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Lord Cochrane: Critic of San Martín’s Peruvian Campaign
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 December 2015
Extract
Peru had two fathers of independence, José de San Martín and Simón Bolívar, and a part-time midwife in Thomas Cochrane the tenth Earl of Dundonald. Antonio José de Sucre, another important midwife, came on to the Peruvian scene after Cochrane had left for that reason is not dealt with in this article. Since the destinies of Peru and Chile were so closely entwined as embryonic nations, one would expect that the wars of independence might have created a mutuality of interest. The purpose here is to study this relationship and its contextual association with the animosity between the lesser known Cochrane and the famous San Martin.
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- Copyright © Academy of American Franciscan History 1962
References
1 de Dundonald (Cochrane), (Thomas) Conde, Memorias de Lord Cochrane Conde de Dundonald (Imprenta de José Masías, Lima, Peru, 1863), p. 3.Google Scholar This rare Spanish edition of Cochrane’s, Memorias was used more consistently in this study than the better known Narrative of Services in the Liberation of Chili, Peru, and Brazil From the Spanish and Portuguese Domination (2 vols., London, 1859)Google Scholar. In the main, the Spanish Memorias is in agreement as to fact and emphasis with the English Narrative of Services. M. Bilbao, who wrote the preface of the Spanish edition in Lima, 1861, had received Cochrane’s version of his Memorias from the author’s hands in London in 1860. Bilbao edited (always designating any editions as such), including some explanatory footnotes and footnotes of fact, and improved the manuscript as to points of the Spanish language. One of the most interesting, and possibly the most important, of Bilbao’s comments is included in a lengthy footnote, pp. 97–99, which attempted to show that Mackenna, Benjamin Vicuña, author of La revolucion de la independencia del Peru (Lima, 1860)Google Scholar and other works, had engaged himself in efforts to blacken the reputation of Cochrane. Along with various other primary sources these two important translations were used: Pilling, William, The Emancipation of South America Being a Translation of the History of San Martin by General Don Bartolome Mitre (London, 1893)Google Scholar, hereafter cited as Pilling-Mitre; and Rojas, Ricardo (trans, by Brickell, Herschel and Videla, Carlos), San Martin, Knight of the Andes (El Santo de la Espada) (Garden City, New York, 1945)Google Scholar, hereafter cited as Brickell-Rojas.
2 Lloyd, Christopher, Lord Cochrane Seaman—Radical—Liberator: A Life of Thomas, Lord Cochrane 10th Earl of Dundonald (London, 1947), pp. 114–122 Google Scholar. This is of value in any general study of Cochrane’s life, but it is not complete in the use of sources. For many years the most accurate report of Cochrane’s life was Sir Fortescue’s, John William Dundonald (London, 1895)Google Scholar. Before that there had been the Life of Thomas Cochrane, 10th Earl of Dundonald (2 vols., London, 1869), by 11th Earl of Dundonald and H.R. Fox Bourne.
3 Lloyd, Lord Cochrane Seaman, p. 126.
4 Cochrane, Memorias, p. 3; Narrative of Services, I, 2. Where it is possible the citations from both English and Spanish editions have been included.
5 Cochrane, Memorias, p. 4, “. . . La recepcion que se nos hizo nos dió una idea tan elevada de la hospitalidad chilena que, angustiado como me habia visto por la infame persecución que me arrancara de la marina británica, tomé la resolucion de adoptar á Chile por mi patria futura.—Esta decision no fué mas que un comprobante del proverbio que dice: ‘El hombre propone y Dios dispone.’” Narrative of Services, I, 3.
6 Miller, John, Memoirs of General Miller, in the Service of the Republic of Peru (2 vols., London, 1828)Google Scholar. The adventurer “volunteer for freedom” was William Miller, not John Miller as reported by Alfred Hasbrouck in Colonial Hispanic America, IV, 453, of Studies in Hispanic American Affairs, edited by A. Curtis Wilgus. John Miller, brother of William Miller, edited the memoirs. Markham, Clements R., A History of Peru (Chicago, 1892), pp. 252, 329–330Google Scholar, gives various important data concerning William Miller. Miller was born in Wingham in Kent, England, and later served under Wellington in the Peninsular War. He was, according to his brother, a campaigner for Britain in Spain, France, and with the British before Baltimore and Washington, D. C. in the War of 1812. In 1817 he appeared in Argentina as a captain in the army of Argentine patriots ready to fight the Spanish royalists. He arrived in Santiago on January 24, 1818, and was soon with his regiment, the “Buenos Ayrean Artillery.” John Miller claimed that his brother was the only field officer who sailed with the expeditionary army from Valparaiso (San Martin’s army) who was also in Peru to fight the final victory at Ayacucho; Miller, , Memoirs of General Miller, I, 265 Google Scholar. The “Irishman,” as he was often called, came to consider himself a Peruvian it would seem—at least in certain respects. He died on board a ship in Callao Bay on October 31, 1861, and was buried in the Bella Vista cemetery near Callao but a block distance from the spot where the author of this article made his home for five years. Miller’s Memoirs have provided the scholars with one of the most reliable accounts, if not the most reliable, of the military and naval engagements in the liberation of Peru. In general movements and developments of campaigns he has corroborated the general accounts as related by Cochrane. As to Cochrane’s differences with San Martin, Miller usually avoided taking sides. It is doubtful that Miller understood the nature of the Masonic Lodge in Argentina and Peru. He thought that San Martin might not have to retire from public life in Peru if he had “thrown off the shackles which bound him to the Logia”; Miller, , Memoirs of General Miller, I, 259 Google Scholar. For data concerning William Miller also see Pilling-Mitre, p. 487.
7 Cochrane, Memorias, pp. 7–13; Narrative of Services, I, 7–14; Miller, Memoirs of General Miller, I, 204.
8 Cochrane, Memorias, p. 20; Narrative of Services, I, 18; Miller, , Memoirs of General Miller, I, 275–277.Google Scholar
9 Cochrane, Memorias, pp. 44–51; Narrative of Services, I, 35–45.
10 Hasbrouck, , Colonial Hispanic America, LV, 448–449 Google Scholar.
11 Cochrane, Memorias, pp. 90–91; Narrative of Services, I, 78; Miller, , Memoirs of General Miller, I, 265 Google Scholar, reported the date as being August 21, but Hasbrouck in Colonial Hispanic America and Brickell-Videla-Rojas listed it as August 20. Pilling-Mitre put it as August 21. It is quite possible that part of the fleet sailed from Valparaiso on the 20th and part of it left on the 21st. For an account of the United States and the Chilean Navy at this time, see Neumann, William L., “United States Aid to the Chilean Wars of Independence,” HAHR, XXVII (1947), 204–219.Google Scholar
12 This evidence is scattered throughout Cochrane’s account. Cochrane resigned his command of the Chilean Navy in July, 1820, upon being opposed to the appointment of a flag captain (a Captain Spry), Cochrane, Memorias, pp. 73–74; Narrative of Services, I, 64–65. Cochrane had threatened to resign May 14, 1820, over the matter of disposition of supplies taken in the conquest of Valdivia, Memorias, pp. 68–69; Narrative of Services, I, 61; the Spanish edition puts the date as March 18 rather than in the month of May. Cochrane was extremely critical of Chilean Minister of War and Marine, José Ignacio Zenteno del Pozo y Silva, Memorias, pp. 52, 60–62, 79; Narrative of Services, I, 47, 53–55, 69. Bilbao in a footnote of the editor, pp. 61–62, included the following comment: “Lord Cochrane en la acritud con que se exprese contra Zenteno por este acto, es altamente injusto. Desde el momento en que él era un empleado de la nacion, tenia que sujetarse á las órdenes del gobierno y no disponer de las fuerzas que se le confiaran, en lo que no se le ordenaba.—Un Acto de insubordinacion tal en Inglaterra, habria merecido serios castigos, acto que bien pudo encubrirse por el buen resultado que dió, pero que habria aparecido en toda su deformidad caso de un reves. Zenteno hacia bien en hacer respetar al gobierno. Era su deber.” Pilling-Mitre, p. 219, asserted that Cochrane aspired to the commander-in-chief role in the Liberating Army.
13 Cochrane, Memorias, p. 80; Narrative of Services, I, 70. The Bilbao translation is as follows: “pierda Vd. cuidado milord, yo soy el general del ejército y Vd. será el almirante de la escuadra.”
14 Cochrane, Memorias, p. 90; Narrative of Services, I, 77. Pilling-Mitre, p. 231, stated that Cochrane had been given explicit instructions calling for “absolute obedience” to San Martin.
15 Miller, , Memoirs of General Miller, I, 271–274 Google Scholar; Hall, Basil, Extracts From a Journal Written on the Coasts of Chili, Peru, and Mexico (Edinburgh, 1824)Google Scholar; part of the Journal is quoted by Cochrane, Memorias, pp. 109–111; Narrative of Services, I, 90–91. Gerald S. Graham, book review, of Samuel Eliot Morison’s Jones, John Paul: A Sailor’s Biography in the Mississippi Valley Historical Review, XLVII (1960), 113 Google Scholar, charged Cochrane as being “reckless, ill-tempered dare-devil” in general terms. There is some merit in this statement describing Cochrane’s entire career, but other than at Valdivia the Admiral’s actions on the west coast of South America do not warrant such a description. Lloyd, Lord Cochrane Seaman, p. 152, reported, “Then the date of a carnival was chosen, when most of the Spanish crews would be on shore.” Quite possibly Lloyd had confused this campaign against Callao with the first one, which took place in late February, 1819; Cochrane, Memorias, p. 8; Narrative of Services, I, 7. Cochrane’s memoirs fail to mention a carnival in connection with the November date, and this latter date in the year would not coincide with the regular pre-lenten Peruvian carnivales. Pilling-Mitre and Brickell-Videla-Rojas do not mention a carnival in this connection.
16 Cochrane, Memorias, p. 118; Narrative of Services, I, 98.
17 Ibid., Memorias, pp. 99–100; Narrative of Services, I, 83–84.
18 Miller, , Memoirs of General Miller, I, 272.Google Scholar
19 Ibid., p. 275. Miller recorded that “many royalists also passed over daily to the patriot troops.” Also see Pilling-Mitre, p. 281.
20 Cochrane, Memorias, pp. 121–122; Narrative of Services, I, 101. It is interesting, and likely significant, that editor Bilbao did not comment on this in any way. For a brief statement of the period, see Lecuna, Vicente, “Bolivar and San Martin at Guayaquil,” HAHR.XXXI (1951), 370–371.Google Scholar
21 Brickell-Videla-Rojas, p. 177.
22 Cochrane, Memorias, pp. 122–123; Narrative of Services, I, 101.
23 Pilling-Mitre, p. 273.
24 Hall, Extracts From a Journal, I, 212–213.
25 Hasbrouck, Colonial Hispanic America, p. 454.
26 Peruvian independence was proclaimed on July 28, 1821, and on August 3, San Martin had himself declared “Protector of Peru.”
27 Hall, Extracts From a Journal, I, 212–213; Miller, , Memoirs of General Miller, I, 335, 342–343.Google Scholar
28 Pilling-Mitre, pp. 279, 281–282; Cochrane, Memorias, pp. 176–177; Narrative of Services, I, 146. Editor Bilbao in a footnote pointed out that he believed Cochrane had overstated the advantage in numbers held by San Martin. Also see Miller, , Memoirs of General Miller, I, 335 Google Scholar. Rojas (Brickell-Videla-Rojas, p. 187) believed the Protector’s troops to be smaller in numbers, but he is apologetic for San Martin in this case as he is in almost all instances.
29 Cochrane, Memorias, pp. 147–150; Narrative of Services, I, 127–129; Miller, , Memoirs of General Miller, I, 343–344 Google Scholar; Pilling-Mitre, pp. 288–289: “These arrears dated from before the sailing of the expedition; the foreigners were only kept on board by an express promise from San Martin to pay everything and a year’s pay as bounty, when he took Lima. He also decreed a donation of 50,000 dollars to the captors of the Esmeralda. Neither of these promises were fulfilled.”
30 Cochrane, Memorias, p. 149; Narrative of Services, I, 128; Pilling-Mitre, p. 288.
31 Cochrane, Memorias, p. 149; Narrative of Services, I, 128.
32 Cochrane, Memorias, pp. 148–150; Narrative of Services, I, 127–128, 286. There is no report of this in Pilling-Mitre or in Brickell-Videla-Rojas.
33 Stevenson, W.B., Secretary to Lord Cochrane (1825) as quoted in Cochŕane’s memoirs, Memorias, p. 150 Google Scholar; Narrative of Services, I, 127–128. Editor Bilbao recognized that Cochrane may have thought his life endangered and referred to a somewhat similar situation at an earlier date in Chile, editor’s footnote, p. 150.
34 Cochrane, Memorias, p. 150; Narrative of Services, I, 128.
35 Miller, , Memoirs of General Miller, I, 343 Google Scholar; Cochrane, Memorias, p. 147 and Narrative of Services, I, 126; Pilling-Mitre, p. 289.
36 Cochrane, Memorias, p. 189; Narrative of Services, I, 158; Markham, A History, p. 251.
37 Miller, , Memoirs of General Miller, I, 344 Google Scholar; Cochrane, Memorias, p. 195 and Narrative of Services, I, 163.
38 Simón José Antonio de la Santisima Trinidad Bolívar, Selected Writings of Bolívar (compiled by Lecuna, Vicente, edited by Bierck, Harold A. Jr.,) (New York, 1951), I, 274.Google Scholar
39 Pilling-Mitre, p. 290.
40 Cochrane, Memorias, pp. 228–230; Narrative of Services, I, 190–191. Apparently Cochrane was correct in his general analysis that much was lacking in the handling of the patriot army in Peru (see Mitre below). Yet he is not correct in all details as when he wrote of the catastrophe at “Pasco,” which actually happened at lea; see footnote of Editor Bilbao, p. 229 of Cochrane’s Memorias and Pilling-Mitre, p. 294.
41 Cochrane, Memorias, pp. 135–136; Narrative of Services, I, 112. This condition cited here refers to an earlier date in the campaign, but the blockade was continued. See Miller, , Memoirs of General Miller, II, 287–288 Google Scholar.
42 Cochrane, , Narrative of Services, I, 284 Google Scholar, “. . . the Chilean Ministers were sending corn to be sold, at a thousand per cent profit, to the blockaded garrison!” The Bilbao edition does not carry the account of the memoirs this far along.
48 Ibid., p. 292.
44 Pilling-Mitre, p. 291.
45 Cochrane, Memorias, pp. 227–228; Narrative of Services, I, 189–190. It is not clear as to the exact date when Cochrane decided to leave Chile and go to Brazil. At one time he reported that he intended to make a permanent home in Chile. “En seguida dirigí tres proclamas: una á la escuadra, otro al pueblo de Chile, en donde habia esperado pasar el resto de mi vida . . . ; “Memorias, p. 288. This hope to spend the rest of his days in Chile is stated in a different manner in Narrative of Services, I, 250.
46 Pilling-Mitre, p. 271.
47 The Almirante Cochrane, crack ship of Chile, led the fire which resulted in the loss of the all-important Peruvian Huascar and the death of its well-known hero commander, Miguel Grau; see Markham, A History, pp. 390–392, or Basadre, Jorge, Historia de la República del Peru, 1822–1908, 2 vols. (Lima, 1949)Google Scholar. In October, 1960, as if to clear the name, another Count of Dundonald appeared in Lima. This one made a good will gesture toward the Peruvian Navy; “Bisnieto de Lord Cochrane rindio homenaje a proceres,” El Comercio (Lima, Oct. 12, 1960), p. 8.