The Emancipation of South America/Chapter 20
CHAPTER XX.
THE FIRST NAVAL CAMPAIGN ON THE PACIFIC.
1818.
When San Martin in 1814 at Tucuman first made a sketch of his continental campaign, he saw that the true road from Chile to Lima was by sea. At that time both oceans, from California on the Pacific to the Gulf of Mexico on the Atlantic, were dominated by the Spanish navy. Chile had but a few fishing-boats among the islands of the South Pacific, yet from the extent of her sea-line, from the number of her ports, and by her geographical position, shut in on a narrow strip of land between the Andes and the sea, Chile was eminently fitted to be a great naval power. Travelling by land was so difficult, that the sea was the natural road of communication between the different districts. In the forests of Arauco the pine and the oak tree flourished luxuriantly, her valleys produced hemp and flax in abundance. In the bowels of the earth were stored up vast supplies of copper, iron, and coal. Chacabuco and Maipó had secured the independence of Chile, but without a fleet further progress was impossible.
After Chacabuco the Spanish flag was still kept flying on the forts of Valparaiso. Deceived by this stratagem, the Spanish brig Aguila entered the harbour and was captured. She was armed with 16 guns and named the Pueyrredon, and an Irishman named Morris was put in command. His first exploit was to sail to the island of Juan Fernandez to the rescue of the Patriots there imprisoned by Marcó and by Osorio.
Some months afterwards the Wyndham frigate of 44 guns anchored at Valparaiso. She belonged to the East India Company, and at the suggestion of Alvarez Condarco, then in London, had been sent there for sale. Guido raised a loan among the merchants of Valparaiso, and gave the guarantee of the Argentine Government for 50,000 dollars, so that the Government of Chile, in spite of the exhausted state of the treasury just before Maipó, purchased the ship for 180,000 dollars, and named her the Lautaro. She shipped a crew of 100 sailors of various nationalities, and 250 Chilians, soldiers, boatmen, and fishermen. The marines were placed under the command of Captain Miller, an Englishman, and command of the ship was given to Captain O'Brien,[1] who had served in the English navy, with Turner as lieutenant. All the officers were either English or North Americans, except Miller; not one of them could give orders in Spanish. "Nevertheless," says Miller, in his Memoirs, "ten hours after sailing she fought and fought well."
The Spanish Pacific squadron at this time consisted of 17 ships, mounting 331 guns. After the victory of Maipó, O'Higgins ordered his two ships to put to sea in search of the Spanish ships which had been blockading Valparaiso. They sailed on the afternoon of the 26th April. At day-break on the 27th the Lautaro sighted the 44-gun frigate Esmeralda making for the port, followed at some miles distance by the 18-gun brig Pezuela. O'Brien hoisted the English flag and sailed straight for her, till off her quarter and to windward, when he hauled down the English flag, hoisted the Chilian, and ran into her, exchanging a broadside. Followed by thirty or forty men, he then leaped on board, driving the Spaniards from the upper deck, and hauling down her flag. A shot from the lower deck killed him, and he fell, shouting, "Stick to her, boys! The ship's ours."
But while the fighting went on the ships had separated. Turner, thinking the enemy was captured, sent off a boat with eighteen men to assist, and sailed off in the Lautaro against the Pezuela, which hauled down her flag without firing a shot. Meantime Coig, commander of the Esmeralda, had rallied his men, recaptured the upper deck, drove the rest of the assailants overboard, and on the return of the Lautaro made off, accompanied by the Pezuela, for Talcahuano, both of them being swifter ships than the Lautaro. On their way back to port the Chilian vessels captured a Spanish brig, whose value more than covered the cost of the Lautaro.
Government then bought an American privateer mounting 20 guns, and named her the Chacabuco. Soon afterwards an American brig mounting 16 guns was purchased, and named the Araucano. In August the ship Cumberland, purchased by Condarco in London, arrived, and was named the San Martin.
Chile had thus rapidly acquired a small fleet of her own, and, looking about for an admiral, she chose Don Manuel Blanco Encalada, a young officer of artillery. Born in Buenos Ayres of a Chilian mother, Encalada had adopted Chile as his country; he had held a separate command before the disaster of Rancagua, was among the Patriot prisoners rescued by the Pueyrredon from the island of Juan Fernandez, was present at Cancha-Rayada, and had distinguished himself at Maipó. He had previously served in the Spanish navy as a junior officer, and was at this time twenty-eight years of age.
On the 21st May a Spanish expedition of eleven transports, two of which were armed vessels, under convoy of the 50-gun ship Maria Isabel, sailed from Cadiz for the Pacific, carrying two battalions of the regiment of Cantabria, 1,600 strong, a regiment of cavalry of 300 sabres, 180 artillerymen and pioneers, with 8,000 spare muskets. One of the transports was in such bad condition that they were forced to leave her at Teneriffe, and distribute her men among the other ships. Five degrees north of the equator the convoy was dispersed by adverse winds. On the 25th July the British brig Lady Warren reached Buenos Ayres, and reported having seen them about a month before. In consequence of this information the Argentine Government sent off the brig Lucy, flying the Chilian flag, and the brig Intrepido, flying the Argentine flag, each carrying 18 guns, with orders to double Cape Horn and join the Chilian squadron. At the same time word was sent to San Martin to invite the Chilian Government to despatch all their squadron against the expedition.
On the 26th August one of the transports named the Trinidad, with 180 soldiers on board, cast anchor at Ensenada, a port on the River Plate, some forty miles to the south of Buenos Ayres. She had separated from the convoy to the north to the equator, when the troops, headed by two sergeants and a corporal, had mutinied, shot their officers, and had compelled the master to sail for Buenos Ayres. The Argentine Government thus came to know the signals and the point of reunion of the expedition, which information they at once sent on to Chile.
Soon after this the 36-gun frigate Horacio, which had been purchased in the United States by Aguirre, the Argentine commissioner, reached Buenos Ayres, and announced that she was followed by the Curacio of the same armament.
On the 19th October the San Martin, Captain Wilkinson, the Lautaro, Captain Wooster, the Chacabuco, Captain Diaz, and the Araucano, Lieutenant Morris, sailed from Valparaiso. The squadron mounted 142 guns, and was manned by 1,100 men, most of whom were Chilians. The officers were nearly all English or North Americans. As O'Higgins, who had gone to the port to hurry on their departure, rode up the hill on his return to Santiago, he looked upon the four ships spreading their sails to a fresh sou'-wester, while the Chilian flag fluttered in the breeze from their mast-heads, and exclaimed,—
"Four ships gave the western continent to Spain; these four will take it from her."
On losing sight of land, Blanco Encalada opened the sealed instructions which had been given him, and found that he was ordered to the island of Mocha to await the Spanish convoy. The native Chilians were for the most part quite fresh to the service, but Miller, who sailed with the squadron, writes of them:—
"The native marines and sailors showed their good qualities, both as soldiers and sailors, by ready obedience; soon afterwards they showed bravery also."
A strong wind separated the Chacabuco from her consorts, who cast anchor on the 26th October at the Island of Santa Maria to await her, while the Araucano was sent back to reconnoitre the bay of Talcahuano, about forty miles to the north.
As the ships flew the Spanish flag a boat came off bringing a letter from the Admiral of the Spanish convoy to any transport that might touch there. This letter confirmed information already received from a whaler that the Maria Isabel had been there five days before accompanied by four transports, and had gone on to Talcahuano, while the rest of the convoy with crews sick and out of provisions had been unable to double Cape Horn.
Blanco Encalada sailed at once for Talcahuano. On the night of the 27th he arrived there with two ships, and learned that the Maria Isabel was alone in the bay; the transports, after landing 800 men, had gone on to Callao. On the morning of the 28th, with a fresh breeze, the two Chilian ships entered the bay and saw the Spanish ship at anchor under the batteries.
The Maria Isabel fired a blank cartridge and hoisted her flag. The San Martin replied with another blank cartridge and hoisted the English flag. When within musket shot both the Chilian ships hoisted their own flag with loud cheers, which immediately produced a broadside from the Spaniard. The San Martin replied with another and cast anchor within pistol-shot of the enemy, on which the Spaniard cut his cables and ran aground. Part of the crew landed in boats while the rest kept up a fire from the poop. The Chilian ships continued to fire till her flag was hauled down, when two boats put off to her with fifty men under Lieutenants Compton and Bélez, and took prisoners seventy men and five officers of the Cantabria regiment.
Encalada then landed two companies of marines to dislodge the Royalist troops on shore, who kept up a fire on the prize from behind walls on the beach; but Sanchez coming up with a strong force from Concepcion, compelled them to re-embark. In spite of the fire from shore every effort was made to set the prize afloat, but without success on account of the wind which blew from the sea.
During the following night preparations were made by both parties to continue the struggle next day. Sanchez placed four guns in battery on the beach, while Encalada swung the Lautaro round by an anchor from the poop, and brought her guns to bear on this battery and on the fort of San Agustin, which commanded the entrance of the bay.
At daybreak on the 29th both sides opened fire within pistol-shot of each other. About eleven o'clock a stiff breeze came up from the south, a cable was passed from the San Martin to the prize, the anchor was weighed, the sails spread with great rapidity, and she was towed off amid shouts of "Viva la Patria!" from the Chilians, mingled with loud "hurrahs" from the English sailors. The Chilian squadron celebrated their victory by a salute of twenty-one guns, and sailed out of the bay in triumph with their prize, which they at once named the O'Higgins.
The four ships of the Chilian squadron met again at the island of Santa Maria and were there joined by the Argentine brig Intrepido, Captain Carter, and the Galvarino under Captains Guise and Spry, who had both served in the English navy. The squadron now consisted of nine vessels, including the O'Higgins, with 234 guns.
One after another the rest of the transports fell into the hands of the Patriots to the number of five, with 700 prisoners. Four only, with 800 men, had reached Callao. From that date Spain lost for ever the dominion of the Pacific. The road for the expedition to Peru lay open.
Thirty-eight days after the four ships had sailed from Valparaiso, thirteen vessels carrying the Chilian flag anchored in line in the bay, amid the enthusiastic acclamations of the people.
On the 28th November, 1818, there anchored in the bay of Valparaiso a ship bringing as passenger one of the first sailors of Great Britain, who was yet to increase his fame by exploits in the New World. His name was Thomas Alexander Cochrane, a name made famous by extraordinary deeds of derring-do . Born in Scotland of noble family, and lately a member of the British Parliament, he had been conspicuous among the Radical opposition, and was both hated and feared by the ruling party. Mixed up in Stock Exchange transactions of a doubtful character, he was condemned to a heavy fine and to exposure in the pillory, and was expelled from the House of Commons. The people paid his fine by subscription, Government remitted the degrading part of the sentence, and he was re-elected by the county he had represented. But he had had enough and more than enough of political life; he preferred exile and heroic adventures, and accepted the offers which were made him by Condarco and Alvarez Jonte, the agents of Chile and of San Martin in London. He decided to devote his services to the cause of independence in South America. Ere leaving his native country a farewell banquet was given to him by his admirers, at which he boldly proclaimed his radical principles in impassioned words, which give the key to his character—extreme in everything, in heroism, in hatred, or in love. The Chilian Vice-Admiral, in no way vainglorious of his recent triumph, acknowledged at once the superiority of Cochrane. He resigned the command of the squadron, and Cochrane was appointed Vice-Admiral in his stead.
Blanco Encalada was married to one of the most beautiful women in Chile; the wife of Cochrane, who came with him, was a most worthy type of British beauty, and was idolized by her husband. These two young wives became the stars of Chilian society on shore, whilst on the ocean the two Admirals sustained in honour the star of the young Republic which was emblazoned on the flag floating from the mast-heads of the fleet which now dominated the Pacific.
- ↑ No relation to O'Brien the aide-de-camp.