The Life and Correspondence of Sir Isaac Brock, K.B Part 35

Colonel Tupper is said to have exhibited the most reckless valour during the day, and to have rallied his battalion several times. Having dismounted to encourage his men, he was unable, in the _melee_ when all was lost, to find his horse; and the accounts of the manner of his death are so contradictory, that it is impossible to reconcile them. All agree, however, in stating that he was particularly sought after, and that orders were given to shew him no quarter. Certain it is that he was overtaken, and "sacrificed to the fears of Prieto, who justly considered him the sword and buckler of the irresolute and vacillating Freire." He was p.r.o.nounced by an English traveller, as "the handsomest man he had ever seen in either hemisphere," and undoubtedly his tall, athletic, and beautifully proportioned person, his almost Herculean strength, the elegance of his manners, and his impetuous valour in battle, gave the impression rather of a royal knight of chivalry, than of a republican soldier.[171] The influence and popularity which in a few short years he acquired in his adopted country, by his own unaided exertions, and under the many disadvantages of being a stranger in a strange land, best prove that his talents were of the first order, and that he was no common character. And that fraternal affection may not be supposed to have dictated this eulogium, the following impartial testimonies of its correctness are appended, in justice to the memory of one whom a combination of cruel circ.u.mstances drove to a distant land to shed that blood, and to yield that life, winch he had in vain sought to devote to his own country.

An English gentleman, of ancient family, and author of travels in South America, who knew Colonel Tupper intimately, thus wrote of him:

"He was certainly one of the finest fellows I ever knew--one of those beings whose meteor-like flame traverses our path, and leaves an imperishable recollection of its brilliancy....

I have often held him up as an example to be followed of scrupulous exactness, and of a probity, I fear, alas! too uncompromising in these corrupt times."

The American _charge d'affaires_ and consul-general in Chile, said, in a letter to Captain P.P. King, then of his majesty's s.h.i.+p Adventure, both strangers to the family:

"The heroism displayed by Tupper surpa.s.sed the prowess of any individual that I ever heard of in battle; but, poor fellow!

he was horribly dealt with after getting away with another officer. A party of cavalry and Indians was sent in pursuit, and they boast that poor Tupper was cut to pieces. They seemed to be more in terror of him, on account of his personal bravery and popularity, than of all the others. Guernsey has cause to be proud of so great a hero--a hero he truly was, for nature made him one."

And one of the British consuls in Chile wrote:

"I trust you will believe that any member of the family of Colonel Tupper, who may require such services as I am at liberty to offer, will be always esteemed by one who, for many years, has looked upon his gallant and honorable conduct as reflecting l.u.s.tre upon the English name in these new and distant states."

An anonymous French traveller, who published in a Paris newspaper, _Le Semeur_, of the 4th April, 1832, his "Souvenir d'un Sejour au Chili,"

thus expressed himself:

"Les Chiliens sont jaloux des etrangers qui prennent du service chez eux, et il est a.s.sez naturel qu'ils le soient, quoiqu'on ne puisse nier qu'ils aient de grandes obligations a plusieurs de ceux qui ont fait Chili leur patrie adoptive. Depuis mon retour en Europe, un de ces hommes, digne d'une haute estime, a cesse de vivre. Je veux parler du Colonel Tupper, qui a ete fait prisonnier a la tete de son regiment; et qui, apres avoir ete tenu, pendant une heure, dans l'incert.i.tude sur son sort, fut cruellement mis a mort par les ennemis. Le Colonel Tupper etait un homme d'une grande bravoure et d'un esprit eclaire; ses formes etaient athletiques, et l'expression de sa physionomie pleine de franchise. II se serait distingue partout ou il aurait ete employe, et dans quelque situation qu'il eut ete place. N'est-il pas deplorable que de tels hommes en soient reduits a se consacrer a une cause etrangere?

"J'espere que le temps n'est pas eloigne ou l'on saura apprecier au Chili le patriotisme et l'energie, dont le Colonel Tupper a donne l'exemple."

And in a pamphlet published at Lima, in, 1831, by General Freire, in exposition of his conduct during the civil war in Chile, 1829-30, is the following extract translated from the Spanish:

"It does not enter into my plan to justify the strategic movements which preceded the battle of Lircay. The disproportion between the contending forces was excessive.

Neither tactics nor prodigies of valour could avail against this immense disadvantage. The liberals were routed. Would that I could throw a veil, not over a Conquest which proves neither courage nor talent in the conqueror, but over the horrid cruelties which succeeded the battle. The most furious savages, the most unprincipled bandits, would have been ashamed to execute the orders which the rebel army received from Prieto, and yet which were executed with mournful fidelity. Tupper--ill.u.s.trious shade of the bravest of soldiers, of the most estimable of men; shade of a hero to whom Greece and Rome would have erected statues--your dreadful a.s.sa.s.sination will be avenged. If there be no visible punishment for your murderer, Divine vengeance will overtake him. It will demand an account of that infamous sentence p.r.o.nounced against all strangers by a man[172] who at that time was the pupil and the tool of a vagabond stranger,[173]

indebted for his elevation and his bread to the generosity of Chile."

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 171: From his earliest youth he gave indications of that fearless and daring spirit which marked his after-life; and when he left Europe in 1821, he was generally thought to bear a striking resemblance to his late uncle, Major-General Brock, at the same age. This similarity extended in some degree even to their deaths, as the Indians of either continent were employed as auxiliaries in the actions in which they fell, and both were killed in the months that gave them birth. Like his uncle also, he swam occasionally to Castle Cornet and back, (see foot note, page 337,) and he was equally tall, being in height six feet two inches, while his figure was a perfect model of strength and symmetry.]

[Footnote 172: General Prieto.]

[Footnote 173: Garrido, a Spanish renegade.]