and proceed to Chili, although the Peruvian Government believed that
from the abandonment of the squadron by the officers and foreign seamen,
it would not be possible to comply with the order. The following is
Monteagudo's letter conveying the commands of the Protector:--

Lima, Sept. 26th, 1821.
My Lord,

Your note of yesterday, in which you explain the motives
which induced you to decline complying with the positive orders of
the Protector, _temporarily_ to restore the money which you forcibly
took at Ancon, has frustrated the hopes which the Government
entertained of a happy termination to this most disagreeable of all
affairs which have occurred during the expedition.

To answer your Excellency in detail, it will be necessary to enter
into an investigation of acts which cannot be fully understood without
referring to official communications and documents which prove
the interest which has been taken in the necessities of the squadron.

(Here follows a reiteration of the _promises_ and good intentions of
the Protector, with which the reader is already well acquainted.)

This has been a mortal blow to the State, and worse could not
have been received from the hand of an enemy, there only remaining
to us a hope in the moderation and patient suffering of the
valiant men who have sacrificed all!

You will immediately sail from this port to Chili, with the whole
squadron under your command, and there deliver up the money