Good find, Armand! Marines in California as well.
I am trying to post from word here for those whose translator might not be working. He was an amazing figure!
Argentine Ana: Lord Cochrane's obituary that was not
The dead man was in good health
The wrong obituary of a British lord who fought with Saint Martin and who was the hero of several naval battles.
The Mercantile Gazette
By Roberto L. Elissalde *
On several occasions the media have announced a death when the deceased was still in good health. I remember the case of a chancellor whose obituary came on the eve of his death and another episode that my wife told me in which a renowned banker survived his marvelous necrology for almost a month.
Thus, on May 3, 1832, the Diario de la Tarde, a commercial, political and literary newspaper, announced the death in Paris – on January 26 – of Admiral Lord Thomas Cochrane, Count of Dundonald, when in fact It was about his uncle's death. His name was known among sailors for his recklessness in the time of Napoleon Bonaparte, in naval campaigns against the French, when his enemies nicknamed him "the wolf of the seas." But in Buenos Aires he was also known as he had been the commander of the Chilean-Argentine squad that on August 20, 1820 departed from Valparaíso towards Peru, fulfilling the second part of the Sanmartinian plan.
It is not necessary to clarify that, "violent man and of fiery nature", he had his disagreements with José de San Martín, with whom he could never understand himself and whom he did not finally know, separating and taking the squad.
Our Mercantile Gazette, undoubtedly better informed than the Evening Journal, the next day denied the death of Lord Cochrane, whose full name was Thomas Alexander, and clarified that the dead man was his uncle, Sir Alexander Cochrane, who had died at the 73 years old The confusion was due to the fact that he was also a prestigious sailor who had served in the Royal Navy since the War of Independence in the United States, held political positions and recognized for his long and valuable services.
Our acquaintance Thomas Alexander, who by the way was never in Buenos Aires, had a long life: he died at age 85 on October 31, 1860 and his remains rest in Westminster Abbey, after having served in the marinas of Chile, Brazil and Greece.
A very interesting detail of the end of his life is that in 1859, Count Dundonald published a two-volume work entitled "Narration of the services for freedom of Chile, Peru and Brazil of the Portuguese and Spanish domination." The first volume referred to the campaign of Chile and Peru and the second to its performance in Brazil. In our environment, this first edition is in the library of General Bartolomé Miter, whose house on San Martín Street can be consulted.
The book was what is called a "best-seller" because the following year, 1860, the first volume, of special interest to Chileans, was translated by Santos Tornero in the Mercurio Printing and Bookstore, in Valparaíso, under the title "Memories of Lord Cochrane". The work was a reason for controversies found and such was the interest and demand that in 1861 another edition of great circulation saw the light in the Garnier Printing of Paris, as in Chile and in Madrid by the Ayacucho Library in 1916.
His biographers point out that Cochrane married Catherine Celia Barnes in 1812 despite family opposition. She accompanied him on many of his trips but when he left under the command of the naval expedition to Peru she stayed in Santiago, the description she makes in her Memoirs being interesting: "Shortly after my departure for Peru, Countess Cochrane undertook a travel through the mountain range to Mendoza, the trails being, at that station, often blinded with snow. While in charge of conducting important offices, she walked lightly, arriving on October 12 to the famous Puente del Inca that is 15,000 feet above sea level. Here the snow had increased to such an extent that it was impossible to walk later, being forced to stay in the shack or shelter house built on snow for the safety of travelers; the intense cold that was experienced in the absence of any comfort, because it had no other bed better than a dry ox skin, produced a degree of suffering that few ladies would want to experience.
And he continued: "As he continued his mule on the banks of a dangerous path that was immediately there, a realist who entered the company without being called, went in the opposite direction, wanting to dispute the road at a point where at the slightest false step been rushed into the abyss he saw at his feet. Seeing the movement, one of his assistants, an honest and faithful soldier named Pedro Flores, and guessing the intentions of that man, galloped towards him at a critical moment and slapped him violently, thus preventing his bloodthirsty designs. After the traitor was vigorously attacked, he escaped, not expecting revenge on the blow received. That is why, without a doubt, another attempt against my wife's life was avoided. "
The portrait that accompanies the article is of Lord Cochrane with his uniform in his last years, while writing the Memoirs we commented on.
* Historian. Academic of number and vice president of the Argentine Academy of Communication Arts and Sciences
gets started with Flintloque.
