Lieut. -Colonel Tupper again wrote on April 5, 1828, as follows:—
" Our congress met on the 25th of February ; it is
very badly composed, and will not, I fear, do much
good. The provinces begin to be greatly divided,
] thanks to the system of federalism. I think the whole
[ of South America is in a dreadful state of anarchy and
' confusion, — so much ignorance and so little morality.
j I believe it is impossible that the different states can
(constitute themselves for many an age, and what
Moore says of another country applies particularly to
them : — ' And there is certainly a close approximation
to savage life, not only in the liberty which they
enjoy, but in the violence of party spirit, and of
private animosity which results from it.' "
While acting as aid-de-camp, Lieut. -Colonel Tupper was engaged in the suppression of two or three dan- gerous revolts, incited by the party to which we have just alluded, and whose private interests had suffered when in 1823 many exclusive privileges were abo- lished. Their first object was to supplant General Pinto in his high office, so as to accomplish their insidious designs under the cloak of legal authority. We subjoin extracts from two letters which the sub- ject of this memoir wrote to a brother at this period. "Santiago, August 17, 1828. — My long silence has been owing to a trip which I made last month to San Fernando, (forty leagues south of Santiago,) to suppress a mutiny among the forces quartered there. General Borgono, having been ordered to take com- mand of the troops destined to put down the mutineers, requested the president to allow me to accompany him, which was acceded to. We left this place on the 4th of July, with two hundred infantry, and were
�� �
