Accordingly, whilst residing on my estate at Quintera, in Chili, I received from Antonio Manuel Correa, the Brazilian Consul at Buenos Ayres, a letter on the part of His Imperial Majesty, inviting me to accept service under the Brazilian flag, guaranteeing moreover rank and position in no way inferior to that which I then held under the Republic of Chili; the Consul exhorting me, in addition, “to throw myself upon the munificence of the Emperor, and the undoubted probity of His Majesty’s Government, which would do me justice.”  The following is one of the letters of invitation:—­

    Le Conseiller Agent du Bresil, pres le Gouvernement de Buenos Ayres
    a l’Amiral Lord Cochrane, Commandant-en-Chef les forces navales de
    la Republique du Chili.

    Milord,

    Le Bresil, puissance du premier ordre devint un nouvel empire, une
    nation independente sous le legitime heritier de la monarchie,
    Pierre le Grand, son auguste defenseur.

C’est par son ordre—­c’est de sa part, et en vertu des depeches ministeriales, que je viens de recevoir de Monseigneur Joseph Bonifacio de Andrada e Silva, Ministre de l’Interieur et des Relations Exterieures du Bresil, en date du 13 Septembre dernier—­que j’ai l’honneur de vous adresser cette note; en laquelle votre Grace est invitee, pour—­et de part le Gouvernement du Bresil—­a accepter le service de la nation Bresilienne; chez qui je suis dument autorise a vous assurer le rang et le grade nullement inferieur a celui que vous tenez de la Republique.

Abandonnez vous, Milord, a la reconnaisance Bresilienne; a la munificence du Prince; a la probite sans tache de l’actuel Gouvernement; on vous fera justice; on ne rabaissera d’un seul point la haute consideration—­Rang—­grade—­caractere—­et avantages qui vous sont dus.

    (Signe) Antonio Manuel Correa da Camara, Consul de l’Empire du
    Bresil, a Buenos Ayres, 4 Novembre, 1822.

Annoyed by the ingratitude with which my services were requited in Chili, and disliking the inaction consequent on the capture of Valdivia, followed by the annihilation of the Spanish naval force at Callao, and elsewhere in the Pacific—­whereby internal peace had been obtained for Chili, and independence for Peru—­I felt gratified by the further terms of invitation, contained in a second letter—­“Venez, milord, l’honneur vous invite—­la gloire vous appelle.  Venez—­donner a nos armes navales cet ordre merveilleux et discipline incomparable de puissante Albion” —­and on mature consideration returned the following reply:—­

     Valparaiso, Nov. 29, 1832.

     Sir,

     The war in the Pacific having been happily terminated by the total
     destruction of the Spanish naval force, I am, of course, free for
     the crusade of liberty in any other quarter of the globe.