rs. At the north end of the
town itself was Fort Ayacucho, containing one 15-inch Dahlgren and one
11-inch Blakely. Then came another revolving turret, with two 10-inch
Armstrongs; and finally a sand-bag battery, named the Rimac, which
mounted four 15-inch Dahlgren muzzle-loaders.

It will thus be seen that the Chilian fleet would have all its work cut
out if it meant to take the port of Callao, as the first step toward the
capture of the capital, Lima.

By April 20 all the foreign merchant ships had gone away, and all the
foreign warships had moved out of the line of fire and taken up their
position off the mouth of the Rimac River, about two miles to the
northward of the port of Callao.

It was half-past one o'clock p.m. on the eventful day of April 22 when
Admiral Riveros hoisted a signal on the _Blanco Encalada_ for the fleet
to weigh anchor and stand over toward the batteries in readiness to
engage; and a few moments later the clatter of chain-cables was heard,
as the men-o'-war got their anchors. The _Pilcomayo_, gunboat, was the
first to move, and she took up a position north of the middle of the
bay; Jim's recent command, the cruiser _Angamos_, being next in line;
with the _Huascar_ at the south-west extremity. The flagship, to the
intense annoyance of her crew, was held in reserve; but the men would
not have grumbled at their enforced idleness had they but known of what
was in store for some of them. Jim, in particular, was never tired of
speculating as to what was the mysterious service which Riveros had
hinted his intention of employing him upon, and longed for an
opportunity which would enable him to distinguish himself.

He was roused from his somewhat moody reverie by the boom of a great
gun, and, looking up, he saw a cloud of white smoke hanging over the
_Huascar_, which had been the first ship to fire, while a brilliant
flash of flame on board the monitor _Atahualpa_ showed where the death-
dealing shell had struck and exploded. The _Angamos_ and the
_Pilcomayo_ were not slow in chiming in, and presently the air fairly
vibrated with the concussion of heavy guns; for the Peruvians were now
replying with their seventeen large-bore guns mounted in the batteries,
assisted by the pivot-guns of the _Union_ and several large smooth-bore
guns from some of the obsolete ships behind the mole or stone pier.

The _Blanco Encalada_ was theoretically beyond the range of any of the
enemy's guns; and although