them had ever set their foot on board any one of the Chilian squadron. The Viceroy admitted that the character of the witnesses was utterly worthless; but he did not, or, perhaps, could not, do me the justice to act upon that admission. It was clear enough that he doubted his own power; for he said very candidly, that the tide of popular feeling could not be safely resisted, without a little delay. This want of confidence on the part of the Executive Government was a real source of alarm; and I was made still more uneasy, by learning that the officers were to be tried by a military commission – an ominous court at best, and one, in such times, of a nature not to be trusted.
“The Viceroy told me, at this interview, that he had just received advices of ten or twelve deserters from the Chilian squadron having arrived: he had ordered them to Callao, that their evidence might also be taken in the case of the officers. The testimony of these men, he thought, would probably not agree with that of the first five witnesses, who might well be suspected of having concerted their story. This seemed sensible enough; but the manner in which the scheme was carried into execution was highly characteristic. The Government considered that they had done everything towards the advancement of justice, in originating the idea of this cross-evidence; and, therefore, merely gave an order for the deserters to be sent to Callao, without stating that they should be kept apart from the first witnesses: so that they absolutely were placed, for a whole night, in the same room with the very men whom they were sent to confront.
“I attended next morning, along with the officers, whilst the declarations of all the witnesses were taken, by the commission appointed for that purpose; when fifteen men swore on the cross to the fact of these two gentlemen, whom they pointed out, having served upwards of two years with Lord Cochrane. They were all men of the most abandoned character, and well known at Callao as such; but that circumstance mattered little, as their evidence ministered to the heated imagination and violent prejudices of the people. As far, therefore, as this sage inquiry went, it would certainly have left matters worse than it found them, had not three Spanish gentlemen voluntarily come forward, greatly to their honour, in the very face of the popular clamour, and in a manner well deserving our acknowledgments. Two of them were naval officers, the other a respectable merchant: all three had been prisoners of war on board Lord Cochrane’s ship at the time specified by the witnesses; and they swore positively, that neither of the prisoners had then been on board the flag-ship, nor in any other of the Patriot squadron.
“Had not the latter witnesses fortunately come forward, there is no saying what might have been the result of the inquiry. The military commission, however, appointed to consider the evidence, after a violent discussion, in the course of which it was seriously proposed to hang the officers as spies, agreed, by a small majority, to liberate them.
“The military commission took this occasion to recommend to Govern-