Page:The History of San Martin (1893).djvu/217

Rh 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, 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