Fénix 10, 203-234

Letters of WilliamMiller, Lord Cochrane, and Basil Hall to Jamss Paroissien, 1811-1823 * published by R. A. HUMPHREYS professor of Latin American History in the University of London The following letters, found among the papers of James Paroissien, 1 one of San Martín's priricipal aides-de-camp, need no elaborate introduction. They begin in February, 1821, when the future General William Miller, at this time a Lieutenant-Colonel, had been assigned with a small body of troops to the command of Lord Cochrane in an ill-founded hope of gaining possession of Callao. 2 They continue, thereafter, as a running commentary on Miller's operations (described in his celebrated Memoirs) during Cochrane's expedi- tion to Pisco and the southem parts of the viceroyalty. 3 This expedition, as is well known, left Huacho on March 13th (No 2 ) , and Miller, in command of 500 infantry and 60 cavalry, landed near Pisco early in the morning of March 21st (N"), to re-embark, after a severe bout of fever, on April 18th (N0 6 ) . "Cold, hunger, fatigue and hard duty", he re- marks, "are al1 bareable, but sickness in such a damnation, sandy, wretched place as Pisco is insupportable . . . P thought myself invulnerable, but Pisco would kill the devil himself" (N"). Cochrane, in the meanwhile, had paid a further visit to Callao Bay. "Eve- rything is in an uproar at Lima", he wrote to Paroissien on April 3rd. 'Were the army here inow we could drink our champaign this very night in your room (*) Basado en el archivo de James Paroissien, que no había sido anteriormente utilizado, el profesor R. A. Humphreys publicó, en 1952, un importante estudio histórico: Liberafion in Soufh America 1806-1827. Precisamente, las cartas de William Miller, Lord Cochrane y B~ s i lKali, publicades ahora, g:e-tenecen al citacio archivo y coinple- mentan en forma sustantiva los aportes expuestos al trazar la carrera pública de James Paroissien. 1. See R. A. Humphreys, Liberation in Soufh America, 1806-2827. The Career of Jatnes Paroissien (London, 1952). The Pzroissien Papers are in the possession of Messrs Cunnington Son and Orfeur of Braintree, Essex, to whose repeated courtesies 1 am much indebted. 2. Cf. John Miller, Memoirs of General Miller in the Service of fhe Republic of Peru (2 vols., Eondon, 1828), i, 285, and Diego Barros Arana: Historia Jeneral de Chile (16 vofs., Santiago, 1884-1902), xiii, 174-5. 3. Cf. Thomas Cochrane, Earl of Dundonald, Memoranda of Naval Services in the Li- berafion of Chili and Peru from Spanish DorninatJon (London, 1858), pp. 105-7. Fénix: Revista de la Biblioteca Nacional del Perú. N.10, 1954