Welsh Journals

voyage, and for all and every purpose in relation to my last will and testament and towards the interests of those therein named my inheritors or inheritresses consider it necessary and convenient to make the following statement — James then detailed the location of his will, the names of its executors, and ensured that his brothers and sisters knew that Dom Domingo Esiniero, merchant and resident of the port of Valparaiso, was legally empowered to act for him and "make all claims from the respective governments of Chile, Peru and Buenos Ayres, in the shape of pay & prize money which I am or might be entitled to," and also held "a certain sum of money at a certain monthly interest, belonging to me." He signed this memorandum at his sister Harriet's home in Porteynon on 14th October, 1851. Whatever James's opinion of his future life was when he returned to Gower, it quickly became clear on his return to Chile that he still had an active career to pursue. On his journey he learned of an uprising in the colony established in the Magellan Islands, and was the first to bring news of it to Valparaiso. He was appointed commander of the punitive expedition sent against the rebels and, with the authority of Admiral Mourby, then governor, carried out the death penalties on the rebels. Afterwards, and in direct consequence of his efficiency on the expedition, James was appointed Governor General of the Navy in Valparaiso, holding this position in conjunction with his post as Major of the Squadrons. He was fully and peacefully occupied for the next twenty years with these posts, and by 1854 was seriously considering undertak- ing a further responsibility. He informed his sister in a letter that he was seriously thinking of matrimony. On his visit home in 1850 James had encountered his niece, Elizabeth George, the daughter of his brother Thomas. He probably extended to her the sort of invitation to visit him which is easily made when there seems little probability of its real acceptance. However, her father, who had inherited the post of agent to C. R. M. Talbot from his father, was dismissed in disgrace and took his family off to Australia, whence they bombarded James with begging letters. Elizabeth, remembering her uncle's invitation, arrived in Valparaiso and installed herself in his house as resident niece/housekeeper, and, in her own opinion, at least, ultimate heiress of an ageing, wealthy, uncle. She even changed her name no longer Elizabeth George, she styled herself Isabella Beynon. James was an experienced tactician, he had long ago learned how to outwit an enemy. His evasive action was simple and completely effective. At the age of 60 he married Miss Jane Bunster of Valparaiso. By July, 1858, Elizabeth George/Isabella Beynon had installed herself in London in the house of another wealthy bachelor uncle. Her aunts shared the opinior