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Rh held by the Spanish marines, who had seized their arms on hearing the shot fired by the sentry.

Cochrane, with the boats led by Crosbie, had boarded on the starboard quarter; now Guise and his division boarded on the port side. The two parties met on the quarter-deck, Guise and Cochrane shaking hands in the enthusiasm of the moment. From the forecastle the marines opened fire upon them. Cochrane was shot through the thigh. Seating himself on a gun, he bound up the wound with his handkerchief, and ordered a charge on the enemy. Twice the assailants were beaten back, and Guise was wounded; but again he led on the boarders, and the crew of the Esmeralda were either forced overboard or driven below the hatches.

The alarm-gun roared from the castle of Real Felipe; a gunboat opened fire on the frigate, by which Captain Coig was severely wounded, and one Chilian and two English seamen were killed. The other ships beat to quarters. Guise, who was now in command, saw the imprudence of attempting any further captures. He ordered the cables to be cut, the sails were set, and the Esmeralda sailed away in the hands of her captors. The ships and the shore batteries opened a heavy fire upon her. Some of the shot passing over the Hyperion and Macedonia, these vessels hung out distinguishing lights. This contingency Cochrane had foreseen. Immediately similar lights were displayed on the Esmeralda, and at half-past two she anchored off the island of San Lorenzo. The boats followed her with two gunboats in tow which they captured as she sailed off.

The loss of the expedition was eleven killed and thirty wounded. The Spaniards lost about 160 men killed or drowned, and 200 prisoners.

The Royalists on shore accused the neutral ships of complicity in this shameful defeat, more especially the men of the Macedonia, whose sympathy for the cause of South American Independence was well known. Next