were not delivered until the day after his departure,
and the attachment that followed was the first inti-
mation the public had of his failure.
That the arch criminal had confederates in the board of aldermen, of which he was shortly before a member, among the street contractors of whom he was special patron, and among those who aided his escape, there can be no doubt. That his scheme should so successfully have prospered in the face of so many chances against it, show^s him to have been what his previous career in California and his subsequent manipulations of South American railway systems amply prove him, a matchless financier and manager. It was one of the most gigantic swindles successfully perpetrated the world has ever seen. What is stranger still the money which he carried away, united with his consummate skill, yielded him an im- mense fortune, and to this day he has never been brought to judgment. Having served an apprentice- ship in the politics of San Francisco, he felt qualified to manipulate governments on a grander scale ; and notwithstanding the blasted reputation which followed him, he acquired such an ascendency over the leading- minds of Chile and Peru as to blind them to his faults, and build for himself a gigantic fortune and a world- wide fame.
As in all scoundrelism there was the utmost heart- lessness displayed in his frauds. Rich and poor alike he plundered, and scrupled at nothing which should add to his ill-gotten gains. The exact amount car- ried away by him was never known — probably about six hundred thousand dollars. Many victimized never mentioned it. . His failure and forgeries left him de- linquent over two millions. The American was pro- visioned for a two years voyage, the bills for wine and fine stores amounting to over two thousand dollars. She was well armed, having on board four guns, two of them brass pieces, and was manned by a crew ready to do their master's bidding, so that if over-
(AL. Int. I'oc. 19
