a system which," etc., 
 etc. So the public supper was duly given, and im- 
 partially enjoyed, without respect of political opinions,
 
 50 DUNDONALD 
 
 by every soul in Honiton. Supporters and opponents 
 met together with their wives, their friends, and their 
 wives' friends ; and the bill delivered to Cochrane for 
 the entertainment amounted to twelve hundred pounds. 
 For years he refused to pay it, until finally compelled 
 by legal proceedings ; and thereby hangs a tale which 
 must engage our attention at a later stage. Meanwhile, 
 we are free to express our astonishment that such 
 an adept in the arts of war should have shown such 
 simplicity in dealing with a borough election. But, in 
 truth, Cochrae's weak points stand revealed in the 
 whole of this ludicrous transaction. His cleverness was 
 apt to overreach itself. He was over -prone to outwit 
 others by some ingenious trick, veil the proceedings in a 
 cloud of fine language, and hold himself aggrieved when 
 others turned his weapons upon himself. 
 
 Having gained his seat, he used his influence at once 
 to obtain promotion for his first-lieutenants of the Speedy 
 and the Pallas ; but being appointed in August to the 
 command of the frigate Imperieuse, he went perforce to 
 sea in her on an uneventful cruise which lasted until 
 February, 1807. In April the dissolution of Parliament 
 caused another General Election ; and Cochrane, for- 
 saking Honiton, betook himself to Westminster, where 
 he offered himself to the electors as an independent 
 candidate and a zealous friend of reform. Though 
 opposed by Sheridan, he was returned at the head of the 
 poll, with Sir Francis Burdett for his colleague ; and 
 therewith began his life-long intimacy with a man who, 
 however vain and superficial as a politician, was to 
 Cochrane unalterably the most loyal and generous of 
 friends. Parliament opened on June 26th, and on
 
 1806-1809 UNDER COLLINGWOOD 51 
 
 July 7th Cochrane brought forward his first motion, 
 for a Committee to inquire into sinecures, places, and 
 pensions held by members of the House of Commons. 
 The motion was accepted in a modified form by Mr. 
 Perceval ; so that his first move in the House may be 
 set down to his credit. Three days later he moved for 
 papers to call attention to abuses in the navy, but was 
 defeated without a division. He disclosed some shame- 
 ful facts enough, but, like many new members, he wanted 
 to do too much at one time. Moreover, and the fact 
 must be sorrowfully noted once for all, as it lies at the 
 root of his ultimate failure in the House of Commons, he 
 betrayed, in spite of himself, the violence of his personal 
 animosity against Lord St. Vincent. 
 
 The immediate result was that he was ordered 
 on September 12th to rejoin the Imperieuse, and 
 sail with her to Lord Collingwood's fleet in the 
 Mediterranean. No character could be more at 
 variance with Cochrane's than that of Collingwood ; 
 but the noble old sailor swiftly recognised Coch- 
 rane's merit, and appointed him to command a 
 blockading squadron off the Ionian Islands. Most 
 unfortunately for himself, Cochrane, on reaching his 
 station, detected the officer whom he was about to 
 supersede in the act of turning the blockade by fraudu- 
 lent means to his own profit. The officer at once 
 took the initiative, and reported to Collingwood that 
 Cochrane was not fit to command a ship, much less a 
 squadron. Collingwood, knowing nothing of the truth, 
 naturally revoked his original order ; and thus by the 
 roguery of a British officer Cochrane lost his first 
 chance of commanding a British squadron on active
 
 52 DUNDONALD CHAP, iv 
 
 service. Some time after Cochrane was able to explain 
 matters to Collingwood; but the Admiral, though, full 
 of indignation and regret, could not then reopen the 
 case nor remedy the injury. Cochrane was therefore 
 told off to his old work of harassing the coasts of 
 France and Spain. The mission was, of course, less 
 welcome than the command of a squadron, but it was 
 none the less an appreciation of his past services in 
 the Speedy ; so he determined, as he says, to spare no 
 pains to merit the Admiral's good opinion. Let us, 
 in passing, not fail to note the tact and judgment of 
 Collingwood in giving him a free hand. 
 
 Of the innumerable petty actions and captures that 
 kept Cochrane employed during the six succeeding 
 months it is unnecessary, with our previous knowledge 
 of his cruise in the Speedy, to say anything. In June, 
 1808, his instructions were altered, owing to the revolt 
 of Spain against the imposition of Joseph Bonaparte 
 upon the throne ; and he was now bidden to give the 
 Spaniards all possible assistance against the French. 
 In spite of the mischief that he had done them in the 
 preceding months, the Spaniards hailed him as a 
 deliverer. Napoleon's troops were already in pos- 
 session of several important posts, including the town 
 of Barcelona, and by their harsh dealing had roused 
 the bitterest hostility against themselves in Spain. 
 As the Imperieuse cruised up the coast, boats came 
 off to her in numbers to beg for help against their 
 cruel and treacherous foes. It was not easy for 
 a frigate to give much help ashore, and Cochrane 
 could do no more than point out the advantage of 
 destroying the roads by which French reinforcements
 
 I8o6-i8o9 HARASSING THE FRENCH 53 
 
 must advance, and of cutting off supplies from the 
 French posts. He himself set the example by blowing 
 up the roads wherever they ran along the face of the 
 cliffs, destroying detached coast -batteries, and doing 
 mischief in a hundred ways ashore, while always pro- 
 hibiting the arrival of French supplies by sea. Indeed, 
 on occasions of this kind he was in his element. Tied 
 by no instructions, he could carry out any project which 
 his ingenuity might devise, and, what was his special 
 delight, combine an agitation for the cause of liberty 
 with the active operations of war. 
 
 After a month or six weeks of this work, wherein 
 he performed, as he says, the functions of an engineer- 
 officer, it occurred to him to run across to the French 
 coast and give the people a taste of the miseries which 
 they were inflicting upon the Spaniards. The first step 
 was to resume his former practice of demolishing the 
 French semaphore signal-stations. In nine days he had 
 destroyed six of them, generally overcoming some little 
 resistance and disarming a battery in the process, and 
 had made prize of the signal-books. As these books 
 would have been of little value unless the French con- 
 tinued to use the same code, he was careful, while carry- 
 ing them off, to scatter all other captured papers about 
 in a half -burned condition. The French, deceived by 
 the trick, continued their signals unaltered ; and thus 
 Collingwood, with the key placed in his hand by 
 Cochrane, was able to read all information telegraphed 
 down the coast, and keep himself well posted as to 
 the movements, no less of his own, than of the French 
 vessels. After a brief return to the fleet, which was 
 then employed in blockading Toulon, Cochrane began
 
 54 DUNDONALD CHAP, iv 
 
 his depredations anew on the same ground. Signal- 
 stations were destroyed, coasting -craft captured, and 
 coast -batteries ruined with astonishing rapidity. The 
 result was a regular panic on the French shore. French 
 reinforcements, which were badly needed in Spain, 
 were kept marching backwards and forwards along 
 their own coasts in constant fear of an attack from 
 the dreaded frigate, and thus, for all practical purposes, 
 were put out of action. The success of this diversion, 
 for such he intended it to be, and such undoubtedly it 
 was, made the strongest impression upon Cochrane. 
 We shall see before long how far he would have pushed 
 this principle of harassing operations on a hostile coast 
 had he been permitted, and ultimately how he vindi- 
 cated the soundness of his opinion in South America. 
 Meanwhile, there was one person who appreciated his 
 exertions at their true value, and that was Collingwood. 
 After a short visit to the fleet, and a mission to 
 Gibraltar with despatches (October 6th -2 9th), the 
 Imperieuse returned to the Spanish coast and to the 
 work of harassing the French about Barcelona. While 
 there, he received information that the enemy had 
 opened the siege of Rosas. Now Rosas lies on the road 
 between Figueras, the northernmost post held by the 
 French in Catalonia, and Barcelona, and consequently 
 was a place of great strategic importance. For, if it 
 could be held by the Spaniards, the French in Barcelona 
 must be cut off and compelled to surrender. Fully 
 alive to these considerations, Cochrane sailed for the 
 bay of Rosas with all haste. On arriving there, on 
 November 20th, he learned that just a fortnight before 
 six thousand French troops had actually taken posses-
 
 1806-1809 AT ROSAS 55 
 
 sion of the town and of the heights commanding the 
 bay. They had, however, been driven out by the fire 
 of two British ships, the Excellent and Meteor, whose 
 captains had garrisoned the citadel and Fort Trinidad, 
 the principal defence of the town, with British seamen 
 and marines, and had repelled an assault delivered by 
 General Reille. Thereupon the French had erected 
 batteries for a regular siege, and had so far damaged 
 Fort Trinidad as to cause the withdrawal of the British 
 garrison. Such was the not very encouraging state of 
 affairs when Cochrane undertook the defence of Rosas. 
 
 His first step was to endeavour to damage the French 
 batteries as best he could by the fire of landed parties 
 and the guns of the Imperieuse ; but, though he succeeded 
 in driving the French from their entrenchments before 
 the citadel, he was unable, owing to their great elevation, 
 to injure the batteries over against Fort Trinidad. The 
 French now ceased to pay much attention to the ships, 
 but redoubled their efforts against the forts, and with 
 such success that the Spanish commander began to speak 
 of surrender. Cochrane, however, undertaking to gar- 
 rison Fort Trinidad with the marines of the Imperieuse, 
 entreated him still to hold out. The occupation of 
 Catalonia turned, as he saw, upon two principal points : 
 whether the Spanish Junta at Gerona would spare 
 a reinforcement to save Rosas ; and whether Rosas could 
 be held until that reinforcement arrived. As to the 
 latter, Cochrane had already made up his mind. The 
 castle of Trinidad was a stronghold of peculiar construc- 
 tion. It stood on a hillside with an easy descent to 
 the sea, and consisted of three portions : first a fort fifty 
 feet high next to the sea ; behind, and adjoining this, a
 
 56 DUNDONALD 
 
 second fort thirty feet higher ; and behind this, again, a 
 tower rising to the height of yet another thirty feet. 
 The hill on which it stood was commanded by another 
 height on which the French had established their 
 batteries; but, owing to the elevation at which their 
 guns were posted, it was impossible for them to breach 
 the tower at a height of less than sixty feet from its 
 base. In fact, to employ Cochrane's own simile, the re- 
 lative positions of the two combatant parties may be 
 grasped by imagining a small force to be stationed in 
 Westminster Abbey, the apse, nave, and tower repre- 
 senting the three tiers of the fortress, and an enemy 
 attacking the western towers from a cliff a hundred 
 feet above them, and making a breach in the position of 
 the great west window. In such a situation Cochrane 
 judged that he could make it difficult for the French to 
 carry the fortress by storm, even though he had no guns 
 wherewith to answer the fire of their breaching batteries. 
 On November 24th, pursuant to his promise, he 
 garrisoned the castle with fifty sailors and the whole of 
 his marines, and set to work to improve its defences 
 after his most original designs. It so happened that 
 just at the height where the breach was a-making was 
 the summit of a lofty interior arch, rising within the 
 tower to a height of fifty feet from the ground. 
 Cochrane broke in the crown of this arch, thus 
 creating a chasm to engulf any storming -party that 
 might mount the breach. Further, to make the 
 descent the easier he constructed a huge wooden 
 case, exactly like the hopper of a mill, at the 
 entrance of the chasm, greasing the upper part with 
 cook's slush, so that the enemy should not only
 
 1806-1809 AN ORIGINAL DEFENCE 57 
 
 be unable to retain a hold, but rather travel with the 
 greater velocity to the bottom. Once there, whether 
 killed or not by the fall, they were helpless, for they 
 could not get out. He then prepared trains for the 
 ignition of the magazines in case evacuation should be 
 forced upon him, and the first day's work was done. 
 
 Next day the French, greatly exasperated to find the 
 castle reinforced from the Imperieuse, erected an addi- 
 tional battery on the cliff above it ; and, firing always 
 with beautiful accuracy, succeeded in making first a hole 
 and then a breach in the tower. As fast as the French 
 knocked the masonry down the sailors piled the 
 fallen rubble up again, and being under shelter could 
 ply their task without danger. Cochrane, incau- 
 tiously exposing himself for a moment, was, however, 
 struck in the face by a stone splinter which, to use his 
 own description, literally forced his nose, which was a 
 prominent feature, back into the cavity of his mouth. 
 The wound caused him intolerable pain, but it did not 
 abate his zeal for the defence, and ultimately, by the 
 doctor's skill, the nose was restored to its original 
 prominence. Notwithstanding the repair of the breach 
 during the night, the French fire gained rapidly upon 
 the defenders, and Cochrane was obliged to think of 
 further defences against a sudden assault. He therefore 
 threw up interior barricades with palisades, barrels, 
 sand-bags, and so forth, and hung festoons of chains over 
 the hopper and elsewhere ; arming these chains, more- 
 over, with large fish-hooks in such sort that a man once 
 caught therein could hardly hope to escape before he 
 should be shot. The preparation of these obstacles 
 must have been a curious scene. To the old hands of
 
 58 DUNDONALD 
 
 the Speedy and the Pallas, who remembered the blackened 
 faces that took the Gamo and the trick that drove the 
 corvettes to suicide in the Garonne, these contrivances, 
 none the less effective because inspired by a kind of 
 schoolboy's love of mischief, must have been entertaining 
 enough; but it so happened that the garrison was on 
 that day reinforced by fifty Irishmen from the Spanish 
 army, who threw themselves into the humour of the 
 siege with true native appreciation, and were hugely 
 tickled with all that they saw about them. Not the 
 least comical element, we may guess, was the appear- 
 ance of the Commander -in -Chief, big, burly, and un- 
 defeated, with his nose crushed into his face and two 
 terrific black eyes. 
 
 So passed the two first days of the siege. On the 
 night of November 26th the French made a general 
 attack on the town, and after some hard fighting 
 carried it. The Imperieuse and the Fame, which 
 was also in the harbour, opened fire on the victorious 
 French, but failed to drive them out. Then came 
 the dawn of the 27th, and with it two thousand 
 Spanish troops from Gerona, characteristically too 
 late. Having secured the town, the French renewed 
 their efforts against the castle with such vigour that 
 Cochrane, having lost three men, began to doubt the 
 wisdom of prolonging the defence. The French fire, 
 however, slackened on the 28th, and it was not until 
 the 30th that the long-awaited assault was delivered. 
 Long before daylight on that morning Cochrane was 
 oppressed with a vague sense that all was not right in 
 the castle of Trinidad ; and finally, yielding to his 
 presentiment, he rose from his bed to satisfy himself
 
 1806-1809 THE FORTRESS ABANDONED 59 
 
 by a tour of inspection. All was quiet, and he felt, 
 as he says, ashamed of his weakness. A mortar, 
 ready loaded, lay in position pointing towards the 
 quarter from whence the attack must come ; and, 
 to divert his mind from the anxiety which tortured 
 him, Cochrane fired it. The answer was a volley of 
 musketry from the advancing enemy. Cochrane's 
 presentiment had been correct, and the time was come. 
 Gallantly enough the French planted their ladders and 
 swarmed up to the breach ; and then they stopped, for 
 the chasm of the man-trap, just visible in the coming 
 dawn, yawned wide before them. About forty of them 
 who had gained the summit were instantly shot down : 
 those below wavered for a moment, while the British 
 redoubled their fire ; and then the whole column, twelve 
 hundred strong, retreated in a body, leaving fifty of 
 their number dead behind them. They were scarcely 
 gone, when another column appeared, with drums 
 beating and colours flying, to be roughly handled in 
 their turn, and to retreat, leaving the British triumph- 
 ant. Cochrane had lost but three men killed in the 
 whole affair. 
 
 The French now erected new batteries to prevent the 
 boats of the Imperieuse from coming ashore, and con- 
 centrating all their efforts on the citadel, compelled 
 it to capitulate on December 4th. Next day Cochrane, 
 seeing that his retreat was now endangered, decided 
 reluctantly to abandon the fortress, remaining himself 
 until the last to fire the magazines. Unfortunately, 
 through some accident, only one of the trains took effect, 
 so that, instead of turning his back on a heap of ruins, 
 he had the mortification to see the French flag flying
 
 60 DUNDONALD CHAP, iv 
 
 on the remains of the castle which he had so gallantly 
 held. 
 
 It chanced that among the officers of the Imperieuse 
 who served at the defence of Rosas was a young 
 midshipman named Frederick Marryat, whom fate later 
 ordained to be the historian of the navy in the twenty 
 years' war with France. Although a novel cannot be 
 reckoned strictly speaking as historical authority, yet 
 there is in Frank Mildmay an anecdote of Cochrane so 
 characteristic and so evidently true that we shall 
 make no apology for transcribing it. The garrison 
 of Rosas was employed, under Cochrane's direction, 
 in burying the corpses of the French who had fallen 
 in the assault, when the enemy suddenly opened fire 
 upon them. "The captain [Cochrane] then ordered 
 his men to run into the castle, which they instantly 
 obeyed ; while he himself walked leisurely along through 
 a shower of musket-balls . . . As his aide-de-camp, I 
 [Marryat] felt bound in honour, as well as duty, to walk 
 by the side of my captain, fully expecting every moment 
 that a ball would hit me where I should have been 
 ashamed to show the scar. I thought this funeral pace, 
 after the funeral was over, confounded nonsense ; but my 
 fire-eating captain never had run away from a French- 
 man, and did not intend to begin then. I was behind 
 him, making these reflections; and, as the shot began 
 to fly very thick, I stepped up alongside of him and by 
 degrees brought him between me and the fire. 'Sir,' 
 said I, ' as I am only a midshipman, I do not care so 
 much about honour as you do ; and therefore, if it makes 
 no difference to you, I'll take the liberty of getting under 
 your lee.' He laughed and said, ' Mr. Mildmay, I did
 
 1806-1809 COLLINGWOOD'S PRAISE 61 
 
 not know you were here, for I meant that you should 
 have gone with the others ; but since you are out of 
 your station, Mr. Mildmay, I will make that use of you 
 which you so ingeniously proposed to make of me. 
 My life may be of some importance here, but yours 
 very little, and another midshipman can be had for the 
 ship only for asking ; so just drop astern, if you please, 
 and do duty as a breastwork for me.' " 
 
 For the rest, the defence of Rosas found high favour 
 with Collingwood, who, even before the receipt of Coch- 
 rane's report, wrote home warm commendation of " his 
 heroic spirit and ability " ; and added, with evident 
 admiration, that " his resources for every exigency seem 
 to have no end." The Admiralty, however, gave neither 
 praise nor reward ; and Cochrane's bitterness was natur- 
 ally still further increased. He does not seem to have 
 appreciated the value of eulogy from such a man as 
 Collingwood, nor to have reflected that the neglect of 
 the Admiralty was an insult to Collingwood no less than 
 an injury to himself. We must not forget, in listening 
 to the torrent of Cochrane's grievances, that Collingwood, 
 one of the noblest men that ever served in the British navy, 
 had borne, and was still bearing, always with pain but 
 never without patience, even more shameful treatment 
 at the hands of the Admiralty ; and that, as a crowning 
 indignity, the rewards that he had begged for his men, 
 and the promotion which he had implored for his officers, 
 had been refused after such an action as Trafalgar. 
 
 After leaving Rosas, the Imperieuse proceeded north- 
 ward to St. Philou, where Cochrane was entreated by 
 the Spanish commandant to come ashore and reconnoitre 
 the position of the French troops towards Gerona. It
 
 62 DUNDONALD CHAP, iv 
 
 was a singular request for a soldier to make of a naval 
 officer, but Cochrane's genius, as the Spaniards had 
 discovered, was not bounded by the sea. He went 
 ashore accordingly, decided that the strength of the 
 French position precluded all hope of successful attack, 
 gave what advice he could in the circumstances, and 
 sailed south again to Barcelona. There he arrived in time 
 to be present at an action fought on December 17th 
 between forty thousand Spaniards, strongly posted, and 
 ten thousand French who had marched to the relief of the 
 garrison. Assuming, with the simplicity which so often 
 puzzles us in a man of his insight, that the triumph of 
 the Spaniards was certain, he went ashore to be a 
 spectator of the victory. To his great surprise the 
 Spanish army fled and the Spanish general with it, 
 while he himself only with difficulty made good his 
 escape to the frigate. This experience seems to have 
 sickened him for the present of operations ashore ; and 
 he, therefore, returned to the more congenial occupation 
 of cutting off the French supplies at sea. On December 
 30th he received intelligence of a convoy of eleven 
 French vessels lying at anchor in Caldagues Bay, under 
 the protection of shore-batteries and of a large body of 
 troops. As the harbour was but half a mile wide, the 
 convoy could not be attacked without bringing the 
 Imperieuse within range of musketry ; but with Cochrane 
 such obstacles carried little weight. Standing into the 
 bay, the Imperieuse dealt first with the two small war- 
 vessels, a cutter of seven and a lugger of five guns, 
 which were in charge of the convoy. These were soon 
 sunk ; and then came the turn of the batteries on shore, 
 which had repeatedly struck the frigate during her
 
 1806-1809 A TERSE DESPATCH 63 
 
 action with the ships. A party was landed to make 
 a feint on the town, while a second party of sailors 
 and marines dashed in between the town and the 
 batteries. The French gunners, fearful, as Cochrane had 
 foreseen, of being cut off from their comrades in the 
 town, abandoned the batteries with all haste ; and the 
 British, without the loss of a man, brought off or destroyed 
 the nine guns, blew up the magazine, and carried off the 
 convoy in triumph. The following days were employed 
 in raising and repairing the sunken war-vessels, one of 
 which was presently to be sent to Collingwood with the 
 following account of the action. 2nd January 1809. 
 "My lord, having received information of two 
 French vessels of war, and a convoy of victuallers 
 for Barcelona being in this port, I have the honour 
 to inform your lordship that they are all amount- 
 ing to thirteen sail in our possession. The French 
 have been driven from the tower of Caldagues with 
 the loss of nine cannon, which they had mounted, 
 or were mounting, in the batteries." 
 
 Cochrane, it must be noted, is never terse with his 
 pen, except in making official report of his own exploits. 
 Collingwood forwarded the letter to the Admiralty, with 
 a brief comment that, from him, signified very much : 
 " His lordship's good services in aid of the Spaniards and 
 in annoyance of the enemy could not be exceeded." 
 
 The rest of the month of January was employed 
 in eternally harassing the French troops, and de- 
 molishing of the French batteries wherever they 
 could be reached on the coast. The mere tale of 
 guns captured, or destroyed, in these forays must be 
 reckoned by the score ; and though it was not often
 
 64 DUNDONALD CHAP, iv 
 
 practicable to inflict on the French great loss of men, yet 
 occasionally large bodies of troops were brought within 
 range of the frigate's guns and not suffered to escape 
 without serious damage. It is well known that the 
 gunnery of the English navy won for it its victories in 
 this long war, but that of the Imperieuse was evidently of 
 peculiar excellence. The most notable fact, however, in 
 the history of these operations is that Cochrane accom- 
 plished all this mischief with never more than trifling 
 loss, and, as a rule, with no loss whatever. Eeckless 
 even to bravado of his own life, he was scrupulously 
 careful of his men, husbanding them with truly Scottish 
 thrift ; and thus he was able always to dispense with re- 
 inforcements, and to preserve the independence of his 
 command. 
 
 From the continued sequence of his success he now 
 aspired to higher things. If he could hold large bodies 
 of French troops paralysed on their coast with a single 
 frigate, and this, by Collingwood's willing admission, he 
 had done, what might he not accomplish with a squadron 
 of three or four ? To such a command he held himself 
 to be now entitled ; and, accordingly, he resolved to go 
 home and obtain it. The ostensible reason that he gave 
 for his return was the necessity of recruiting his health, 
 which might well have suffered under the wear and tear 
 of the past few months ; but the more urgent motive, 
 by his own confession, was a desire to return to his 
 place in the House of Commons and expose the flagrant 
 dishonesty and peculations of the Mediterranean 
 Admiralty Courts. In other words, he designed to call 
 attention to the neglect and ill-treatment from which he 
 had suffered, and to obtain what satisfaction he could.
 
 1806-1809 OFFICIAL INGRATITUDE 65 
 
 He had prepared a plan of operations against the French 
 on their Mediterranean seaboard, a plan which, as he 
 to the last maintained, would, if adopted, have accom- 
 plished far more cheaply and effectually the results 
 achieved by the Peninsular War. If the Government 
 would give him a squadron wherewith to prosecute it, well 
 and good ; he would take the command and do his best. 
 If not, he had an armful of abuses and grievances ready, 
 and would make things unpleasant for the Government. 
 Above all, if it were humanly possible, he would com- 
 bine injury both to the Government and the French. 
 Such, as may easily be seen from a careful perusal of 
 his own narrative, were his plans for the future. We 
 shall presently see, when the choice was offered to him 
 between harassing the Government and harassing the 
 French, which occupation he in his heart preferred. 
 
 After rejoining Admiral Thornborough's squadron 
 for a short time on January 30th, he obtained the 
 necessary leave to return home. So far, in spite of 
 Collingwood's commendations, he had received no word 
 of thanks or praise, only a rebuke for having expended 
 more sails, stores, and ammunition than any other 
 captain in the service. Such a reception was enough to 
 sicken the heart of any man who was conscious that he 
 had done good work ; but, after all, clerks are clerks, and 
 remain clerks to all generations. It is not so very long 
 since the commander of one of the regiments which were 
 cut to pieces at Maiwand was officially asked to explain 
 why he had not returned into store the cases of the 
 cartridges expended in the action. More recently still 
 a British battalion was sent to chastise an Indian hill- 
 tribe ; an expedition which, though full of fatigue and 
 
 F
 
 66 DUNDONALD CHAP, iv 
 
 hardship, was so skilfully managed that the hillmen were 
 brought to their knees at the cost of a single British soldier 
 killed. The battalion was rewarded with the privilege of 
 replacing its ruined clothing and equipment at its own 
 expense. Still there is always the clerk's side of the 
 question to be considered, even in an office so corrupt 
 as the Admiralty of those days; but this, unhappily, 
 Cochrane was never able to see. It was with a heart 
 full of bitterness against the Admiralty and all its clerks 
 that he returned, to learn from the lips of the First Lord 
 that his time at last was come.
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 AIX ROADS 
 1809 
 
 ON March 21st, 1809, very shortly after his arrival 
 at Plymouth, Cochrane received a cordial letter from 
 Lord Mulgrave, the First Lord of the Admiralty, inviting 
 him to give advice as to a certain great enterprise then 
 pending. The letter was immediately followed by an 
 urgent summons to Whitehall. The explanation of this 
 unusual stir was as follows. Early in the year Lord 
 Gambier had been appointed to command the squadron 
 blockading the French fleet in Brest. Towards the end 
 of February, however, the French had contrived to slip 
 out unobserved, without leaving the slightest clue to 
 their destination. Gambier then returned to Plymouth, 
 sending Admiral Duckworth to hunt for the French. 
 Duckworth sailed first to Cadiz and thence to Madeira, 
 but could find no trace of the enemy at either port. 
 It was then discovered that the French had first 
 set free the squadron which was under blockade at 
 L'Orient, had next proceeded to the Isle d'Aix, where 
 they had liberated the Eochefort squadron, and had then 
 prepared to sail with their united strength to the West 
 Indies. Finding, however, that Admiral Stopf ord, though
 
 68 DUNDONALD 
 
 with a fleet of but half their own strength, was near them, 
 they put back first into Basque Roads and then into Aix 
 Roads, where they were blockaded, first by Stopford 
 with seven, and later by Gambier with twelve sail of the 
 line, besides smaller vessels. Such was the state of affairs 
 when Cochrane anchored at Plymouth. The attempt of 
 the French to sail to the West Indies, though for the 
 present foiled by the vigilance of Stopford, gave the 
 British Government great uneasiness. The British fleet 
 was weary of blockading ; and, at best, a fleet blockaded 
 is not a fleet destroyed. Cochrane, after reconnaissance 
 of a French fleet in these same Aix Eoads three years 
 before, had written the words, "They may easily be 
 burned." The Admiralty consulted various officers as 
 to the employment, therein hinted at, of fire-ships ; but 
 had received from all a discouraging reply. Lord 
 Gambier wrote that it was "a horrible and unchristian 
 mode of warfare," and that the enterprise was " hazardous 
 if not desperate." In truth the navy was not enamoured 
 of fire-ships ; even such men as Collingwood abominated 
 them. They were ranked in the same category with 
 rockets, as a weapon little less dangerous to friend than 
 foe. Still the Admiralty was so firmly determined upon 
 an attack by fire-ships that it warned Gambier to expect 
 the arrival of suitable vessels and combustibles, and then 
 turned to Cochrane, who had originally suggested the 
 plan, to take charge of its execution. Thus his great 
 ambition, to be consulted by the chief of his department 
 on a great naval operation, was fulfilled at last. 
 
 On his arrival at the Admiralty Lord Mulgrave laid 
 the adverse opinion of Lord Gambier before him, and 
 then asked him point-blank to detail the original scheme
 
 COUNTRY OR PARTY! 69 
 
 prepared in 1806, or any other that he might now prefer 
 to it. Cochrane parried the request by observing that as 
 so many of his seniors had pronounced against an attack 
 by fire-ships, the adoption of his suggestions could not 
 fail to place him in an invidious position. Lord Mul- 
 grave overruled the objection at once. " This is no 
 time," he said in effect, "for professional etiquette. The 
 Admiralty is bent on striking a decisive blow before the 
 French fleet can find an opportunity of slipping away to 
 the West Indies. Lord Gambier declines to take the 
 responsibility for the attack, and the Government is not 
 prepared to take the risk of failure." On this Cochrane, 
 by his own admission, made up his mind to have nothing 
 to do with the execution of the plan ; not because he 
 had the least misgiving as to its success, but because it 
 was clear to him that the Ministers wanted above all 
 things a victory, and that the admiral of their choice 
 had told them plainly that he would not be answerable 
 for the failure of their chosen design. In plain words, 
 he was unwilling to destroy the French fleet lest he 
 should benefit the Tory party ; as if the matter were 
 not far more of national than of ministerial import, and 
 as if the Ministry had not risen above party considera- 
 tions by inviting its bitterest opponent to perform a 
 great national service. He therefore detailed his plan 
 at length, and left it freely at the disposal of the Admir- 
 alty, but declined to put it personally into execution ; 
 alleging, for one reason, that he was unwilling to incur 
 professional jealousy, and, for another, that the state of 
 his health imperatively demanded repose. 
 
 For that day the matter ended there, but on the 
 morrow Lord Mulgrave sent for Cochrane again, and said
 
 70 DUNDONALD CHAP, v 
 
 to him plainly : " My lord, you must go. I will make 
 it all right with Lord Gambier. Your own confidence 
 in the result, I confess, took me by surprise, but it has 
 increased my belief that all that you anticipate will be 
 accomplished. Make yourself easy about the jealous 
 feeling of senior officers ; I will so manage it that the 
 amour propre of the fleet shall be satisfied." Cochrane 
 asked for time to think the matter over, and wrote again 
 to Lord Mulgrave declining the command, but at the 
 same time adding, that it had ever been a maxim with 
 him not to shrink from duty to his country, under any 
 circumstances however disadvantageous to himself ; and 
 that if officers, his seniors, could not be found to put the 
 project into execution, he would waive his objections. 
 Lord Mulgrave construed this reply as equivalent to an 
 acceptance of the command of the attack, and he was 
 right. For the time patriotism and love of active service 
 had prevailed in Cochrane over hatred of the Government. 
 The matter being settled, preparations were energetic- 
 ally pushed forward ; and Cochrane, without waiting for 
 the craft that were to serve as fire-ships, sailed with 
 the Imperieuse to Aix Roads. He was hardly gone when 
 a second letter reached the Admiralty from Gambier, 
 still declining responsibility for the proposed attack, and 
 raising new objections wholly irreconcilable with his first 
 letter. In fact, Gambier not only hated the very name 
 of fire-ships, but, though approved by previous actions a 
 gallant officer, he had now lost his nerve, and shrank 
 from the responsibility of taking any vigorous step what- 
 ever. Cochrane, however, was the bearer of a letter 
 which was imperative as to the attack ; and Gambier, to 
 do him justice, received it with a good grace. He wel-
 
 i8og A DISCONTENTED FLEET 71 
 
 corned Cochrane on his arrival with great civility, laid 
 the Admiralty's letter before him without reserve, and 
 in general showed him both loyalty and goodwill. But 
 the fleet was not so well pleased. "Why," asked 
 every one, " was Cochrane sent out ? We were ready ; 
 why did not the Admiral let us do it 1 " Matters reached 
 a climax when Admiral Harvey, the second in com- 
 mand, came on board the flagship and abused Lord 
 Gambier to his face, on his own quarterdeck, in a 
 fashion that is almost incredible ; and indeed Harvey 
 was shortly afterwards dismissed the service for his 
 language on this occasion. While disclaiming all personal 
 feeling against Cochrane, he said that his appointment 
 to this duty was an insult to the fleet ; he had himself 
 volunteered to perform the service, and if any officer 
 were preferred to himself, he would strike his flag and 
 resign his command so soon as the affair was over. Then 
 came a furious invective against Gambier as the most 
 useless Commander-in- Chief ever seen, and the biting 
 conclusion that if Nelson had been there he would not 
 have anchored in Basque Eoads at all, but would have 
 gone in straight at the enemy. 
 
 This was not a pleasant beginning for Cochrane. 
 He blamed Lord Mulgrave for not fulfilling his under- 
 taking to satisfy the amour propre of the fleet ; but he 
 must have known that Lord Mulgrave, in making so 
 foolish a promise, had bound himself to a task beyond 
 the power of any man. The truth is that Gambier's fleet 
 was in a very unsatisfactory state. Though lacking 
 nerve to risk the lives of his men, the Admiral was in- 
 ordinately busy as to the salvation of their souls ; being, 
 in fact, a Low-Churchman of the aggressive type. That
 
 72 DUNDONALD 
 
 this, or indeed any monomania, should have claimed its 
 victims in the fleet during the weary blockades and 
 interminable cruises of the great war is perhaps not 
 surprising; but in Gambier's case it was a great mis- 
 fortune. " I don't like your preaching soldier," said 
 Napoleon ; and, Cromwell and Gordon notwithstanding, 
 Napoleon was probably right. Gambier in Basque Roads 
 was unfortunately all Bible and no sword. Naturally 
 he distributed his patronage to such as professed like 
 feelings with himself : naturally unscrupulous men sought 
 to gain his favour by affecting to share his religious 
 prejudices ; and naturally honest men, of what faith so- 
 ever, objected to religious orthodoxy as a road to naval 
 preferment. The result was that the fleet's efficiency 
 was greatly impaired by division into two bitterly hostile 
 factions ; while Gambier, when he should have been 
 beating the French, was ordering musters of ships' com- 
 panies for catechetical examination, and sending tracts 
 to the captains for distribution to the crews. Cochrane, 
 on receiving his tale of tracts, declined to issue one of 
 them to his men, but sent specimens to Cobbett together 
 with a description of the schism in the fleet. Cobbett's 
 vigorous pen, of course, turned such material to telling 
 account; and hereby Cochrane added yet more to the 
 number of his enemies within the service and without. 
 From one Avhose health imperatively demanded repose, 
 and whose feelings shrank from provoking the ill-will 
 of his seniors, this letter to Cobbett seems a little ill- 
 timed. 
 
 The divisions in the fleet were yet in a sense favour- 
 able to Cochrane, in forcing him to depend on himself, 
 no small gain to a man who worked best single-handed.
 
 1809 THE INFERNAL VESSEL 73 
 
 On the very evening of his arrival he reconnoitred the 
 French fleet in Aix Eoads, and, this done, urged Lord 
 Gambier not to wait for fire-ships from England, but 
 to utilise for the purpose some transports which by 
 chance were lying at the British anchorage. Gambier 
 gladly consented, and Cochrane, leaving the equipment 
 of the fire-ships to others, gave the whole of his own 
 attention to the fitting of explosion-vessels ; for his plan 
 was not that of a mere attack by fire-ships, but by fire- 
 ships preceded by floating mines. The floors of these 
 explosion- vessels were first strengthened by logs wedged 
 together as tightly as possible, so as to present the 
 maximum of resistance. On these were placed old casks 
 filled with fifteen hundred barrels of gunpoAvder, all 
 tightly bound round with hempen cables ; and on these 
 again were laid several hundred shells covered, in their 
 turn, by about three thousand hand-grenades. The whole 
 was finally compressed into a solid mass by means of 
 wedges and sand, and therewith the infernal vessel was 
 complete. 
 
 On the 10th of April the vessels designed for fire- 
 ships arrived from England, and Cochrane forthwith 
 pressed Lord Gambier to permit the attack to be made 
 on that same night. Here is a beautiful instance of the 
 delicate detail of his combinations. The French could have 
 no doubt as to the purpose for which the newly-arrived 
 vessels were designed, and would be sure on the morrow 
 to make preparations to receive them ; but they would 
 never dream that other fire-ships had already been pro- 
 vided, and would feel safe enough at least for that night. 
 Lord Gambier, however, refused his consent on the 
 ground that the fire-ships might perhaps be boarded, and
 
 74 DUNDONALD 
 
 their crews murdered by the French. It is a sorry task 
 to make an omelette for one who recoils from the breakage 
 of eggs. In vain Cochrane represented that an explosion- 
 vessel, under his own command, would sail in advance 
 of the fire-ships and take the most perilous place ; and 
 that he was not only himself prepared to run the risk, 
 but could count upon two volunteers not belonging to 
 the fleet, Lieutenant Bissel and his brother Basil, who, 
 though no more than his guests, were ready to accom- 
 pany him. Gambier's only reply was that if Cochrane 
 chose to rush on self-destruction that was his own affair, 
 but that he, as Admiral, would not allow the crews of 
 the fire-ships to be placed in palpable danger. A great 
 opportunity, on which Cochrane's foresight had counted, 
 was therefore lost. The French now struck their top- 
 masts and unbent the sails of their line-of-battle ships, 
 so as to leave no inflammable matter aloft, armed and 
 stationed their boats (seventy-three in number) to tow 
 off attacking fire-ships, and altered the formation of the 
 fleet itself. The line-of-battle ships, ten in all, were dis- 
 posed in a double line, with four frigates half a mile in 
 front of them ; while covering the whole was a gigantic 
 boom, forming two sides of a triangle, with the apex point- 
 ing towards the British fleet. Each wing of this boom was 
 half a mile long, and the structure itself was formed of 
 large spars, moored at intervals along the whole length 
 by heavy anchors. So confident were the French of 
 their security that they dressed their fleet with flags to 
 show their contempt of the British. 
 
 On the llth of April the wind blew hard into 
 the roads with a heavy sea; and as weather made 
 little difference to Cochrane's plans, and the tide was
 
 1809 A NIGHT ATTACK 75 
 
 favourable, he obtained Lord Gambler's permission to 
 make his attack on that night. The Imperieuse then 
 moved up within the roads, and anchored at a point 
 about three miles distant from the French fleet, with 
 the Aigle, Unicorn, and Pallas frigates close at hand; 
 while Lord Gambier with the fleet remained in their 
 original position, some eight miles from the Imperieuse. 
 At nightfall the officers in command of fire-ships as- 
 sembled on board the flagship to receive their last instruc- 
 tions. Three explosion-vessels, in all, had been made 
 ready ; whereof one was held in reserve and made fast 
 to the stern of the Imperieuse, a second was placed under 
 the charge of a Lieutenant Johnson with Marryat as his 
 assistant, and the third and greatest was commanded 
 by Cochrane in person, accompanied by Lieutenant 
 Bissel and a crew of four volunteers. It was nearly 
 nine o'clock when he put off silently through the dark- 
 ness to the attack. The wind had now increased to a 
 gale, and the tide was flowing fast, so that the huge 
 floating torpedo soon reached the estimated position of 
 the advanced French frigates. The night was dark as 
 pitch, and nothing could be seen : Marryat's ship, in fact, 
 ran full tilt on to the boom before those aboard her 
 knew where they were ; but Cochrane, judging his time 
 and position as best he might, presently ordered Bissel 
 and his four men into the gig, and kindled the port-fires 
 with his own hand. Then jumping into the boat, he 
 bade the men pull for their lives. Pull they did, and 
 with a will, for the fuses were reckoned to burn but 
 twelve minutes, and wind and tide were now against 
 the boat. With all their efforts, they made but little 
 way. We can imagine the awful flight of the minutes in
 
 76 DUNDONALD CHAP, v 
 
 that desperate struggle against gale and flood. Five 
 minutes were past, six minutes, and then came a gigantic 
 flash and a roar. The fuses had played them false, and 
 the great floating mine was fired. The sky above them 
 blazed scarlet with the glare ; the air around them was 
 alive with shells, rockets, grenades, and the timbers of 
 the shattered vessel; the water seethed with spars shaken 
 from the boom ; and behind them the sea rose in a huge 
 wave, which suddenly lifted the boat on its crest and as 
 suddenly dropped it into a vast trough, upon which the 
 waters closed like a whirlpool. Nevertheless the skill 
 of the boat's crew availed to pluck them in a few 
 minutes from their peril, and then all once more was 
 silence and darkness, and the little forlorn hope could 
 pull back in peace over the angry, bubbling waters to the 
 lights of the Imperieuse. Presently the scene was lit up 
 once more ; two fire-ships passed the boat, and sped in 
 full blaze over the spot where the boom had been 
 moored, a salutary sign; another passed, the Mediator, 
 not yet kindled, steering for the French fleet ; and then 
 rose the roar of guns from the French line -of -bat tie 
 ships, firing in the direction of the explosion, and there- 
 fore on their own advanced frigates. Evidently there 
 was confusion among the enemy. 
 
 On returning to the Imperieuse for his second explo- 
 sion-vessel, Cochrane found, to his great vexation, that 
 she had been cut adrift, a fire-ship having come down 
 on her instead of on the enemy, and that the Imperieuse 
 herself had narrowly escaped destruction. Indeed the 
 fire-ships, for the most part, were grossly mismanaged, so 
 much so that out of twenty only four reached the 
 enemy's position, and even these did no damage. But
 
 I&&9 PANIC OF THE FRENCH 77 
 
 this was comparatively speaking a small matter, for 
 Cochrane had reckoned upon them to spread not so 
 much destruction as panic. If, he had argued, the 
 attack be opened by explosion-vessels and followed up 
 by fire-ships, the French will certainly take every fire- 
 ship for an explosion -vessel, and will be afraid to go 
 near them. As usual he was right. The glare of the 
 burning vessels showed that the enemy's fleet was in 
 hopeless confusion, though no one could yet guess how 
 terrible had been the panic among them. When the 
 morning of the 12th of April dawned, thirteen French 
 ships lay helplessly aground. They had cut their cables 
 in panic terror, and lay now, by the fall of the tide, on 
 their bilges, with their bottoms exposed to shot, defence- 
 less, at the mercy of Lord Gambier. 
 
 At six o'clock Cochrane, perceiving the hopeless 
 situation of the ships nearest to him, signalled to inform 
 the Admiral. The signal was responded to by the 
 answering pennant, that is to say, to use the language 
 of correspondence, by a bare acknowledgment of re- 
 ceipt. An hour later he signalled, "All the enemy's 
 ships but two are aground." Again the answering 
 pennant was hoisted, but the fleet remained motionless. 
 Reflecting that the Admiral, twelve miles away from 
 the scene of action, could not be aware of the real state 
 of affairs, he signalled, "The enemy's ships can be de- 
 stroyed," then again, "Half the fleet can destroy the 
 enemy," and finally, " The frigates alone can destroy the 
 enemy"; but always and unchangeably came for sole 
 reply the answering pennant. It was now nine o'clock ; 
 the tide was rising, and the French were busy lightening 
 their ships, even by the sacrifice of their guns, in order
 
 78 DUNDONALD CHAP, v 
 
 to get them afloat. Cochrane made a last signal, " The 
 enemy is preparing to heave off," got up his anchor, and 
 moved the Imperieuse closer to the French, anchoring 
 again just out of range of a battery on the Isle d'Oleron, 
 At eleven o'clock, the fleet weighed, and Cochrane 
 thought that at last the Admiral had made up his mind 
 to attack; but, to his amazement, the fleet dropped 
 anchor again while still seven or eight miles distant from 
 the French fleet, and a single bomb- vessel alone was sent 
 forward to bombard the stranded ships. 
 
 Seeing plainly that Gambier would not attack of his 
 own will, Cochrane resolved to force him. Noon was 
 past; one French three-decker, the Ocean, was already 
 afloat, and four others were straining every nerve to 
 heave off. Cochrane quietly hove the anchor of the 
 Imperieuse atrip, and without venturing to make sail 
 lest he should be recalled, drifted in stern-foremost on 
 the tide with his solitary frigate to the attack. Passing 
 by the forts out of range, he made sail to engage the 
 nearest French vessel that seemed about to escape, and 
 signalled " In want of assistance " ; but being fired at 
 by one of the stranded ships, the Calcutta, he anchored 
 in such a position as to pour his broadside into her, and 
 at the same time to play with his bow-guns on the sterns 
 of two more stranded vessels, the Aquilon and Varsovie. 
 Then, at last, ships began to arrive from the British fleet, 
 the Valiant and Revenge, seventy-fours, and the Unicorn, 
 Aigle, Indefatigable, and Pallas frigates. Marryat has 
 drawn a fine picture of the approach of one of these 
 line-of-battle ships; how she took up her position and 
 anchored with beautiful accuracy under the fire of the 
 forts; and how when sails had been furled and yards
 
 1809 CAPTAIN SEYMOUR 79 
 
 squared as carefully as though she were at Spithead, the 
 men came down from aloft to their guns, and poured in 
 a fire which would have delighted Nelson's heart. 
 Before the reinforcements had arrived, the Calcutta was 
 abandoned by her officers and crew, and boarded by a 
 boat from the Imperieuse. At half -past three the Imperieuse 
 ceased firing, the men being thoroughly exhaiisted, and 
 Cochrane himself hardly able to stand from fatigue. 
 The rest of the ships continued the action, and before 
 dusk the Aquilon and Varsovie, line-of-battle ships, were 
 captured, while the Tonnerre, a seventy-four, was aban- 
 doned and set on fire by her crew. The Calcutta was 
 also set on fire, and with the explosion of her magazine, 
 the day's work came to an end. 
 
 Before daybreak on the following day a signal was 
 made for the recall of the British ships that had taken 
 part in the action. They therefore got under way at 
 four o'clock, having first set fire to the Aquilon and 
 Varsovie. But there were still two French ships aground, 
 namely, the Foudroyant and the Cassard, which, though 
 they had escaped the fate of all the rest in the 
 first panic of the explosion, had tried to run up the 
 Charente, when the English came down, and were now 
 stranded in the channel. These Cochrane determined, 
 in spite of the signal, to attack. As the Indefatigable 
 passed him on her way back to the Admiral, he hailed 
 her captain to ask if he would stand by him; but 
 the appeal was either unheard or unnoticed. Captain 
 Seymour, however, of the Pallas (the same Captain Sey- 
 mour whom we met before in the Kingfisher} took the 
 initiative by asking if he should stand by the Imperieuse; 
 and therewith the Pallas anchored, and four brigs
 
 80 DUNDONALD 
 
 followed her example. Every effort was then made 
 to repair the Imperieuse, which had suffered not a little 
 from the fire of the Calcutta on the previous day, and 
 make her ready for speedy action; while the Foudroijant 
 and Cassard, having thrown everything overboard, were 
 pressing sail to escape up the Charente. But before 
 anything could be done, the signal for recall was 
 repeated from theflagship. "The enemy canbe destroyed," 
 answered Cochrane. No notice was taken of his signal, 
 but presently a boat brought him a letter from the 
 Admiral. "You have done your part so admirably, 
 that I will not suffer you to tarnish it by attempting 
 impossibilities," it began ; and it ended, first, with an 
 order for Cochrane to rejoin the fleet as soon as possible, 
 that he might help in the preparation of despatches; 
 secondly, with an intimation that five small vessels had 
 been despatched to join him, if he should choose to 
 make further attempts on the stranded ships; and 
 thirdly, with another order to come back to the flag- 
 ship so soon as the tide turned. What was to be done 
 with such a Commander-in-Chief 1 Cochrane construed 
 the letter as giving him the option of attacking if he 
 chose. " We can destroy the ships that are on shore," 
 he wrote, "which I hope your lordship will approve 
 of." 
 
 So the 1 3th of April was wasted in inaction ; but the 
 dawn of the 14th found the enemy in the same position. 
 Three of them were unloading their guns into lighters, 
 so that their destruction could be accomplished by the 
 smallest vessel; but again the signal for recall was flying 
 from the flagship. In vain Cochrane signalled for per- 
 mission to attack; the recall repeated was the only
 
 i8o9 AN IMPOSSIBLE CHIEF 81 
 
 answer. Then came a second letter from Lord Gambler, 
 to say that he must insist on seeing Cochrane before he 
 closed his despatches, and had therefore sent an officer to 
 relieve him in his present service. Once again there was 
 an ambiguous sentence : " I wish you to join me as soon 
 as possible, that you may convey Sir Harry Neale (flag- 
 captain) to England, who will be charged with my 
 despatches, or you may return to the service where you 
 are." There was, however, a direct order to return, 
 which could not be disobeyed ; and Cochrane accordingly 
 repaired on board the flagship. Then ensued a stormy 
 scene. He told the Admiral that the hesitation in 
 destroying the helpless ships ashore could only be 
 explained by the fact that he had been employed in 
 preference to senior officers in the original attack ; and 
 he therefore begged him as a friend, for the honour of 
 the fleet, to send in Admiral Stopford, of whom there 
 could be no possible jealousy, to finish the work. 
 Gambier was not a little taken aback by this abrupt 
 address, and not unpardonably showed his displeasure. 
 He himself had never been within six miles of the scene 
 of action, and being evidently under the impression that 
 all was going as well as possible, he could not understand 
 that any one should be discontented. " If," he answered, 
 "you throw blame upon what has been done, it will 
 appear like arrogantly claiming all the merit to your- 
 self." Cochrane assured him that he had no such idea, 
 and that he had no wish but to accomplish the destruc- 
 tion of the French fleet, with which he had been entrusted 
 by the Admiralty. Lord Gambier, thereupon, cut matters 
 short by giving him written orders to convey Sir Harry 
 Neale immediately to England with despatches ; and on 
 
 G
 
 82 DUNDONALD CHAP, v 
 
 the following morning, accordingly, the Imperieuse sailed 
 for Plymouth. 
 
 Such, by Cochrane's own account, was the close of his 
 share in the action of Aix Roads, or, as it is more com- 
 monly miscalled, Basque Roads. That a man coming 
 red-hot out of action, strung to a high pitch after three 
 days of incessant labour and excitement, and filled with 
 all the bitterness of a great opportunity lost, should have 
 spoken hastily and rashly to a supine commander-in- 
 chief is no matter for surprise, and hardly perhaps 
 in the circumstances matter for blame. If Gambier had 
 had his deserts, he would have been dismissed the service. 
 It was not only practicable but easy for him to have 
 annihilated the French fleet, but he deliberately neglected 
 to do so. It is certain that, but for Cochrane's daring ini- 
 tiative in the Imperieuse, he would not have followed up 
 the attack of the fire-ships at all. Whether it was want 
 of nerve, or weakness of character, or sheer ignorance of 
 the operations which he was conducting, or a combina- 
 tion of all three that dictated his extraordinary apathy 
 it is impossible to say. French naval historians have 
 summed up his conduct in the single contemptuous word 
 mollesse ; and to that mollesse, and to nothing else, they 
 ascribe the escape of their fleet from annihilation, for, 
 by their own confession, the panic that followed the 
 explosion of Cochrane's floating mine was simply inde- 
 scribable. The general feeling in the British fleet, also, 
 was not kindly towards Gambier ; it had been sore when 
 Cochrane arrived to do the Admiral's duty for him, but 
 it was furious when the Admiral failed to follow up 
 Cochrane's success. As for Cochrane, he was beside him- 
 self. It is true that, though it was no fault of his,
 
 AN IMPERFECT VICTORY 83 
 
 neither fire-ships nor explosion-vessels had actually done 
 the harm that was expected of them, for not a flame 
 of the one nor a projectile of the other had even 
 touched the enemy. But, on the other hand, the 
 panic upon which he had counted had been far more 
 destructive than either, if Gambier would but have 
 allowed his captains to do the work as they were 
 ready to do it. It would seem as though Gambier had 
 accepted Cochrane's mission as a matter outside his 
 province, and his operations as to be performed irre- 
 spective of the fleet ; and hence the sting of Cochrane's 
 heated phrase, that the destruction of the enemy's fleet 
 had been entrusted to him, a post- captain, by the 
 Admiralty. Nevertheless all would yet have gone well 
 with Cochrane but for his own folly. 
 
 NOTE. It is perhaps worth while to note that an exact precedent 
 for Cochrane's attack is to be found in the destruction of the bridge 
 thrown by Alexander of Parma over the Scheldt at the siege of 
 Antwerp in 1585. The projector was an Italian named Gianibelli. 
 (Motley's History oftJie United Netherlands, ch. v.)
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 THE GAMBIER COURT-MARTIAL PARLIAMENT THE 
 STOCK EXCHANGE TRIAL 
 
 1809-1817 
 
 ON his arrival in England Cochrane was deservedly 
 received by the public as a hero, and was presently 
 rewarded by the Government with the knighthood of 
 the Bath, a distinction rarely conferred in those days 
 upon a captain. Lord Gambier's despatch, though 
 utterly misleading in most respects, was highly com- 
 plimentary to his services ; and indeed it may be 
 questioned whether the Admiral's mistakes were not 
 due rather to ignorance than to malice. Thus the 
 credit of leading the attack and of breaking the boom 
 was attributed to the captain of the fire-ship Mediator, 
 which was foolish as well as untrue; but Cochrane's 
 advance in the Imperieuse was described as a service 
 "which could not be exceeded by any feat of valour 
 hitherto achieved by the British navy." The Govern- 
 ment was, of course, delighted on all grounds with the 
 victory, which virtually extinguished French resist- 
 ance at sea. Moreover, in addition to the four ships 
 destroyed on the 12th of April, another had been 
 wrecked and a sixth burned by its crew since Cochrane's
 
 1809-1817 A FALSE STEP 85 
 
 return to England. The Ministry therefore decided to 
 ask Parliament for a vote of thanks to Gambier and his 
 fleet. 
 
 Then Cochrane did a very unwise thing. He went 
 to Lord Mulgrave and told him that as a Member of 
 Parliament he felt it to be his duty to oppose the vote 
 of thanks, on the ground that Lord Gambier, so far from 
 having earned thanks, had neglected his duty in failing 
 to destroy the entire French fleet. Lord Mulgrave 
 naturally entreated him to abstain from such a proceed- 
 ing alike for his own sake and for the sake of every one, 
 assuring him, at the same time, that his name would be 
 included in the vote of thanks and full justice done to 
 him for his share in the success. Cochrane would hear 
 nothing of this. His duty to his constituents, he said, 
 forbade his acquiescence in a public misrepresentation. 
 As a naval officer he offered no comment on Lord 
 Gambier's conduct, but as member for Westminster 
 he condemned it. Lord Mulgrave at once tore this 
 s'ophism to shreds, telling him plainly that the public 
 would not discriminate between Cochrane the post- 
 captain and Cochrane the Member of Parliament. 
 Shortly after Lord Mulgrave again sent for him, and 
 again warned him of the storm that he would raise 
 about his own head, adding, fairly enough : " If you 
 are on service you cannot be in your place in Parlia- 
 ment. Now, my lord, I will put under your orders 
 three frigates, with carte blanche to do whatever you 
 please on the enemy's coast in the Mediterranean. I 
 will further get you permission to go to Sicily and 
 embark on board your squadron my own regiment, 
 which is stationed there. You know how to make use
 
 86 DUNDONALD CHAP, vi 
 
 of them." Then Cochrane made the greatest mistake of 
 his life. He said that the country would construe his 
 acceptance of the offer as a bribe to hold his peace, 
 and there and then declined. It is such perversity as 
 this that drives Cochrane's warmest admirers to despair. 
 If on public grounds he disapproved (as he well might) 
 of Lord Gambier's conduct on service, the straightforward 
 course, however invidious, was to prosecute him before 
 a court-martial ; not to attack him before an inexpert 
 body like the House of Commons, where the accused 
 could have no opportunity of defending himself, and the 
 tribunal was utterly incompetent to pronounce judgment. 
 If, again, he wished to do the greatest possible service to 
 his country, his obvious duty was to accept the command 
 offered to him, the very object which he had hoped to 
 gain when he had left the Mediterranean only a few 
 weeks before, and beat the French till they could stand 
 no more. And this was the course prescribed not less 
 by wisdom than by patriotism. With a squadron and 
 a small land-force he could have rendered such service 
 and achieved such reputation as would have enabled him 
 to dictate his own terms to Admiralty and Ministry 
 alike. He would have been stronger in his power to 
 abolish abuses, remedy grievances, and institute reforms 
 than a dozen members of the House of Commons. But 
 the truth is that Cochrane was, for the moment, less 
 intent on defeating the French than on embarrassing 
 the Government. Though he might disclaim personal 
 feeling against Gambier as a naval officer, he showed, 
 and indeed took no pains to conceal, his personal 
 animus against the Government as a politician. 
 
 Lord Gambier, on hearing of Cochrane's intentions,
 
 1809-1817 A DISHONEST TRIAL 87 
 
 naturally demanded a court-martial ; and the Admiralty 
 then called upon Cochrane to state the grounds of his 
 objection to the vote of thanks. This request he inter- 
 preted as an invitation to become prosecutor in the court- 
 martial ; which in truth was the only position that he 
 could logically assume, and that which, if his action were 
 prompted by zeal for the service, he should have originally 
 undertaken. He evaded the issue by referring the 
 Admiralty to the log-books of the fleet as containing 
 incriminatory matter sufficient; an answer which cost 
 him dear. 
 
 The court-martial now resolved itself into a trial of 
 strength between Cochrane and the Government. With 
 incredible thoughtlessness, and worse than thoughtless- 
 ness, he had elected to fight his battle as a politician 
 instead of as a naval expert, and thereby given his 
 adversaries the choice of weapons. The issue being 
 not naval but political, the Government stuck at no 
 shift, however shameful, to ensure victory. Gambler's 
 defence of his inaction rested on three principal points ; 
 that the safety of the fleet would have been imperilled 
 by the fire of the French shore -batteries, by want 
 of water for secure navigation, and by the fire of the 
 stranded vessels. As Gambier in his first letter had 
 described the batteries to be no obstacle ; as, moreover, 
 the French charts showed abundance of water to float 
 line-of-battle ships ; and as, finally, the stranded vessels 
 had disembarked their guns to enable them to be floated, 
 it is sufficiently obvious that acquittal would be by no 
 means a result to be easily compassed. In such cases, 
 however, evidence must necessarily be followed on a 
 chart ; and it was on clever falsification of charts, and
 
 DUNDONALD CHAP, vi 
 
 misplacement of the stranded vessels as marked thereon, 
 that Gambler's defence was based. Cochrane, of course, 
 was a principal witness, and in giving his evidence relied 
 on a captured French chart ; but this was set aside by 
 the court, and the forged charts submitted by the defence 
 accepted in its stead. Cross-examination would have 
 exposed the falsehood of these charts without difficulty ; 
 but Cochrane was not permitted to cross-examine, nor 
 even to be present at the examination of witnesses. As 
 prosecutor he could have claimed these privileges as his 
 right ; but he had refused to prosecute, and must take 
 the consequences. Even so, however, the self-contradic- 
 tion of Gambier's witnesses was so glaring that it could 
 not have been overlooked, except by a court that was 
 already resolved to acquit him. Moreover, the evidence 
 of Captain Seymour, given with great plainness and 
 fearlessness, showed unanswerably that, say the charts 
 what they might, the movements of his own ship had 
 established both the existence of ample water for the 
 navigation of the fleet, and the absence of any danger 
 either from forts or stranded ships. No testimony of this 
 kind was of the slightest avail. Nothing in such a court 
 could be made to tell against the Admiral. Log-books, 
 as well as charts, were tampered with and garbled for the 
 defence ; while a certain disorder in the log-books of the 
 Imperieuse was made to tell heavily against the prosecu- 
 tion. Eventually, after the trial had lasted with occasional 
 intervals from the 26th of July to the 9th of August, Lord 
 Gambier was triumphantly acquitted. The whole story 
 is repulsive and unclean to the last degree. Cochrane 
 calls it "a naval study for all time," but this is unjust. 
 It is a political and not a naval study; and it was through
 
 1809-1817 THE RESULT 
 
 Cochrane's fault that his noble service was defiled by the 
 fighting of a political contest in the cabin of a line-of- 
 battle ship. 
 
 From that day forward Cochrane's prospects in the 
 service were ruined. The preparations for the Walcheren 
 Expedition were going forward at the time when the 
 court-martial took place, and Cochrane offered a plan 
 for the destruction of the French fleet and the dockyard 
 in the Scheldt. The plan was rejected. He then asked 
 leave to rejoin the Imperieiise, which was under the charge 
 of an acting captain in the Scheldt. Permission was 
 twice refused. He therefore turned to Parliamentary 
 business, and in January, 1810, moved for the minutes 
 of Lord Gambier's court-martial, undertaking to prove 
 partiality in the court and injustice in the judge-advo- 
 cate. In the course of his speech he complained that 
 there had been no prosecution in the trial. "Why," 
 was Mr. Perceval's unanswerable retort, "was not the 
 noble lord himself the prosecutor ? " The general sense 
 of the House was, naturally and soundly, against re- 
 opening the court-martial as a matter outside its juris- 
 diction. Cochrane's motion was lost by one hundred and 
 seventy-one to nineteen ; Perceval then moved the vote 
 of thanks to Lord Gambier, which, in spite of Cochrane's 
 protest, was carried by one hundred and sixty-one to 
 thirty-nine. After another futile attempt to raise dis- 
 cussion on the court-martial through a side issue, Cochrane 
 gave up the subject in the House of Commons. In truth 
 the House, with all its failings, does not encourage what 
 it believes to be vindictive personal attacks. If Cochrane 
 had held his tongue, there were plenty of severe critics, 
 both in the House and in the Press, to blight Gambier's
 
 go DUNDONALD CHAP, vi 
 
 laurels before they were fairly set on his brow, and to pro- 
 test against the prostitution of the thanks of Parliament. 
 But indeed the conversion of military success to political 
 ends is an evil inseparable from government by party. 
 
 Cochrane now turned to political agitation without 
 the walls of the House in addition to naval criticisms 
 within. In the first six months of 1810 he did good 
 service by exposing the abuses of the Admiralty Courts, 
 and the scandals of the pension-list ; nor were his revela- 
 tions wholly discouraged by the representatives of the 
 Admiralty on the Treasury benches. One sentence from 
 his speech on the pension-list is worth quoting : "I find 
 that the Wellesleys receive from the public 34,729, a 
 sum equal to 426 pair of lieutenants' legs, calculated at 
 the rate of allowance for Lieutenant Chambers's legs [he 
 had lost both in action, and received a pension of 80]. 
 Calculated by the pension for Captain Johnston's arm, 
 viz. 45, Lord Arden's sinecure is equal to the value of 
 1022 captains' arms. The Marquis of Buckingham's sine- 
 cures alone will maintain the whole ordinary establish- 
 ment of the victualling departments at Chatham, Dover, 
 Gibraltar, Sheerness, Downs, Heligoland, Cork, Malta, 
 Mediterranean, Cape of Good Hope, and Rio de Janeiro, 
 and leave 5460 in the Treasury." Perhaps the happiest 
 hit in this, the best of Cochrane's speeches, was a reference 
 to his "respected grandmother," Mrs. Gilchrist, whose 
 name, although she had been dead eight years, was still 
 retained in the list as in receipt of 100 a year. The 
 reduction of sinecures in the years that immediately 
 followed was certainly hastened by the boldness and 
 freedom of this attack. 
 
 Nevertheless the man's heart soon wearied of politics,
 
 1809-1817 THE MALTESE ADMIRALTY COURT 91 
 
 and pined for service at sea. In June he forwarded to 
 the Admiralty a detailed scheme for desultory attacks 
 on the French coast, hoping for such a command as 
 that originally offered to him by Lord Mulgrave. 
 He was answered by a cold request to name a day on 
 the following week when he should be ready to sail for 
 the Mediterranean in the Imperieuse. Dissatisfied with 
 this Cochrane proceeded to argue the point at length 
 with the First Lord, who, after returning one decidedly 
 curt reply, declined further controversy, and cut the 
 discussion short by sending the Imperieuse to sea under 
 another captain. Cochrane's indignation was great ; but 
 a man who refuses a squadron when it is offered to him, 
 in order that he may stay at home and attack the 
 Government, can hardly expect a renewal of the offer 
 after his attack has failed. 
 
 Early in 1811 Cochrane paid a visit to Malta, there 
 to unearth the iniquities of the Admiralty Court. He, 
 in common with all naval officers, had suffered much 
 from the exorbitant fees illegally charged for the 
 condemnation of prizes, and was determined to expose 
 the whole system. Having first ascertained that 
 a single individual had illegally combined in his 
 sole person the functions of marshal and proctor of the 
 court, and charged fees in both capacities, he demanded 
 the revision of his prize - accounts according to the 
 authorised table of fees. This, and a modest request 
 to be allowed a bare sight of the table, being refused, 
 he one day invaded the court when the judge was not 
 sitting, and having searched in vain for the table in the 
 public chamber, where the law directed that it should 
 be hung, he penetrated into the judge's private apart-
 
 92 DUNDONALD CHAP. VI 
 
 ments, and finally discovered it in the most secret recess 
 of his resting-room. Cochrane at once carried off the 
 spoil, and passed it to a brother officer for safe custody. 
 The judge, thereupon, ordered his arrest for contempt 
 of court, an order which the illegally-appointed marshal 
 was for obvious reasons unwilling to execute. At 
 length, however, Cochrane was arrested, and refusing 
 to walk, was carried to gaol. Arrived there, he was 
 asked what he would order for dinner. Nothing, he 
 replied ; his arrest was illegal, and he would pay for 
 nothing ; if he died of starvation in gaol the Admiralty 
 Court would answer for it. This was unpleasant. The 
 marshal hastily provided him with an order on a neigh- 
 bouring innkeeper ^for any provisions that he might 
 choose to ask for ; and Cochrane, armed with this 
 document, entertained large parties of naval officers at 
 dinner every night on the best and most expensive fare 
 that Malta could furnish, all, of course, at the marshal's 
 expense. For a month things went on merrily, and 
 then the officials of the court determined in despair 
 to bring him to trial. But the difficulty was to dis- 
 cover a charge on which to try him, for, though there 
 was moral certainty, there was no evidence to show that 
 he had abstracted the table of fees from the court. 
 After a deal of futile argument, the judge begged 
 him to go out on bail ; Cochrane flatly refused, and 
 there was therefore nothing for it but to remand this 
 expensive prisoner to gaol once more. At length the 
 feeling of all ranks of the navy in his favour became 
 so strong, that the seamen threatened to pull down the 
 prison if Cochrane were not released ; and, as a riot 
 or a scandal would have done more harm than good to
 
 1809-1817 A LONG BILL OF COSTS 93 
 
 the service, it was arranged that he should escape. 
 The necessary tools for cutting through the iron bars 
 were sent to him; the gaoler was made drunk; a 
 final banquet was held at the expense of the marshal ; 
 and Cochrane, climbing down by a rope from his 
 window, was taken by a man-of-war's boat on board the 
 English packet. Though numbers of the seamen knew 
 of the manner of his escape, no reward from the Admir- 
 alty Court could tempt a single man to speak. 
 
 On his arrival in England Cochrane told the whole 
 story to the House of Commons, unrolling, amid shouts 
 of laughter, a bill of costs from the proctor of the 
 Admiralty Court which measured six fathoms and a 
 quarter in length. But though a motion for the pro- 
 duction of papers respecting the court was received 
 with sympathy and carried, it was too much to expect 
 that an account of his pranks would commend itself 
 to the House. However monstrous the peculations of 
 the Admiralty Court, such proceedings hardly became 
 the dignity of a distinguished naval officer. His 
 next feat was to second an address in reply to the 
 King's speech, which was moved by Burdett before 
 the mover, formally put forward by the Government, 
 could get on his legs. Needless to say, he and Burdett 
 and one other were the only members who could 
 be found to vote for it. He was already beginning 
 to be somewhat troublesome in the House, for though 
 he could, when he chose, talk the soundest good sense 
 on naval subjects, yet he had the habit of dragging in 
 reference to abuses and grievances, in season and out of 
 season, after a fashion that would have tried the patience 
 of the purest assembly.
 
 94 DUNDONALD CHAP, vi 
 
 Meanwhile he never ceased to prophesy failure to the 
 British army in the Peninsula, and to advocate his own 
 system of desultory naval attack as the cheapest and 
 most effective way of driving the French from Spain. He 
 had just about this time matured his "secret plans," 
 whereby war was to be begun and ended by a single 
 stroke. "Wherein this plan consisted it is impossible to 
 say, for its secret is still buried in the archives of the 
 War Office ; but it is generally supposed to have had its 
 root in some new and appalling explosive, practically 
 the same, it is said, as that whereof the discovery 
 recently created such excitement in France. As to its 
 efficacy there is said to be no room for doubt. The 
 scheme was explained at the time to the Prince Regent 
 and the Duke of York, and even to some extent accepted 
 by the Admiralty. Lord Melville requested Cochrane 
 to draw up a plan of attack on the outer roads of 
 Toulon, and intimated that he was prepared to allow a 
 portion of the secret plan to be put into operation. 
 Cochraue, however, objected, on the ground that the 
 partial development of the design would enable the 
 French to penetrate into his secret, and to turn it, on a 
 more destructive scale, against England herself. Lord 
 Keith pressed him hard to accept the terms of the 
 Admiralty ; but he persisted in his refusal, and his 
 secret plan remains a secret to this day. 
 
 In the midst of this extraordinary activity in the 
 domains of politics, science, and strategy, Cochrane 
 found time to court Miss Katherine Corbett Barnes, the 
 orphan daughter of an honourable Midland family, who 
 was residing with her guardian in Portland Place. He 
 was himself staying at the time with his Uncle Basil,
 
 1809-1817 A RUNAWAY MATCH 95 
 
 who had made a large fortune in the East India Com- 
 pany's service. The old gentleman, learning with 
 strong disapproval of Cochrane's attachment to Miss 
 Barnes, suggested to him, with marvellous want of 
 tact, an alliance with the daughter of an official of 
 the Admiralty Court, at the same time hinting that his 
 nephew would gain not only the lady's dower but 
 also his own fortune, in due time, by the match. 
 Cochrane, of course, declined the offer, pleading, among 
 other reasons (as though his own honour were not 
 sufficient), that marriage for money would render him 
 contemptible in the eyes of his constituents. He then 
 sought Miss Barnes, told her the whole story, and with 
 some difficulty prevailed upon her to consent to a secret 
 marriage. The pair, therefore, made a runaway match 
 of it at Annan on August 8th, 1812, and Uncle Basil 
 cut his nephew's name out of his will for ever. 
 
 As compensation for his loyalty to his constituents, 
 Cochrane was re-elected member for Westminster at 
 the General Election in the autumn of 1812. He 
 pledged himself, as became a Radical, to vote on all 
 occasions for reform; but it was only with an effort, 
 and indeed in deference to his supporters, that he 
 managed to swallow Catholic Emancipation. Even so 
 he did not conceal his dislike of auricular confession 
 and the principles of Rome " so favourable to despotism." 
 However he was re-elected, as has been said, and enabled 
 to resume his attacks on naval abuses in the House. 
 Unfortunately, in his championship of the sailors 
 he was often more eager than judicious. With an 
 excellent case and abundance of material for complaint 
 at his hand, he was always tempted to abuse it by over-
 
 96 DUNDONALD CHAP, vi 
 
 statement, a curious fault in one who in actual warfare 
 husbanded his resources to the utmost. By yielding to 
 this failing he one day exposed himself to a telling 
 retort from the secretary to the Admiralty, the notori- 
 ous Croker. It is characteristic of the man that after 
 fifty years we find him still writhing under Croker's 
 lash, and devoting pages of his autobiography to a lame 
 refutation of Croker's speech. One would be glad, did 
 not veracity compel some mention thereof, to cut the 
 whole of Cochrane's parliamentary career out of his 
 biography. 
 
 We now approach the darkest period of this stormy 
 life. The year 1814 opened propitiously, bringing him, 
 after years of inactivity, the appointment of flag-captain 
 to his uncle, Sir Alexander, then commanding the British 
 fleet on the North American Station. After a series of 
 matchless victories over the French, our ships had suffered 
 sad defeat at the hands of the Americans ; and Cochrane 
 felt himself to be the man to restore the injured prestige 
 of his country on the sea. While, therefore, the Admiral 
 made all haste across the Atlantic to take up his com- 
 mand, Cochrane busied himself throughout the month of 
 February with fitting out his flagship, the Tonnant, at 
 Chatham. On the 21st of February, 1814, London was 
 startled by the arrival of an officer in foreign uniform, 
 who brought news that Bonaparte had been killed by the 
 Cossacks, and that the allies were in full march on Paris. 
 The whole affair was soon discovered to be an elaborate 
 hoax, designed for the purpose of raising prices on the 
 Stock Exchange. The pretended officer, who called 
 himself Colonel de Bourg, was in reality an adventurer 
 named Berenger, who had been employed on his
 
 1809-1817 THE HOAX ON THE STOCK EXCHANGE 97 
 
 fraudulent mission by Cochrane's uncle, Mr. Alexander 
 Cochrane-Johnstone. Now it most unfortunately hap- 
 pened that Cochrane knew something of Berenger. 
 The latter was a man of some scientific attainment, and 
 decided military capacity ; so much so, that the Admiral 
 had applied for his services as a trainer of sharp-shooters 
 on board the Tonnant. It seems that Berenger, after 
 playing his part as a bearer of false despatches, a long 
 part, which had required him first to communicate his 
 fictitious news to the Admiral at Dover, and then to drive 
 in a kind of triumphal progress from Dover to London 
 lost courage completely, and betook himself directly 
 on his arrival to Cochrane's lodgings. Cochrane was in 
 the city at the time, but receiving a message that a 
 strange gentleman was waiting to see him, hurried home, 
 thinking that he might have brought news of his brother, 
 then lying desperately ill at the seat of war in Spain. 
 On his return the unhappy Berenger, at his wits' end to 
 find a safe asylum somewhere, pressed him hard for 
 a berth on the Tonnant. This Cochrane refused, as 
 in duty bound, without authority from the Admiralty. 
 Berenger then begged at least for the loan of a decent 
 coat and hat wherein to wait upon his patrons at that 
 office; these Cochrane (whose clothes were at the 
 moment a-sorting in preparation for his voyage) good- 
 naturedly gave him, no doubt rejoicing to get rid of 
 a troublesome suitor on such easy terms. 
 
 In a very short time the facts of the hoax came out, 
 and among them the awkward circumstance that the 
 chief actor therein had gone straight to Lord Cochrane's 
 house when the performance was over, and there obtained 
 a change of clothes, a great object to a man who 
 
 H
 
 98 DUNDONALD CHAP, vi 
 
 wished to rid himself of the disguise of a foreign 
 officer without suspicion. Finding his name mentioned 
 as that of an accessory to the fraud, Cochrane, against 
 the advice of his solicitors, published a detailed affidavit 
 of his own doings on the day of the hoax, which enabled 
 the authorities to identify the pretended Colonel de Bourg 
 with Berenger. Then it came out that Mr. Cochrane- 
 John stone had made large profits on the Stock Exchange 
 out of the hoax ; that a Mr. Butt, with whom Cochrane 
 had had some dealing, was likewise mixed up therein ; 
 and lastly, that Cochrane himself, through this same Mr. 
 Butt, had, since November, 1813, been dabbling, not 
 without profit, in "time-bargains" on the Stock Exchange. 
 The result was that all three, together with some others, 
 were placed in the dock and tried before Lord Ellen- 
 borough on the charge of conspiracy to defraud. 
 
 The story of the trial is not a pleasant one. Lord 
 Ellenborough, though Chief- Justice, was also a member 
 of the Cabinet, and a strong partisan ; and having 
 convinced himself of the guilt of all the prisoners, spared 
 no pains to ensure their conviction. When the case for 
 the prosecution closed late in the evening of the first 
 day of the trial, he would not consent to the adjourn- 
 ment of the court, but insisted that counsel should 
 proceed with the defence, though they, as well as every 
 one else in court, were exhausted by a sitting that had 
 already lasted twelve hours. In summing up, again, 
 Lord Ellenborough was not less severe against the 
 prisoners, and the result was that one and all were 
 found guilty. Nor was the verdict, except in Cochrane's 
 case, other than just. At the beginning of the following 
 term Cochrane applied in person for a new trial, and
 
 1809-1817 A SHAMEFUL SENTENCE 99 
 
 stated his case forcibly and temperately before four 
 judges ; but under a certain rule of court, which could 
 not be called just, the application was refused. On 
 the 21st of June he, together with Butt and Cochrane- 
 Johnstone, was sentenced to stand in the pillory for an 
 hour, to be imprisoned for a year, and to pay a fine of a 
 thousand pounds. 
 
 As to the merits of the case it is unnecessary to 
 speak in detail. Cochrane's innocence has so long 
 been accepted by public opinion and endorsed by public 
 authority, that it is needless to assert it. It must, 
 however, be admitted that his cause was greatly pre- 
 judiced by his own negligence; he acknowledges that 
 he never read his brief, and it is certain that after the 
 trial he quarrelled violently with his solicitors. It 
 must also be admitted that, despite his innocence, the 
 case against him had a very ugly appearance, far too 
 serious to be treated with indifference. The explana- 
 tion of his carelessness is, however, one that commands 
 our respect, namely, a chivalrous determination to stand 
 by his uncle at all hazards. Unfortunately the dead 
 weight of Cochrane-Johnstone's guilt was too heavy for 
 him, and dragged him down irrecoverably to disgrace. 
 He was throughout, so far as he was mixed up in the 
 affair at all, the tool of a selfish and unscrupulous man, 
 who, needless to say, fled from justice when detected, 
 and left his nephew to bear the penalty alone. Cochrane 
 always asserted that his conviction was the work of a 
 political conspiracy ; but this is an extreme statement. 
 It was the result mainly of sheer bad luck, of the 
 unfortunate inspiration which led Berenger to take 
 refuge at his lodgings.
 
 DUNDONALD 
 
 A notice of motion tending towards his expulsion 
 from the House of Commons soon followed the sentence. 
 Cochrane wrote to the Speaker entreating that he 
 might be heard in his defence. He was permitted to 
 speak for himself on the 5th of July, and a lamentable 
 scene followed. Labouring evidently under a tempest 
 of excitement, he threw good sense and good taste to 
 the winds. So vituperative was he towards judge, jury, 
 and political opponents that Hansard's report omits 
 many passages and might well, for his sake, have 
 omitted more. In fact, his actions in the period im- 
 mediately following the trial are those of a man who, 
 to use an expressive phrase, has lost his head ; and 
 as such, considering the crushing weight of his mis- 
 fortune, they must not be too harshly judged. The 
 House at first was not unsympathetic towards him ; but 
 when his speech was ended, Mr. Ponsonby, who to the 
 end stood bravely by him, confessed with sorrow that if 
 Cochrane's worst and bitterest enemy had been employed 
 to injure his cause he could not have done so more 
 effectually that Cochrane himself. Castlereagh, on the 
 other side, was not unduly severe when he said that 
 Cochrane had not advocated, but prejudged his case. 
 Finally, the motion for his expulsion was carried by one 
 hundred and forty votes to forty-four. On the 19th 
 of July Lord Ebrington, a young and unknown member 
 of the minority, moved for an address to the Prince 
 Regent, praying him to remit the sentence of the 
 pillory. Cochrane, hearing of his intention, wrote him 
 a sufficiently ungracious letter, saying that he did not 
 expect to be held up as an object of mercy ; that if 
 he was guilty he deserved the whole sentence, and so
 
 1809-1817 DISGRACE AND IMPRISONMENT 101 
 
 forth. But Lord Ebrington was not to be deterred. 
 He quietly read the letter to the House and proceeded 
 with his motion, which after some debate was withdrawn, 
 on Castlereagh's undertaking that the Government 
 would itself recommend the remission of the pillory. 
 Cochrane, in his diseased state of mind, could see no 
 party but himself concerned in the matter; but Lord 
 Ebrington saw even greater disgrace to the country than 
 to Cochrane in the exaction of such a penalty. " You 
 were right," said Napoleon to him, six months later, at 
 Elba. "Such a man should not be made to suffer so 
 degrading a punishment." 
 
 Meanwhile other and far more potent champions had 
 espoused his cause. Expelled from the House of Com- 
 mons on the 5th of July, Cochrane was re-elected by his 
 constituents of Westminster on the 19th, a vindication 
 which he proudly accepted as conclusive. But the 
 sharpest blow of all still awaited him. On the 25th his 
 name was struck off the navy-list, and on the 10th of 
 August his banner as a knight of the Bath was taken 
 down from Henry the Seventh's chapel and kicked, with 
 every degradation, down the steps, never to be replaced 
 until the day of his funeral. 
 
 In the King's Bench prison he was not at first ill 
 served. He lived in two rooms at his own expense, and 
 busied himself with planning and perfecting his in- 
 ventions, lamps of his design being actually intro- 
 duced into the parish of St. Ann's, Westminster, in the 
 third month of his confinement. Evil counsellors were, 
 however, about him, who unfortunately prevailed with 
 him to give way to his mad love of pranks. On the 6th of 
 March, 1815, he escaped from the King's Bench, as he had
 
 DUNDONALD CHAP, vi 
 
 escaped from the prison at Malta, and took refuge at Holly 
 Hill, his house in Hampshire, whence he announced the 
 fact to the Speaker of the House of Commons. On the 
 20th of March he appeared in person at the House, 
 where, of course, he was arrested by an officer of the 
 prison. He disputed the validity of the officer's warrant, 
 resisted violently, and after an unseemly scuffle was carried 
 out of the House. He held the doubtful opinion that 
 his arrest within the House was a breach of privilege ; 
 Castlereagh and the House thought otherwise. We who 
 live under a reformed Parliament, and surrounded on all 
 sides by reformed Parliaments, may pity Cochrane, but 
 must on principle agree with Castlereagh. On his return 
 to gaol he was treated with the severity usually reserved 
 for prisoners who attempt to escape, and confined for three 
 weeks in a strong room without window, fireplace, table, 
 or bed. It is pitiful to have to record such things ; 
 but what was the unfortunate gaoler to do ? Another 
 lodging was offered to him, if he, or his friends for him, 
 would undertake that there should be no further effort 
 to escape ; but he would not hear of such conditions. 
 At last the prison authorities gave way and restored him 
 to better quarters, where he quietly awaited the expira- 
 tion of his sentence. Even so, he was detained for an 
 additional fortnight because he refused to pay his fine ; 
 but at last he yielded to the entreaties of his friends, and 
 having on the 3rd of July tendered a thousand-pound 
 note, endorsed with a defiant inscription, he was once 
 more a free man. 
 
 From the prison he went on the same evening to the 
 House of Commons, where he had the satisfaction of 
 arriving in time to turn a division against the Govern-
 
 1809-1817 A PARODY OF AN IMPEACHMENT 103 
 
 ment by a majority of one. Two days later he gave notice 
 that next session he would move for inquiry into the con- 
 duct of Lord Ellenborough, and spent the next months in 
 the preparation of a stupendous indictment against him. 
 On the 5th of March, 1816, this document, containing 
 thirteen distinct charges, was read in the House of Com- 
 mons to an audience of three members. Three weeks 
 later a fourteenth charge, incriminating another of the 
 judges, was added to the above, but ruled out of order ; 
 and a month after Cochrane moved for consideration of 
 the whole. He and Burdett alone voted for the motion, 
 eighty-nine members voting against it. Even those who 
 were convinced of Cochrane's innocence openly declined 
 to abet him in this attack on the Chief-Justice, which 
 Brougham, than whom Cochrane had no warmer friend, 
 has called a parody of an impeachment. There were, 
 however, in the distress that followed the exhaustion at 
 the close of the war, ample opportunities for Cochrane to 
 do his worst against the Government ; and he accordingly 
 hurled himself into the storm of agitation with all the 
 vehemence of an embittered and disordered spirit. We 
 shall not follow him through this portion of his career, 
 which he afterwards admitted to have been sadly 
 disfigured by faction. In the House of Commons we 
 find him eternally on his legs, presenting petitions, 
 denouncing the House as the source of all perjury and 
 fraud, and instituting comparisons between Ministers and 
 the Dey of Algiers, decidedly to the advantage of the 
 Dey. 
 
 The spring of 1817 was enlivened by a characteristic 
 freak. The bill of twelve hundred pounds for the en- 
 tertainment of the electors of Honiton in 1806 was still
 
 104 DUNDONALD 
 
 unpaid ; and the creditors, wearied beyond endurance, at 
 last obtained an order to put an execution into his house 
 at Holly Hill. Cochrane, aware of his awful reputation 
 as a maker of infernal engines, surrounded his windows 
 and doors with bags of charcoal, and therewith defied 
 the sheriff of Hampshire and all his officers. For six 
 weeks the siege continued, no one daring to face these 
 mysterious bags, until at last one man, less careful of 
 life than the rest, jumped in at an open window and 
 discovered Cochrane sitting comfortably at breakfast. 
 
 But more serious matters also were engaging his 
 attention at this time. In April there arrived in London 
 an emissary from Chili, Don Jose Alvarez by name, to 
 borrow money and enlist sympathy for the cause of South 
 American independence, and, above all, to press Cochrane 
 to take command of the patriot navy. It is curious that 
 Spain, the tyrant mother-country, also made an effort to 
 secure his services against the said patriots ; but it was 
 one of Cochrane's principles always "to make common 
 cause with the helpless and oppressed," and there was 
 no hesitation in his choice. Gladly enough he accepted 
 the proposition of Alvarez, which offered him at once 
 a fortune, an opportunity to promote the cause of 
 " liberty," and, above all, a field for his genius in the 
 art of war. He at once took the necessary steps to 
 realise his property, and prepared for life in a different 
 world. 
 
 During the first months of 1818 he was still occasionally 
 heard in the House of Commons ; and on the 2nd of 
 June, on the occasion of Sir F. Burdett's second motion 
 for Parliamentary Eeform, he delivered his last and 
 farewell speech. And then, for the first time, the pug-
 
 1809-1817 FAREWELL TO PARLIAMENT 105 
 
 nacious and indomitable spirit broke down. Wildly and 
 furiously as he had fought against the political conspiracy 
 (for such he too readily believed it to be) which had 
 driven him from the navy, and even from the country, he 
 was now compelled to acknowledge that it had been too 
 strong for him ; and this was a man unaccustomed to 
 defeat. Above all, there was the disgrace of the trial 
 lying thick upon him, for all his efforts still unpurged, 
 and the fretting sense of a great injustice, for all his 
 struggles still unredressed. Defeat is none the less 
 galling, though we ascribe it to the wrong enemy. In 
 sentences broken by painful agitation he took his leave 
 of the House of Commons, probably never so sym- 
 pathetic towards him as at that moment ; for men do 
 not lightly esteem gallant service in war, and Cochrane's 
 skilful and superb audacity was a thing of which English- 
 men could not but be proud. So they heard him not 
 unkindly, this fire-eater who had called them the source 
 of all perjury and fraud, and it may be cursed, as we 
 too may curse, the day that sent so great a sailor from 
 the quarterdeck to the floor of the House of Commons.
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 SERVICE IN CHILI AND PERU VALDIVIA THE 
 " ESMERALDA " 
 
 1817-1820 
 
 THE rise of South American independence dates strictly 
 from the year 1794, when the Spanish colonies, that is 
 to say, roughly speaking, the whole of the South Ameri- 
 can continent, excepting Brazil and the three Guianas 
 stirred by the example of the Americans and the French, 
 roused themselves in their turn to shake off the yoke of 
 Spain. Their first leader, Miranda, who is known to 
 Englishmen as the true begetter of our unfortunate 
 expedition to La Plata in 1806-7, began operations 
 in his native Venezuela. He tried first in 1806 and 
 failed, again in 1810 and failed, and finally, in 1812, 
 was captured by the Spaniards and imprisoned for life. 
 In 1816, however, Bolivar followed in his footsteps with 
 far greater success; he founded the Republic of Colombia, 
 liberated the whole of the north down to the province 
 of La Plata, and established on its borders the Republic 
 which, called after his name, is now known as Bolivia. 
 Chili, of course, was bitten, like the other provinces, with 
 the desire for " liberty." She began the struggle in 1810, 
 and succeeded in the following year in the achievement
 
 Galapagos /? Guayaquil(J$> Q ulto 
 
 Walker &-BoutaUsc. 
 
 To face page lo-j.
 
 i8i 7-1820 THE REPUBLIC OF CHILI 107 
 
 of her independence. Thereupon the patriots incontin- 
 ently took to fighting among themselves, and tempted 
 the Spaniards in 1813 to essay a reconquest. For a 
 moment they were foiled by the resistance of General 
 Bernardo O'Higgins, a patriot of Irish lineage; but 
 in 1814 they were enabled, owing to the continued 
 strife among the insurgents, to subdue the province once 
 more. For two years and a half Chili lay quiet; and 
 then the intrepid O'Higgins reappeared from across the 
 Andes in company with General San Martin, a patriot 
 who had done good work for the cause in La Plata. 
 With an army of five thousand men he surprised the 
 central garrison of the Spaniards, and entered the capital, 
 Santiago, in triumph on the 14th of February, 1817. 
 O'Higgins was then named Supreme Director of the 
 restored Eepublic of Chili; and, that the Commonwealth 
 might be no more overthrown, Cochrane was summoned 
 from Europe to wrest from Spain her supremacy on the 
 sea. This design comprehended the liberation of Peru 
 as well as the maintenance of Chili, inasmuch as Callao, 
 the port of Lima, was the base of Spanish naval operations. 
 Cochrane quitted England on the 15th of August, 1818, 
 and reached Valparaiso, the port of Santiago, on the 28th 
 of November. The city was at the moment in a state 
 of uncommon elation. The Chilian fleet, under Admiral 
 Blane> Encelada, had started for a cruise on the 18th of 
 October, had captured a fine Spanish frigate of fifty 
 guns, and had actually returned on the 7th of November 
 safe and sound with its prize to Valparaiso. As the 
 crews consisted for the most part of peasants who had 
 never even seen the sea, the success, though due rather 
 to good luck than good management, was really remark-
 
 lo8 DUNDONALD CHAP, vn 
 
 able. This victory heightened the effervescence of 
 patriotic emotion which greeted Cochrane's arrival. He 
 was feted for an incredible number of days ; a compli- 
 ment which, forgetting that it is our unique national 
 distinction to have accomplished two revolutions without 
 a single fete, he returned by giving a great dinner on 
 St. Andrew's Day, and presiding thereat in the national 
 costume of a Scottish chief. Finally, after a surfeit of 
 feasts, he at length prevailed upon the Government to 
 attend to business. His commission constituted him 
 Admiral and Commander-in-Chief of the naval forces of 
 Chili, and his fleet consisted of seven vessels ; the cap- 
 tured Spanish frigate, now christened the O'Higgins, the 
 San Martin of fifty-six, and the Lautaro of forty-four 
 guns (both old East Indiamen), the Galvarino of eighteen, 
 the Chacabuco of twenty, the Araucano and the Puyrredon 
 each of sixteen guns. At the outset he had trouble with 
 some of his subordinates. The Galvarino was a sloop-of- 
 war which had been sold out of the British service and 
 bought as a speculation by two officers, known in the 
 Chilian service as Captains Guise and Spry. These 
 enterprising men took her first to Buenos Ayres, where 
 they endeavoured unsuccessfully to sell her to the 
 Government, and next to Chili, where they persuaded 
 the authorities to receive not only the vessel but them- 
 selves into the naval service. Being both of them men 
 of experience, they had won some ascendency over 
 Encelada in their recent cruise ; and having no wish 
 to lose it, intrigued together with another captain, an 
 American named Worcester, to bring about a division 
 of the supreme command between Encelada and Cochrane. 
 The plot was defeated by the unselfish patriotism of the
 
 1 8 1 7-1820 A TINY MIDSHIPMAN 109 
 
 Chilian, who insisted on holding an inferior position ; 
 but the relations between Cochrane and these two cap- 
 tains were strained to the very end. 
 
 On the 16th of January, 1819, Cochrane finally sailed 
 with the O'Higgins (flag), San Martin (Captain Wilkinson), 
 Lautaro (Captain Guise) and Chacabuco (Captain Carter). 
 A little incident, which went near to have a tragical 
 ending, took place at his departure. Lady Cochrane had 
 said her last farewells and returned to the shore from 
 the flagship, and the fleet was just getting under way, 
 when little Tom Cochrane, the Admiral's eldest boy, 
 slipped out of the house from his mother, and running 
 to the flag-lieutenant, begged to be taken to his father. 
 The officer, nothing loth, hoisted him on his shoulder; 
 and so the little fellow, at that time but five years 
 old, was carried along the street, waving his cap and 
 shouting "Viva la patria!" with all his might. An 
 excited mob of patriots soon gathered round the pair, 
 hurried them down with frantic cheering to the beach, 
 and sent them off to the flagship before Lady Cochrane 
 had time to interfere. The O'Higgins being actually 
 under way, the child was perforce received on board, 
 where, needless to say, the ship's company made a great 
 pet of him, and provided him with a miniature midship- 
 man's uniform. 
 
 The cruise opened badly with a mutiny on board the 
 Chacabuco, the second within a few months, which forced 
 the squadron to put into Coquimbo for the punishment 
 of the offenders. This business over, Cochrane sailed 
 northward to Callao, where the bulk of the Spanish 
 naval force was concentrated under the shelter of the 
 forts. The Spanish fleet consisted of the Esmeralda and
 
 DUNDONALD CHAP, vn 
 
 two more frigates, a corvette, three brigs, one schooner, 
 and six heavily-armed merchantmen ; fourteen ships in 
 all, of which ten were ready for sea, as well as twenty- 
 seven gunboats. The whole mounted altogether three 
 hundred and fifty guns, and were moored under batteries 
 mounting one hundred and sixty guns more. Cochrane's 
 original design had been to take in the O'Higgins and 
 Lautaro under American colours, .make a feint of sending 
 a boat ashore with despatches, and then dash at the 
 frigates and cut them out. The whole plan was, however, 
 upset by a thick fog ; and though the flagship engaged 
 the batteries for two hours no effective harm was done. 
 In fact, the only interest attached to this action belongs 
 to the tiny midshipman accidentally shipped at Valparaiso. 
 Before the firing began the child had been carefully locked 
 up by Cochrane in his cabin ; but, true to his hereditary 
 instincts, he presently made his escape, and reappearing 
 on deck rejoined his father. Cochrane having no time 
 to look after him, the child was suffered to remain, and 
 to amuse himself by handing powder to the gunners. 
 Cochrane meanwhile watched the action from the ham- 
 mocks, Major Miller, his commandant of marines, stand- 
 ing on a carronade close to him, and marvelling at the 
 Admiral's extraordinary power of calculating the direc- 
 tion of a cannon-shot when flying in mid-air. "There 
 comes a shot straight for us," observed Cochrane to him, 
 "but don't move, for it will strike below us." The words 
 were hardly out of his mouth when the ball entered the 
 port immediately beneath them, and carried off the head 
 of an unlucky marine, scattering his blood and brains full 
 in the face of little Tom Cochrane. For a moment the 
 father was paralysed with agony, in the assurance that his
 
 1817-1820 'EL DIABLO* in 
 
 boy was killed, when the imp ran up to him saying, " I 
 am not hurt, papa ; the shot did not touch me. Jack 
 says the ball is not made that will hurt mamma's boy." 
 In vain Cochrane ordered him to be taken below ; the 
 child, firmly convinced as to the infallibility of what 
 " Jack says," resisted with all his might, and was finally 
 permitted to finish the action on deck. The Spaniards, 
 who now for the first time discovered that Cochrane was 
 fighting against them, christened him "El Diablo"; 
 what would they have said if they had witnessed little 
 Tom's baptism of fire ? 
 
 Foiled in this first attempt Cochrane withdrew to 
 the island of San Lorenzo, about three miles from the 
 forts, in Callao Bay, and there, while effectively block- 
 ading the port, established a laboratory for the prepara- 
 tion of an explosion-vessel. The Spaniards, meanwhile, 
 remembering Aix Roads, dismantled their ships and built 
 of the spars a double boom to protect the anchorage. 
 On the 22nd of March the vessel was completed, and 
 turned adrift in the direction of the Spanish frigates, 
 the O'Higgins standing in meanwhile to draw the fire of 
 ships and batteries upon herself. Unluckily the infernal 
 machine was sunk by a shot when close to the frigates, 
 so that this attempt also failed. After three months 
 more spent on the coast without further incident than 
 isolated captures of treasure and military stores, Cochrane 
 returned on the 1 6th of June to Valparaiso. The principal 
 result of his cruise had been to lock the Spanish fleet 
 closely into port, but this was by no means commen- 
 surate with his hopes. He now urged upon the Govern- 
 ment the expediency of manufacturing rockets, as the 
 most effective weapon that could be employed against
 
 DUNDONALD 
 
 the hostile vessels in Callao ; and having obtained a 
 supply thereof, sailed thither once more on the 12th 
 of September, this time with the whole of his seven 
 ships. The expedition opened unfavourably. On calling 
 at Coquimbo for one thousand troops that had been 
 promised to him, he found only ninety men ready ; 
 and these came on board in rags, bringing an epidemic 
 with them. With these, nevertheless, he sailed, and 
 anchoring in Callao Roads on the 29th of September, 
 sent, with very questionable taste, a challenge to the 
 Spanish commander to bring out his ships and fight 
 him in the open sea. Receiving a very curt reply to 
 his invitation, he busied himself with the construction 
 of rocket-rafts; and having provided their crews with 
 air-tight metal cuirasses to keep them afloat in case of 
 accident, he delivered, on the 2nd of October, his grand 
 attack. The result was a complete failure. The Chilian 
 Government, in its parsimony, had entrusted the loading 
 of the rocket-tubes to Spanish prisoners, who, not un- 
 naturally, had mingled with the powder sand, sawdust, 
 manure, and other incombustible substances in such 
 quantities as to make the rockets absolutely harmless. 
 
 Deeply mortified by this third failure, Cochrane 
 reverted to his favourite idea of attack by explosion- 
 vessels; and to test its probable effect, on the night 
 of the 4th he set a lighted tar-barrel afloat, to drift in 
 with the tide towards the Spanish fleet. The experi- 
 ment was satisfactory, for the Spaniards kept up a 
 tremendous fire for more than an hour upon the hap- 
 less barrel ; and, accordingly, on the following day, an 
 explosion-vessel was launched against the boom. But 
 once more fortune sided against Cochrane. The wind
 
 1817-1820 A SERIES OF FAILURES 113 
 
 dropped just at the critical moment; and the vessel, 
 riddled through and through with shot, was perforce 
 abandoned, and blew up at a harmless distance from 
 the enemy. More than ever disappointed, and embar- 
 rassed, moreover, by want of supplies, Cochrane now left 
 Callao, and despatched an expedition to Pisco to take the 
 necessary stores from the enemy; but this enterprise 
 again was disastrous, for though the ships obtained all 
 that they needed, the attacking force suffered heavy 
 loss. Colonel Charles, an old Peninsula officer in the 
 Chilian service, was killed, and Major Miller, likewise 
 a veteran of the famous army, was desperately wounded ; 
 and these were men not easily to be replaced. Cochrane 
 with a heavy heart cruised northward to Guayaquil, 
 where he captured two Spanish war-vessels ; and then he 
 made up his mind to a desperate venture. So far he 
 had been baffled in all his attacks; the Chilians had 
 expected a great deal of him, and were not likely to be 
 satisfied ; Captains Guise and Spry were busily foment- 
 ing discontent in the squadron, in the hope of ousting 
 him on his return to Valparaiso; finally, his own dis- 
 appointment and humiliation were extreme. He now 
 dispersed the squadron to various stations, and himself 
 sailed away alone with the flagship without hint of his 
 destination. 
 
 His design was to capture by a coup de main a strong- 
 hold hitherto deemed to be impregnable, and the centre 
 of Spanish power in Chili, the port of Valdivia. Arriving 
 off that harbour on the 18th of January, 1820, he hoisted 
 Spanish colours and signalled for a pilot. Forthwith 
 came off not only a pilot, but a complimentary party 
 of an officer and four men, who were at once made 
 
 I
 
 ii4 DUNDONALD CHAP, vn 
 
 prisoners. From them valuable information on various 
 points was obtained, more particularly as to the expected 
 arrival of a Spanish brig of war. Two whole days were 
 then occupied in sounding the channels and reconnoitring 
 the forts, until the process was suddenly interrupted by a 
 heavy fire from the batteries. On the third day the 
 brig appeared, and, deceived by the Spanish colours, was 
 captured without firing a shot. Cochrane then sailed 
 away from Valdivia to Concepcion, in the hope of 
 obtaining from the garrison there stationed a sufficient 
 force for his contemplated attack. The commandant, 
 M. Freire, a Frenchman, gladly seconded his project, 
 and gave him two hundred and fifty men, together with 
 a gallant countryman of his own, Major Beauchef, to 
 command them. Luckily, also, there chanced to be lying 
 in the harbour the Chilian sloop Montezuma and the brig 
 Intrepido of Buenos Ayres, the latter of which voluntarily 
 placed itself at Cochrane's disposal. Here, then, were 
 both troops and transports, and so far all was well ; but 
 now a new difficulty arose. The flagship had but two 
 naval officers on board, one of whom, a lieutenant, was 
 under arrest, and the other hopelessly incompetent. 
 Cochrane was therefore obliged to act at once as 
 admiral, captain, and permanent officer of the watch. 
 
 On the 25th of January the O'Higgins left Concepcion, 
 and on the night of the 26th lay becalmed off the island 
 of Quinquina. Cochrane, worn out with watching, 
 made over the ship to the charge of the lieutenant 
 and lay down to rest, leaving orders that he should 
 be called immediately if the wind should rise. The 
 lieutenant, taking advantage of Cochrane's absence, 
 retired to rest likewise, and delivered over his watch
 
 1817-1820 A CRITICAL POSITION 115 
 
 to a midshipman ; and the midshipman, without 
 retiring, went comfortably to sleep on deck. A 
 sudden breeze sprang up and drove the ship on to 
 the sharp edge of a rock, where she lay suspended, 
 as it were, upon her keel, beating heavily and 
 doomed inevitably to go to pieces, if the sea should 
 increase. With great difficulty Cochrane prevented 
 officers and crew from abandoning the ship, and 
 then set himself to save her if he could. The first 
 sounding showed five feet of water in the hold; the 
 pumps were entirely out of order, and the ship's car- 
 penter, who was a carpenter in name only, was incom- 
 petent to repair them. Setting the whole crew to bale 
 out the water with buckets, Cochrane pulled off his coat, 
 tackled the repairs of the pumps himself, and by 
 midnight had restored them to working order. Jack 
 Larmour might well be proud of his former pupil. So 
 far the water had gained on the ship, but the pumps 
 once fairly at work the leak was mastered, and Cochrane 
 straightway took measures to heave her off. In vain the 
 officers clamoured that the full extent of the damage 
 should first be ascertained. Cochrane would not hear 
 of it ; if the leak were under control the O'Higgins would 
 swim as far as Valdivia, and he asked for nothing more. 
 At length, after much hard work, the ship was floated 
 and could proceed on her way ; but the powder-magazine 
 had been under water, and the whole of the ammunition, 
 except a small supply on deck and that actually in the 
 pouches of the troops, was ruined. Such a misfortune 
 would have daunted most men, but to Cochrane it was 
 of little import; the troops would be forced to use 
 the bayonet, and the bayonet was a weapon that the
 
 ii6 DUNDONALD 
 
 Spaniards would not face. "Major," lie said to Miller, 
 "Valdivia we must take; sooner than put back, it would 
 be better that we all went to the bottom." Such was 
 his resolution, whereunto the gallant Miller, still but 
 half recovered from three bullet -wounds received at 
 Pisco, most cheerfully assented. So forth he sailed, 
 with a sinking ship and a flooded magazine, to take the 
 best defended port in Spanish America. 
 
 On approaching Valdivia the whole of the troops and 
 marines on the O'Higgins were transferred, in spite of a 
 heavy sea, into the Montezuma and Intrepido, and Cochrane, 
 shifting his flag to the latter vessel, ordered the O'Higgins 
 to stand off out of sight lest she should arouse the 
 suspicions of the Spaniards. The harbour of Valdivia 
 is a deep inlet only three-quarters of a mile wide. 
 The defences consisted of no less than fifteen forts on 
 both sides, mounting in all one hundred and eighteen 
 guns, and so effectively commanding the entrance, the 
 anchorage, and the river leading to the town, that in 
 skilful hands they rendered the port virtually impreg- 
 nable. The surf was, moreover, so heavy that there 
 was but one practicable landing-place, lying close under 
 the outermost defence of the western shore, known as 
 Fort Ingles. It was off this landing-place that the 
 Intrepido and Montezuma anchored on the afternoon of 
 the 3rd of February, 1820, the swell running at the 
 time so high that disembarkation was impossible. Coch- 
 rane lowered all his boats and hid them under the lee 
 of the ships, stowed his troops out of sight below, 
 and, hoisting Spanish colours, gave the Spaniards to 
 understand that he was just arrived from Cadiz, and 
 that he wanted a pilot. " Send a boat ashore to fetch
 
 1817-1820 A TRICK UNMASKED 117 
 
 one," was the answer. " Impossible," argued Cochrane ; 
 " our boats were all washed away in the passage round 
 Cape Horn." But the Spaniards were not so easily 
 satisfied; their only reply was to station a body of 
 troops before the landing-place, and concentrate three 
 hundred and fifty men from the inner defences at Fort 
 Ingles. At this moment, by an unlucky mischance, one 
 of the boats under the lee of the ships drifted astern in 
 full view of the enemy, and the whole deception stood 
 revealed. The guns of Fort Ingles at once opened fire, 
 killing two men on board the Intrepido ; and Cochrane 
 perceived that, in spite of the surf, disembarkation 
 must be accomplished at once. A launch containing 
 forty -four men, led by Major Miller, pulled ashore 
 under the fire of the troops on the beach, effected 
 their landing, and drove off the Spanish soldiers at 
 the bayonet's point, the gallant Miller, though still 
 so weak that he could not move over the beach without 
 assistance, directing the whole operation. A second 
 launch then put off to join him, and by five o'clock 
 in the evening three hundred men had made good their 
 footing ashore. 
 
 Even now the capture of the forts seemed little nearer 
 than before. The first of them, Fort Ingles, was acces- 
 sible only by a single path, dangerously slippery by 
 reason of the spray, and so narrow as to admit the pas- 
 sage of men in single file only ; while the fort itself could 
 only be entered by a ladder which the Spaniards, on 
 their retreat, had drawn up after them. As usual 
 Cochrane waited for the night; darkness was doubly 
 in his favour, for the roar of the surf made it difficult 
 to hear any other sound. As soon as the light was
 
 ii8 DUNDONALD CHAP, vn 
 
 gone, a small party of picked men marched silently 
 to the left flank of the fort, while the main body of 
 the Chilians advanced, shouting and discharging their 
 muskets in the air. The Spaniards opened a heavy fire 
 in the direction of the noise, but, owing to the darkness, 
 without the slightest effect. Meanwhile the handful of 
 men on the flank, led by a brave young Chilian officer 
 named Vidal, had made their way into the fort by 
 bridging the ditch with some palisades torn from the 
 defences. Forming noiselessly under cover of some 
 trees, they suddenly poured a volley into the unsuspect- 
 ing garrison. The effect was instantaneous. The 
 Spaniards fled from the fort headlong, dashed pell- 
 mell into a body of three hundred men advancing to 
 their support, and carried them away in panic towards 
 the inner defences. The garrisons of the rearward 
 forts opened their gates to receive the fugitives, but 
 it was to their own ruin. The Chilians, following 
 hard at their heels, entered the forts with the flying 
 Spaniards, drove them out with the bayonet, and 
 hunted them on from stronghold to stronghold. In this 
 way three out of the five principal defences on the western 
 shore were carried without difficulty. The approach to 
 the fourth, Fort Chorocomayo, was guarded by two 
 hundred men, with three guns posted to enfilade the 
 only practicable path. It was a position where a few 
 resolute men could have stopped a far larger force than 
 Cochrane's ; but these two hundred, like the rest, were 
 seized with panic, and fled with the runaways into their 
 fifth and last refuge, Fort Corral. The Chilians, in the 
 flush of their success, were not to be denied; they 
 stormed Fort Corral with undiminished impetuosity,
 
 1817-1820 CAPTURE OF VALDIVIA 119 
 
 and at daybreak Coehrane found himself master of 
 the whole of the defences of the western shore. The 
 total Spanish loss amounted to over one hundred 
 killed, and as many more made prisoners ; while 
 Cochrane's did not exceed seven killed and nineteen 
 wounded. " Cool calculation," he said to Miller before 
 the action, " would make it appear that the attempt to 
 take Valdivia is madness. That is one reason why the 
 Spaniards will hardly believe us in earnest. Operations ' 
 unexpected by the enemy are, when well executed, 
 almost certain to succeed, whatever be the odds." So 
 confident was he of success that, after giving his final 
 orders, he got into his gig, and, heedless of a furious fire 
 from the batteries, pulled quietly up the harbour parallel 
 to the advance of the troops on land. 
 
 Next day the Intrepido and Montezuma sailed into the 
 harbour, followed at a brief interval by the O'Higgins. 
 The Spaniards thereupon abandoned the forts on the 
 eastern shore and on the islands in the harbour ; and the 
 whole of the defences were now in Cochrane's hands. It 
 was none too soon, for mishaps now began to come fast. 
 The Intrepido ran aground on her way into the harbour 
 and became a total wreck ; while the O'Higgins, which 
 for days past had only with the greatest difficulty been 
 kept afloat, finally succumbed, and was run ashore on 
 a mud bank to save her from sinking in deep water. 
 But it was not in Cochrane's nature not to press his 
 success to the utmost ; and on the 5th of February the 
 Montezuma went up the river alone. On reaching the 
 town he found it to be evacuated, so that nothing 
 remained to be done except to garrison the forts with 
 Beauchef's troops, and direct the people to choose them-
 
 DUNDONALD 
 
 selves a governor under the Chilian Eepublic. Valdivia 
 being the great military depdt of the Spaniards in the 
 south, enormous quantities of stores and ammunition, 
 as well as a vessel of war, the Dolores, fell into the 
 victor's hands. 
 
 The O'Higgins being unserviceable, Cochrane sailed, 
 on the 16th of February, with the Montezuma and Dolores 
 for the island of Chiloe, hoping to capture that also 
 by surprise. Unfortunately, however, the Spaniards 
 received warning of his design, and repelled an attack 
 made by Major Miller with heavy loss. Miller himself 
 was again severely wounded, and was only saved by 
 the devotion of his men. Cochrane thereupon turned 
 back to Valparaiso, where he arrived on the 27th of Feb- 
 ruary. The populace, of course, received him with 
 enthusiasm, but the Ministers, and particularly Zenteno, 
 the Minister of Marine, were loud in their censures 
 of the rashness of the attack on Valdivia, even hinting 
 that punishment rather than reward was the proper 
 return for such service. Eventually, however, a medal 
 was issued to the force, and thanks, with a grant of 
 land, voted to Cochrane. It was, perhaps, hardly 
 surprising that the Chilian authorities should have 
 looked askance upon a commander who systematically 
 disregarded his instructions and acted generally with 
 complete independence; but the service was none the less 
 great and far-reaching, for Valdivia, with the province 
 at its back, had been the great stronghold of Spanish 
 authority in Chili, and it was now lost for ever to Spain. 
 The victory further enabled the Chilian Government to 
 float a loan of a million sterling in London ; and what 
 is liberty without credit in the London money-market 1
 
 1817-1820 CHILIAN INGRATITUDE 121 
 
 Nevertheless the rulers of Chili continued to show ill 
 will both to Cochrane and to the fleet. They refused to 
 grant a penny of reward, of prize-money, or even of pay 
 to the seamen, and still debated the question whether 
 Cochrane should not be tried by court-martial for em- 
 ploying his ships without orders in the reduction of 
 Valdivia. The seamen, particularly the English and 
 North Americans who were the backbone of the force, 
 naturally became mutinous; and on the 14th of May 
 Cochrane resigned his commission. This decisive step 
 brought the authorities to their senses. The seamen, 
 after some wrangling, were paid their wages, and Coch- 
 rane received assurance that his own share of prize- 
 money, amounting to sixty -seven thousand dollars, 
 should be delivered to him at the earliest possible 
 moment. This settlement (which, by the way, was 
 never fulfilled) had hardly been arranged, when the 
 Chilian Ministers endeavoured to foist Captain Spry 
 upon Cochrane as his flag-captain. Cochrane thereupon 
 tendered his resignation for the second time, and the 
 whole of his foreign officers, Guise and Spry excepted, 
 resigned with him. This, of course, led to further 
 altercation, and it was only Avith great difficulty, 
 and after much haggling, that Cochrane and his 
 officers were pacified, and such terms offered to the 
 foreign seamen as would induce them to remain in the 
 service. 
 
 On August 21st the squadron was despatched with 
 General San Martin and four thousand troops, to assist 
 in driving the Spaniards from Peru. Conflict of 
 opinion, for which there was but too much room, 
 soon arose between the two commanders. Hitherto
 
 122 DUNDONALD CHAP, vn 
 
 they had been good friends, and it was not the Admiral's 
 fault that they did not remain so. Cochrane, always an 
 advocate for decisive measures, was for landing the army 
 close to Callao and marching straight upon Lima ; but 
 San Martin, who had his own ends in view, could not 
 be brought to consent. Eventually it was disembarked 
 at Pisco, where it remained inactive, and kept the 
 squadron also inactive, for fifty days. Even when at 
 last, after much argument and more waste of time, 
 Callao was reached, San Martin would not land, but 
 insisted on moving farther north to Ancon. Seeing that 
 nothing could be done with such a man, Cochrane 
 made a show of yielding to him, sent three of his ships 
 to convoy the army to its destination, and himself re- 
 mained with three more, the O'Higgins, Lautaro, and 
 Independencia, as if to keep up the blockade of Callao. 
 
 But having rid himself of San Martin, Cochrane 
 resolved on a very different line of action ; nothing less, 
 namely, than to cut out the Esmeralda, and another 
 frigate which was said to have a million of dollars on 
 board her, from under the batteries of Callao. Twice in 
 the previous year his attempts on the Spanish fleet had 
 failed ; and any enterprise was now even more hazard- 
 ous than before, for the Spaniards had strengthened 
 the shore-batteries so that they mounted no fewer than 
 three hundred guns, and had filled the Esmeralda with 
 the best seamen and marines that they could procure. 
 The ship was, moreover, defended by a strong boom 
 with chain moorings and by armed blockships, and 
 the whole was surrounded by a flotilla of twenty-seven 
 gunboats. The Esmeralda might well be considered 
 beyond the reach of any attack.
 
 i8i 7-1820 A DARING VENTURE 123 
 
 For three days Cochrane made his preparations 
 without revealing his design, and then on the evening 
 of the 5th of November issued an order to the squadron, 
 announcing that the attack would take place that very 
 night, and would be led by himself in person. "The 
 value of all the vessels captured in Callao will be yours," 
 he added ; " and the same reward in money will be dis- 
 tributed among you as has been offered by the Spaniards 
 in Lima to those who should capture any of the Chilian 
 squadron." He then called for volunteers, and was 
 answered by every seaman and marine on board the 
 three ships. One hundred and sixty seamen and 
 eighty marines were selected, and the Ind&pendencia and 
 Lautaro were then sent out of the bay as if for the chase 
 of some vessels in the offing. With but one of three 
 Chilian ships in the harbour the Spaniards might feel 
 assured of the impossibility of any attack on that night. 
 After dark the attacking party was placed in fourteen 
 boats alongside the flagship ; every man being armed 
 with cutlass and pistol, and dressed for distinction's 
 sake in white with a blue band round the arm. At ten 
 o'clock the boats put off in two divisions, the first 
 under the command of Captain Crosbie, the second 
 under Captain Guise, while Cochrane in the foremost 
 boat took lead of all. The strictest silence was en- 
 forced, the use of firearms was forbidden, and so with 
 muffled oars the boats sped noiselessly on their way 
 through the blackness of the night. By midnight they 
 were hard by the boom, where Cochrane's launch 
 stumbled upon a Spanish guard-boat. A pistol at the 
 Spanish officer's head, and an injunction of silence or 
 death, checked all danger of an alarm, and the boats
 
 124 DUNDONALD CHAP, vn 
 
 made their way noiselessly through the narrow opening 
 in the boom. In a few minutes the whole were along- 
 side her in line, and the boarders were swarming up 
 her sides at a dozen different points. 
 
 The Spaniards were taken completely by surprise; 
 all except the sentries were asleep, and many were cut 
 down before they knew what was going forward. 
 .Cochrane, who was the first man to board, was knocked 
 down by the butt-end of a musket, and fell back into 
 his boat upon a thole-pin, which entered his back close 
 to the spine inflicting a severe wound. Immediately 
 jumping up again he was shot through the thigh just as 
 he stepped on the deck. He tied up the wound with a 
 handkerchief and went on. Guise, who with all his 
 faults did not want for bravery, appeared on deck at 
 the same instant, having boarded from the opposite 
 side, and the after part of the ship was almost immedi- 
 ately carried sword in hand by the Chilians. In the 
 forecastle the Spaniards rallied and made a gallant 
 stand ; but in a short time they were fairly driven out, 
 and forced to save themselves either by jumping over- 
 board or scuttling down into the hold. For a moment 
 the fight was renewed on the quarterdeck, where the 
 Spanish marines stood and were cut down to a man ; 
 but their devoted gallantry was fruitless. In fifteen 
 furious minutes, from first to last, the affair was over, 
 and the Esmeralda was taken. Meanwhile the garrison 
 ashore quickly took alarm at the uproar, and hastened 
 to its guns ; but Cochrane with his usual adroitness had 
 forearmed himself against the batteries. There were 
 two foreign ships of war in the harbour which had 
 arranged with the Spanish authorities to hoist dis-
 
 1817-1820 CUTTING OUT THE ' ESMERALDA' 125 
 
 tinctive lights, in case of a night-attack, to protect 
 them from the fire of the forts. No sooner did the 
 batteries open fire than these same lights were hoisted 
 on board the Esmeralda. For a time the puzzled 
 gunners fired in a desultory manner upon all three of 
 the ships, but finally devoted most of their attention 
 to the two neutrals, forcing them to cut their cables 
 and run out of range. Thereupon Captain Guise, who, 
 owing to Cochrane's disability through wounds, had 
 taken over the command, cut the Esmeralda's cable 
 likewise, and making sail steered her in triumph out 
 of the anchorage. Of the Spaniards one hundred and 
 sixty were killed or wounded; of the Chilians eleven 
 were killed and thirty wounded. 
 
 So ended the cutting out of the Esmeralda, gener- 
 ally esteemed to be the most brilliant and daring of all 
 Cochrane's feats of arms. Had he not been wounded 
 himself, the probability is that not the Esmeralda only 
 but every Spanish ship in the harbour would have been 
 taken or destroyed. He had carefully thought out and 
 detailed the whole plan of operations. The captured 
 vessel was to be used as a base of attack upon the rest ; 
 and his orders were imperative that her cables were not 
 on any account to be cut. With the Admiral's ship in 
 his hands, he had little fear of difficulty in subduing the 
 remainder of the fleet. Guise, no doubt, used the best of 
 his judgment when he cut the cables of the Esmeralda, 
 but in doing so he disobeyed orders; and Cochrane, 
 though for the moment reconciled to him by his gallant 
 conduct in the action, never forgot it. Nevertheless, 
 imperfect as the victory appeared to Cochrane's view, 
 the capture of the Esmeralda remains one of the most
 
 126 DUNDONALD CHAP, vn 
 
 brilliant affairs in naval history. It is also one of 
 the finest examples of the mingled calculation and 
 daring which were Cochrane's peculiar gifts. At first 
 sight the whole enterprise seems to be mere madness, 
 yet under his direction it becomes simplicity itself. 
 The enemy is first lulled into a false security by 
 the ostentatious detachment of two -thirds of his 
 force, and the intensity of the panic thereby increased 
 tenfold. Every move is carefully studied with the 
 object of increasing confusion among the Spaniards and 
 preserving order among the Chilians. Every man knew 
 what he had to do, and in justice to the Chilians they 
 did it admirably and with perfect discipline. They had 
 even been instructed, when the Esmeralda should have 
 been captured, to cry, not Viva la patria, but Viva 
 el Rey, in order to confound their unhappy foes to the 
 last degree of mystification. No detail, as we know 
 from experience of the blackened faces on the Speedy, 
 was too small for Cochrane to turn to advantage ; and 
 no contingency so remote but that he would anticipate 
 and meet it. And so the astounding fact remains that 
 two hundred and forty men in fourteen boats cut out a 
 powerful frigate, manned by half as many again as 
 themselves, from within a circle of twenty-seven gun- 
 boats and from under batteries of three hundred guns, 
 and brought her off in triumph, with the Admiral and 
 two hundred of the crew prisoners on board, at a cost 
 of less than a dozen lives.
 
 CHAPTEE VIII 
 
 CLOSE OF SERVICE IN CHILI AND PERU 
 1820-1823 
 
 THE capture of .the Esmeralda was a death-blow to the 
 naval supremacy of the Spaniards in the Pacific; the 
 victory only required to be followed up immediately 
 by the army, and the liberation of Peru was accom- 
 plished. No one was warmer in his praise of the 
 action than General San Martin, but no one was 
 more supine in his efforts to take advantage of it. 
 When Cochrane rejoined the army at Ancon on the 8th 
 of November he found all ranks high in hope of an 
 immediate advance on Lima ; but San Martin, instead of 
 advancing, decided to retreat to Huacho, whither Coch- 
 rane's squadron, abandoning the blockade of Callao, was 
 forced to transport him. The troops being naturally 
 discontented at this continued inaction, San Martin, in 
 order at once to calm them and to gratify the public at 
 Valparaiso, issued a proclamation wherein he ascribed 
 the whole credit of the capture of the Esmeralda to the 
 army. Such is ever the patriotism of communities 
 which invoke a stranger to bear the brunt of their 
 struggle for independence. Cochrane meanwhile returned 
 to Callao, and put forth all his wiles to tempt the remain-
 
 128 DUNDONALD CHAP, vni 
 
 ing Spanish ships to action. Time after time the cap- 
 tured Esmeralda was ostentatiously placed in positions 
 so hazardous as to promise success to any attempt 
 for her recapture ; but the Spaniards, far too much 
 afraid of El Diablo to trust him even when he 
 seemed to be most off his guard, prudently kept their 
 ships under the batteries, which was perhaps the 
 wisest thing that they could do in the circumstances. 
 None the less, Cochrane's uniform success and the 
 rigidity of the blockade produced their due effect : 
 whole regiments of the Spaniards deserted, both officers 
 and men ; and province after province of Peru, throwing 
 off its allegiance to Spain, embraced the patriot cause. 
 
 Yet amid all these successes San Martin with his 
 army still remained inactive, while his general behaviour 
 became more than ever suspicious. A mutiny, headed 
 as usual by Guise and Spry, broke out in the fleet. 
 Both of these officers were promptly tried and dismissed 
 the service by Cochrane, but as promptly received and 
 placed in high station by San Martin. In despair at the 
 false dealing of the General, Cochrane urged him to give 
 him one thousand men and permit him to capture Lima 
 himself. San Martin would consent to no such thing. 
 Cochrane then begged for six hundred men in order at 
 any rate to complete the liberation of Peru ; and these, 
 together with his old comrade Miller to command them, 
 he at length prevailed upon San Martin to give him. 
 On the 13th of March, 1821, he sailed for Pisco, captured 
 it without difficulty on the 20th, victualled his ships 
 with captured stores, placed a patriot garrison in the 
 town, and returned to Callao. Arrived there, he made 
 a false attack on the ships under the batteries
 
 1820-1823 THE PATRIOT SAN MARTIN 129 
 
 in order to scare them from leaving their shelter, 
 and then sailed for Arica, the southernmost point of 
 Peru. The mere landing of the troops sufficed to 
 capture the town; and Miller, advancing rapidly into 
 the interior by a series of extraordinary marches and 
 gallant actions, enforced the complete submission of the 
 Spaniards throughout the province from the Andes to 
 the ocean. Further operations were then stopped by 
 new trickery on the part of San Martin, and Cochrane, 
 anxious to see what was going forward, hastened back to 
 Callao. He arrived there on the 5th of July, and on 
 the next day the Spaniards evacuated Lima. Still San 
 Martin remained inactive ; he did not even occupy the 
 town till three or four days after the evacuation, and 
 made no attempt to molest the retreating Spaniards. 
 He had, by general admission, an opportunity of finish- 
 ing the war at a single stroke, and this opportunity 
 he deliberately sacrificed. Meanwhile the batteries at 
 Callao were still held by a Spanish garrison, and the 
 Spanish ships still lay under their protection in the 
 harbour. Cochrane took advantage of the discourage- 
 ment caused by the evacuation of Lima to order a boat- 
 attack, whereby three of these ships were captured and 
 two more burned within musket-shot of the Spanish guns. 
 Four days later (July 28th) the independence of Lima 
 was declared; and on the very next day San Martin 
 showed his hand by proclaiming himself Protector of 
 Peru, and as such arrogating to himself autocratic power. 
 The mystery of the army's inactivity was now unveiled ; 
 the troops had been saved in order to found an empire 
 for that disinterested patriot, San Martin. 
 
 On the 4th of August Cochrane went ashore to claim 
 K
 
 130 DUNDONALD CHAP, via 
 
 for the squadron twelve months' wages and a reward of 
 fifty thousand dollars, which San Martin had engaged 
 himself to pay at the opening of the last campaign. 
 San Martin replied that he would not pay the Chilian 
 squadron a farthing unless it were sold to Peru, and 
 that even so the payment must be counted as part of 
 the purchase money. In vain Cochrane tried to recall 
 this precious patriot to some sense of honour and duty, 
 and to remind him of his obligations not only to the 
 squadron but to Chili at large. San Martin rubbed his 
 hands, said that Chili would get nothing from him, and 
 that the squadron might go where it pleased. The 
 interview had come to an abrupt close, and Cochrane 
 had left the new Protector to himself, when San Martin 
 came to the door and asked him to take service with 
 him as first Admiral of Peru. Cochrane, needless to say, 
 met this insulting offer with a haughty refusal ; where- 
 upon San Martin angrily declared that he would pay the 
 Chilian seamen neither the wages nor the arrears that 
 he had promised them. There are times when the 
 champion of an "oppressed nationality" must feel 
 tempted to exchange the sword for the horsewhip. 
 
 On his return to his ship Cochrane received an order 
 to acknowledge the new Protector of Peru. This of 
 course he declined to do ; but he seized the opportunity 
 to write San Martin a long, verbose but not unfriendly 
 lecture on the consequences of injustice, despotism, and 
 so forth. San Martin replied in a tone equally friendly, 
 breezily waving aside all Cochrane's reproaches, and 
 repeating his offer of a commission as first Admiral of 
 Peru. This done, the Protector issued a proclamation 
 to the squadron promising arrears of pay to the men and
 
 1820-1823 COCHRANE OUTWITTED 131 
 
 life-pensions to the officers, on the implied condition that 
 they should desert the Chilian for the Peruvian service. 
 This was a heavy blow at Cochrane. The seamen were 
 in a state of actual starvation, and consequently also of 
 mutiny, from want of pay, and their discontent was 
 carefully fostered by San Martin's agents, Guise and 
 Spry. Cochrane, determined to obtain money for his 
 men by some means, offered the Spanish garrison at 
 Callao liberty to depart in peace with two-thirds of their 
 property, provided that the remaining third were made 
 over to the squadron. But San Martin on hearing of 
 this offered the garrison even more favourable terms, 
 and Cochrane for the moment was checkmated. 
 
 In the midst of all this wrangling and confusion, the 
 common enemy, in the shape of a large body of Spanish 
 troops under General Cantanac, appeared on the 10th 
 of September before Lima, evidently bent on the relief 
 of the beleaguered garrison of Callao. Cochrane hastened 
 ashore to San Martin's camp, and was joyfully received 
 by all except the General. Even Guise and Spry were 
 glad to see him, for as they said, " We shall have some 
 fighting now the Admiral is come." But San Martin 
 would not fight. Cochrane urged, besought, entreated, 
 offered even to lead the cavalry himself; San Martin 
 would not move. So General Cantanac with his three 
 thousand men marched leisurely past the twelve thousand 
 patriots, threw a convoy of stores and cattle into the 
 forts of Callao, stayed there for six days, and then as 
 leisurely retired, taking with him three millions of 
 treasure which had been stored in the forts by the people 
 of Lima. San Martin waited till he was gone, and then 
 issued a proclamation announcing that he had beaten the
 
 132 DUNDONALD CHAP, vin 
 
 enemy, and pursued the fugitives. The latter sentence 
 was true ; he did send a body of men in pursuit, who 
 were cut to pieces by Cantanac. 
 
 The squadron was by this time in such a state of 
 destitution that Cochrane was obliged to support it by 
 expending the uncondemned portion of the prize-money 
 taken on previous occasions. This increased rather than 
 allayed the discontent of the seamen, who, having no 
 fancy to see the State's obligations towards them dis- 
 charged out of what they regarded as their own property, 
 at last broke out into open mutiny. It happened that 
 at this conjuncture San Martin sent a considerable sum 
 of public money, which he had hoarded for his own pur- 
 poses, to await his pleasure at Ancon. This was too 
 much for Cochrane. He sailed to Ancon, seized the 
 whole of this money, and paid the squadron its arrears 
 for twelve months, taking care, meanwhile, to account 
 accurately for every dollar. San Martin's distress when 
 he heard of this proceeding may be imagined ; but finding 
 Cochrane wholly obdurate, he was obliged finally, though 
 with no very good grace, to approve of that which he 
 could not prevent. In revenge, however, for this high- 
 handed action he was careful to spread every kind of 
 calumny against the Admiral both at Valparaiso and 
 within the squadron itself ; and, finally, sent Guise and 
 Spry from ship to ship with offers of a year's additional 
 pay to all men who would leave the service of Chili and 
 serve the Protector of Peru. Such was their success 
 that twenty-three officers and the whole of the foreign 
 seamen abandoned their ships, leaving Cochrane with 
 his squadron but half-manned. 
 
 At last, on the 21st of September, the fall of Callao set
 
 1820-1823 POLITICIAN AND SHIP'S CARPENTER 133 
 
 the Chilian squadron free, and enabled Cochrane to sail 
 with the O'Higgins and Valdivia (the captured Esmeralda) 
 in search of two frigates which had escaped the general 
 ruin of the Spanish navy. But first it was necessary to 
 equip and provision his own ships at some port outside 
 Peru, San Martin having carried his animosity so far as 
 to refuse even water to the Chilian squadron. Cochrane 
 therefore put in at Guayaquil, where he remained for six 
 weeks. All classes of the people joyfully welcomed him 
 on his arrival, and presented him with an address on 
 his departure. It is characteristic of Cochrane that 
 he answered this address by a brief exposition of the 
 gospel according to Adam Smith. The lesson was badly 
 needed, no doubt ; but Dr. Primrose offering to Venus 
 his tract on the Whistonian controversy is not more 
 incongruous than Cochrane preaching political economy 
 to the Guayaquilenos. 
 
 Notwithstanding this temporary refit of the ships, 
 the repairs were necessarily very incomplete. The 
 damage received by the O'Higgins at Quiriquina had 
 never been properly made good; her masts were so 
 rotten that it was not safe to heave her down in order 
 to repair her thoroughly; and the result was that in 
 a sea-way she made water at the rate of six feet a 
 day. On the voyage northward towards Mexico the 
 leak grew daily worse, and the chain-pumps being 
 worn out, the vessel was only kept afloat by Cochrane's 
 personal skill as a smith, until he anchored in Fonseca 
 Bay. Leaving that on the 6th of January, 1822, he pro- 
 ceeded to Acapulco, where at last he obtained intelli- 
 gence of the two frigates that he sought. In spite of 
 the unseaworthy state of his ships, he determined to
 
 134 DUNDONALD CHAP, vm 
 
 follow them, and on the voyage encountered a gale 
 which went near to cut short his career for ever. The 
 O'Higgins, as was to be expected, well-nigh foundered, 
 while the Valdivia was struck by a sea which stove in 
 her timbers, and damaged her so far that she was only 
 kept afloat by passing a sail over the leak. In such 
 miserable plight the two vessels arrived at Guayaquil, 
 and there found one of the two Spanish frigates, the 
 Venganza. To his inexpressible disgust Cochrane 
 learned that emissaries from San Martin had persuaded 
 the Spaniards to surrender both vessels to Peru, under 
 the awful threat that El Diablo was on his way to 
 take them ; and that one of them, the Prueba, had actually 
 been sent to Callao. Cochrane would listen to no such 
 nonsense, but at once took possession of the Venganza in 
 the names of Chili and Peru, and forced the Junta of 
 Guayaquil to sign an engagement to respect this joint 
 ownership. It is unnecessary to add that this engage- 
 ment was presently repudiated. San Martin's envoys 
 had succeeded effectively in poisoning the minds of the 
 Guayaquilenos against Cochrane, and the once friendly 
 town would do nothing for him. Coasting south to 
 Guambucho Cochrane found that there, too, his enemy 
 had been at work, and had prohibited the supply even 
 of wood and water to Chilian Avar-ships. His patience, 
 however, was by this time exhausted ; he went in, took 
 what he wanted, repaired the Valdivia, and when he was 
 quite ready (for no one dared to interfere with him), sailed 
 to Callao. As he entered the harbour he found the second 
 Spanish frigate, the Prueba, lying in the bay, commanded 
 by the senior Chilian captain, who had deserted the 
 squadron, and flying Peruvian colours. At sight of
 
 1820-1823 RETURN TO VALPARAISO 135 
 
 the Chilian flagship she was hauled with all haste under 
 the batteries, with guns housed and ports closed, in 
 desperate fright lest she should share the fate of the 
 Esmeralda. She was so tightly packed with troops to 
 resist the dreaded attack that three men died of suffoca- 
 tion on the following night. Cochrane begged the 
 authorities not to be alarmed, for that if he had wanted 
 the Prueba he would have taken her in spite of all pre- 
 cautions in broad midday. 
 
 From Callao he wrote several intemperate letters to 
 San Martin, demanding from him the sums due to the 
 squadron. He was answered by a visit from one of the 
 Protector's ministers, who offered him a large estate, 
 the Order of the Sun (a gewgaw of San Martin's own 
 creation) set in diamonds, and supreme command of the 
 Chilian and Peruvian navies, if he would recall his 
 letters and join the Protector's service. Cochrane's 
 reply was such as to cause the messenger to leave the 
 flagship with nervous haste ; and San Martin in revenge 
 sent envoys to Chili primed with accusations against 
 him of every crime from piracy to petty theft, and 
 charged to demand severe punishment for the same. 
 Cochrane, meanwhile, went on to Valparaiso where he 
 arrived on the 21st of June after an absence of twenty- 
 one months. 
 
 The inhabitants received him with every manifesta- 
 tion of welcome, as indeed well they might. In two 
 years and a half he had swept the Spanish war-vessels 
 off the sea, reduced their most important fortresses, 
 cleared the west coast of pirates, and given the country 
 a reasonably firm basis of independence. And all this 
 he had done at little or no cost. He had made it his
 
 136 DUNDONALD CHAP, via 
 
 principle to force the Spaniards to pay for the squadron, 
 and he had carried that principle into practice. The 
 Chilian authorities were not less forward than the 
 populace in giving him praise, and showed their con- 
 fidence in him by refusing to listen to the slanderous 
 accusations of San Martin. But beyond this they did 
 not go. Nothing was said of any recompense, or even 
 prize-money ; they showed, indeed, pretty plainly that 
 now that the fighting was over, they would not lament 
 to be quit of all foreign officers. For a short time 
 Cochrane retired to his estate in the country, where 
 with seeds and implements imported from England he 
 designed to give the Chilians a few lessons in agriculture. 
 Marmont, it will be remembered, fell back on the same 
 resource at the close of his fighting days. But no such 
 peaceful life was in store for Cochrane. From the 
 squadron came incessant complaints of destitution and 
 literal nakedness; while, as if to disarm its most 
 powerful champion, libels imputing actual theft were 
 spread abroad about the Admiral. In high indignation 
 Cochrane returned to his ships, and without awaiting 
 the orders of the Government rehoisted his flag. By 
 his own account the ill-treatment of the squadron was 
 the work of San Martin's creatures among the Chilian 
 Ministry, whose intention it was first to drive the crews 
 to desertion, and then turn the ships over to Peru. But 
 this plan was defeated by sudden changes within Peru 
 itself. 
 
 After a very short endurance of the reign of San 
 Martin, the people of Lima, exasperated by his cruelty, 
 rapacity, and oppression, rose against him and forced 
 him to abdicate. He had, however, the address to extort
 
 1820-1823 ANOTHER FALSE STEP 137 
 
 from them a pension of twenty thousand dollars in 
 consideration for his good services in taking himself 
 away ; and thus endowed he arrived, a fugitive, at 
 Valparaiso. The new Peruvian Government, with great 
 parade of justice, next proceeded to vote half a million 
 dollars to twenty of the principal military officers, and to 
 Cochrane, who had done more than any of them, its best 
 thanks. But what exasperated Cochrane far more than 
 this ingratitude, was the favour shown to San Martin 
 in Valparaiso. O'Higgins, the Supreme Director, received 
 him with high honour; and the ruling authorities at large 
 seemed to have conspired to forget the treachery which 
 he had meted out to Chili in devoting her resources to 
 the foundation of his own ridiculous empire. Cochrane 
 was not the man to allow such conduct to pass unheeded, 
 and there were many good Chilians who thought no 
 better of San Martin than he did. He therefore wrote 
 to the Supreme Director, and volunteered almost in 
 as many words to impeach San Martin. It was a false 
 step, and injurious to himself; in fact, as hopeless a 
 proceeding as his opposition to the vote of thanks to 
 Lord Gambier in the teeth of the majority of the 
 Commons. If the powers that were in Chili felt dis- 
 posed to make much of San Martin, they were not 
 likely to disgrace him at a foreigner's dictation ; but of 
 such considerations Cochrane, to his lifelong hurt, would 
 never take account. San Martin was, undoubtedly, a 
 rogue and a traitor ; but an oppressed nationality that 
 treats such men as they deserve runs risk of self-extinc- 
 tion. What to Cochrane seemed a mere desire for 
 justice became, in the eyes of the Chilians, mere partisan- 
 ship. He never ceased to importune the Government
 
 138 DUNDONALD CHAP, vin 
 
 for the payment of its dues to the squadron, and at 
 length after long delay he received his reply : the 
 seamen should all be paid, but ashore, not afloat; the 
 petty officers and men should be paid first; and, pay- 
 ment made, every man should receive four months' 
 furlough. This was so evidently a plan for unmanning 
 the fleet that Cochrane refused to accede to it, and the 
 men ultimately received their wages on board ship. 
 But the Government attained its object equally well by 
 neglecting the ships until but one was left seaworthy, 
 and then ordering that one to sea without consulting 
 the Admiral. Thus, without a ship or a man left under 
 his command, Cochrane's position and authority were 
 reduced to nothing. 
 
 Nor was San Martin's the only influence which 
 prompted the Chilian Government to strike all power 
 from Cochrane's hands. Another foreign officer of distinc- 
 tion, General Freire, had suffered from the same neglect 
 as the Admiral ; but having less romantic ideas about 
 liberty, or possibly conceiving that there is no liberty 
 without order, he had resolved to march upon Valparaiso, 
 and overturn O'Higgins, San Martin, and all their crew. 
 In effect he did presently become Dictator of Chili ; but 
 at this time he had advanced no further than to 
 resolve to take matters into his own hands and to 
 invite Cochrane to join him. His appeal placed Cochrane 
 in a difficult position : he was unwilling either to 
 support Freire, though an usurper of merit, or uphold 
 O'Higgins, who was the tool of San Martin ; and, above 
 all, he wished to bear no part in a civil war. From 
 this embarrassment he was relieved by a letter begging 
 him to take service under the Emperor of Brazil, and to
 
 1820-1823 FAREWELL TO CHILI 139 
 
 liberate that country from Portugal as he had already 
 delivered Chili and Peru from the thraldom of Spain. 
 About the same time he received similar overtures from 
 Mexico and from Greece, but for the present he decided 
 to accept the offers of Brazil. Many of his officers, 
 notably Grenfell, resolved to throw in their lot with 
 him in his new command. Accordingly, having issued 
 farewell addresses to the squadron, to the merchants, 
 and to the "Chilenos, his fellow-countrymen" at large, he 
 sailed on the 18th of January, 1823, for Kio de Janeiro ; 
 and Chili, which thirteen months later was to entreat 
 him to return and deliver her from the Spanish grip 
 that was again tightening at her foolish throat, Chili 
 knew him no more. 
 
 This was the first, and also the best, of the oppressed 
 nationalities with which Cochrane had to do, the best 
 because the Chilians showed themselves to be good 
 sailors and brave men. We have seen what Cochrane 
 did for Chili and Peru ; we must now see what they 
 did for him. In the first place, no portion of the money 
 which he had deducted from the emoluments of all ranks 
 for the pressing needs of the squadron was repaid either 
 to him or to them ; nothing was given to him for Val- 
 divia, nothing for the capture of the Esmeralda. For 
 the last service Chili did, indeed, send him a draft on 
 Peru for one hundred and twenty thousand dollars, which 
 Peru with great promptitude dishonoured. The estate 
 that had been granted to him and to his family for ever 
 was forcibly resumed by the Chilian Government ; and, 
 worse than all, he was involved in expensive litigation 
 over vessels captured in the service of an unacknow- 
 ledged State, and was cast in heavy damages by the
 
 140 DUNDONALD CHAP, vni 
 
 British Admiralty Court. No penny of this loss was 
 made good to him by Chili. In 1845, indeed, the Ee- 
 public did send him 6000, the balance which it con- 
 sidered to be due to him after deduction of all legitimate 
 charges, and awarded him also an Admiral's pay for his 
 life. Chili never quite forgot him, nor repudiated him 
 utterly ; nay, the Almirante Cochrane figured quite lately, 
 and it may be figures still, among the list of Chilian iron- 
 clads. But Cochrane to the last deemed himself ill treated 
 by Chili, and, from a British point of view, doubtless 
 with justice. Britons are proverbially exacting towards 
 foreigners, and are apt to forget that the punctuality 
 and precision forced upon themselves by the busy com- 
 mercial atmosphere in which they live are unintelligible 
 to such a race as the transplanted Spaniards. Again, the 
 position of the mercenary fighting man is a peculiar one. 
 If he follow his calling in a commercial spirit, he must 
 take leave of scruple, as in any other trade ; if he dally 
 with it as a pastime, he must enjoy a keen sense of the 
 ridiculous ; if he prosecute it seriously, he must look for 
 little recompense. Cochrane strove to combine all three 
 positions ; he looked upon his command as a business 
 without foul dealing, as an amusement without a jest, 
 as a crusade without a sacrifice. In fact, he was a kind 
 of destroying angel with a limited income and a turn 
 for politics; the Chilians appreciated the destroyer, 
 misunderstood the angel, and resented the politician. 
 All this we must remember in treating of his relations 
 with South America. But still more must we remember 
 the indomitable patience, gallantry, and daring of the 
 man who had done with three vessels the work of an 
 army; who had done with his boats the work of a
 
 1820-1823 DELIVERER AND DELIVERED 141 
 
 squadron; and who had dominated the South Pacific 
 with a sinking ship. Had Chili and Peru done their 
 best to reward him, they must still have remained in 
 his debt; they did not do their best, for they were 
 unworthy alike of their independence and of the great 
 seaman who gave it to them.
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 
 SERVICE IN BRAZIL BAHIA MARANHAM 
 1823 
 
 THE transit of Cochrane from Chili to Brazil removes us 
 from the Spanish to the Portuguese branch of the settlers 
 of the new world; and from the more temperate to 
 the tropical portions of the continent. Brazil, like 
 her neighbours to westward, had felt in her listless, 
 sun-dried fashion the shock of the French Revolution ; 
 and the movement had been in her case curiously 
 complicated by the fact that, through the flight of the 
 royal family from Portugal before the armies of France, 
 she, the colony, had supplanted the mother-country as the 
 headquarters of the empire. For thirteen years (1808- 
 1821) after this accession to her importance, the pre- 
 vailing restlessness found its outlet in countless insur- 
 rections and conspiracies. There was a party, numerous 
 but for the most part unintelligent, which favoured 
 Brazilian independence ; and there was a party, weak in 
 numbers but strong in wealth and influence, which upheld 
 the union with Portugal. Matters came to a crisis when 
 Don Pedro the Sixth, on his accession to the throne of 
 Portugal in 1821, forsook the colony for the mother- 
 country, leaving his son, Pedro, to act as Regent of Brazil. 
 The Regent's sympathies being supposed to lean towards
 
 1 823 THE EMPIRE OF BRAZIL 143 
 
 independence, he was an object of suspicion to the Cortes 
 at Lisbon, which took pains to undermine his authority 
 by exhorting all Brazilian municipalities to take their 
 orders from Lisbon alone. Finally the Cortes, with the 
 object of quartering Brazilian troops in Portugal and 
 Portuguese troops in Brazil, decreed that the armies of 
 the mother-country and colony should be treated as 
 one force ; and, as a final stroke for its own authority, 
 recalled the Regent to Europe. The native Brazilians 
 thereupon issued a declaration of their independence, and 
 named the Regent Emperor of Brazil. Pedro at first 
 declined this honour, and prepared, in obedience to orders, 
 to return to Portugal; but he was presently induced 
 by popular feeling to remain, and to accept the title of 
 Perpetual Protector and Defender of Brazil. The breach 
 between colony and mother-country soon widened, and on 
 the 12th of December, 1821, Pedro consented to be called 
 Emperor. The southern provinces of his huge realm at 
 once gave in their allegiance to the new ruler; but 
 those of the north, including Bahia, Para, and Maranham, 
 were held forcibly aloof by the presence of Portuguese 
 garrisons. As in the case of Chili, the command of the 
 sea was of vital importance to the new State in order to 
 check the arrival of reinforcements from Europe ; but 
 Brazil had few ships of her own and no seamen, the 
 far-sighted Portuguese having kept the coasting trade 
 jealously in their own hands. The Brazilian Charg6 
 d' Affaires in London was therefore instructed to enlist 
 foreign officers and seamen, while the Ministry at Rio de 
 Janeiro summoned Cochrane from Chili to take supreme 
 command. The letters written to him were full of those 
 high-flown flatteries that are inexpressible except in the
 
 144 DUNDONALD CHAP, ix 
 
 idiom of France : " Venez, Milord, Fhonneur vous invite, 
 la gloire vous appelle . . . abandonnez-vous a la recon- 
 naissance Bresilienne, a la munificence du Prince, a 
 la probit6 sans tache de 1'actuel gouvernement " ; and, 
 lest other inducement should be wanting, it was decreed 
 that all prizes taken in the war should become the pro- 
 perty of the captors. Cochrane, being, as he said, " free 
 for the crusade of liberty in any part of the globe," 
 accepted the offer, and left Chili as has been already told. 
 He arrived at Rio de Janeiro, that harbour of all har- 
 bours, on the 13th of March, 1823, and was rapturously 
 received by the Emperor and his Prime Minister. 
 Nothing, however, was said about his rank or his emolu- 
 ments, which, according to stipulations made before his 
 departure from Valparaiso, were to be identical with 
 those which he had enjoyed in Chili. Pressing the 
 settlement of these matters upon the Brazilian Minister 
 of Marine, he received an offer of the pay of a Portuguese 
 admiral, "notoriously the worst in the world." He 
 replied that he must have his Chilian pay of eight 
 thousand dollars a year or refuse the appointment. 
 The Minister then conceded the point, but suggested 
 that the dollar should be reckoned at eight hundred 
 instead of nine hundred and sixty reis ; and finally, 
 being beaten over this matter also, so juggled with 
 the figures in the agreement as to deprive Cochrane, 
 when ashore, of half his pay. These preliminary diffi- 
 culties overcome, Cochrane made the discovery that the 
 Minister designed to create him only a subordinate 
 Admiral, instead of naval Commander-in-Chief. There- 
 upon for the second time he threatened to decline the 
 appointment, and his firmness prevailing, he at length
 
 1 823 THE BRAZILIAN NA VY 145 
 
 came to a satisfactory agreement with this " blameless 
 government" on the subjects of rank and pay. The 
 Brazilian Government further undertook to repay to him 
 a sum of sixty thousand dollars due from Chili and 
 Peru, but endangered by his acceptance of the Brazilian 
 command, provided always that he should render as 
 good service to Brazil as to the provinces west of the 
 Andes. We shall see in due time how these engage- 
 ments were fulfilled on each side. 
 
 Then came the question of ships and men. The 
 Brazilian flagship, Pedro Primeiro, was a fine vessel, of 
 the class rated as sixty -fours in England, and the 
 Piranga frigate appeared likewise to be a fine ship. The 
 rest of the fleet consisted of the Maria da Gloria, com- 
 manded by a gallant Frenchman named Beaurepaire, 
 the Liberal, Nitherohy, Paraguessu, Carolina, and Guarani, 
 eight ships in all. For the officers, many of those 
 who had served in Chili, notably Crosbie and Grenfell, 
 followed Cochrane to Brazil, where they were joined by 
 two more named Jowett and Taylor. But the great 
 difficulty lay in the matter of seamen. Cochrane had 
 indeed a small nucleus of Europeans ; but the new 
 material offered to him was hopeless. The existing 
 crews consisted mainly of the worst class of Portuguese, 
 miserably paid, miserably disciplined, and at heart dis- 
 loyal, together with a proportion of native Brazilians 
 who were absolutely useless. The marines, again, were 
 such fine gentlemen that they required servants to wait 
 upon them. Plainly little could be done with such men ; 
 so there was nothing for Cochrane but to offer a bounty 
 from his own purse to British and North American sea- 
 men, and make shift to build skeletons of efficient crews. 
 
 L
 
 146 DUNDONALD CHAP, ix 
 
 This done, he put to sea with a squadron of four ships 
 only, Pedro Primeiro (flag, Captain Crosbie), Piranga 
 (Captain Jowett), Maria, da Glw'm (Captain Beaurepaire), 
 and Liberal (Captain Garcao), and sailed in accordance 
 with his instructions to blockade the harbour of Bahia. 
 He was there joined on the 1st of May by the Nitherohy 
 under Captain Taylor. Three days later the Portuguese 
 fleet was sighted sailing out of the harbour, and presently 
 the Portuguese Admiral formed line-of-battle for action, 
 his force consisting of one ship of the line, five frigates, 
 five corvettes, a brig, and a schooner. 1 Cochrane's 
 squadron was not only inferior in number of ships, but 
 indeed in every respect ; his men were untrained, undis- 
 ciplined, and disaffected, and his equipment in every par- 
 ticular deficient. None the less, marking with his quick 
 eye a gap in the enemy's line, he dashed into it with the 
 flagship and cut off the four sternmost vessels from the 
 rest. He then signalled to his squadron to attack this 
 isolated group, while he, with his solitary flagship, held the 
 rest of the Portuguese at bay. It is lamentable to record 
 that this, Cochrane's only fleet-action, was hardly opened 
 before it was abruptly closed. To his intense disgust 
 not, a ship of the squadron moved. The crews, with- 
 out exception, were mutinous, and in Cochrane's own 
 words, "Half the squadron was wanted to look after 
 the other half." He therefore drew out of action, 
 unhindered by the enemy, and sat down in bitterness 
 of heart to write his report to the Minister of Marine. 
 A document more sweeping it would be difficult to con- 
 
 1 One ship of seventy-four guns, one of fifty, one of forty-four, 
 one of twenty-eight, five of twenty-six, two of twenty-two, one of 
 twenty, and one of eight guns.
 
 1 823 OFF BAHIA 147 
 
 ceive. Three ships, the Piranga, Liberal, and Nitherohy, 
 sailed so ill as to be useless ; all the cartridges had been 
 found unserviceable, and all the spare flags had been 
 cut up to repair them ; all the guns were inefficiently 
 fitted, all the fuses useless, all the powder execrable, all 
 the sails rotten, all the marines idle encumbrances, and 
 most of the seamen mutinous. 
 
 There was but one thing that he could do, to gather 
 all the best of the officers, petty officers, and seamen, 
 together on board the Pedro Primeiro so as to make 
 one vessel thoroughly efficient, and with her and the 
 Maria da Gloria, to which Beaurepaire had managed to 
 attract a goodly number of his countrymen, to prosecute 
 further operations as best he could. He accordingly 
 took the bulk of the squadron to Moro San Paulo, and 
 left it there with orders to fit out some captured coasting 
 craft as fire-ships, while with the flagship and Maria da 
 Gloria alone he continued to cruise off Bahia. Not- 
 withstanding the weakness of his force, he made several 
 captures, and managed effectively to cut off all supplies 
 from the port; the Portuguese fleet remaining the while 
 inactive under the batteries of Bahia, not daring to 
 come out and face him even at the odds of thirteen ships 
 to two. In the town itself the alarm was great : 
 provisions began to fail under the rigour of the 
 blockade; and there were terrifying reports that El 
 Diablo was preparing fire-ships, and was shortly coming 
 to repeat at Bahia the havoc that he had wrought in 
 Aix Roads. Little as he could do for want of skilled 
 hands, Cochrane resolved at least to keep their fears 
 alive. He ordered the Piranga and Maria da Gloria to 
 be victualled and watered for a long voyage with a view
 
 148 DUNDONALD 
 
 to future operations, and prepared himself to pay the 
 Portuguese a nocturnal visit in the flagship. Accord- 
 ingly, on the night of the 12th of June, he sailed in 
 pitch darkness nine miles up the river to the point where 
 the Portuguese fleet lay moored under the shelter of the 
 forts. He had just reached the outermost ships when 
 the wind unfortunately failed, and the tide beginning to 
 turn, he was compelled to content himself with no more 
 than a full reconnaissance, and to drop down the river, 
 stern-foremost, with his anchor adrag, on the top of the 
 ebb. As a mere feat of seamanship this expedition up 
 the river was remarkable ; but as a tactical movement 
 it was masterly. Cochrane having learned that all the 
 officers of the fleet were going ashore to a ball on the 
 evening of the 12th, had chosen that night for his 
 reconnaissance, and it was in the ballroom that the 
 Portuguese Admiral heard that the dreaded flagship 
 was even then in the middle of his fleet. " What ? " 
 he exclaimed in amazement, " Impossible ! No large 
 ship can come up in the dark." But there was no 
 doubt about the fact ; and it became clear to the 
 Admiral's mind that Bahia was no place for his fleet 
 while Cochrane lay outside. He accordingly proclaimed 
 to the weeping inhabitants his intention to evacuate 
 the port. "The means of subsistence fail us," began 
 this lamentable document, "and we cannot secure the 
 entrance of provisions " ; there was not a word to 
 show that the blockading squadron consisted of two 
 ships and the blockaded of thirteen. Finally, on 
 the 1st of July, a report that the fire-ships were ready 
 caused the Admiral to embark the troops of the garrison 
 on their transports with all haste, and every soul of the
 
 1 823 IN THE NAME OF HUMANITY 149 
 
 civil population that could afford it to embark themselves 
 likewise in merchant vessels. 
 
 All this Cochrane watched with a grim smile. On 
 that same 1st of July he gave his final orders to his 
 three captains, Beaurepaire of the Maria, Taylor of the 
 Nitherohy, and Thompson of the Carolina, and then 
 wrote three letters to the General, Admiral, and Junta 
 of Bahia, which put the finishing touch on his plan of 
 operations. With the most engaging candour he adjured 
 them, in the name of humanity, not to attempt to escape 
 from Bahia, for that it was in his power to take advan- 
 tages that would be fatal to the venture. It was his 
 painful duty to prevent all transports from leaving the 
 port ; and as it would be impossible to distinguish at 
 night between troopships and passenger-ships, he feared 
 that many innocent civilians might unavoidably suffer, 
 if the Portuguese commanders should persist in their 
 intention. The warning, as Cochrane had anticipated, 
 was laughed at for an empty threat ; and on the follow- 
 ing day the whole Portuguese force, together with a 
 multitude of the citizens, with all their movable pro- 
 perty, got under way, and in sublime trust in the pro- 
 tection of the men-of-war dropped down to the sea. At 
 the river's mouth the huge fleet, thirteen war -vessels 
 and nearly seventy transports, passed the Pedro Primeiro 
 and Maria da Gloria, which, contrary to expectation, 
 made no effort to attack them, and by their inaction 
 doubtless provoked additional sneers at the warning 
 of the previous day. 
 
 Little did the fugitives know the man with whom 
 they had to deal. The flotilla was no sooner clear of 
 the harbour than the two Brazilian war-ships dashed in
 
 150 DUNDONALD 
 
 among the sternmost vessels, and ordered them right and 
 left to bring- to. Being defenceless they were bound 
 at their peril to obey ; and then their fate was sealed. 
 Cochrane's orders were clear and precise, and every one 
 of his men knew exactly what to do. As fast as a ship 
 was taken, her main and mizzenmasts were disabled so 
 that she could only sail before the wind, all arms were 
 thrown overboard, and all water -casks were broken up 
 until enough water only was left to suffice her, on short 
 allowance, for her return voyage to Bahia. To Bahia the 
 wind was fair abaft: to Bahia Cochrane ordered them to 
 go or take the consequences ; and to Bahia they sorrow- 
 fully returned, wiser than when they had started. As 
 we have said, Cochrane seldom took, but rather forced 
 his enemy to give. So through the day and night of the 
 2nd of July the tail of the great Portuguese convoy fell 
 off and turned backward in despair, as a herd of fallow- 
 deer breaks up and turns back before a terrier ; and the 
 war-ships, more cowardly than fallow-bucks, led the 
 flight and left the transports to their fate. The Maria 
 da Gloria, cumbered by much service in taking prizes, 
 dropped astern, and the flagship continued the chasealone. 
 Next day the Carolina, Nitherohy, and a merchantman 
 that had been taken into the service by Cochrane, came 
 up with him and increased the havoc among the unhappy 
 transports. As night fell these three vessels likewise 
 dropped out of sight, and the flagship, disdaining all 
 captures, pressed on once more alone in chase of the 
 thirteen war-vessels and their convoy. On the following 
 morning the Portuguese Admiral at length turned with 
 his whole squadron upon the Pedro Primeiro. But, 
 though they pressed her hard, they could effect little
 
 1 823 ROUT OF THE PORTUGUESE 151 
 
 against superior manoeuvring and seamanship, and soon 
 giving up the chase they resumed their place in the 
 van of the flight. No sooner were they on their 
 way than Cochrane resumed his former tactics. As 
 night fell he dashed in among the nearest trans- 
 ports, firing right and left till they brought -to, 
 boarded them, cut away their topmasts, disabled the 
 rigging, threw the arms overboard, took the officers' 
 parole not to serve again against Brazil until exchanged, 
 and left them. On the next day he dealt out the 
 same measure to a number of passenger-ships, leaving 
 them to the mercy of the frigates, for he would 
 not weaken the force of the flagship by the man- 
 ning of prizes. At dusk on this day he observed six 
 large vessels detach themselves from the main convoy, 
 and pressing all sail in chase came up to them next 
 morning. As he had suspected, they contained a force 
 of several thousand men, which was designed to rein- 
 force the garrisons in the province of Maranham. 
 The whole were boarded, disarmed, and disabled; and 
 leaving them thus, not indeed wrecks, but hopeless 
 cripples on the water, Cochrane returned to the pursuit 
 of the main body. The weather now became hazy, and 
 nothing more was seen of the Portuguese until the llth 
 of July; but the chase had now brought pursued and 
 pursuers to the Equator, where both for a time lay be- 
 calmed. At last, on the 1 4th, the wind came and carried 
 the Pedro Priineiro whither Cochrane wished, straight 
 against the Portuguese war -vessels. They kept them- 
 selves so close together, however, that he dared not 
 attack them; nor was it until the 16th that he saw his 
 opportunity, ran in among them, and singling out one
 
 152 DUNDONALD 
 
 frigate, poured into her a crushing broadside. So great 
 was the effect that the frigate was unable to answer the 
 fire ; but as the Pedro Primeiro tacked to give her a 
 second broadside there was a loud crack, and her main- 
 sail split in two. Further pursuit, being for the present 
 impossible, Cochrane, with this final kick, let the Portu- 
 guese go. The chase had lasted for fifteen days ; it had 
 begun in latitude 13 south and ended in latitude 5 
 north. Of the sixty or seventy ships that had started 
 with the Portuguese fleet from Bahia, but thirteen re- 
 mained with it when Cochrane was forced to abandon 
 the pursuit ; half of the army had been taken, as 
 well as merchant-vessels too many to count, and the 
 whole Portuguese force driven in hopeless demoralisa- 
 tion from the South Atlantic. Taylor, indeed, taking 
 up the chase in the Nitherohy, hunted the scattered ships 
 actually into the Tagus, and there burned four of them 
 under the guns of a line-of-battle ship. But for Coch- 
 rane was reserved greater work even than this. 
 
 Knowing that the six detached ships contained 
 only a portion of the reinforcements for Maranham, he 
 turned south-westward to that port in the hope, not 
 only of intercepting the rest, but of bringing the 
 whole province beneath the authority of Brazil. On 
 the 26th of July he sailed into the river Maranham 
 and hoisted Portuguese colours. The authorities, 
 who were anxiously awaiting the expected reinforce- 
 ments, saw the Portuguese flag with joy, and promptly 
 sent off a brig- of -war to him with despatches and 
 congratulations. Great was the surprise of the cap- 
 tain of the brig, one Grarca6, to find himself a prisoner 
 on board the Brazilian flagship, and his despatches,
 
 1823 STRATAGEM ONCE MORE 153 
 
 revealing the whole of the Portuguese plans, in the hands 
 of the Brazilian Admiral. Cochrane, however, was kind 
 to him. He offered to release him on condition that he 
 should carry letters for him to the Junta of Maranham ; 
 and, having filled the poor man with tales of a large 
 fleet of Brazilian war-vessels in the offing, and of trans- 
 ports full of Brazilian troops sailing under their convoy, 
 the whole close at hand, and only outstripped by the 
 flagship through her superior qualities as a sailer, he 
 sent him ashore to do his work. Garca6, who, as a sea- 
 man, could appreciate the excellence of the Pedro Primeiro, 
 was duly impressed with this story, and returned to the 
 city big with intelligence of an overwhelming force on 
 the point of disembarkation. The letters to the Junta 
 on being opened were found to confirm his statement in 
 every particular. The strength of Lord Cochrane's force, 
 naval and military, left him no doubt of his success in 
 freeing the province of Maranham from the yoke of 
 Portugal. Bahia, as they no doubt were aware, had 
 been evacuated : the troops, which had driven the 
 Portuguese from the South Sea, were at his back ; and 
 he trusted that the authorities at Maranham would not 
 compel him to let them loose, exasperated as they were 
 by Portuguese cruelty and oppression, upon that beauti- 
 ful province. Let the Junta therefore make its choice, 
 to join the imperial cause of Brazil or to take the 
 consequences. 
 
 The story, if we look into the heart of it, was not 
 really so untrue as it seems ; for the whole might of 
 Brazil was present in the river of Maranham in the 
 person of a single broad -limbed, red-haired, blue-eyed 
 Scotchman. Be that as it may, the trick produced the
 
 154 DUN DONALD 
 
 anticipated effect. Proposals for capitulation arrived 
 immediately in answer to his summons, but, being 
 conditional only, were as promptly rejected ; and then 
 the Pedro Primeiro made sail, and moving majestically 
 up the river, the first line-of-battle ship that had ever 
 attempted to navigate it, anchored abreast of the 
 fort. Next morning the members of the Junta, together 
 with the bishop, came on board the flagship, and agreed 
 without more ado to surrender city, fort, and shipping 
 unconditionally. This done, they went ashore again, 
 evidently with the intention of violating their agree- 
 ment, but a shot fired over the town from the Pedro 
 Primeiro, speedily brought them to their senses. The 
 Portuguese ensign was hauled down, and the flag of 
 Brazil floated in its place. 
 
 Cochrane's next duty was to make arrangements for 
 a public declaration of independence, and for the election 
 of a provisional Government. The former function was 
 fixed for the following day (July 28th) and carried out 
 with due solemnity. The latter, which was to be pre- 
 ceded by a general swearing of allegiance to the Emperor 
 of Brazil, was appointed to take place on the 1st of 
 August, all the details being, of course, settled by Coch- 
 rane himself. "Taking the necessary oaths," he an- 
 nounced, with inimitable coolness and condescension, to 
 the bewildered inhabitants, " and the election of a civil 
 Government are acts which must be deliberately per- 
 formed. Citizens, let us proceed gravely and method- 
 ically without tumult, haste, or confusion ; and let the 
 act be accomplished in a manner worthy the approbation 
 of his Imperial Majesty, and which shall give no cause 
 for regret, and leave no room for amendment." Now,
 
 1823 A BLOODLESS VICTORY 155 
 
 however, came the very difficult task of getting rid of 
 the Portuguese garrison. Cochrane had already granted 
 terms to the troops, permitting them to embark with 
 all the honours of war, and to go home or whither 
 they would ; but it was imperative that they should be 
 got on board ship immediately, lest the protracted 
 delay in the advent of Cochrane's imaginary armament 
 should tempt them to resistance. With delightful 
 pedantry Cochrane pointed out that immunity from 
 risk of military interference or intimidation was of the 
 essence of all civil election, and that he must therefore 
 request all the soldiers who intended to return to 
 Portugal, to assemble without delay at the appointed 
 place of embarkation. On the 1st of August, accord- 
 ingly, the shipment of the garrison was accomplished ; 
 and it was none too soon. Some regiments, indeed, 
 refused at first to go on board, and were only driven 
 thither by threats and some small display of force. 
 But others, already embarked, lay under the guns of 
 the Pedro Primeiro, and with so many at his mercy 
 Cochrane was able to intimidate the rest. For more 
 than a fortnight these unhappy men lay in the river 
 under guard of the flagship and of three small men-of- 
 war, which had passed by the capitulation into Cochrane's 
 hands. One can imagine their fury as day succeeded 
 day without the slightest sign of Brazilian fleet or army, 
 while they lay cowering under the guns of their own 
 surrendered vessels, helpless as rabbits in a hutch. On 
 the 20th of August they were at last ordered to sail for 
 Lisbon, and with this bloodless expulsion of the garrison, 
 the rule of Portugal over Maranham came to an end 
 for ever.
 
 i $6 DUNDONALD CHAP, ix 
 
 But the work of conquest was still incomplete 
 while the province of Para remained untaken. Unwill- 
 ing, for reasons that will presently appear, to leave 
 Maranham himself, Cochrane manned one of his cap- 
 tured brigs and sent her away under Grenfell's command 
 to repeat the same trick at Para. Grenfell took with 
 him a summons from the Admiral to the Governor and 
 Junta, dated on board the Pedro Primeiro off the bar of 
 the Para, with a blank to be filled in with the day of his 
 arrival in the river. Once again the trick was successful. 
 Para, like Maranham, surrendered without striking a 
 blow; yielding up at the same time a fine frigate, after- 
 wards named the Imperatrice, whereof Cochrane was speci- 
 ally anxious to obtain possession. Grenfell, a man only 
 less resolute and daring than Cochrane himself, was badly 
 wounded by the dagger of a hired assassin ; but, with 
 this exception, no drop of blood was shed in the campaign 
 that drove the Portuguese both from Maranham and Para. 
 
 Meanwhile Cochrane was busily occupied with the 
 difficulties of civil administration. The provisional 
 Junta which he had appointed immediately after the 
 capitulation had shown itself untrustworthy, and was 
 superseded after little more than a week's tenure of 
 office by a second, chosen, as Cochrane had ordained, 
 by popular election. The new Junta, however, proved 
 to be little more satisfactory than its predecessor. 
 Its first step was to claim that all property taken from 
 the Portuguese should be placed at its disposal, in 
 defiance of the imperial decree which had assigned all 
 captures to the captors. Cochrane promptly put a stop 
 to this by embarking all movable property on a 
 couple of prize-vessels, and shipping it off to Rio for
 
 1823 THE BEAUTY OF LIBERTY 157 
 
 adjudication. He then required of the Junta a list of 
 all moneys found in the chests of the Portuguese 
 Government, of all military stores, and of all Govern- 
 ment property whatever, all this also having, in virtue 
 of the decree, passed into the possession of the squadron. 
 Lastly, having also on his hands much perishable 
 property, and one hundred and twenty captured vessels 
 of which he could not readily dispose, he agreed to 
 make this portion over to the merchants for two -thirds 
 of its value, pending the proper settlement of the whole 
 question by the courts at Kio. A part of the sum thus 
 received he lent to the Junta for the immediate expenses 
 of administration. 
 
 It soon, however, became apparent that this govern- 
 ing body could not be trusted in any work whatever. 
 To Cochrane's intense disgust, these elected rulers no 
 sooner found themselves in power than they dismissed 
 every existing official, civil and military, and filled the 
 vacant places with their own friends, relations, and 
 dependants. Most of them, moreover, being in debt to 
 the wealthy Portuguese merchants, conceived this to 
 be a favourable opportunity for getting quit of their 
 obligations ; and to this end, ignoring the fact that all 
 classes equally with themselves had sworn allegiance 
 to Brazil, they introduced an armed rabble, under the 
 name of Irregulars, into the town to frighten their 
 obnoxious creditors away. Why Cochrane should have 
 felt surprise or disappointment at such proceedings it 
 is difficult to understand. He had indeed given these 
 Brazilians "liberty"; but it is a poor revolution that 
 does not cancel all debts, and give every man a 
 lucrative appointment. Moreover, he had taken all the
 
 i $8 DUNDONALD CHAP, ix 
 
 plunder for the deliverers ; a course which, however 
 warranted by imperial sanction, was not likely to com- 
 mend itself to the delivered. He determined, none the 
 less, to extinguish the second Junta as summarily 
 as the first; and to that end he submitted a scheme 
 for the election of a third, not by the town only, 
 but by the whole province. Two days later the 
 Irregulars rose and, after plundering most of the Portu- 
 guese houses, deposed their appointed commander 
 in favour of a new one of their own choice. This 
 was too much. Cochrane declined to recognise this 
 nominee, and threatened to interpose by force unless 
 these scandalous doings were brought to a close at 
 once. Order was thereupon restored, and Cochrane 
 now thought that he might venture to leave Maran- 
 ham to itself for a little while. He did not, how- 
 ever, dare to fix the date of the new election at less 
 than a month ahead ; and he took care to inform the 
 Junta on his departure that he was going no farther 
 than Para, lest under the idea that he was safely out of 
 the way it might begin its pranks anew. This done, 
 he sailed for Rio de Janeiro and arrived there on the 9th 
 of November. He had been absent for seven months, 
 and in that short time he had delivered the three 
 northern provinces of Brazil for ever from the rule 
 of Portugal. He had hunted a squadron of thirteen 
 men-of-war from Bahia to Lisbon, driven thousands 
 of troops to follow them in disgrace, captured innumer- 
 able vessels and vast quantities of military stores ; and 
 all this he had done with a single ship and without 
 the loss of a man. It was, and remains, a feat without 
 parallel in the history of war.
 
 CHAPTER X 
 
 CLOSE OF SERVICE WITH BRAZIL 
 1823-1825 
 
 ON his return to Rio Cochrane was welcomed by the 
 Emperor in person, who came on board the flagship 
 to greet him, and by the gratitude and enthusiasm of 
 all true patriots. The General Assembly voted him 
 the thanks of the nation, and the Emperor conferred 
 upon him the decoration of the Imperial Order of the 
 Cruzeiro and the title of Marquis of Maranham, 
 together with an estate wherewith to uphold these 
 dignities. This estate, it is hardly necessary to add, 
 he never received. In truth, there had been great 
 changes since his departure from Rio. The Prime 
 Minister, Jose Bonifacio de Andrada, who had sum- 
 moned him to the Brazilian service, was according to 
 his lights a patriotic man, and therefore necessarily 
 obnoxious to the party, still numerous and powerful, 
 which desired to maintain the connection with Portugal. 
 This Portuguese faction was strong in the Assembly, and 
 sought to increase its strength still further by stripping 
 the Emperor of all but nominal authority; an enterprise 
 that was the more feasible inasmuch as Brazil, so far, 
 had not determined the constitution of its Government.
 
 160 DUNDONALD 
 
 Having succeeded in ousting Andrada, the Emperor's 
 most trusted counsellor, this faction went to the length 
 of requiring the Emperor to divest himself of his 
 crown in their presence. At this moment Cochrane 
 arrived, and being appealed to by the Emperor for 
 advice, recommended without hesitation that His 
 Majesty should support his own dignity "constitu- 
 tionally." In the absence of a constitution of any 
 kind Cochrane's counsel was, to say the least of it, 
 oracular; but Don Pedro, interpreting it according to 
 Cromwellian precedent, dismissed the recalcitrant As- 
 sembly by military force. Cochrane then volunteered 
 further advice and embodied it in a letter to the 
 Emperor, first applauding the wisdom of that potentate 
 in dissolving his Parliament, and next urging him to 
 anticipate all constitution -mongers and constituent as- 
 semblies by producing a constitution of his own. The 
 suggestion was adopted, and a suitable instrument, 
 framed of course on the British model, was duly pro- 
 mulgated. 
 
 To the end of his days Cochrane flattered himself 
 that his advice had been instrumental in establishing 
 the political liberties of Brazil; but he did not see 
 that his interference was raising up a host of enemies 
 against himself. Within ten days after the writing of 
 his letter he grew wiser, and took care to secure con- 
 firmation of the patent on which he depended for his 
 rank and pay. Meanwhile he also sought the adjudi- 
 cation of the vast amount of prize-property taken at 
 Maranham, wherein the flagship's share alone amounted 
 to more than one hundred and twenty thousand 
 dollars ; and then his troubles began. A prize-
 
 1823-1825 TROUBLES WITH BRAZIL 161 
 
 tribunal, wherein the Portuguese faction possessed a 
 majority of nine members to four, was duly appointed, 
 and, having been appointed, did for the present nothing. 
 Cochrane, becoming anxious as to the safety of the 
 money that he had advanced to the Junta of Maran- 
 ham, applied to the Minister for an adjustment of the 
 accounts. The Minister did nothing. Cochrane then 
 begged that, at least, the seamen might receive their 
 wages. The answer was an offer of three months' pay 
 only, which was indignantly refused as little short of 
 an insult to men who had done such good service to 
 Brazil. The Ministers now went beyond passive 
 obstruction and became openly obnoxious. They 
 publicly ignored Cochrane's rank by ordering a ship on 
 service without consulting him, and by describing him 
 in the Gazette as Commander-in-Chief of the naval 
 forces at Rio only. These last insults were more than 
 Cochrane could endure ; but although, in deference to 
 his protests, the order to the ship was countermanded, 
 not the slightest notice was taken of the limitation of 
 his rank. The prize-tribunal, taking its cue from the 
 Ministry, likewise began to assume the offensive ; it 
 openly denied his right to have taken prizes at all at 
 Maranham, and ordered him to refund all sums that 
 he had received in ransom for property; it even went 
 so far as to declare him worthy of corporal punishment. 
 Meanwhile the prizes themselves were left unguarded, 
 and were plundered right and left without respect to 
 the rights of the fleet, so that their value was irredeem- 
 ably impaired. The meaning of the whole of these pro- 
 ceedings was plain enough. The Brazilians were ready 
 enough to allow foreigners to fight their battles, but had 
 
 M
 
 162 DUNDONALD 
 
 no idea of suffering them to interfere in the division of 
 the spoil. 
 
 In the midst of all these quarrels there arose an insur- 
 rection in Pernambuco, having for its avowed object the 
 establishment of an independent Republic. The Ministers, 
 in their jealousy of Cochrane, despatched an expedition 
 thither to restore order without either consulting him 
 or offering him the command. The expedition, as 
 might have been expected, failed egregiously. On 
 its return the unfortunate Emperor ordered Cochrane 
 to sail with four ships and recover Pernambuco for him. 
 It was easy to give such an order, but as all the foreign 
 seamen, who alone were of the slightest service, had 
 quitted their ships in disgust, it was difficult to execute 
 it ; and the difficulty was increased by a new decision 
 of the prize-tribunal, to the effect that no vessels should 
 be reckoned lawful prize unless captured at a certain dis- 
 tance from the shore. As the squadron was designed to 
 blockade Pernambuco, it was obvious that this rule would 
 prevent it from making any captures at all, and would 
 practically leave the ships of the insurgents free to carry 
 out their intentions unmolested. Once more the Emperor 
 came to the rescue with promises to pay to the squadron 
 the value of all its prizes, whether adjudged good or 
 bad, and therewith Cochrane undertook to conciliate 
 the seamen. The Emperor, however, with the best in- 
 tentions, could not fulfil his promises, and this settle- 
 ment likewise broke down. Then came a new cause 
 for wrangling. The Ministers, ignoring Cochrane's pre- 
 vious commission as permanent First Admiral of Brazil, 
 sent him a new one appointing him " Commander-in- 
 Chief during the present war," a broad hint that it
 
 1823-1825 A PLOT DEFEATED 163 
 
 was time for him to take his departure. A few more 
 insults brought matters to a crisis, and on the 20th of 
 March, 1824, Cochrane tendered his resignation. Unfor- 
 tunately affairs in Pernambuco wore at this moment so 
 threatening an aspect that even his enemies hesitated to 
 let him go. He was therefore pressed for the present 
 to stay ; and rather weakly, though most generously, 
 he consented. 
 
 In April news arrived of the actual secession of Per- 
 nambuco, which was followed by the even more serious 
 intelligence that the Portuguese were fitting out an 
 expedition for the recapture of the northern provinces. 
 Not even this could check the animosity of the Brazilian 
 Ministers. On the 2 4th of May Grenf ell arrived at Rio 
 from Para with the captured frigate Imp&ratrice, and was 
 received not, as he deserved, with thanks, but with an 
 order putting him under arrest ; while, as a crowning 
 outrage, his own papers and the treasure that he had 
 brought with him were forcibly seized. In the following 
 month a design even more sinister was discovered against 
 Cochrane himself. It was arranged that during his 
 absence ashore the flagship should be searched for money 
 falsely alleged to be concealed therein, and that to hinder 
 his interference his house should meanwhile be sur- 
 rounded by a guard of soldiers. This guard was actu- 
 ally in position on the night preceding the day fixed 
 for this secret attack, when Cochrane received from a 
 friendly hand a warning as to what was going forward. 
 With his usual energy he climbed over his garden-fence, 
 those who have seen Brazilian sentries can understand 
 that their vigilance is easily eluded took horse, and 
 galloped off straight to the Emperor's palace in the
 
 1 64 DUNDONALD CHAP, x 
 
 country. He was told that His Majesty was in bed. 
 " No matter," he answered ; " in bed or out of bed I 
 must see him." The Emperor, hearing his voice, awoke 
 and came out to him, and the pair then and there 
 patched up a simple little trick whereby the whole plot 
 was quite innocently upset. One wonders how Cochrane 
 could have permitted even his attachment to the Emperor 
 to retain him in such a service; but the man was nothing 
 if not chivalrous and loyal. 
 
 Thus, with incessant wrangling, plot, and counterplot, 
 six months of the year 1824 passed away, and the re- 
 covery of Pernambuco remained as remote as ever. At 
 last the Emperor undertook to deliver a definite sum of 
 two hundred thousand dollars for the squadron, and 
 having wrung the money out of his reluctant Ministers, 
 enabled Cochrane to recall his crews to the ships. 
 Cochrane himself was likewise soothed by a fresh patent 
 granting a pension of half his pay, to himself for life 
 and to his wife in case of his death, if he should elect 
 to leave the Brazilian service at the close of the war. 
 Thus at length, on the 2nd of August, the squadron 
 put to sea, in convoy of twelve hundred troops ; and 
 having landed the soldiers, pursuant to orders, at a 
 point eighty miles from Pernambuco, arrived before the 
 port on the 18th. Cochrane's first move was to summon 
 the insurgents to return to their allegiance under penalty 
 of a bombardment. Their leader, one Carvalho, answered 
 by reminding Cochrane of the ill-treatment that he 
 had suffered at Rio, and offering him a large bribe to 
 join their cause. The reply was an opening of the 
 bombardment, which, however, was soon stopped by 
 the breakdown of the only available mortar -vessel.
 
 1823-1825 AGAINST MARANHAM 165 
 
 But the mere display of force was sufficient, for 
 though the squadron was shortly after driven from its 
 anchorage by heavy gales, the army made an easy cap- 
 ture of the city under the terror created by the bursting 
 of a few shells and by the name of Cochrane. 
 
 Pernambuco was not the only place that had 
 fallen from its allegiance, and Cochrane was com- 
 pelled to proceed northward along the coast, restoring 
 order as he went, till finally, on the 9th of November, 
 he found himself face to face with his own nursling, 
 the province of Maranham. In that quarter there was 
 no question of an independent Eepublic, but simply 
 incessant squabbles between the different factions of Im- 
 perialists. The President, one Bruce, who had been a 
 member of the original Junta, was in arms against the 
 officer commanding the troops, and had actually enlisted 
 the negro population on his side. There was thus all 
 the danger, and those who have lived in the tropics will 
 appreciate it, of a war of race and colour. On the 
 other hand, Bruce's opponents, not content with fighting 
 against him, had marshalled themselves under several 
 varieties of the imperial standard and were busily 
 fighting against each other. Altogether the last state 
 of Maranham was, as Cochrane sorrowfully confessed, 
 worse than the first, and deliverance from the Portuguese 
 yoke a curse rather than a blessing, a sad, though not 
 unwholesome lesson to liberators. To take over the 
 military command and drive Bruce's negroes into durance 
 on board ship were tasks comparatively simple ; but to 
 cope with the refractory President was by no means so 
 easy. The respectable inhabitants petitioned Cochrane 
 to depose him. Cochrane replied most injudiciously by
 
 i66 DUNDONALD CHAP, x 
 
 asserting that he could not depend upon the support of 
 the Government at Rio, and proceeded, excusably perhaps 
 though with doubtful propriety, to detail the whole 
 of his grievances in support of his contention. The 
 French and British consuls now began to complain to 
 him of outrages inflicted on their fellow-subjects by the 
 lawless Brazilians ; and Cochrane finally took the de- 
 cisive step of shipping. Bruce to Rio, and setting up a 
 new government on his own account, the fourth within 
 less than eighteen months. The action was, of course, 
 attacked by his enemies at Rio, and calumnies against 
 him were sedulously circulated, not only in Brazil but 
 in Europe. 
 
 Weary of such thankless work Cochraue, on the 1st 
 of January, 1825, tendered his resignation for the fourth 
 time. No notice whatever was taken of it, and his 
 attention was presently distracted by a fresh outbreak 
 of disorder at Maranham. This having been put down, 
 it occurred to him that, having failed to obtain from the 
 central Government the refund of the money advanced 
 to the Junta of Maranham in 1823, he would now 
 demand it from the Junta itself. This, of course, 
 gave rise to fresh disputes ; the Junta steadily refusing 
 to comply, and Cochrane as steadfastly insisting on his 
 claim. As a compromise he offered to accept one-fourth 
 of the sum in satisfaction of the whole, but the Junta 
 declined to pay even so much. He then ordered the 
 Junta to pay no claims until those of the squadron had 
 been satisfied ; but as that astute body had already 
 established a system of paying no debts whatever, this 
 expedient produced no effect. The Junta then offered 
 him bills for the amount at five months. To the casual
 
 1823-1825 A REFRACTORY JUNTA 167 
 
 reader there is something irresistibly ludicrous in this 
 solemn tendering of worthless paper, but to Cochrane at 
 the time it was exasperating in the last degree. He went 
 ashore, and tried by a long and severe lecture to impress 
 upon these refractory men that they were bound in 
 honour to discharge this debt; but the phrase "in honour" 
 being meaningless to them naturally carried no weight. 
 In the midst of this controversy he was surprised by 
 the receipt of a letter from an obscure patriot, intimating 
 that it was his intention to assume the Presidency of 
 the Province. Never doubting but that this individual 
 had been properly appointed, Cochrane invited him by 
 all means to assume the office ; till on demanding his 
 credentials, he discovered that the new President could 
 show no warrant other than his own assurance. Cochrane 
 thereupon, of course, refused to permit him to take up the 
 appointment ; and therewith, equally of course, trouble 
 and intrigue broke out afresh. Martial law was now 
 proclaimed, and the aspirant to the Presidency shipped 
 off to Rio ; and then the Junta, seeing that the 
 Admiral's patience was exhausted, wisely paid a first 
 instalment of the debt that he had claimed. The money 
 was at once distributed to the crews. 
 
 Cochrane by this time was fairly worn out by the 
 incessant worry of maintaining order in this disorderly 
 country. The central authority at Rio did, indeed, 
 approve his various actions as he reported them, but 
 they helped him neither with instructions nor support. 
 He was sick of his task not only for its thanklessness, 
 but because it was really no part of an Admiral's func- 
 tions to do dirty work for a worthless administration, 
 least of all in latitude 3 south of the Equator. He
 
 1 68 DUNDONALD CHAP, x 
 
 therefore resolved to recruit his own health and that of 
 his men by a cruise up to cooler latitudes, and accord- 
 ingly, shifting his flag into the Piranga, he put to sea on 
 the 18th of May. By the llth of June he had travelled 
 to the north of the Azores, where meeting strong gales 
 he made the discovery that the mainmast and several 
 spars were unserviceable, and that the running rigging 
 was as rotten as the masts. An examination of the 
 salt provisions shipped at Maranham revealed the fact 
 that these were in the same condition, through a con- 
 tractor's roguery, as the rigging ; and that, in fact, there 
 were little more than a week's supplies on board. As it 
 was obviously out of the question to undertake a six 
 weeks' voyage under such conditions he bore up for 
 Portsmouth, and anchored at Spithead, with his pro- 
 visions absolutely exhausted, on June 26th, 1825. 
 
 Then came a fresh series of quarrels with the 
 Brazilian envoy in London. Cochrane applied to him 
 for wages for his men, and for money wherewith to refit 
 the ship. The envoy produced two months' pay for the 
 crew, but declared himself unable from lack of funds 
 to find more. In a weak moment Cochrane, in order 
 to supply his men with provisions and to keep them to- 
 gether, sent the envoy from his own purse a cheque for 
 2000 The envoy took the money, charged against it 
 the amount already advanced for the pay of the men, 
 alleged an error in the accounts of certain payments made 
 at Maranham, and concluded by intimating that the 
 whole transaction left Cochrane in debt to the Legation 
 to the amount of 25. The rest of the story is soon told. 
 The envoy, hearing that the command of the Greek navy 
 had been offered to Cochrane, asked if it were true that
 
 1823-1825 FAREWELL TO BRAZIL 169 
 
 he had accepted it. Cochrane replied enigmatically that 
 while he was in the Brazilian service he could not be in 
 the Greek, and that he had neither accepted nor refused 
 the command. The envoy rejoined that he was sorry 
 to hear that Cochrane had resolved to quit the navy of 
 Brazil, but ordered him, rather inconsistently, to take 
 the Piranga back to Rio as soon as possible. Coch- 
 rane refused to obey ; whereupon the envoy stopped 
 all wages and supplies and informed the second in 
 command of the Piranga that Lord Cochrane had left 
 the service. The officer refused to disclaim his Admiral, 
 but the men, unfed and unpaid, mutinied and deserted 
 in a body. On the 29th of October Cochrane re- 
 ceived orders from Rio to return thither at once. 
 He informed the envoy of his readiness to comply ; 
 but three days later, peace having meanwhile been 
 signed between Portugal and Brazil, the envoy ordered 
 Cochrane's officers to "disengage themselves from all 
 obedience to his command." And so stormily ended 
 Cochrane's connection with the navy of Brazil. 
 
 For many years after he continued to urge his claims 
 upon the Brazilian Government, with little or no success. 
 The money that he had advanced to the envoy was never 
 repaid to him ; and apart from the gains that he forfeited 
 owing to the refusal of the prize-court to condemn his 
 prizes, the damages awarded against him and the expensive 
 litigation which followed involved him in heavy losses. 
 It is not our intention to discuss in detail the long dispute, 
 still less to decide between the contending parties. The 
 controversy lasted for thirty years ; indeed Cochrane's 
 narrative of his services, published in 1859, is more 
 than half of it occupied with the advocacy of his case.
 
 170 DUNDONALD 
 
 Each side undoubtedly felt aggrieved, and each prob- 
 ably with more justice than the other was willing to 
 allow. That Cochrane's transcendent services would 
 have been cheaply purchased at the cost of all the 
 claims that he advanced by virtue of the Emperor's 
 original decree is beyond dispute ; it may be granted 
 also that, though in passing from Bahia to the 
 northern provinces he exceeded his instructions, he 
 justified his initiative by his success. But it is 
 abundantly evident that his success was unwelcome to 
 the wealthy and powerful party that still clung to the 
 Portuguese connection ; and the members of that party 
 may well have felt disgusted when a foreign officer, 
 after a seven months' cruise, returned to claim pro- 
 perty worth millions of dollars lately belonging to 
 their friends. The apparent ease with which Cochrane 
 had achieved his marvellous triumphs would in itself 
 seem to brand the reward assigned to him as excessive. 
 It is true that, according to British notions, his 
 position was unassailable ; but it was too much to 
 expect punctilious fulfilment of engagements from such 
 a people as the Brazilian. The whole case is to a great 
 extent one of mutual misunderstanding. Cochrane 
 could not conceive of a nation deaf to every call of 
 honour, callous to every feeling of gratitude, and blind 
 to the ineffable advantages of " liberty " ; the Brazilians 
 failed utterly to comprehend a man who gave them 
 more than they either desired or deserved, and then, 
 without pausing to help himself, claimed from them his 
 guerdon according to the letter of his bond. Take the 
 mere nationality of the parties concerned : on the one 
 side, a Scotchman of genius and energy even more than
 
 1823-1825 INCOMPATIBLE ELEMENTS 171 
 
 Caledonian ; on the other, degenerate Portuguese, igno- 
 rant, slothful, torpid, and parboiled ; could two natures 
 be found less sympathetic than these 1 Again, we must 
 not forget Cochrane's intervention in the quarrel between 
 the Emperor and the Assembly. That he acted with 
 the honest endeavour to promote the true interests of 
 the country we cannot doubt ; but we can well under- 
 stand native indignation against the foreigner who, 
 summoned to fight battles, took upon himself to impose 
 constitutions. Lastly, we must not overlook Cochrane's 
 sudden and abrupt flight to England. We have seen 
 the perfectly intelligible explanation which he put for- 
 ward to defend it; but can any one suppose that such 
 a reason would satisfy the Brazilian Government 1 To 
 run up from the south of the line to the Azores without 
 permission from headquarters was surely to strain an 
 Admiral's discretionary powers to breaking- point, to 
 say nothing of the necessity suddenly discovered in 
 latitude 31 north of proceeding to Spithead. The 
 Brazilians, conscious that they had thwarted him in the 
 prosecution of his claims to prize-money, naturally 
 imagined that he meant to hold the ship in pledge until 
 those claims should be discharged. It was nothing to 
 them that he pressed rights on behalf, not only of him- 
 self, but also of the whole squadron ; in his place they 
 would probably have taken good care of themselves and 
 left the squadron to shift for itself, and therefore 
 expected that he would do likewise. It is not surpris- 
 ing, then, that they should have jumped at the oppor- 
 tunity which he gave them of dismissing him with what 
 they probably conceived to be disgrace. He had shown 
 in his dealings with them a masterful spirit which made
 
 172 DUNDONALD 
 
 him a terrible subordinate ; and Cochrane was a man 
 whom to hate was also to dread. 
 
 Nevertheless it is something more than sentimental 
 preference for a great fellow-countryman that enlists 
 and retains our sympathy with Cochrane in his dealings 
 with Brazil. We cannot even repress a fellow-feeling 
 with him in the sudden access of home-sickness, unre- 
 cognised perhaps as such, but irresistible, which we 
 strongly suspect to have been the true influence that 
 led him to his northern cruise. It is ever weary 
 work to spin ropes of sand, but ten times weary for a 
 white man under a tropical sun. He had borne with 
 much from the Brazilians, and whatever the issue 
 of his controversy with them, the fact remains that they 
 are perpetually in his debt. The liberation of Brazil 
 was committed to his charge, and he achieved it, almost 
 miraculously achieved it. He then strove hard, though 
 it was no part of his duty, to introduce something 
 like sound administration, justice, and order, and he was 
 rewarded by insult and neglect. That he should have 
 turned his back hastily, awkwardly, and without dignity 
 upon the worthless folk for whom he had wrought so 
 much, we can well afford to overlook and to' forget. 
 But we cannot forget, for it will outlive all the innumer- 
 able revolutions of Brazil, the great campaign wherein 
 he drove, with his single ship, a Portuguese fleet and 
 a Portuguese army from the tropic of Capricorn to the 
 Tagus. It is not only the highest flight of Cochrane's 
 genius, but a possession for ever in the history of naval 
 warfare.
 
 CHAPTER XI 
 
 SERVICE IN GREECE 
 1826-1827 
 
 IT might reasonably have been expected that after the 
 lessons of Chili and Brazil, Cochrane would have 
 eschewed further dealing with oppressed nationalities, 
 and left them to fight their battles for themselves. 
 Most unfortunately it was not so. He had been in 
 England for little more than a month before he was 
 pressed by some of his friends to devote his great 
 genius to the cause of Greek independence. "Lord 
 Cochrane," wrote Sir Francis Burdett, who had not yet 
 swung over from Radicalism to Toryism, " I trust will 
 be the liberator of Greece. What a glorious title ! " 
 he added, with all the fervour of a feather-headed 
 philanthropist who will cheerfully sacrifice himself and 
 his friends on the altar of a phrase. Fortunately it is 
 not necessary in this place to go deeply into the 
 unsavoury story of the Greek rebellion. It has been 
 told by men who loved Greece and fought for her, 
 and has not failed to kindle every one of them to a 
 positive eloquence of contempt. The French Revolu- 
 tion, of course, turned as many heads in Greece as in 
 any country ; and by its fertility in lofty phrases
 
 174 DUNDONALD CHAP, xi 
 
 commended itself specially to a people richer in fine 
 words than in great deeds. So the Greeks talked their 
 loudest, the men of " Athenian liberty," the women, in 
 defiance of Aristotle, of " Spartan virtue " ; and a gang 
 of " Counting - house Catilines, bankrupt merchants 
 and intriguing adventurers," founded a secret society, 
 and set rolling the ball of revolution. In 1821, 
 Sultan Mahmoud being then overwhelmed by intes- 
 tine strife and foreign aggression, the Greeks began 
 the work by the indiscriminate massacre of ten 
 or fifteen thousand unoffending Mussulmans. They 
 next proceeded to attack the Turkish garrisons in 
 the Morea, and having received the capitulation of 
 a certain number, broke faith with them after their 
 kind, and slaughtered alike prisoners of war and inno- 
 cent population with uncommon zest. At Tripolitza 
 they thus made an end of some eight thousand men, 
 women, and children. The Turks naturally replied 
 by reprisals in kind ; but, as one English champion of 
 Greece is fain to confess, in any comparison of the 
 conduct of both sides the palm of humanity must be 
 given to the Turks. Putting aside, however, all 
 question of humanity as entirely out of place in a 
 struggle of this kind, the Greeks obtained very striking 
 successes in 1821, and maintained them more or less 
 throughout 1822 and 1823. They fought creditably 
 on land ; and at sea, under the leadership of Kanares 
 and Miaoulis, displayed gallantry and heroism of a 
 really high order. But, as usually happens, the insur- 
 gents, instead of following up their advantages, forsook 
 them for the pleasure of fighting among themselves. 
 There was no semblance of national feeling in the
 
 1826-1827 ROGUERY AND REVOLUTION 175 
 
 movement. The peasantry were indeed penetrated 
 by a profound, if narrow, sentiment of local attachment ; 
 but the leaders, and they were numerous enough for 
 the conduct of a dozen revolutions, thought of no 
 interest but their own. Folly, vanity, and rapacity were 
 their dominant characteristics, qualities which invari- 
 ably fatten on the soil of revolution. 
 
 None the less, these self-seeking "patriots" were 
 sufficiently cunning to cultivate a show of unity for 
 the benefit of their admirers in Western Europe, and 
 to that end had formed a National Assembly at Epidaurus 
 in December, 1821. The device was a clever one, for, 
 as Mr. Finlay has pointed out, it did a good deal to 
 deceive Europe, if little to organise Greece. The Greek 
 cause received further help in January, 1824, through 
 the arrival of Byron, who, weary of singing his sorrows 
 to a too sympathetic world, sought relief from inaction 
 in the work of an amateur liberator. Through his influ- 
 ence in England the Greeks obtained the one thing 
 needful to consummate their demoralisation, a loan. 
 It was not long before Byron found out that he had 
 been mistaken in the Greeks, and began to tremble, 
 not for the bankers who had taken the contract for the 
 loan, but for the misguided individuals who had 
 subscribed to it. General Gordon, who knew the 
 members of the Greek executive, summed them up as 
 "with perhaps one exception, no better than public 
 robbers." With the advent of this first loan a disas- 
 trous civil war between the patriots came to an end, 
 both sides hastening to enjoy this unlooked-for plunder. 
 But even this slight and indeed doubtful advantage was 
 wholly thrown away; no measures were taken to reduce
 
 1 76 DUNDONALD 
 
 the country to order, nor to prepare for further resistance 
 against the Turks. The Greek leaders were far too 
 much engrossed by their own affairs to attend to such 
 trifles as these. And meanwhile Sultan Mahmoud, the 
 one great man who towers high above all others in 
 this sordid history, had quietly matured his plans, had 
 summoned aid from Mohammed Ali in Egypt, and 
 through the agency of Ibrahim Pasha had, at the close 
 of 1825, already half throttled the much-vaunted Greek 
 Eevolution. 
 
 Such was the state of things in Greece when 
 Cochrane was invited into the struggle for Greek 
 independence. The whole movement was in peril 
 of being crushed ; nay, had been proved by the 
 action of its leaders to deserve to be crushed. But 
 now a new activity began to agitate the Greek Com- 
 mittee in London, that marvellous body whose career 
 so aptly summarises our national failing for the conver- 
 sion of sentimental to commercial ends. The sentiment 
 respecting Greece was, of course, sufficiently widespread : 
 Shelley had consecrated it by the dedication of Hellas 
 to one of the many worthless Greek leaders ; Byron 
 had apotheosised it by the sacrifice of the self which 
 he, and Europe after him, most ardently worshipped ; 
 hysterical speechmakers exalted it with cheap tears and 
 cheaper phrases ; finally, astute bankers and tradesmen 
 sucked thereout no small advantage. Not one of the 
 sentimentalists knew anything whatever about Greece. 
 Their sympathies were with the ancient glory of 
 Hellas and the treasures of art that lie hoarded 
 in its soil ; but with these they must needs con- 
 found a population of lawless savages who, because
 
 1826-1827 THE GREEK COMMITTEE 177 
 
 they occupied the fatherland of Homer and Plato, were 
 therefore, against all evidence of history and common 
 sense, rated as lineal descendants of classical Athens. 
 But for this confusion of thought they might possibly 
 have averted the bombardment of the Acropolis 
 by judicious bribes to the Turkish commanders. As 
 things were, they spent money in freighting ships with 
 water-colour paints for the benefit of an artistic nation. 
 A glance at the leading members of the Committee 
 sufficiently explains these vagaries. Sir Francis Burdett 
 and Mr. Hobhouse represented the sentimental element, 
 while the commercial interests were embodied in the 
 persons of Mr. Edward Ellice, contractor for the 
 first, and Messrs. Eicardo, contractors for the second 
 Greek loan. Mr. Joseph Hume and Sir John Bowring 
 appear to have combined both sentiment and com- 
 merce, by no means with the happiest results. As 
 might have been expected, the activity of such a 
 Committee found vent in 1 the floating of a second 
 Greek loan of 2,000,000 sterling, wherewith a suitable 
 champion was to be engaged for the final accomplish- 
 ment of Greek independence. 
 
 That Cochrane should have been selected for this 
 work was, in the light of his successes in South 
 America, obvious enough ; but he was by no means dis- 
 posed immediately to accept the commission. Ardent 
 as the most enthusiastic Philhellene in the cause of 
 Greece, he had learnt from Chili and Brazil something 
 of the ways of an oppressed nationality. Nor were his 
 friends unanimous in pressing him to take up the Greek 
 command ; one at least warned him against the modern 
 Greeks as a shifty and treacherous race, and urged him 
 
 N
 
 178 DUNDONALD CHAP, xi 
 
 to have nothing to do with them. But the influence of 
 men like Burdett, who knew nothing about Greek affairs 
 and took no trouble to learn anything, unfortunately pre- 
 vailed with him, and before the end of August, 1825, 
 when his connection with Brazil was not yet finally 
 severed, he had practically committed himself to this new 
 trust. It was agreed that he should receive out of the 
 new loan 37,000 at the opening, and 20,000 more at 
 the conclusion of his work; also that 300,000 should be 
 set apart to provide him with an efficient fleet, whereof 
 six steamers were to be built in England and two frigates 
 in America. He further stipulated that the entire Greek 
 fleet should be placed under his sole command, and that 
 he should have power to undertake such operations as he 
 might choose independently of the Greek Government. 
 These preliminary arrangements settled, Cochrane re- 
 visited, for the first time for many years, his beloved 
 native country, and while there was cheered by a 
 popular demonstration which showed the first turn 
 of the tide in his favour at home. As he sat one 
 evening in the theatre at Edinburgh an allusion to 
 South America was introduced into the play, and the 
 audience, taking it up, rose and turned to him with 
 a perfect hurricane of applause. But he had still 
 many a trouble before him. 
 
 He had not been in Scotland above two months when 
 he was informed that the contractor charged with the 
 construction of the steamers was making most unsatis- 
 factory progress with the work, and on hurrying up to 
 London to investigate the matter, he was met by a warn- 
 ing that the Government was contemplating his arrest for 
 the part that he had played in South America. Under
 
 1826-1827 AN EXILE ONCE MORE 179 
 
 the Foreign Enlistment Act his service with the insur- 
 gents was an indictable offence ; and, looking to the 
 enormous damage that he had inflicted upon Spain and 
 Portugal, England's former allies, it is hardly surprising 
 that the Government should have shrunk from incurring 
 the ill-will of Turkey by permitting him to do the like 
 in Greece. To avoid arrest he left London for Boulogne, 
 and while there, finding himself cut off from all 
 superintendence of the building of his fleet, thought 
 seriously of resigning his command. Most unfor- 
 tunately he sought advice from Burdett, who, more full 
 of good intentions than good sense, assured him that 
 the liberation of Greece would favour his restoration in 
 England, and urged him strongly to abide by his 
 agreement. After about a month's stay in France, 
 Cochrane learned that there, too, proceedings were 
 pending against him for illegal detention of a French 
 vessel in the Pacific. Nothing but trouble seemed to 
 come out of his magnificent exertions in South America. 
 With a heavy heart he sought a new refuge in Brussels, 
 where he remained perforce inactive for four weary 
 months. 
 
 Meanwhile the construction of the steamers pro- 
 gressed more slowly than ever. The fact was that the 
 contractor was in the pay of Ibrahim Pasha, the Com- 
 mander of the Turkish forces in Greece, and had no 
 intention of doing anything for the Greeks beyond taking 
 a share of the new loan. In America the same rascality 
 was at work over the construction of the two frigates, 
 with the ultimate result that instead of two vessels at the 
 contract price of 157,000, but one was delivered at acost 
 of 200,000. Such was the fashion in which the Greek
 
 i8o DUNDONALD 
 
 Committee in London managed the affairs of Greece, 
 aided, we should add, by two Greek deputies, who took 
 good care to divert a portion of the loan into their own 
 pockets. These two worthies, seeing that through their 
 own roguery there would soon be little money left for 
 the legitimate objects of the loan, had the assurance to 
 suggest that Cochrane should refund the 37,000 already 
 paid to him, and accept in lieu thereof one of the half- 
 built frigates, acknowledged to be unsaleable, that had 
 been ordered in America. It is distressing to be com- 
 pelled to add that Cochrane, instead of resigning the 
 command forthwith, answered this cool request with rare 
 patience and generosity, declining, indeed, to comply, 
 but substituting a most handsome offer of his own. As 
 a matter of fact the money had been invested by him 
 in Greek stock, so that practically it was already, if not 
 a vanished, at any rate a vanishing quantity. 
 
 At last, towards the close of April, 1826, the first of 
 the new steamers, the Perseverance, approached actual 
 completion. So far Cochrane had wisely declined to 
 enter Grecian waters without a sufficient fleet, but, 
 wearied by the long delay, he now consented to start for 
 the Mediterranean independently, leaving Captain Frank 
 Hastings, an English naval officer who had early joined 
 the Greek service, to follow him with the Perseverance. 
 After a hurried visit to London to inspect the vessels 
 on the stocks, which he found in a thoroughly unsatis- 
 factory state, he embarked on the 20th of May on board 
 a schooner yacht, the Unicorn. For a time he hung 
 about British waters in the hope of receiving at any 
 rate an instalment of his fleet, for the contractor had 
 solemnly bound himself to deliver two of the steamers
 
 1826-1827 IN GREECE AT LAST 181 
 
 within a fortnight, and the remaining three within a 
 month ; but he waited in vain. Finally, hearing that 
 Hastings had actually started with the Perseverance, 
 he decided, on the 12th of June, to sail for the 
 Mediterranean. Arriving at Messina on the 12th of 
 July, he anchored and waited in daily expectation of 
 the arrival of his fleet. Day followed day, and week 
 succeeded week, but no fleet appeared. At last, after 
 three long months of waiting, of asking for ships and 
 receiving excuses, he moved in despair up to Marseilles 
 and anchored there on the 20th of October. Still the 
 fleet appeared not ; the steamers were still incompletej 
 and the loan was well-nigh exhausted. Fortunately 
 the Philhellenes of Paris and Switzerland came to 
 his rescue and provided him with a small corvette, and 
 with this humble vessel in company he finally set sail 
 in the Unicorn on the 23rd of February, 1827, and 
 entered Greek waters on the 17th of March. The 
 American frigate, Hellas, which was to be his flagship, 
 had arrived at ^Egina before him in the December 
 previous. Thus ominously opened his career in the 
 service of Greece. 
 
 Anchoring at Poros on the 19th of March, Cochrane 
 was at once welcomed with compliments, congratula- 
 tions, and inflated speeches innumerable. The condition 
 of Greece was, in fact, desperate. The last stand of the 
 patriots (one should rather call them insurgents) had 
 been broken down almost a year before, when Misso- 
 Jonghi, after a magnificent defence, had succumbed to the 
 Turks on the 22nd of April, 1826. The Greeks had 
 measured their strength against the invincible will of 
 Sultan Mahmoud, and had been beaten to the ground.
 
 182 DUNDONALD CHAP, xi 
 
 Thrice welcome therefore was the advent of a hero who 
 should achieve the liberation of their country without 
 further trouble to themselves. One of the few true 
 patriots, the gallant sailor Miaoulis, at once placed 
 himself under Cochrane's orders. His heart had been 
 well-nigh broken by the selfishness and insubordina- 
 tion of his fleet ; but what he could do he did, and he 
 at least was blameless for the disasters that befell his 
 country. As to the rest of the Greek leaders, they 
 sought no more than to gain Cochrane's favour for their 
 own particular factions. There were at the moment 
 two principal Governments in Greece, one stationed at 
 Hermione, the other at u^Egina, both useless and neither 
 patriotic. The faction at Hermione, after holding up 
 to him the enormities of its rival, begged him to come 
 ashore and assist in its debates for the creation of a 
 new Government. Cochrane flashed one scornful glance 
 into the heart of these miserable pedantries, and 
 answered with a bitter reproof. He pointed out that 
 the discussion of constitutional niceties was out of place 
 at a time when the enemy held possession of three- 
 fourths of the country, and recommended a perusal of 
 Demosthenes' First Philippic, with special attention to 
 the following passage : " If you will become your own 
 masters, and cease each of you to expect to do nothing 
 himself while his neighbour does everything for him, 
 you will then with God's permission get back your own, 
 recover what is lost, and punish your enemy." The 
 quotation was happy, but it produced no more effect 
 than a stanza from Dr. Watt's hymns. It is supposed 
 that Cochrane's presence did indeed prevent the 
 Assembly at Hermione from attacking its rival by force
 
 1826-1827 M'AKING A GOVERNMENT 183 
 
 of arms, but for a time it could effect no more. 
 Fortunately an opportunity for dealing more decisively 
 with the contending parties soon presented itself. The 
 Assembly at .ZEgina sent him his commission as 
 Admiral ; he promptly refused to accept it, and intimated 
 that, unless the two parties reconciled their differences 
 at once, he would quit the country on the spot. This 
 threat brought them for a time to their senses. 
 Cochrane was requested to decide the mode for election 
 of a central executive body, and under his direction a 
 National Assembly finally met at Damala on the 7th of 
 April, wherein, after many stormy scenes, Count John 
 Capodistrias was elected President of Greece for seven 
 years. As, however, the new President was unlikely 
 to assume office immediately, the chief power was 
 entrusted for the present to a Commission of three, 
 a poor substitute, as events were to prove, for a single 
 resolute man. 
 
 This done, Cochrane was on the 1 8th of April sworn 
 in with great ceremony as First Admiral of Greece. He 
 had hoped that the National Assembly would adjourn 
 forthwith and despatch the army to the urgent business 
 of fighting ; but that incorrigible body, on the contrary, 
 continued for a full month to discuss constitutional 
 platitudes and pedantries with a zeal and animosity that 
 left no time for action against the Ottoman oppressor. 
 In vain Cochrane told them that what was needed was 
 not sage deliberation on forms of government, but prompt 
 exercise of energetic authority ; in vain he issued pro- 
 clamations denouncing the "brutal Turk," and calling 
 the people to arms. The Greeks were far too well 
 content with words to find leisure for deeds. And
 
 184 DUNDONALD CHAP. XI 
 
 meanwhile the one stronghold left to the patriots, 
 Athens, the centre of all Hellenic sentiment, was hard 
 pressed by the enemy. The siege had begun as far 
 back as June, 1826, but had been raised for a time by 
 Colonel Fabvier, a Frenchman in the Greek service, 
 who in December had forced his way in with a small 
 reinforcement and relieved the garrison. There were 
 now about a thousand soldiers, and four hundred women 
 and children, cooped up by the Turks in the Acropolis, 
 still resisting with determination, but anxiously awaiting 
 further relief. The most effective method of raising the 
 siege was to operate in rear of the besieging force, cut off 
 its supplies from the northward, and so force it to retire ; 
 and this was the plan recommended by Cochrane. In 
 pursuance thereof he sent Captain Hastings with a small 
 squadron to the gulf of Volo to capture all Turkish 
 victualling ships that might be lying there. The enter- 
 prise was completely successful. Hastings, who in 
 the matter of independence and daring bore a strong 
 resemblance to Cochrane, did his duty gallantly and 
 swiftly, in a fashion to rouse all men of spirit to further 
 exertion. But the Greek leaders would riot follow up 
 this success : they would hear of nothing but a direct 
 attack on the besiegers of Athens ; and their counsels 
 were strengthened by piteous messages from Fabvier 
 as to the desperate state of the garrison in the Acropolis. 
 Nothing doubting the truth of Fabvier's representa- 
 tions, Cochrane abandoned his own design to second that 
 of the incompetent Greeks. The Greek army, already 
 in position before Athens, consisted of three thousand 
 men under General Gordon at Munychia, and twenty- 
 five hundred under a Greek, Karaiskakes, at Keratsina
 
 1826-1827 BEFORE ATHENS 185 
 
 on the opposite side of the Piraeus ; both of which 
 bodies were paralysed by a Turkish garrison stationed 
 midway between the two camps in the monastery 
 of Spiridion. On the 17th of April Cochrane, having 
 hoisted his flag on board the Hellas, passed over 
 to the bay of Phalerum, on the east side of Munychia, 
 where he was joined by the newly-appointed General- 
 issimo, Sir Richard Church, with a force of three 
 thousand men. The united strength of the Greek army 
 before Athens now amounted to about ten thousand 
 men. Among these were one thousand from the island 
 of Hydra, who had been recruited by Cochrane himself 
 for service ashore ; a useless and undisciplined corps, 
 but so important in its own eyes as to excite the 
 jealousy of the rest of the troops, which, though less 
 inefficient, were worse paid. 
 
 Five daj^s were spent in organising the reinforcement 
 at Phalerum. Meantime the messengers from the 
 Acropolis arrived with the news that the garrison could 
 not hold out for more than five days longer. The first 
 essential operation towards their relief was the cap- 
 ture of the monastery of Spiridion, Avhich, though 
 held by but a weak force of Turks, effectually cut the 
 Greek armies in two. Cochrane tried hard to persuade 
 Karaiskakes to effect a junction with Church and press 
 on to Athens, and, as an alternative, offered to transport 
 the whole force to Cape Colias, from whence it could 
 advance upon the capital by a yet shorter route. 
 Advice and entreaty were alike useless. Karaiskakes 
 had no ideas and no plan, except to entrench his 
 position with the hope of starving out the garrison 
 of the monastery. In despair Cochrane was about
 
 1 86 DUNDONALD CHAP, xi 
 
 to take strong measures, when mere chance gave 
 him the opportunity of striking a decisive blow. 
 A small party of Greek soldiers was landing under 
 his superintendence, when the Turks, who had been 
 watching them from the monastery, came down to 
 hinder the debarkation. Cochrane called up his 
 Hydriots to reinforce him ; the Turks summoned 
 reinforcements likewise, and gradually the engagement 
 became general. Then the magic of Cochrane's leader- 
 ship showed itself in all its glory. Armed with no 
 more deadly weapon than a telescope he cheered on 
 his men, and the Greeks, catching fire from him, dashed 
 after him into the Turkish entrenchments about the 
 monastery, and captured nine of the enemy's redoubts. 
 Three hundred Turks fled within the monastery for 
 refuge, but the bulk of them retired still farther towards 
 Athens. By this bold assault the stronghold of Spiridion 
 was virtually taken. 
 
 Cochrane, true to his principle of pressing every suc- 
 cess to the utmost, now urged a sudden, united, and 
 immediate attack on the Turkish camp ; but Karaiskakes 
 would not move until the monastery was actually in his 
 hands. Anxious to satisfy this obstinate man, Cochrane 
 bombarded the building from the Hellas on the following 
 morning, and soon knocked it into ruins ; but Kariskakes 
 would deliver no more three half-hearted assaults, which 
 were easily repulsed by the gallant little Turkish garri- 
 son. So the monastery remained still in the hands 
 of the enemy, and Karaiskakes remained motionless 
 before it. Cochrane, fuming over this prolonged in- 
 action, wrote violent letters insisting upon an immediate 
 advance on Athens, but with no better result than to
 
 1826-1827 THE MASSACRE AT SPIRIDION 187 
 
 provoke something painfully like a mutiny among the 
 Greek soldiers. The truth is that the Greeks were 
 beaten. In the first flush of success, and the first 
 revelry of massacre, they had shown some fighting quali- 
 ties ; but now that they were required to stand up and 
 meet their match in a fair field, they would fight no 
 longer. Cochrane and Church, in deep disgust, shook the 
 dust off their feet, and left Karaiskakes to manage the 
 capture of the monastery by himself, which he presently 
 accomplished by granting the garrison a capitulation with 
 all the honours of war. Cochrane, from the deck of his 
 yacht, observed the passage of communications between 
 the Greeks and the garrison, and as he had previously re- 
 fused to grant the Turks a capitulation, was not a little 
 annoyed. Mr. Finlay, the historian, who was standing 
 by his side, was distracted by other thoughts. " All 
 those men will be murdered," he said, pointing to the 
 garrison. " Do you hear what he says ? " asked Coch- 
 rane, turning in horror to General Gordon who stood 
 on his other side. " My lord," said Gordon, who 
 always spoke with great deliberation, " I fear it is too 
 true." Finlay and Gordon knew their men too well to 
 be mistaken. The Greeks, finding no plunder in the 
 monastery, turned upon their prisoners, and, in spite of 
 the efforts of Karaiskakes, massacred them there and 
 then. Gordon, who had witnessed similar scenes at 
 Tripolitza, threw up his command after this affair and 
 quitted Greece. It had been better for Cochrane if he 
 had done likewise. 
 
 There was now no obstacle to hinder an immediate 
 march on Athens, a course which Cochrane once more 
 advised with vehemence, but without success. On the
 
 i88 DUNDONALD CHAP, xi 
 
 4th of May Kariskakes was mortally wounded in a 
 skirmish. He was carried on board ship, whither he 
 sent for Cochrane to thank him, and to entrust him 
 with a last message to his captains, that they should 
 accompany the Admiral to Cape Colias and thence 
 advance on Athens. After some demur it was deter- 
 mined to adopt this plan : the change of base was 
 accomplished without difficulty; but there the operations 
 came to an end, the Greeks refusing to advance, and 
 contenting themselves with throwing up paltry entrench- 
 ments. The Turks at once came down against them 
 and defeated them utterly, the cavalry doing frightful 
 execution, and pursuing the fugitives even to the water's 
 edge. Cochrane, who, though not in charge of the 
 movement, had gone ashore to watch it, was carried 
 away in the flight, and with difficulty forced his way 
 through the combatants to the beach, and ultimately, 
 neck-deep in water, to his boat. This defeat was decisive. 
 Three thousand of the Greek army deserted on the 
 spot : General Church abandoned Munychia ; and on 
 the 5th of June the garrison of the Acropolis capitulated. 
 In spite of all his complaints Fabvier had still four 
 months' provisions and abundance of ammunition ; a 
 fact which is sufficient to condemn both his hasty sur- 
 render, and the misrepresentations whereby he had led 
 the Greek generals to a false plan of campaign. The 
 blame of this disaster is commonly ascribed to Cochrane, 
 but the design, as he had conceived it, was sound 
 enough. No plan of operations in the world will win 
 a battle if the soldiers, like the Greeks on this occasion, 
 decline either to march or to fight. The real misfortune 
 was that the execution of the project should have been
 
 1826-1827 THE SCAPEGOAT OF ATHENS 189 
 
 so long delayed, owing to false intelligence from the 
 Acropolis. Cochrane's whole career shows that he 
 aspired always to compass the greatest .possible results 
 with the least possible sacrifice ; and for a beaten force 
 like that of the Greeks no scheme of operations could 
 have been wiser than this, for it would at once have 
 discouraged the enemy and inspirited the men without 
 shedding a drop of blood. But where patriots are 
 fonder of talk than of action, and even in their talk 
 prefer falsehood to truth, there is little hope even for 
 the greatest of leaders.
 
 CHAPTER XII 
 
 FURTHER SERVICE IN GREECE 
 
 1827-1828 
 
 COCHRANE now turned to his more legitimate function, 
 the organisation of the Greek Navy. As a preliminary 
 step the whole fleet was assembled and reviewed by 
 him at Poros, the vessels from Hydra and Spetzas, which 
 were supposed to be its backbone, 'being already anchored 
 in the port. The crews of these ships on being ordered 
 to get them under way sent a deputation to Cochrane 
 to demand a month's pay in advance, pointing out that 
 he had received on board his yacht the necessary funds 
 for the purpose. Cochrane replied that he had already 
 spent so much in the futile operations for the relief of 
 Athens that he could offer for the present no more than 
 a fortnight's wages in advance. The patriotic seamen 
 rejected this proposal with indignation. " In vain," says 
 Finlay, " the Grand Admiral urged the duty they owed 
 to their country. No seaman could trust his country for 
 a fortnight's wages." Without waiting for orders, the 
 Hydriots and Spetziots weighed anchor and deserted on 
 the spot, brig after brig passing with utter shamelessness 
 under the stern of the flagship, where the Admiral in his 
 cabin sat silently watching the whole scene. By sunset
 
 1827-1828 A HOPELESS TASK 191 
 
 the Greek fleet had dispersed itself for the congenial 
 occupations of privateering and piracy, leaving Cochrane 
 in the flagship to take care of himself. " Liberator of 
 Greece what a glorious title ! " 
 
 It was useless to look to the Greek Government 
 for help in such difficulties. With its wonted readi- 
 ness the executive had given him full authority to 
 purchase ships and stores, and to engage labourers 
 and seamen as he might think best ; but it had 
 carefully omitted to furnish him with the requisite 
 funds. He was, indeed, empowered to borrow money 
 on the security of the Government, but Greek credit 
 was by this time hopelessly exhausted. He was there- 
 fore compelled to cruise among the islands, and raise 
 money and recruits as best he could. It was no easy 
 task ; not a man would join the fleet without a 
 month's pay in advance, and not one would stay beyond 
 the term of his month, so that the labour of making 
 a disciplined crew was interminable. On the 22nd of 
 May he tested his ship's company of the Hellas by 
 the chase of a couple of Turkish frigates ; but the 
 firing was so wild, and the confusion generally so great, 
 that he was unwilling to repeat the experiment. Unable 
 to take his frigate into port lest the crew, according to 
 custom, should desert in a body, he contented himself 
 with surveying the coast and examining the harbours. 
 Meanwhile all applications to the Government for money 
 and stores for the fleet were met by an order to lose no 
 time in securing the independence of Greece. 
 
 Having seen the hopelessness of any attempt to act 
 in combination with the Greek army, he resolved to 
 carry the war into the enemy's country. He had been
 
 192 . DUNDONALD 
 
 called to the Greek, as to the South American, command 
 in order to close the sea to the passage of reinforcements 
 from the sovereign State ; and he now determined to 
 make a bold stroke for the capture of Alexandria, where 
 a large force was preparing to embark for further 
 operations against the Greeks. Thither, accordingly, 
 he sailed on the llth of June with the Hellas, flagship, 
 the French corvette Sauveur, fourteen Greek brigs, and 
 eight fire-ships. On the 15th he came in sight of the 
 harbour, spent the day in preparing an explosion-vessel, 
 and on the morrow, hoisting American colours, stood in 
 with the whole fleet for the attack. With great difficulty 
 the Greek vessels were induced to follow the flagship 
 to the entrance to the port ; but once there, at the 
 sight of twenty Egyptian ships, the seamen lost heart 
 altogether. After infinite persuasion, Kanares, who 
 was really a gallant man, coaxed the crews of two of 
 the fire-ships into action, and succeeded in burning 
 one Egyptian man-of-war. But when the Egyptians, 
 in great trepidation, weighed anchor for immediate 
 flight, the Greeks, concluding that they were coming 
 out to attack, went about headlong. Cochrane would 
 gladly have engaged the enemy single-handed as at 
 Bahia, if he could have depended on his crew; but 
 the seamen of the flagship were as cowardly as the rest. 
 There was nothing for it but to rally his scattered fleet, 
 and this having been with some difficulty accom- 
 plished, he took it to the coast of Asia Minor for 
 stores and water. Meanwhile he wrote a letter to 
 Mohammed Ali, warning him that he would yet in- 
 fallibly destroy the expedition preparing against Greece. 
 The old Pasha was not likely to take notice of such
 
 1827-1828 A PROMISING CREW 193 
 
 a message ; and the less so, as Cochrane a year before 
 had hurled another letter at him, pelting him with 
 quotations from the Hebrew prophets, and denouncing 
 him with marvellous impudence for his iniquity 
 in employing foreign officers in his service. It is 
 probable that Mohammed Ali put him down for a 
 madman; and indeed we must hope, for Cochrane's 
 sake, that he did, for these too boastful threats were 
 never fulfilled. The Admiral was capable enough, 
 but the Greek seamen were utterly worthless. It 
 is recorded that Cochrane, in order to gain their con- 
 fidence and good-will, beguiled the tedious hours on 
 board ship by exhibiting to his crew a magic lantern. 
 The men enjoyed it with childish delight, until, un- 
 fortunately, he displayed a slide which represented a 
 Greek flying from a Turk and finally melted into a 
 view of the Turk cutting off the Greek's head. The 
 sight was too much for the sailors. Every man on 
 board took fright; some jumped into the sea, some 
 took refuge in the hold ; nor was it possible for several 
 hours to get them together again. 
 
 From Asia Minor Cochrane returned to Nauplia at 
 the urgent bidding of the Governing Commission. It 
 was the old story ; one worthless Greek faction seeking 
 his assistance for the suppression of its equally worth- 
 less rivals. Cochrane would not wait to see the issue 
 of the struggle, but sailed to Navarino, where the whole 
 Turkish fleet had been concentrated. Here, for the 
 first time, he succeeded in making the Greek sailors fight. 
 On the 1st of August five small vessels were detached 
 from the main Turkish force, and gave the Hellas an 
 opportunity for pursuit. After a chase of nearly 
 

 
 194 DUNDONALD 
 
 twenty -four hours, she closed with the largest, a 
 corvette of twenty -eight guns, and brought her to 
 action. " The boys on board the flagship," wrote 
 Cochrane, " behaved pretty well ; but the oldest, ugliest, 
 and fiercest-looking bravoes ran to the other side of the 
 deck, roaring like market-bulls." This would not do ; 
 down went the Admiral in all his wrath among the 
 bravoes, and knocked them about with his fists right 
 and left. Eventually, after fifty minutes' fight, the 
 corvette was taken ; a poor victory for a sixty -four-gun 
 frigate to the old captain of the Speedy and the Pallas. 
 
 It would be both tedious and unprofitable to follow 
 Cochrane through his weary wrestling with the corrup- 
 tion of the Greek Government and the lawlessness 
 of the Greek seamen. Such was the insubordina- 
 tion and treachery even of his own crew, that he was 
 compelled always to carry a loaded pistol in his pocket. 
 Further operations were at length stopped by the in- 
 tervention of the French and English fleets ; and finally, 
 on the 20th of October, France, England, and Eussia took 
 matters into their own hands and crushed the Turkish 
 fleet in the action of Navarino. He then betook himself 
 to the suppression of piracy on the Greek coasts, being 
 painfully conscious the while that the greater part 
 of his own fleet was composed of pirates and encour- 
 aged as such by the Greek Government. In fact, the 
 Admirals of the Allied Powers made no secret of their 
 intention to treat Greek war -vessels as pirates ; an 
 announcement which cut Cochrane to the quick. 
 Utterly disgusted with the whole service, he suddenly 
 made up his mind to return to England, in order to 
 lay the whole state of affairs before the Philhellenes in
 
 1827-1828 MORE ROGUERY 195 
 
 London, and devise some measures for remedying it. 
 It was the story of Brazil over again ; after breathing 
 the foul air of patriotic rascality, the man pined for 
 the purer atmosphere of his native land. 
 
 Arriving in London on the 19th of February, 1828, 
 he found that the enthusiasm for the Greek cause was 
 cooled, and that the Government was in no mood to 
 permit the enlistment of British seamen for the Greek 
 service. He discovered, further, that the steamers 
 under construction by the rogue of a contractor were, 
 after two years' delay, still unfinished. England being 
 unsympathetic, he journeyed on to Paris to see what 
 might be done there. Shortly after his departure he 
 heard that Count John Capodistrias, who had been elected 
 President of Greece in the previous year, had at last 
 assumed the duties of his office. This was good news ; 
 for Capodistrias was a man on whom he counted for 
 active and loyal support. Cochrane's zeal was, however, 
 somewhat damped by the receipt of a letter from one 
 of the Greek deputies in London, demanding refund of 
 the 37,000 which had been made over to him on his 
 acceptance of the Greek command, on the ground that 
 he had forfeited it by his departure from Greek waters. 
 Here was a repetition of the wrangles which had so 
 unhappily closed his connection with Brazil. He returned 
 an indignant refusal, which was probably quite thrown 
 away on the peculating deputy, and went his own way. 
 Finally, after much travelling to and fro between London 
 and Paris, in the effort to bolster up the deservedly 
 discredited cause of Greece, he started in one of the 
 new steamers, the Mercury, on his return to the JEgean. 
 
 On arriving at Poros on the 30th of September he
 
 196 DUNDONALD CHAP, xn 
 
 found that the rule of Capodistrias had already wrought 
 improvement, and also that the French had driven all 
 the Turkish and Egyptian forces out of the Morea. In 
 effect Greece was free ; the French had freed it, and a 
 liberator was no longer required. He was received by 
 the Greek authorities with studied disrespect. Even the 
 President, who owed his election to Cochrane, repeatedly 
 refused to see him, and only consented to an interview 
 in order to challenge the accuracy of his accounts. It 
 is curious to note the jealousy of oppressed nationalities 
 for every one's honesty but their own. Finally, how- 
 ever, the correctness of his accounts was grudgingly 
 acknowledged, and Cochrane thereupon resigned his 
 commission, renouncing at the same time his share of 
 the two solitary prizes that he had taken during the 
 war, and all claim to the 20,000 still due to him 
 according to the original agreement. The President 
 acknowledged his generosity in a grateful letter, and 
 observed that Greece was in the hands of God and of 
 the Allied Powers. It was, however, still in the hands 
 of rogues and thieves. The next news that Cochrane 
 heard was that the Greek Government contemplated 
 the repudiation of the loan of 1825, a calamity which 
 the English contractors entreated him to avert. The 
 subsequent history of Greek finance does not lessen our 
 surprise in learning that his intervention was successful. 
 Having made over the Mercury to the Government, 
 Cochrane requested a passage homeward in some other 
 Greek vessel. Very reluctantly the Government pro- 
 vided him with a miserable brig, without provisions or 
 decent accommodation, and commanded by a ruffian who 
 had distinguished himself by insubordination at Alex-
 
 1827-1828 THE FIGHTING DAYS ENDED 197 
 
 andria, and who now took every opportunity of in- 
 sulting his former Admiral. There was a stormy scene 
 between Cochrane and the President ; but meanwhile 
 the Russian Admiral, Heyden, had generously offered 
 a passage to Malta in one of his own ships, and 
 that with all the courtesy that a sailor could show to a 
 king of his profession. " I beg," he wrote, " that Lord 
 Cochrane will send back to their kennels the miserable 
 causes of his annoyance and proceed to Malta, or to 
 Zante if he wishes, in one of my corvettes, taking with 
 him as large a suite as he likes. It cannot be too 
 numerous. As regards his salute, I will receive him 
 with the honours due to his rank, and with musical 
 honours, and at his departure I will man yards." So 
 in a Russian corvette he sailed for Malta on the 20th of 
 December, 1828, and on landing was welcomed by the 
 Admiral, Sir Pulteney Malcolm, who as a captain had 
 shared in the attack in Aix Roads, and had given 
 evidence in his favour at the court-martial. From 
 Malta he returned by a tedious journey to Paris ; and 
 thus, at the age of fifty-four, the great seaman closed 
 his fighting career. " Thank God," he wrote to a friend 
 " we are clear of a country where there is no hope of 
 amelioration for half a century to come." 
 
 That half -century is now nearly twenty years past, 
 and the condition of Greece is still a disappointment to 
 those who wish the country well. It is distressing to 
 think that so great a sailor as Cochrane should have 
 wasted four years of his life, and, so far as was possible, 
 tarnished his fame in the service of such a gang as the 
 Greek leaders. He had done much with the Chilians, 
 who remain something of a naval nation to this day :
 
 1 98 DUNDONALD CHAP, xn 
 
 he had even made something of that unpromising race 
 the Brazilians ; but with the Greeks he could do 
 absolutely nothing. They would not learn of him, they 
 would not follow him, they would not fight under him. 
 They imagined that his mere presence would deliver 
 them from their enemies, and leave them free to devote 
 themselves to their favourite avocations, the politicians 
 to faction, the soldiers to brigandage, and the seamen 
 to piracy. On the behaviour of the Greek leaders to- 
 wards him it is unnecessary to comment ; it is sufficient 
 to say (and it is saying a good deal) that they treated 
 him, on the whole, worse than any of his masters. As a 
 matter of fact even the ancient Greeks had no proper 
 appreciation of a great sailor. The Athenians at the 
 opening of the Peloponnesian War possessed the greatest 
 admiral of antiquity, a man with a spice of Cochrane 
 in his composition, that Phormio, namely, who off 
 Naupactus rowed round and round the Lacedemonian 
 fleet till he had scared it into the requisite confusion, 
 and then attacked and dispersed it. Thucydides does 
 indeed record this brilliant action, but, though himself 
 a naval commander, he suffers Phormio to drop out of 
 his history unnoticed. It were devoutly to be wished 
 that Cochrane's connection with Greece could be like- 
 wise forgotten ; though the reproach is not his when 
 history records that he could make any seamen fight 
 except the Greek.
 
 CHAPTER XIII 
 
 RETURN TO ENGLAND RESTORATION TO RANK DEATH 
 1829-1860 
 
 ON his return from Greece Cochrane took up Ms resi- 
 dence for six months in Paris, and made no attempt to 
 approach England until September, 1829. During his 
 flying visit to London in the previous year he had made 
 petition to the Duke of Clarence, at that time Lord High 
 Admiral, for reconsideration of his case, but, owing to the 
 hostility of the Ministry, without success. Nor was it 
 until after the Duke had ascended the throne as King 
 William the Fourth, and Wellington's Administration 
 had fallen in December, 1830, that he renewed his 
 efforts to obtain justice. The new Ministers one and all 
 received his memorials with favour, but they did nothing 
 for him. Any hopes that he might have cherished of 
 urging his grievances in Parliament were defeated by the 
 death of his father in 1831, which gave him the un- 
 pleasant position, politically speaking, of a Scotch peer, 
 and changed his name from Cochrane, under which he 
 had become famous throughout the world, to Dundonald. 
 He had, however, a good friend in the Sailor-King. Lady 
 Dundonald worked with unwearied devotion for her hus- 
 band's restoration, interceding alike with the Sovereign
 
 DUNDONALD CHAP, xm 
 
 and his Ministers. Cochrane himself was permitted 
 to advocate his cause in a personal interview with the 
 King; and ultimately, in February, 1832, he obtained 
 the promise of a free pardon. The final act was consum- 
 mated at a Privy Council held on the 2nd of May. He 
 was on that day restored to his rank in the Royal Navy, 
 and a few days later gazetted a Rear-Admiral of the 
 Fleet. Thus, after sixteen years' of bitter penance, the 
 first instalment of reparation was paid to him. He still 
 chafed at the phrase "free pardon," as connoting the 
 pre-existence of guilt ; but the weary period of suffering 
 and of exile was past, and the rest of his life was to be 
 cheered by token after token of his country's amends 
 for the wrong that she had done to him. 
 
 Unable to find immediate employment at sea, Dun- 
 donald threw the whole of his energy into his hereditary 
 resource of invention. With the swift and comprehen- 
 sive glance of genius he saw that the days of sailing- 
 vessels were numbered, and sought, by improvement of 
 the newly-invented steam-engine, to keep the British 
 navy in its place at the head of all navies. He busied 
 himself alike with the simplification of machinery, with 
 the improvement of boilers, with new designs for screw- 
 propellers, with scientific examination of the best 
 lines for ship-building, and, in fact, with every detail 
 in the construction of steam-vessels. Eventually, after 
 overcoming the difficulties that beset all inventors, he 
 persuaded the Admiralty to build a steam-frigate in 
 accordance with his designs, the construction and trial 
 of which occupied most of his time during the years 
 1843 and 1844. The Janus, however, from some 
 mistake in the calculations, or from some other cause,
 
 1829-1860 ENGLAND'S AMENDS 201 
 
 was found ultimately to be a failure. Details of 
 Cochrane's principles would be out of place in a work 
 of this kind ; it must suffice that his inventions, like 
 those of his father, were of the class that smooth the 
 road for others rather than land their author at the 
 goal. His bones help to fill many a trench over 
 which men pass to the siege of the fortress of science. 
 
 Concurrently with these labours he continued to 
 press upon the Admiralty the secret war-plans which 
 he had discovered while yet a captain, and carefully 
 kept close during his service under foreign flags. In 
 1846 these plans were formally submitted to a Board 
 of Experts, composed of the Surveyor-General of the 
 Ordnance, Sir John Burgoyne, and Lieutenant-Colonel 
 Colquhoun, which decided that two out of three of them 
 were at variance with the principles of civilised warfare, 
 and must therefore still be kept secret. In these days 
 of repeating rifles, melinite, and other agents of whole- 
 sale destruction, the objections must be well-nigh 
 obsolete. But it is less for the purpose of introducing 
 abstruse questions of this kind than of displaying the 
 amazing activity of the man's mind, that this subject, 
 with which we have even now not quite done, is here 
 mentioned. 
 
 Meanwhile the work of reparation for past wrongs 
 was progressing apace. In 1841 an ordinary good- 
 service pension was allotted to him. On the Queen's 
 birthday, 1847, the Grand Cross of the Bath, for the 
 restitution whereof he had long begged as essential 
 to his reinstatement, was granted to him by Her 
 Majesty ; and the compliment was enhanced by Prince 
 Albert who, cutting short all formalities, sent him
 
 DUNDONALD CHAP, xm 
 
 the insignia at once, in order that he might wear 
 them at the birthday drawing-room on the 27th of 
 May. This was a peculiarly graceful act, for it 
 enabled Dundonald to take his place among the 
 great warriors of his country as a veteran knight of 
 1809. In July he was duly installed at a Chapter of 
 the Order. Lord Ellenborough, an evil name to him in 
 former days, was among his sponsors, and the Duke of 
 Wellington, whose Ministry had rejected his petition for 
 reinstatement in 1828, shook hands with him and 
 offered his congratulations. This, so far as we know, 
 was the first meeting of these two men, who had at 
 least so much in common, that each stood at the head 
 of his profession in the civilised world. In other 
 respects they were far as the poles asunder. Wellington 
 would do violence to his own opinions that the Sove- 
 reign's Government might be carried on ; Dundonald 
 would sacrifice his own future merely to injure the 
 Government. Wellington stayed and fought against 
 difficulties, while his officers went home to abuse him in 
 Parliament ; Dundonald, skilled beyond all men in 
 turning aside the obstacles of war, went home on 
 purpose to attack his superiors in the House of Commons. 
 In genius for actual warfare there was little to choose 
 between them, though Wellington had not the personal 
 magnetism of Dundonald. The great Admiral had 
 declared that it was impossible for the British army to 
 drive the French out of the Peninsula, but the great 
 General had done it. On the other hand, the Admiral 
 had undertaken to do the work as effectually with five 
 frigates, and it is hard to say that he would not have 
 done it. But the essential difference between them was
 
 1829-1860 IN COMMAND OF A BRITISH FLEET 203 
 
 that the one was a disciplined, and the other an undis- 
 ciplined man; and Wellington, as, in spite of his 
 admiration for Charles Napier, he significantly showed, 
 did not love undisciplined men. Nevertheless, the 
 two men met, each with a cordial admiration for the 
 other ; for genius alone can truly appreciate genius, 
 and Wellington and Dundonald could each understand 
 better than other men the difficulties which the other 
 had overcome. 
 
 At the end of 1847 Dundonald obtained, but, alas, 
 only in time of peace, the highest object of his ambition, 
 the command of a British fleet at sea and hoisted 
 his flag as Commander-in-Chief on the North American 
 and West Indian Station. The terms in which this ap- 
 pointment was offered to him, and the congratulations 
 that followed his acceptance of it, were such as to 
 convince him of the general desire to atone for wrongs 
 done to him in the past. He took over the command 
 with deep gratitude, and sailed for Halifax on the 28th 
 of March, 1848. No incident of importance broke the 
 even course of his duties on the Station, but the mere 
 traversing of the region placed under his control supplied 
 occupation in abundance for so busy a mind. In visit- 
 ing Bermuda the geological formation of the Archipelago 
 interests him little less than the defence of the Station. 
 At Barbados, the little island immortalised by his former 
 midshipman Marryat, he condemns the situation of the 
 barracks and rejoices in the prosperity of the negroes. 
 In Newfoundland he is distracted between the decline 
 of the fisheries and the stratification of the rocks. At 
 Trinidad he deplores the inefficiency of the government, 
 and grows rapturous over the pitch -lake. He looks
 
 204 DUNDONALD CHAP, xui 
 
 with a seeing eye into all evils and abuses, traces them 
 to their source, and devises their remedy ; for he is 
 ready and anxious as ever to set the whole world right, 
 and has not lost faith in the efficacy of human effort. 
 His views, again, are by this time widened, and, in spite 
 of his enthusiasm for liberty, he is not blind to the 
 patent fact that the emancipation of the slaves was a 
 measure no less disastrous than heroic, and meant ruin 
 if not death to the West Indies. 
 
 Returning to England at the expiration of his term 
 of command in 1851, he plunged with unabated activity, 
 though now in his seventy-sixth year, into new fields of 
 invention. His improved boilers had been largely 
 adopted in the navy during his absence, so that he 
 could enjoy the satisfaction of seeing the fruit of former 
 labours ; but he was not a man who could live on past 
 success. He came home possessed of a passion to utilise 
 the bitumen lying idle in the lake at Trinidad, and 
 devoted much time in the next two years to study of 
 the subject. His researches issued in the taking out of 
 five different patents, and in a skeleton scheme for the 
 embankment of the Thames, wherein bituminous concrete 
 was to be largely employed. Then came the Crimean 
 War, and with it a revival of hope for his secret war- 
 plans. By July, 1854, he had submitted to the Govern- 
 ment a finished scheme for the destruction of Cronstadt, 
 and begged that it might be put into execution. The 
 design was examined by a Committee of Experts and 
 rejected, nominally on the ground that such experiments 
 were in the circumstances undesirable. " My dear Sir 
 James," wrote Dundonald, then in his eightieth year, to 
 the first Lord of the Admiralty, "were it necessary,
 
 1829-1860 THE OLD WAR-HORSE 205 
 
 which it is not, that I should place myself in an arm- 
 chair on the poop, with each leg on a cushion, I would 
 undertake to subdue every insular fortification at Cron- 
 stadt within four hours of the commencement of the 
 attack." In the following January, on the removal of Sir 
 Charles Napier from the command of the Baltic fleet, he 
 volunteered his services in Napier's place ; and the offer 
 being with all courtesy refused, he proceeded to press his 
 plans upon public notice by petition to the House of 
 Commons, and by letters to The Times. After much hesi- 
 tation Lord Palmerston consented to give the scheme a 
 trial on a small scale at Sebastopol, but, being unable to 
 agree with the conditions proposed by Dundonald, suffered 
 the project to fall to the ground. Meanwhile a section 
 of the public proposed that Lord Dundonald should 
 execute his great design independently of the Govern- 
 ment, and promised subscriptions to defray the necessary 
 cost. The suggestion was of course impracticable, but 
 it affords a curious proof of the faith reposed in the 
 indomitable old man. 
 
 There remains little more to be recorded. In his 
 appointment as Bear-Admiral of the United Kingdom 
 and as an Elder Brother of the Trinity House, two 
 more graceful compliments were offered to him, and 
 accepted with deep and genuine gratitude ; the former 
 with a characteristic hope that the distinction might 
 not disqualify him for further active service. There 
 remained, however, still three objects on which his 
 heart was set for the total obliteration of his former 
 disgrace. These were the replacement of his banner in 
 Henry the Seventh's Chapel, the repayment of the fine 
 paid under the sentence in the Stock Exchange trial,
 
 206 DUNDONALD CHAP, xm 
 
 and the restoration of the half-pay suspended during 
 his temporary removal from the navy. All three were 
 refused by Lord Palmerston, the first as being none of 
 his business, the two last as unprecedented. Thereupon 
 Dundonald, undefeated at eighty-three as at twenty- 
 three, determined to appeal from the Minister to the 
 nation, and during 1858, 1859, and 1860, wrote the 
 story of his naval services in Chili, Peru, and Brazil, 
 and the Autobiography of a Seaman. There is little 
 sign of senility in either of these works, though in the 
 controversial portions there is some repetition, the 
 narrative being for the most part clear, straightforward, 
 and spirited enough. The old warrior's body was 
 worn out, and he wrote under stress of intense physical 
 pain ; but the will was as imperious, the pugnacity as 
 untameable, the indignation as fierce, and the bitterness 
 of past enmity, alas, as keen as ever. Thus, breaking 
 to the last in fitful gusts, the storm of the man's life 
 blew itself out. Almost to the end he promised himself 
 a few last peaceful years in Scotland, and wrote his 
 hopes to his friend Professor, now Lord, Playfair, in 
 Edinburgh, on the 25th of October, 1860. On the 30th 
 he underwent an operation from which he never rallied, 
 and at the dawn of the 31st he died. 
 
 He had in his last moments expressed a wish that 
 his body might rest in Westminster Abbey, and in the 
 Abbey on the 1 4th of November he was laid. On the day 
 before the funeral his banner, by the personal interven- 
 tion of the Queen and Prince Albert, was restored to its 
 place in Henry the Seventh's Chapel, and thus, with the 
 glad knowledge that the dearest wish of his heart had 
 been fulfilled, his friends laid him down to rest. On
 
 1829-1860 THE GRAVE IN THE ABBEY 207 
 
 either hand of the coffin were Admiral Sir George Sey- 
 mour, Admiral Grenfell of the Brazilian Navy, Captains 
 Goldsmith, Schomberg, Hay, and Nolloth ; the first the 
 same Seymour who had stood by him in the Kingfisher and 
 Pallas in Aix Roads, the second the brilliant officer who 
 had shared in the capture of the Esmemlda and received 
 the surrender of Para. Lord Brougham, his old friend 
 and political ally, hurried home from Cannes to be present 
 at the last ceremony in the Abbey. "What," he ex- 
 claimed, as he stood by the grave, " no Cabinet Minister 
 here, no officer of State to grace this great man's funeral !" 
 No, not one, and better so, for this was no public funeral, 
 and a great seaman is most fittingly honoured by sea- 
 men. He lies in the centre of the nave, about midway 
 between the organ and the west door, where a plain 
 white slab records his daring and his chivalry. At 
 the four corners of the stone are the arms of Chili, 
 Peru, Brazil, and Greece, with the words, Independencia, 
 Libramento, and 'A/axtvavap^os ; and looking up from the 
 inscription one meets the full blaze of the west window, 
 and instinctively recalls the breach in the castle of 
 Rosas. 
 
 Not until fifteen years were past did the Govern- 
 ment of Brazil discharge its obligations to his representa- 
 tives ; and not till two years later even than Brazil 
 did the British Government restore the pay suspended 
 during his long disgrace. Thus tardily was justice 
 done to the memory of Dundonald.
 
 CHAPTER XIV 
 
 CHARACTER 
 
 IN reviewing the story of this extraordinary life one is 
 painfully struck by the nearness of its kinship to a 
 story of failure. Here was a man endowed with a com- 
 bination of mental and physical gifts such as is allotted 
 to few. A giant in strength and stature he would 
 have gained the name of a great warrior even in the 
 rudest times ; but far beyond this, he possessed abnormal 
 energy of disposition, marvellous fertility of resource, 
 and a genius for naval warfare that was positively 
 unique. Even this again was but a part of the man. 
 There remains still the passion for scientific experiment 
 and research that he had inherited from his father. 
 Even if he had never entered the navy, his successes in 
 the domain of science would suffice to give him, smaller 
 perhaps, but yet enduring fame. To this day, when 
 certain discoveries or inventions are trumpeted forth as 
 new, some student calls attention to the fact that they are 
 as old as the great Dundonald. M. Turpin announces 
 a new war-material, a liquid gas ; scientific men reply 
 that it is practically identical with Dundonald's. Some 
 modern name is glorified for the conquest of difficulties 
 in the employment of compressed air ; again scientific
 
 CHAP, xiv THE PERPECT SEAMAN 209 
 
 historians claim the glory for Dundonald. Passing 
 next to the department of mechanical engineering we 
 find that the first steamer which crossed the Atlantic 
 was huilt in 1818 under his direction ; and we have 
 already seen that he was among the first to effect 
 improvements (which were soon further improved upon 
 by others) in the construction of locomotive steam- 
 engines. In fact, it may be said that in his time he 
 could design a ship on improved lines, plan her engines 
 on improved principles, fit her with an improved 
 propeller, and light her with improved lamps. On 
 taking her to sea he could instruct every man on board 
 in every detail of seamanship, artificers' work, and 
 gunnery, map out a plan of operations of unmatched 
 boldness and originality, and execute it with a resource, 
 coolness, and daring, that were little short of miraculous. 
 Lastly, while maintaining always the strictest discipline, 
 he could command the adoration of his men, alike by 
 his sympathy, his care, and the magic of his personality; 
 though had force been necessary, he could have wrung 
 the life out of any one of them by sheer muscular 
 strength. 
 
 And yet with all this astonishing power, never was 
 life more nearly wrecked. Like his own flagship he did 
 indeed, so to speak, keep the sea unconquered and 
 defiant, but for years almost in a sinking state. Genius 
 indeed is like fire, a good servant, but a bad master ; 
 and it is only when held in discipline and subjection, 
 that it finds its highest manifestation in the perfect 
 sanity and self-restraint of a Csesar, a Shakespeare, 
 or a Bacon. Dundonald was possessed by his genius, 
 saturated with the sense of his superiority, impatient 
 
 p
 
 DUNDONALD 
 
 of all control, sadly lacking in that kindly tolerance 
 of human stupidity, whereof the essence is a keen 
 enjoyment of the ridiculous. Hence the keynote of 
 his character, as of nearly every genius that falls little 
 short of the highest, was a passionate, though uncon- 
 scious, egotism. The note was enriched to noble harmony 
 by many a fine ambition, many a lofty ideal, many a 
 generous enthusiasm ; but the sound is too often that 
 of an ill-balanced organ, the manuals brilliant without 
 repose, and overweighted by the pedals of self. Another 
 and no less striking characteristic was his restless and 
 insatiable energy. Never was man more emphatically 
 a man of action. Action was the breath of his nostrils. 
 Give him an enemy to overcome, and he was in his 
 element ; force him to concentrate his whole activity 
 on that enemy, and he was safe. But this matter of 
 concentration was precisely the difficulty; one enemy 
 at a time was never sufficient for him, and he would 
 not be forced. One can trace through the whole of his 
 career the instincts inherited from his father the 
 inventor; feverish haste to vanquish a difficulty, and 
 intense application for a time to the problem in hand ; 
 next a rush to the patent-office to record a victory for 
 the benefit of mankind and for the security of his own 
 fame, and then away to the conquest of new difficulties. 
 At every step of his advance Dundonald, like every other 
 man, was dogged and encumbered by human stupidity, 
 and he was continually halting and turning aside to 
 chastise this insuperable foe, against whom the gods 
 themselves fight in vain. For though the strongholds of 
 stupidity may be masked, they cannot be stormed ; 
 while if attacked, they can always rally the forces of
 
 A COMBATIVE SPIRIT 
 
 rascality to their defence. This was more than 
 Dundonald could comprehend ; nor did he recognise 
 that his own failure to understand stupidity was as 
 inexcusable as stupidity's failure to understand him. 
 The result was that his life was made up of a series 
 of quarrels. At every turn new enemies, many if not 
 most of them of his own making, rose up against him ; 
 and an enemy to Dundonald was something not to be 
 conciliated, but to be fought. To his combative nature, 
 rejoicing in its strength, a new enemy can hardly be 
 said to have been unwelcome, and the newest was 
 always that which demanded most immediate attention. 
 Hence, when he fell under the cruel stroke of the Stock 
 Exchange trial, he found himself helpless amid the 
 legions of foes who hurried from every side to trample 
 on him. 
 
 And yet let us not mistake the man. There were 
 few, indeed hardly any, of his innumerable quarrels 
 wherein he was not primarily in the right, and did not 
 well to be angry. The abuses in the navy, the corrup- 
 tion at the Admiralty, the favouritism, the jobbery, the 
 peculation, and the flat imbecility that were rampant 
 in every administrative department were sufficient to 
 kindle a less inflammable nature than Dundonald's. 
 There was then, as always, much that required to be 
 set right, many a false idol that waited to be over- 
 thrown, many a wrong that called for redress. Dun- 
 donald could not behold injustice, or even mismanage- 
 ment, without striving to remedy it on the spot. It 
 mattered little to him whether the matter immediately 
 concerned him or not. He had never pondered over the 
 thought that justice consists in everybody minding their
 
 212 DUNDONALD CHAP. 
 
 own business. If injustice were there, that sufficed him ; 
 he rose up in his wrath and attacked it, never pausing 
 to ask whether the time were propitious, the ground 
 well chosen, the chances of success in his favour. It 
 was brimful of good intent, it was generous, it was 
 chivalrous, but it was not wise. He would never have 
 made such a mistake in war ; and yet an injustice or an 
 abuse, like any other enemy, is strengthened rather than 
 weakened by an untimely and abortive attack. His 
 efficiency as a knight-errant was further impaired by an 
 unfortunate readiness to convert the championship of a 
 cause into a personal enmity. An honourable conflict 
 against the Admiralty's corruption becomes a duel first 
 with St. Vincent and then with Croker ; the struggle 
 for justice over the Stock Exchange trial a personal 
 attack on Lord Ellenborough ; the assertion of rightful 
 claims in Chili and Peru a direct encounter with San 
 Martin. Controversy on such terms is inevitably 
 marred by loss of dignity, and dignity Dundonald was 
 only too apt to sacrifice for the sake of a momentary 
 advantage. The pranks and shifts that delight us in 
 the study of his wars are not equally attractive under 
 the cold light of civil life. 
 
 It is now not difficult to understand that his own 
 account of himself is a story of grievances. That he 
 was shamefully treated on many occasions by men of 
 every nation which he served is undoubtedly true, and 
 that he suffered from none more than from his own 
 countrymen must be sorrowfully confessed. But it is 
 not just to charge England with the whole of the blame. 
 Dundonald made no unpromising entry into the navy ; 
 he rose rapidly in rank even before he had an oppor-
 
 XIV DUNDONALD AND COLLINGWOOD 213 
 
 tunity of distinguishing himself, and stood as well in St. 
 Vincent's favour as in Lord Keith's, until he chose to 
 run foul of the former. Though neglected for some 
 time after in consequence, he soon received another 
 chance under Collingwood, and fairly had the ball at 
 his foot after Aix Eoads. His own account of his 
 troubles is that they arose from personal spite against 
 himself ; but, while fully admitting that spite may have 
 to some extent dictated the attitude of the Admiralty 
 towards him, we must surely allow that the Board 
 might with perfect right set its face on principle 
 against all insubordinate officers, and against himself 
 among them. Moreover, as we have hinted before, he 
 was not the only officer of distinction who suffered from 
 the injustice and disfavour of the Admiralty. Noble old 
 Collingwood had but too good cause for complaint, but 
 he bore neglect and slight with gentle humour and 
 dignified patience. It was not that he lacked spirit, 
 for he had refused the medal for St. Vincent unless 
 that for the 1st of June were also awarded to him, and 
 had even rebuked his Admiral on occasion ; but he was 
 satisfied with the consciousness that he had done his 
 duty, and asked no more than to continue to do it 
 without reward. Perhaps nothing could better show 
 the contrast between the two men than the advice 
 which each gives to young officers. Let us first take 
 Dundonald's : "If you have in the exercise of your pro- 
 fession acquired a right which is wrongfully withheld, 
 demand it, stick to it with unshaken pertinacity ; none 
 but a corrupt body can possibly think the worse of you 
 for it ; even though you may be treated like myself, you 
 are doing your country good service by exposing
 
 214 DUNDONALD 
 
 favouritism, which is only another term for corruption." 
 And now let us hear Colliugwood : " You may depend 
 on it that it is more in your power than in any 
 one else's to promote both your comfort and advance- 
 ment. A strict and unwearied attention to your 
 duty, and a complaisant, respectful behaviour, not 
 only to your superiors but to everybody, will ensure 
 you their regard ; and the reward will surely come, 
 and I hope soon, in the way of preferment, but if it 
 should not, I am sure you have too much good sense to 
 let disappointment sour you. Guard carefully against 
 letting discontent appear in you ; it is a sorrow to your 
 friends, a triumph to your competitors, and cannot be 
 productive of any good. Conduct yourself so as to 
 deserve the best that can come to you, and the conscious- 
 ness of your own proper behaviour will keep you in 
 spirits if it does not come." 
 
 Such are the voices of two of the greatest seamen 
 that England ever produced, both of them officers of 
 consummate skill and dauntless bravery, both strict 
 disciplinarians in command, and both beloved by their 
 men. The contrast is strange ; but can any one doubt 
 which of the two counsels is the better for the conduct 
 of the officer and the efficiency of the fleet 1 What is a 
 " right," and who is to judge if it be " wrongfully with- 
 held " ? Military discipline, like all other human in- 
 stitutions, is, of course, imperfect, a mere compromise 
 consecrated by human experience ; but the whole prin- 
 ciple whereon it rests is this, that it is better, on the 
 whole, for fighting men that injustice should be done 
 than that an order should be disobeyed. This is the 
 condition which every soldier and sailor accepts on
 
 THE ONE THING NEEDFUL 
 
 taking service under the Sovereign. Collingwood, who 
 knew and understood it, put duty first and trusted that 
 justice might follow ; Dundonald, who either misunder- 
 stood or neglected it, sought justice first, and then 
 returned to duty. His teaching, and indeed his practice, 
 strikes at the root of all discipline. 
 
 One could wish that Dundonald, deprived as he had 
 been of the advantages of a public school, could have been 
 brought more directly under Collingwood's influence, 
 that he could have learned from him the " good sense " 
 which disarms disappointment of its bitterness, and 
 hides discontent alike from the sorrow of friends and 
 the triumph of competitors. Indiscipline is the failing 
 which accounts for his misfortunes, far more than the 
 lack of worldly wisdom which is advanced by his 
 biographers. Worldly wisdom is a phrase which rather 
 unjustly bears a sinister meaning ; it is held to connote 
 something of the cynic, something of the time-server, 
 something of the hypocrite, to be, in fact, an endowment 
 foreign to the very highest natures. In reality it is 
 simply the faculty of choosing the right moment and 
 avoiding the wrong. Construed in either sense the 
 quality is one which, apart from the operations of war, 
 Dundonald, whether to his credit or his blame, did 
 not possess, though it is not therefore a safe inference 
 to conclude that his character was one of guileless 
 simplicity. There is in his dealings with men a strange 
 blending of the shrewdest scepticism with the blindest 
 faith. Thus in his treatment of the electors of Honiton 
 he first outwits them by counting on their greed, and 
 then suffers them to outwit him by forgetting it. So, 
 too, in the matter of Lord Gambier's trial he is adroit
 
 2i6 DUNDONALD CHAP. 
 
 enough to shirk immediate conflict with his superiors in 
 the navy by shifting his battle-ground to the House of 
 Commons, but overlooks the obvious objection that 
 Gambier, by demanding a court-martial, can compel 
 him to fight at a disadvantage on the very ground that 
 he has tried to avoid. Such tactics cannot be called 
 wholly guileless ; and the simplicity that we meet with 
 in him in other relations is, in fact, chiefly the sanguine 
 simplicity of the enthusiast. This is the side of him 
 that confronts us when we look at him as a politician, 
 whether at home as member for Westminster, or abroad 
 as a liberator of oppressed nationalities. He was a true 
 child of the Revolution, the great movement that had 
 found action to pull down the old order, but phrases 
 only to construct the new. He had seen, too, the rise 
 of a mighty genius, a consummate master alike of words 
 and deeds, who, marching first at the head of the forces 
 of liberty, seemed to many to be the man who was to 
 set the whole world right. It is remarkable to note 
 the intense fascination exerted by Napoleon's character 
 over brilliant but undisciplined minds. The Napiers, 
 Charles even more than William, worshipped him not 
 only as a great captain, but as a spotless hero. Dun- 
 donald too seems, though there is no direct evidence 
 to prove it, to have fallen under the same spell. He, 
 too, was a great leader of men, not only in war but in 
 peace, and fully conscious of his power. His con- 
 stituents of Westminster recognised him as such, and 
 stood by him with unshaken loyalty to the end, paying 
 his fines, defending his rights, turning his disgrace into 
 a triumph. In Chili the mass of the people worshipped 
 him and still worship his memory to this day, and in
 
 xiv A CHILD OF THE REVOLUTION 217 
 
 Brazil it was the same ; even in Spain during the 
 Peninsular War the inhabitants, against whom he had 
 long done his worst, turned joyfully to his leadership. 
 He felt his power, and he loved to feel it, and to 
 remember that he had felt it. He carefully reprints his 
 manifestos and proclamations alike to Englishmen and 
 to foreigners with evident pride and satisfaction, as if, 
 though perhaps unconsciously, to challenge comparison 
 with the famous bulletins. At one moment, when he 
 finds the destiny of Brazil in his hands, the masterful 
 spirit peeps out : he 'advises the forcible dissolution 
 of the Assembly with the readiness of Napoleon him- 
 self; but immediately after, unlike the cold-blooded 
 Corsican, he reverts to the faith of enthusiasm, and 
 resubmits himself to the bondage of a phrase, " Give 
 the people a constitution, and all will be well." So 
 again in the Northern Provinces he says to the people, 
 " I give you the liberty for which you pined. Take it, use 
 it, be happy, and grow great." And the people thank 
 him kindly, but return to their former ways and abide 
 therein. "My lord," said the English shipbuilder to 
 Dundonald's father, when the latter brought him the 
 invention that was to save ships' bottoms from the 
 ravages of the worm, "the worm is our best friend." 
 The answer is in substance that which Dundonald, 
 the son, received all over the world. It is a tragical 
 story enough. 
 
 Nevertheless, there was also in Dundonald the pure 
 simplicity of a high-minded man. We can trace it to 
 some extent in his relations with foreign nations, and 
 still more in the course of his individual friendships. 
 Nothing but genuine simplicity could have drawn him
 
 218 DUNDONALD 
 
 into friendship with Croker, who afterwards became his 
 bitterest, and, by abuse of his confidence, his most 
 dangerous enemy. Burdett and Brougham, again, are 
 hardly the men that any but a thoroughly confiding 
 nature would have chosen for intimates and counsellors ; 
 the one a dreamer who did not know his own mind, 
 the other a man whom nobody would trust, and both 
 consumed with vanity. Still, to their honour, these two 
 stood by him to the very end, and they were right, for 
 he was a good and chivalrous friend, incapable of dis- 
 loyalty or ingratitude. Perhaps there is nothing finer 
 in Dundonald's private life than his sacred respect for 
 the memory of his father. Crotchety and eccentric 
 from the first that we see of him, the old Earl in his 
 later life became afflicted with strange fancies, whereof 
 one was that he had been shamefully ill-treated by his son. 
 So loudly and openly did he complain of these imaginary 
 injuries, that Cochrane was compelled to contradict his 
 statements by advertisement in the newspapers. Pain- 
 ful as such a misfortune must have been, it was rendered 
 doubly so by the fact that it came upon him just at 
 the time when he was already overburdened by the 
 disaster of the Stock Exchange trial. Nor can it have 
 failed to do him serious mischief, for his denials doubt- 
 less failed to reach many who gave credence to his 
 father's reports, and rumours thus set afloat do not 
 easily perish. Nevertheless, Dundonald breathes no 
 word nor hint of the matter, but seeks rather to enlist 
 our sympathy for the father who first and last caused 
 him, quite innocently, sad trouble. We, too, should 
 respect his silence did we not wish to show that, with 
 all his natural pugnacity, the man could show a grand
 
 XIV A WORTHY WIFE 219 
 
 and noble patience. Not less touching is the deep 
 devotion and gratitude with which he speaks of his 
 wife, the beautiful and heroic woman who shared 
 all his misfortunes with indomitable spirit, and passed 
 through hardships and dangers, even to peril of assassi- 
 nation, which many a man might be proud to have 
 undergone. He relates with just pride how that 
 he was once obliged to take the Chilian flagship into 
 action when she was aboard. A Chilian sailor seeing 
 her near him hesitated to fire his gun, whereupon she 
 seized his arm, and, directing the match, fired it herself. 
 Never had brave man a braver woman to wife. 
 
 But when all is said and done, it is not as a reformer, 
 not as a liberator, not as an inventor, that Dundonald 
 will live longest, but as a great naval genius. It was 
 with truer self-knowledge than is common with him 
 that he called the story of his life the Autobiography 
 of a Seaman, for it is as a seaman that he made good 
 his title to fame. Following the history of his naval 
 services from the unequal duel with the Gamo to the 
 expulsion of the Portuguese fleet and army from Bahia, 
 one is fairly bewildered as to which of many exploits to 
 select as the most brilliant. In all we find the same 
 salient features : a contest seemingly against over- 
 whelming odds ; every possible contingency (always 
 excepting his own death) carefully considered and pro- 
 vided for; every advantage, even to minute details 
 whereof not one man in a thousand would have dreamed, 
 thought out and turned to the utmost account ; moral 
 effects calculated Avith astounding precision, and a victory 
 gained without apparent difficulty and at trifling cost 
 of life. Yet even so we do not possess the secret of
 
 220 DUNDONALD CHAP. 
 
 his success. " I landed a small force at Valdivia and 
 captured the forts. I took my boats alongside the 
 Esmeralda and cut her out." Such is, to all intent, Dun- 
 donald's account of these affairs. It is as though Raphael 
 should say that he formed the conception of the Sistine 
 Madonna and painted the picture, or Shakespeare, that 
 he was struck by the story of Hamlet and wrote the 
 play. Kaphael shows us his brush, Shakespeare his pen, 
 Dundonald his sword, but we are none the wiser. Never- 
 theless, we are able to deduce from his practice some broad 
 statement of his principles, and the clue thereunto is to be 
 found in his fondness for a night attack. His assault was 
 based always as much on moral as on physical force ; and 
 he therefore chose the time when human vitality is at 
 its lowest, and human apprehension at its liveliest. He 
 aimed not so much at compassing destruction as in 
 creating panic; not, so to speak, so much at beating 
 men as in deluding them into the notion that they were 
 beaten. The hauling down of the Spanish flag on the 
 Gamo is an exact and concise summary of his system. 
 For the rest, mystery and deception in his preparations, 
 rapidity and suddenness in his execution, were the re- 
 sources upon which he principally relied. Very early in 
 his career we find him disguising the Speedy as a Danish 
 brig, and lamenting, above all things, when the Gamo 
 was sold out of the service, that such a means of decep- 
 tion should have been denied to him. Later on, in the 
 Chilian War, we find him perpetually entering Spanish 
 ports under false colours, now personating an American 
 frigate, now representing a reinforcement expected from 
 Spain, the time being always happily chosen, so that 
 his disguise might not be suspected. More subtle than
 
 THE SECRET OF SUCCESS 
 
 this, and if the writer may express his own opinion, the 
 most delicate of all his wiles, was the preparation of a 
 duplicate set of fire-ships at Aix Roads, to be launched 
 against the French on the very night when the arrival 
 of a flotilla of still unequipped fire-ships had lulled them 
 for twenty-four hours into false security. The plan, of 
 course, was spoilt by the stupidity of Gambier, but 
 remains none the less a beautiful conception. The 
 despatch of half of his squadron from Callao on the eve 
 of the attack on the Esmeralda furnishes another good 
 example of the same kind. No man could show greater 
 skill in disarming suspicion by a show of weakness. 
 Nor was he less, nay rather more, resourceful when he 
 designed not to soothe his enemy but to frighten him. 
 The range of his invention in this province is amazingly 
 wide, reaching from the paltriest schoolboy tricks to 
 the most formidable engines of destruction. We begin 
 with the blackening of the men's faces for the capture 
 of the Gamo, a common practice with the German 
 Reiters in the dawn of the renaissance of the art 
 of war. We pass next to the construction of the swift 
 galley which was carried by the Pallas, this last a 
 perfectly straightforward weapon. Then comes the 
 delightful scene with the corvettes in the Garonne ; 
 and then the attack in Aix Roads, headed by an 
 engine designed at once to spread destruction and 
 panic. The reputation which he gained in this affair 
 lasted him for his whole life. On no subsequent occa- 
 sion, in spite of many attempts, did he achieve success 
 with explosion-vessels or fire-ships, but he never lost his 
 fearful character as a wielder of infernal weapons ; and 
 he knew it and traded on it. A kindled tar-barrel
 
 DUNDONALD CHAP. 
 
 launched by any hand but his was a tar -barrel and no 
 more, but by the mere presence of El Diablo it became 
 endued with Satanic properties. If he wanted to keep 
 the Spanish ships quiet in Callao while he went 
 away, he made a sham attack on them, which kept 
 them trembling under the batteries for weeks. Then 
 we come to the nocturnal visit of the Pedro Primeiro 
 to the Portuguese fleet at Bahia, a ghastly and 
 awful apparition which comes silently up a river 
 never before navigated by a line-of-battle ship at night, 
 and as silently returns, the time, as usual, carefully 
 chosen while the Admiral and his officers are ashore 
 dancing. It was a fine feat of pilotage, but an ideal 
 stroke of tactics. Finally, as a crowning achievement, 
 comes the superb game of brag played at Maranham. 
 It is truly said of Napoleon that he had generally half 
 beaten his enemy before the battle began ; and that he 
 was conscious of his power and counted on it is shown 
 by his vexation when Moore, refusing to bow to it, 
 made a dash at his communications. Wellington also 
 could take advantage of his prestige, and reckon on the 
 shouts of his men at Sauroren to create hesitation in 
 Soult. But we question if even Napoleon did more in 
 action by the magic of his name than Dundonald. 
 
 These considerations should not, however, blind us 
 to his tactical and strategical excellence. The gist of 
 the action between the Speedy and the Gamo lies in the 
 skill wherewith he brought his little ship so close to 
 the frigate's sides that the Spanish guns could not be 
 depressed to hull her. The combat against the Minerve, 
 though accident robbed him of his victory, was success- 
 ful in virtue of his superior skill in manoeuvring. In
 
 xiv TACTICIAN AND STRATEGIST 223 
 
 his one fleet-action, that against the Portuguese, he cut 
 the enemy's line in two, and bade fair to capture four 
 or five ships without difficulty. Lastly, the operations 
 in pursuit of the Portuguese fleet from Bahia are a 
 tactical masterpiece. Turning for a moment to his 
 minor exploits ashore we find him as often manoeuvring 
 as driving the French out of their batteries ; destroying 
 the roads about Barcelona with a soldier's insight and 
 an engineer's skill, and defending Rosas with much 
 more than an engineer's ingenuity. Passing next to 
 operations on a larger scale, we find him always aiming 
 at the vital spot, wasting no energy, and squandering no 
 strength. With a single frigate he keeps a French 
 division of troops in check on the French coast, and 
 seizes Rosas as the key to the capture of Barcelona. 
 He then propounds a complete scheme of harassing 
 operations on an enemy's coast, and in South America 
 carries it out. There, as usual, he strikes only at vital 
 points ; it is only when driven to desperation by San 
 Martin that he abandons the attack on Lima for a 
 moment in order to capture Valdivia, which, after all, 
 was the principal Spanish stronghold. In Greece, again, 
 he sees into the heart of the matter at once. By 
 cutting through the Turkish communications landward 
 to the north, the siege of Athens must perforce be 
 raised ; and by destroying the expedition prepared to 
 reinforce the Turks from Alexandria and commanding 
 the sea, the enemy's force in Greece must perforce be 
 isolated. Tactical and strategical skill served no less 
 than moral force to secure him a series of great victories, 
 which are for nothing so remarkable as for their bloodless- 
 ness. The capture of the Esmeralda and of Valdivia in
 
 224 DUNDONALD CHAP. 
 
 Chili, and the expulsion of the Portuguese fleet and army 
 from Brazil, cost him altogether no more than eighteen 
 men killed and forty-nine wounded. As a last instance of 
 his strategic insight let us, in view of past and present 
 controversies, quote two pregnant sentences on the 
 defence of this kingdom. "The true fortification of 
 England is always to be in a position to strike the 
 first blow at sea, the moment it may be necessary." 
 " The true strength of the navy is trained men." We 
 have heard and read much on this subject of late, 
 but nothing that is not summed up in these two terse 
 aphorisms. Yet we do not remember ever to have 
 observed open reference to the authority of the great 
 Dundonald. 
 
 Lastly, let us look at the man in the place where we 
 love best to see him, on his own quarterdeck. First 
 let us notice that he was a consummate master of 
 seamanship, and recognised as such by the first seamen 
 of his time. His handling of the Speedy, of the Pallas, 
 and of the Pedro Primeiro, when chased by a multitude 
 of hostile ships, are fine examples of his power ; but a 
 still more delicate instance of his readiness has been 
 preserved by the biographer of Sir Jahleel Brenton, 
 himself a superb seaman. The Imperieuse and the 
 Spartan (Brenton's ship) had landed parties to blow 
 up some batteries on the French shore, and were 
 meanwhile moving slowly up the coast at the rate of 
 about three knots an hour, when suddenly Cochrane 
 observed from the masthead a body of French cavalry 
 galloping forward towards a gorge to cut off the retreat 
 of his men. Without a moment's hesitation he gave 
 the order to let go the anchor j the frigate spun rapidly
 
 xiv THE BLUE-JACKET'S IDOL 225 
 
 round, and thus brought her starboard broadside to 
 enfilade the gorge, and thereby check the advance of 
 the cavalry. Such finesse of seamanship can only be 
 appreciated truly by seamen, but it is likely on that 
 very account to have made greater impression on those 
 that sailed with him than many of his more dazzling 
 achievements. But Dundonald was always worshipped 
 by his men. Without the delight in their individual 
 peculiarities which we find in Marryat, he had an 
 intense feeling and love for them, sympathised with 
 their grievances, watched over their comfort, and, above 
 all, treasured their lives. Yet he was a strict disciplin- 
 arian, and no mere seeker after popularity. He resisted 
 all attempts to abolish flogging in the navy, maintaining 
 that the power to inflict the punishment was indispens- 
 able to discipline. On one occasion, too, he fearlessly 
 took upon himself the most awful responsibility that 
 can be imposed upon a captain. A marine of the 
 Imperieuse had fallen overboard during a heavy gale, 
 but being a strong swimmer managed to keep himself 
 afloat in a raging sea, and to wave his hand to show 
 where he was. The men on board, of course, were 
 preparing in all haste to lower a boat, when the captain 
 came forward. They saw him look at the sea and 
 compress his lips, and then he countermanded the 
 boat by the words " Hold fast," and ejaculating, " Poor 
 fellow ! " walked silently aft. He would not risk half 
 a dozen lives to save one. Dundonald is not, of course, 
 by any means the only captain who has shown this 
 extremity of moral courage, but he is one of the few 
 who has done so without forfeiting the confidence of 
 his men. Marryat, who witnessed the scene, never 
 
 Q
 
 226 DUNDONALD CHAP. 
 
 quite got over it to his dying day ; and we may well 
 doubt whether he would have hesitated to condemn the 
 action in any other man. But Dundonald is justified, 
 not only by his habitual care of his sailors, but by his 
 own amazing personal bravery. Marryat, himself the 
 most gallant of men, says outright that he was the 
 bravest man whom he ever saw. Moreover, Dundonald's 
 was the bravery that inspires others to deeds beyond 
 their own courage. When Marryat, fresh from the 
 perilous duty of kindling the port-fires of his explosion- 
 vessel in Aix Roads, returned to the Imperieuse, he 
 found the frigate in immediate danger of destruction 
 by a fire-ship which, prematurely lighted and clumsily 
 handled, was drifting straight down upon her. "Mr. 
 Mildmay " (Marryat), said the captain (Cochrane), " you 
 seem to like the fun ; jump into your gig again, take 
 four fresh hands, and put her head the right way." 
 The fire-ship was in flames from stem to stern, but 
 Marryat went (very reluctantly, as he admits), did 
 as he was bid, and returned half -suffocated, black as 
 a coal, and so parched that he could not speak. Now- 
 adays he would have received a Victoria Cross (the 
 second that he would have won on that night) ; but in 
 those days he was well content with Cochrane's " Very 
 well done, Mildmay. Did you find it warm?" For 
 Cochrane would have done the job single-handed if all 
 others had refused. So, too, when the Imperieuse was 
 making her raids on the French coast, Cochrane sent his 
 boats ashore to destroy a battery. They returned to 
 report that the enterprise was impracticable. " Well, 
 Jack," said Cochrane to his coxswain, "do you think it 
 impossible to blow up that battery 1" " No, my lord,"
 
 xiv THE TEMPLE OF RECONCILIATION 227 
 
 answered the coxswain and a chorus of voices ; "we can 
 do it if you go." Cochrane jumped into a boat, and 
 rowing ashore with his party carried the battery in a 
 moment. Even finer than this was the voyage to 
 Valdivia in the sinking O'Higgins/ and perhaps grandest 
 of all the final cruise in search of the Spanish frigates 
 with the unseaworthy Valdivia, and the yet more 
 unseaworthy flagship. 
 
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 hardly higher than Dundonald ; and had not his 
 pugnacious and undisciplined disposition made his worst 
 enemies out of his own countrymen, the name of 
 Dundonald might now be coupled with Nelson's in the 
 hearts of all Englishmen. But his greatest work was 
 done under an alien flag, and his narrative of his life's 
 service is but the text for many pages of angry com- 
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 dimmed by the unlovely "setting of his indignation ; but 
 when the memory of his wrongs, his misfortunes, and 
 his faults shall have perished, then it will be seen that 
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 great Abbey, " that temple of silence and reconciliation 
 where the enmities of twenty generations lie buried," 
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