Chapter XXIII: Appendix: D

COLONEL WILLIAM DE VIC TUPPER.

... My beautiful, my brave!

* * * * *

Ah! who can tell how many a soul sublime
Has felt the influence of malignant star,
And waged with Fortune an unequal war!

This highly gifted young man was a brother of the subject of the preceding memoir, their father having had ten sons and three daughters. He received an excellent education in England, partly under a private tutor in Warwickshire; and on the restoration of the Bourbons, in 1814, he was sent to a college in Paris, in which he continued until the arrival of Napoleon from Elba, when he was gratified by a glimpse of that extraordinary man. When he landed in France, although he had barely completed his fourteenth year, his stature was so tall and athletic as to give him the appearance of a young giant; and on being asked his age at the police office, that it might be inserted in his passport, his reply was received with a smile of astonishment and incredulity, which afforded much subsequent amusement to his elder fellow travellers. At the age of sixteen his strength and activity were so great, that few men could have stood up against him with any chance of success. On his return to Guernsey, every interest the family possessed was anxiously exerted to indulge his wish of entering the British army, but owing to the great reductions made after the peace of 1815, he was unable to obtain a commission, even by purchase. Those relatives, who could best have forwarded his views, had been slain in the public service; and in that day few claims were admitted, unless supported by strong parliamentary influence. He attended the levee of the commander-in-chief, who promised to take his memorial into early consideration; and it was hoped by the family that his tall and strikingly handsome person would have had some influence; but unfortunately the youth, then under sixteen, waited alone on the Duke of York, and had no one to plead his cause or to promote his wishes. He was accompanied as far as the Horse Guards by the late Lieut.-Colonel Eliot, (see page 399,) who there, or in the neighbourhood, introduced him to Sir Roger Sheaffe, whom they met accidentally; but the general took little or no notice of the nephew of one to whom he was under much obligation, and whose fall had been his rise. It is true that Sir Roger Sheaffe was also about to solicit an ensigncy for his own nephew; but sure we are, that had Sir Isaac Brock met the nephew of a gallant predecessor under similar circumstances, he would have presented him to the commander-in-chief, and urged his claims with all the warmth of companionship and gratitude. And is it not painful to think, that a nephew of Sir Roger Sheaffe obtained that _without_ purchase, which was withheld from the nephew of Sir Isaac Brock, even _by_ purchase--and that nephew of as noble a spirit as ever breathed? Being thus cruelly disappointed, young Tupper spent two or three years in Catalonia, of which province a relative, P.C. Tupper, was British consul (see p. 73); and "the young Englishman" received the public thanks of the municipality of Barcelona, for having boldly exposed his life to extinguish a conflagration which threatened to destroy a whole barrier of the city. Here his vanity was constantly excited by exclamations in the streets, on the manly beauty of his person. The profession of arms continuing his ruling passion, he embarked at Guernsey late in 1821 for Rio de Janeiro, whence he proceeded to Buenos Ayres, and thence over land to Chile, then struggling for her independence of Spain. His family was averse to his joining the patriot cause, as it was then termed, and he arrived at Santiago a mere soldier of fortune--without, we believe, a single letter of introduction to those in authority. But his appearance and manners, and a perfect knowledge of three languages, English, French, and Spanish, all of which he spoke fluently, soon procured him friends and active military employment. He rose rapidly, and his deeds have been compared to those of the far-famed Sir William Wallace.

In a necessarily brief notice, it is, however, quite impossible to detail the services of young Tupper in the land of his unhappy adoption; and it must, therefore, suffice to say that he displayed the greatest talent and bravery, first against the Spaniards, and, after their subjugation, in the civil wars which ensued. He was drawn into the latter, when, in 1829, part of the troops, under General Prieto, attempted to subvert the existing authorities, because, as he wrote, he "considered that no free government or orderly state could exist an hour, if the military were once allowed to throw the sword into the scale, and decide points of legislation by the force of arms." In a battle fought near the capital, Santiago, the rebel troops were defeated, but Prieto gained that by treachery, which he could not effect by the sword; and when Colonel Tupper resigned in disgust, the earnest entreaties of his old commander, General Freire unfortunately induced him to accept the government of Coquimbo, which step soon after compelled him to resume the command of his regiment. Freire was deceived by some of Prieto's chiefs, who, probably at the instigation of that faithless general, had promised to pass over to him with their troops at the first convenient opportunity; and he allowed himself to be forced into a battle on a vast plain at Lircay, near Talca, on the 17th April, 1830. Nothing could be more ill-judged or imprudent, as his army, which consisted of about 1,700 men, had only two weak squadrons of regular cavalry and four pieces of artillery, while that of Prieto, amounting to fully 2,200 men, had 800 veteran cavalry, and eleven or twelve pieces of artillery. The Chile cavalry is very formidable, the men being most expert riders, mounted on active and powerful horses, and generally armed with long lances, which they use with great dexterity. After a long engagement, Freire's cavalry, consisting of about 600 men, including militia and Indians, fled completely discomfited, and abandoned the infantry, composed of three weak battalions, to its fate. Their situation was now indeed desperate, as the ground was so favorable to cavalry, and the neighbourhood offered them no accessible place of defence or refuge. When they formed into squares to resist the hostile cavalry, they were mowed down by artillery; and, when they deployed into line, the cavalry was upon them. In this dreadful emergency they maintained the conflict for nearly an hour, with all the obstinacy of despair; and at length, in attempting to charge in column, they were completely broken. The loss in Freire's army fell chiefly on the devoted infantry, and included eighteen officers among the killed. The only officers mentioned as slain, in Prieto's hurried dispatch of the 17th of April, are Colonel Elizalde, chief of the staff; Colonel Tupper, and his gallant Major Varela, a young man of five or six and twenty. 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 _mêlée_ 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 pronounced 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 circumstances 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 _chargé d'affaires_ and consul-general in Chile, said, in a letter to Captain P.P. King, then of his majesty's ship Adventure, both strangers to the family:

"The heroism displayed by Tupper surpassed 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 lustre 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 Séjour au Chili," thus expressed himself:

"Les Chiliens sont jaloux des étrangers qui prennent du service
chez eux, et il est assez naturel qu'ils le soient, quoiqu'on ne
puisse nier qu'ils aient de grandes obligations à 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 cessé de
vivre. Je veux parler du Colonel Tupper, qui a été fait
prisonnier à la tête de son regiment; et qui, après avoir été
tenu, pendant une heure, dans l'incertitude sur son sort, fut
cruellement mis à mort par les ennemis. Le Colonel Tupper était
un homme d'une grande bravoure et d'un esprit éclairé; ses formes
étaient athlétiques, et l'expression de sa physionomie pleine de
franchise. II se serait distingué partout où il aurait été
employé, et dans quelque situation qu'il eût été placé. N'est-il
pas déplorable que de tels hommes en soient réduits à se
consacrer à une cause étrangère?

"J'espère que le temps n'est pas éloigné où l'on saura apprécier
au Chili le patriotisme et l'énergie, dont le Colonel Tupper a
donné 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--illustrious 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
assassination 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
pronounced 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.]