on the monitor with effective results, since A boat was lowered down from the Cochrane, and Lieutenant Simpson, with another officer, an engineer, and ten men, was sent to take possession of the hard-won prize. At the upper landing of the companion ladder he was received by Lieutenant Gavezon. It was a shocking scene the Chileans beheld when they came on board the mangled vessel. Scattered profusely on the bloodstained decks lay dead and ghastly wounded mutilated bodies and portions of human remains, mixed with fragments of splintered gear; whilst corpse was heaped upon corpse in the commander's cabin. The Chilean envoy saluted with military courtesy the Perúvian officers, whose gallant defense had inspired them with admiration and sympathy; but soon utterances by one of these made Lieutenant Simpson sus pect treachery, forcing him immediately to adopt a most vigorous policy in the execution of his duties, and with the utmost dispatch and determination to proceed with the inspection of those localities in the prize where her safety might be threatened the powder-magazine, the engine-room, and the hold. Displaying great activity and presence of mind, he ordered the young officer whose words had aroused his suspicion to accompany him on the instant to the powder department; dispatched at the same time his Seconds Lieutenant Rogers, and the engieer, to the engine-room and the hold; and et the survivors to assist his men in extinquishing the fire. Lieutenant Simpson disovered no traces of an attempt to blow up the ship, but the party who went to the ngine-room found the engineer of the Huscar, an Englishman, in the very act of etting water from the sea into the hold. VOL. III.-13. Revolver in hand, the Chilean officer ordered and compelled the Huascar's engineer to shut the valves immediately. The Chilean engineer then assumed charge in the engine department, and by the assistance of his men soon brought the engines into good working condition. When at last the fire, too, was extinguished, the powder-magazine out of danger, and the water-tight doors closed, the survivors one hundred and twenty-nine officers and men out of a complement of one hundred and ninety-three-were treated as prisoners of war. Nearly one-third had been killed or wounded in the action. Thirty Englishmen-among these the captains of guns and engineers-and twelve others of the crew were foreigners.* How greatly the issue of a naval engagement is dependent upon the precision of aim or the competency of captains of guns, is proved by the fact that out of forty rounds fired by the Huascar only five took effect on the Cochrane, none damaging the Blanco Encalada; whilst, out of forty-six rounds fired by the Cochrane, nearly one-half took effect on the monitor, which was struck by twenty-four shots, the Chilean flag-ship having fired thirty-one rounds, but at a great disadvantage. Thus, whilst the Huascar had nearly one-third of her complement struck down, her pilot-turret hewn to pieces, her swivel-turret perforated, and one of her two ten-inch Dahlgren three hundred pounders in it disabled, her steering-gear repeatedly damaged, and had suffered in many other ways, the Cochrane had only one dead and nine wounded, and her armor slightly damaged by shots fired at a distance of six hundred yards, penetrating her plates about three inches at an acute angle, loosening some bolts and breaking an iron beam. The Blanco Encalada had suffered nothing whatever. Thus ended the contest at Angamos, so named because it was decided outside Point Angamos, south of Mejillones. It is the first * Only very few foreigners found entrance to the Chilean service. The Chilean government made it undoubtedly a point to avail itself of the resources of the country, which were abundant and proved efficient. and only combat that ever has taken place between sea-going iron-clads. Its incidents have taught the world some profitable lessons, and furnish ample material for studies on the subject of further improvements in the art of naval warfare. The prize secured and her engines in working order, the Chilean iron-clad, at this junction joined by the Covadonga, which had been pounding up astern, steamed to Mejillones Bay, where they anchored late in the afternoon. Here on shore, in the soil of the nitrous desert of Atacama, surrounded by silent hills, the scanty remains of Peru's brave admiral were interred, together with twentyfour of his fallen companions-at-arms. The Union had in the meantime been able to escape to Arica. Nevertheless Chile's supremacy at sea had been sealed by the battle at Angamos; for the maritime power of Perú had practically ceased to exist by the death of her most energetic naval officer, Rear Admiral Don Miguel Grau, and the loss of the Huascar. From the date when this was accomplished, October 8, 1879,.Chile could, with far greater ease than formerly, mobilize her army and carry the war in upon Perúvian territory. The Chilean government had in the meanwhile accumulated in Antofagasta an army of 15,000 to 16,000 men. The rapidity with which the number of this army had increased was in a great measure due to the result of the decrees that expelled Chileans from the Peruvian province Tarapacá. The victims of this decree who enlisted in the army were all strong and hearty fellows, and tempered to endure the hardships of a campaign in the desert. They formed not less than five regiments in Antofagasta and one in Valparaiso. Also in the provinces had national guards been formed and instructed in military discipline, and corps were continually in formation. The soldiers were provided with tasteful and practical uniforms and equipments. The infantry were armed with rifles of Complain's and Remington's systems, and with the saber-bayonet; the cavalry (fine stalwart fellows and splendidly mounted) with French sabers and with carabines of the Winchester system; and the artillery with the Krupp gun, and the Gatling and Nordenfeld mitrail leuse. The minister of war, Señor Don Rafael Sotomayer, was on the very field of operations, carrying the appendix "in campeign" to his title, by which he was empow ered, independent of the distant cabinet and congress in the capital of Chile, Santiago, to direct the movement of the army when once campaign was declared opened by the gov ernment. The commander-in-chief of the army in the North, General Don Erasmo Escala, had a corps of engineers attached to his staff, directly in communication with the hydrographic bureau in the capital, Santiago; where charts of the future theater of war, with a description of its topography, means, and wants, were published for distribution among all the officers-commissioned and non-commissioned-of the expedition. A corps of mechanics had likewise been attached to the staff, and furnished with the necessary implements and material to establish or re-establish telegraph or railroad connections, erect or move machinery, build barracks, bridges, or pontoons, and illuminate the surroundings by ordinary means or by electricity. The heliograph and telephone were introduced into the service of the army. The task of organizing a "Red Cross" coporation had been intrusted to the intelligent and energetic physician and surgeon, Señor Allendo; and with the aid of the government and people he had succeeded in his endeav ors to organize one on a very practical sys tem, ruled by laws established by the inter national congress that some time ago me at Geneva. To avoid the horrors of th war, the Chilean government distributed : all its officers pamphlets containing instru tions and regulations to serve them as a guid in all imaginable cases, and it declined wit the same view the offer made by an Aura can Indian chief to partake with his warrio in the strife of Chile. Chile, which at the time was much affect by a financial crisis, brought on her by a p harvest during the last three years, by G. ness in the copper-market in Europe, a by heavy losses suffered from the effects the measures taken by the Peruvian government in regard to the saltpetre industry, had seen the necessity of introducing the greatest economy into her administration, in order to be able to meet the cost of placing and maintaining her army on a war-footing, and to pay, as she did, all she ordered in Europe, as well as the rent of transport-boats, in ready cash. The government gained all its points by constitutional means, and was cheerfully assisted by the nation. The capture of the Huascar had raised the value of her exported products, and drafts on Europe could be had on as good conditions as ever. The Bolivian government had accumulated 6,000, the Perúvian about 14,000, soldiers in Arica, Pisagua, and Iquique, whilst heavy drafts of men were continued in the central and northern provinces of Perú and the interior of Bolivia. The Perúvian infantry were armed with rifles of the Martini-Peabody system, and with the old-fashioned bayonet; the cavalry-men, made out of the muscular negro race, badly mounted, were armed like the Chileans, with French sabers and the Winchester repeating rifle. The Perúvian field artillery counted a number of pieces made in the factory of "Piedras lisas," Lima; the batteries, heavy guns of the Dahlgren, Vavasseur, Armstrong, Blakeley, Rodman, Parrot, and other systems. The government had received her arms and am munition from Europe and the United States of North America, by way of the Isthmus of Panama, in allowing which Colombia had violated the international law. The Bolivian Infantry possessed in the start only 1,500 rifles of modern system, the Remington; but had been supplied since their arrival on the coast; the cavalry could hardly lay claim to that name. The army at large consisted of Aymara or Colla Indians, heavier built, more agile and enduring than the Perúvian Indians. It had been decided upon that the President of either Perú or Bolivia, on the soil of whose country the war was carried on, should take the chief command of the allied forces, if he himself as present on the field of operations, and hat charge was accordingly conferred on General Prado, while the usurping President of Bolivia-General Daza-who titled himself "Jefe supremo,” always remained the direct chief of the Bolivian troops. At the disposition of either army were some very clever engineers. The ambulance corps, or the "Red Cross," was presided over by the archbishop of Lima, and its administration and guidance were entrusted to ecclesiastics. Bolivia, whose treasury had been exhausted by personal enterprises of her former and present rulers, had made an effort to raise means to cover the expenses of organizing and mobilizing her army, by offering patents to ship-owners who wished to lay hand on the Chilean maritime commercein short, to any one who aspired to serve her in the character of cruiser or filibuster: but it had been futile. For it was evident that, owing to the fact that Bolivia did not possess a single man-of-war with which to defend cruisers, not a single person was found on the surface of earth willing to purchase her patents. Likewise futile had her effort proved to persuade the Argentine to join the union by promising that republic a strip of land sixty miles north and south on the Chilean coast, somewhere between the 24th and 29th latitudes. Bolivia had then adopted a more effective policy: she had forced a bank to loan her $600,000, and collected-likewise by force-a million of dollars in the provinces. This not being sufficient, she had confiscated the property of Chileans in the country, including the rich mines of Huanchaca and Coro-coro formerly mentioned, and by this measure she accumulated quite a large sum. How her means were administered is illustrated best by the fact that an official of note appropriated not less than $200,000 within six months. Perú had taken all sorts of measures in order to meet the exigencies of the moment. Contributions of war had been enforced, and the government had issued paper money to the amount of $25,000,000; the result of which had been that all paper money in the country fell considerably in value, whilst drafts on other countries rose in proportion. On the 26th of October, 1879, the Chilean gasta. The vessels that were to carry them consisted of fifteen transport-boats and four men-of-war. The remaining 5,000 to 6,000 men of the army were left as a garrison troops destined to operate against the allied troops in Tarapacá, numbering about 10,000 soldiers-including eight hundred and fifty cavalry and thirty-two long-range field-guns -began embarking in the bay of Antofa- in Antofagasta. The minister of war, "in interior the two bodies of the allied armies garrisoned north and south of it would in that manner be cut off from communication with one another. Pisagua is situated at the foot of a steep slope, thirty-three degrees from the horizon, dropping from the edge of the high pampas above, and midway in the curve of an open bay, whose inlet at the time was defended by one-gun batteries, situated on the points that formed the extremities of the curve, able to cross their fires. On the summit of the slope, about 525 feet above the level of the sea, were planted field artillery, defending the inlet from the front, as did also two redoubts at its foot. This slope rose almost everywhere immediately from the beach, and was extremely difficult to climb, as it was very steep, full of sharp points, and covered with a layer of loose, heavy sand mixed with fragments of rock, which would slide at the touch of a foot. On this slope the Bolivian fusiliers, and the Peruvian force, under Colonel Don Isaac Recabárren, both bodies numbering 1,200, under the command of Colonel Villamil, had established their lines of defense. Entrenchments had been formed on different heights, and positions taken along the railroad, which winds in a zigzag line up the incline, and connects Pisagua with the saltpetre manufacturing establishments in the interior. The commander-in-chief of the allied armies in the province Tarapacá, the Peruvian general, Don Juan Buendia, who' had his headquarters in Iquique, had, the very day the Chilean expedition left Antofagasta, joined the garrison of Pisagua, in its camp pitched on the high plain above the town and behind the field artillery. Preparations had here been made for a banquet, which was intended to come off on the 2nd of November. But at dawn of that very day the sentinels of the garrison gave the alarm. The fleet of the enemy was approaching the bay. Awakened by this startling intelligence, the venerable General Buendia hurried out to direct the defense in person. Leaving Recabárren to direct operations at the foot, and Villamil half-way down the slope, he posted himself on the summit. When within range of gunshot, the four Chilean men-of-warthe Cochrane, the O'Higgins, the Magallanes, and the Covadonga-opened fire against the batteries. In less than an hour these were brought to silence. In the mean while it had been observed that the landing could be accomplished at two points-the only points where the approach was not made impossible by reefs and shoals. A van-guard under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Don Ricardo Santa Cruz, and numbering four hundred and fifty, mainly chosen out of the battalion Atacama, recruited in Copiapo of miners, was then dispatched towards one of these points in advance of the main body of the assailing army. In spite of the storm of shots sent against it from shore, the detachment reached the beach, landed, planted the Chilean flag, and opened fire on the Bolivian troops scattered in guerrilla along the line of defense. At the same time an effort was being made by another Chilean detachment to land nearer the town, where the enemy had transform ed the houses into strongholds. The heavy swells that, dashed against the rocky beach, together with the deadly fire from shore, made the landing very difficult. And now the batteries that had been brought to silence, reanimated, opened fire again, directing their shots against the assailants. At this moment the odds were altogether against the Chileans. For, whilst their main body was still struggling to reach shore, the small body, which had already taken a stand there and kept its ground bravely, had now exhausted its ammunition. In this critical situation the four Chilean men-of-war opened a far livelier fire on the line of defense, on the batteries, the town, and on all objects that served the enemy as a screen against the balls of the attacking troops. The town, which consisted principally of timber houses, took fire. The enemy partly retreated to their entrenchments above, and thus the main body of the attacking forces was able to land, join, and provide with ammunition |