the detention of another’s property, and I trust, Sir, that you will immediately take the necessary steps to cause both that sum, and all other sums due to my brother for the Rising Star—­the particulars of which you may receive from Mr. Barnard—­to be paid without further delay.  To that end, and in order to prevent the risk and serious expense attending the remittance of money to so great a distance, I beg to suggest that the best mode of payment will be by an order on your agents in London.

I am much less solicitous on the subject of the debt due to myself, but after repeatedly requesting the Accountant-General, Correa de Saa, during the last six months of my residence in Chili, to investigate and determine on my accounts, without his proceeding therein in any effectual way, I was astonished to receive from him a communication calling upon me to appoint an agent to explain certain particulars, which I had considered as explicitly set forth in the documents delivered.  This delay and these obstacles, I cannot consider in any other light than as mere pretexts to avoid the payment of the balance due to me for my services, and for the expenditure of monies that were my own, inasmuch as I might, with perfect justice—­instead of employing them for the maintenance of the Chilian navy—­have applied them to the liquidation of the debt due to myself, and have left the service, as the Government did, to shift for itself.  Besides, Sir, let me call to your recollection that not a real of these monies came out of the pocket of any Chileno, but that the whole were captured or collected by me from sources never before rendered available to supply the necessities of a destitute squadron.

I call upon you, Sir, as the Minister of Marine, to see justice done on the above subjects, and if in my accounts or demands you find anything false or fraudulent, let it be printed in the Gazette, and give me the privilege of reply.

I trust you will excuse my entering into the present detail, and do me the justice to feel that no part of it is irrelevant to the subject of your letter.  Indeed, if I were not desirous of troubling you as briefly as possible, I could assign numerous other reasons for desiring to have demonstration of a change of ministerial conduct in the management of affairs in Chili, before again exposing myself to difficulties of so painful a nature, and re-occupying a situation which I have found to be harassing, thankless, and unprofitable.

When the puertos non habilitados (unlicensed ports) shall be thrown open to the national commerce—­when those obstacles shall be removed which now render the transport by sea more expensive than carriage by land—­when the coasting trade, that nursery for native seamen, shall be encouraged instead of prohibited, it will be time enough to think of re-establishing the marine, for, with regard to foreign seamen, such