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Bets were made between the captains, and the crews took it up in their own way; but as she was bound to leeward and we to windward, and merchant captains cannot deviate, a trial never took place; and perhaps it was well for us that it did not, for the Ayacucho had been eight years in the Pacific, in every part of it, Valparaiso, Sandwich Islands, Canton, California, and all, and was called the fastest merchant-man that traded in the Pacific, unless it was the brig John Gilpin, and perhaps the ship Ann McKim, of Baltimore.
Immediately afterwards, a boat's crew came aboard, bringing her skipper, and from them we learned that she was from Oahu, and was engaged in the same trade with the Ayacucho, Loriotte, etc., between the coast, the Sandwich Islands, and the leeward coast of Peru and Chili. Her captain and officers were Americans, and also a part of her crew; the rest were Islanders.
This vessel, as well as the Ayacucho, and others which we afterwards saw engaged in the same trade, have English or Americans for officers, and two or three before the mast to do the work upon the rigging, and to be relied upon for seamanship, while the rest of the crew are Sandwich-Islanders, who are active and very useful in boating.
All of this was the naked truth. Peru had invaded Bolivia and had attacked Colombia. Bolivar immediately organized an expedition, under the command of General Jose Maria Cordova, who distinguished himself in Ayacucho, and he, himself, prepared to go immediately. After attending to several matters of an administrative character, he started towards the South, in spite of declining health.
Bolivar then gave over the command of the army to General Sucre, who on December 9, 1824, fought the Battle of Ayacucho, completely defeating the Royalist forces.
At Santa Barbara we came into touch with other vessels engaged in loading hides and tallow, and as this was the work in which we were soon to be engaged, we looked on with some curiosity, especially at the labours of the crew of the Ayacucho, who were dusky Sandwich Islanders.
Immediately after Ayacucho, Bolivar ordered the cessation of conscription and called a constitutional convention for February 8, 1825. "The deplorable circumstances which forced Congress to create the extraordinary office of dictatorship have disappeared," he said, "and the Republic is now able to constitute and organize itself as it will."
Here we found the Ayacucho and the Pilgrim, which last we had not seen since the 11th of September, nearly five months; and I really felt something like an affection for the old brig which had been my first home, and in which I had spent nearly a year, and got the first rough and tumble of a sea life.
In Bolivia, Sucre, a victim of the conspiracy of Peruvians, had been wounded and forced to leave the country where he had been in command, but not without showing his generosity in a message to the Bolivian Congress, in which he said: "Although through foreign instigations I carry broken the arm w in Ayacucho put an end to the war of American Independence, which destroyed the chains of Peru and gave birth to Bolivia, I am comforted, feeling in these difficult circumstances that my conscience is of any guilt.... My Government has been distinguished by clemency, tolerance and kindness."
While we were on the yards, we saw the Loriotte under weigh, and before our yards were mast-headed, the Ayacucho had spread her wings, and, with yards braced sharp up, was standing athwart our hawse. There is no prettier sight in the world than a full-rigged, clipper-built brig, sailing sharp on the wind. In a moment, our slip-rope was gone, the head-yards filled away, and we were off.
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