naturally indulged the hope that that exploit would have procured him immediate employment. He remained on half pay, however, until Aug. 1818, when he received an appointment to the Slaney ship-sloop, of 20 guns, fitting at Plymouth for the South American station.
After visiting Madeira, Rio Janeiro, and Buenos Ayres, Captain O’Brien proceeded round Cape Horn, and was placed, by Commodore Bowles, under the orders of Captain William Henry Shirreff, then at Valparaiso, and employed as senior officer in the Pacific. The numerous and complicated duties which of necessity devolved upon him, in common with other officers commanding ships of war at the different ports in South America, have been described in our memoirs of Sir Thomas M. Hardy and Captain Basil Hall; and the following copies of letters addressed to Captain O’Brien will serve in some degree as an illustration of part of them. The first, second, and third, allude to circumstances which occurred through an attempt made by Lord Cochrane, at the commencement of the blockade of Callao, to take possession of some British merchantmen then under the protection of the Slaney:
“Dear Sir,– I assure you it is with sentiments of the greatest respect and admiration, that I take up my pen to return you thanks for the zeal and resolution you displayed on the 29th ultimo, in so happily preserving from a ruinous detention, my own, and other British property, in defiance of such a powerful force as was opposed to you; and I hope you will accept these my most grateful acknowledgments, as a small testimony of the sentiments I cherish towards you, for the protection so happily afforded to my property; and am, dear Sir, with respect, your most obedient and humble servant,
Indian Oak, extra East Indiaman.”
