Page:The History of San Martin (1893).djvu/153

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BROWN'S CRUISE ON THE PACIFIC.
123

pied by Royalist troops, he followed his late comrade to the Atlantic.

The Argentine Government had hoped great things from this expedition, and had written to San Martin to hold himself ready to take advantage of any movement it might occasion in Chile; but the astute general replied that a naval force, to be of any effective aid to an invading general, must consist of ships of war, not of privateers, and must be under his orders. The result showed that it was but of slight service to the cause, and was a waste of material which might have been much more usefully employed.