"JOSE DE SAN MARTIN."

"To Don Jose Ignacio Zenteno,
Minister of Marine."

Soon after my departure for Peru, Lady Cochrane undertook a journey
across the _Cordillera_, to Mendoza, the passes being, at that season,
often blocked up with snow. Having been entrusted with some despatches
of importance, she pushed on rapidly, and on the 12th of October arrived
at the celebrated _Ponte del Inca_, 15,000 feet above the level of the
sea. Here the snow had increased to such an extent as to render farther
progress impossible, and her ladyship was obliged to remain at a
_Casucha_, or strong house, built above the snow for the safety of
travellers; the intense cold arising from the rarity of the atmosphere,
and the absence of all comfort--there being no better couch than a dried
bullock's hide--producing a degree of suffering which few ladies would
be willing to encounter.

Whilst proceeding on her mule up a precipitous path in the vicinity, a
Royalist, who had intruded himself on the party, rode up in an opposite
direction and disputed the path with her, at a place where the slightest
false step would have precipitated her into the abyss below. One of her
attendants, a tried and devoted soldier, named Pedro Flores, seeing the
movement, and guessing the man's intention, galloped up to him at a
critical moment, striking him a violent blow across the face, and thus
arresting his murderous design. The ruffian finding himself vigorously
attacked, made off, without resenting the blow, and so, no doubt,
another premeditated attempt on Lady Cochrane's life was averted.