Fénix 10, 203-234

LETTERS TO JAMES PAROISSIEN 211 tion [having] been stopped with Lima and the southern provinces is hardly worth being mentioned. Make my kind remembrance to Col. Martinez 27. Te11 him I am over and above anxious to join him again, that since 1 left the battalion 1 have scarcely spent a pleasant day, and 1 wish you would make him believe this, for it is really the case. Say also 1 am too unwell to write in Spanish. If I have no time to add more, believe me Yours ever sincerely, Wm. Miller. COCHRANE T O PAROZSSZEN San Martin, Pisco. 19 April, 1821. Dear Colonel, Were you al1 here 1 would quadruple the bet, not only of the dozen, but 1 would stake most readily al1 the Champaign in the French ships which left this the other day for Huacho, that we should have the smokíng turtle in the garret [?] in three days. 1 am not much of a soldier, though 1 once was one. However when movements are connected with maritime affairs 1 sometimes venture to risk an opinion to a friend, and such is my belief at this moment. Here, orar people are ialling sick fast; 175, with Miller, are unable to rnove and consequently we have not been equal to do those things which might have been done; nor could so small a force as 325 men, even if there had been a successor to Miller, have approached near enough to Lima to cut off the cattle which have been driven in considerable numbers from al1 parts of the south to that neighbourhood, whilst the road was open. Many vessels are on their way here with stores of al1 kinds, and God knows whether some more of them may not sail in, though 1 have taken eve- ry precaution. Blocking up a port by sea is not so certain as stopping up a road, because the whole surrounding sea is equally a path, and in the dark the few vessels we have c a n ~ o tbe everywhere. Hoping that al1 will yet prove for the best, and that delay may not occasion the premature death of the fat turtle, is the wish oi. Yours very sincerely, Cochrane. 2 7 . See note 8. Fénix: Revista de la Biblioteca Nacional del Perú. N.10, 1954