Page:A history of Chile.djvu/325

 THE PERUVIAN WAR 295 President Prado's abandonment of the army of the south and his withdrawal to Lima. He sailed for Panama on December 19th ; two days afterward a revo- lution broke out at the Peruvian capital. Colonel Pierola being the leader. The government party was besieged in the palace by General La Cotero; Colonel Nicolas de Pierola, after a fight with the government forces in Lima, went to Callao during the night and next morn- ing took possession of the place. The government surrendered and Pierola became virtual dictator of Peru. The Bolivians, disgusted with Daza, also planned a successful revolution, which resulted in placing Gen- eral Narciso Campero in power. Daza retired to Peru. On the 27th of December he had gone to Arica to consult with Montero. While there his troops at Tacna, ashamed of their president, deposed him and elected Colonel Camacho to the command. The next day the revolution in La Paz placed Campero temporarily in supreme power; on the 5th of June following, he was elected constitutional president. Campero was an able statesman. The Peruvians made an unsuccessful attempt to de- stroy some of the blockading vessels in the harbor of Arica with torpedoes ; the Chileans, quite as active, planned a decent upon the town of Ilo, which is con- nected with Moquegua by railroad. Five hundred men were landed on December 31st, provisions were seized, and some damage was done to the railroad. After vis- iting Moquegua the party re-em^barked, January 2nd. During the last days of February, Arica was several times bombarded and unimportant actions took place between the shore batteries and the blockading vessels. Several men of the "Huascar's" crew were killed, but no serious damage was done to the town. On the 17th of March, Captain Villavicencio sailed