Fénix 10, 203-234

220 FENIX bled to brlng more than 4000 fighting men into the field of al1 arms. Alvara- do 75 mskes an excellent general i i chief alid our trops are irnproving &:ay a ~ d arc very well clothed and armed. I have 1800 men in my bat[ta!li]oii and arn complete wlth good offi- cers and non-commissioned officers, having got rid of al1 the Spaniards excep- ting 25. v~ho are wel! behaved subjeets. I have 36 drummers, fifes and trum- peters and 26 excellent musicjans de cantrota. After the Rio de la Plata's, mine is tlie b ~ s t band. They are also very weZl clad. Th e improvoments in my quartel still go on. 1 have slready finished exce!lent rooms for 16 officers, excepting puiting on the roof. Next week 1 shall commence building a mess room with a very high cieling snd large enough for 100 people to dine or to dance thirty couple. When you return we will give you dance. The interesados of Cauccato 76 (including your agent Begg) 77 have petitioaaed the Protector for 20,000 dollars (half in paper) each, instead of their shares. Although, perhaps, no money will be got direct from the go- vernment, our prospects look well. 1 have no time to give you the particulars now. I t is only two minutes ago that Cochrane 78 told me h,e was going to mount his horse for Callao to dispatch a vessel for Bs. Ayres and he is waiting a t my door ior this. Write to my brother, for 1 cannot. Do not lose time in doing this. The protector is very weil and so is Dna. Rosita. They both inquire after you very often from me. Lima is pleasanter than 1 found it on my first arrival, but 1 wish more than. ever to return t o England. If 1 live one year more 1 shall certainly land on that happy shore. Write often and long letters. Depená upon the regularity of rny correspondence, and believe, My dear Paroissien, Yours evei sincereijr, Wm. 1Miller. Lima. May 10 de 1822. My dear Paroissien, Although letters have errived from Chile two or three .times without me getting one from you, 1 shall continue to write you regularly agreeably to promise. 7 5 . Rudecindo Alvaraáo. 75. García del Río, Paroissien, Miller, and six others had each benn given shares in the estate o f Fernando del Mazo at Caucato. See Humphreys, op. cif., p. 100; M. F. Paz Solclán, Historia del Perú Independiente, Pz,'mer Período, 1829-1822 (Lima, 1868), p. 224; and note 22. 77 . John Begg, a British merchant. Humphieys, op. cit., pp. 80, 91-2, 97, 100. 78 See note 60. Fénix: Revista de la Biblioteca Nacional del Perú. N.10, 1954