, an officer placed his hand on the shoulder of
one of the crew, saying: "This is the man." Then followed one of the
quickest court martials on record. A small group of men walked a
short distance out on the dock in the darkness. There was a click of a
revolver and a dead Chilean.

The Peruvian troops were now marshaled at Chorrillos to repel the
further advance of the Chilean army that had landed at Pisco. The flower
of the Peruvian forces marched out of Lima in happy anticipation of
battle. The brilliant ranks were composed of young men in gorgeous
uniforms, who sang gaily as they marched on to Chorrillos. The native
troops were the Cholo Indians that who had been driven in from their
homes back of the Cordilleras and almost forced to fight. They marched
stolidly through the streets, turning their eyes neither to the right
nor to the left, though hundreds of them had never seen a town before.
They were followed by a wild though picturesque rabble of rabona women,
carrying great bundles tied on their heads or backs, shrieking and
chattering in their native tongue like gariho monkeys. These women
formed the commissary department of the native troops. Whenever there
was a halt, the rabonas would quickly unlimber their bundles and in an
incredibly short time be engaged in the preparation of some sort of soup
which they sold to the Indians for one cent per bowl.

The Chileans had advanced beyond Pisco and the first battle near Lima,
on the plains outside of Chorrillos, was imminent. Paul and his crew
with several torpedoes, went down the coast in a boat in the hope of
being able to get under a Chilean vessel; but those vessels fired on
the boat and sunk her, while the Captain and his men hastily gained the
shore and joined the army on the heights. On January fourteenth, 1881,
the Chileans began the attack on Chorrillos, the fashionable watering
place about three leagues from Lima. Colonel Yglesi with but a handful
of troops made a brave defense and had reinforcements been sent him from
Miraflores, where the main body of the Peruvian army was stationed, the
tide of battle would have been turned. As it was, he held out as long as
he could and then retreated to the main body, after killing three-
thousand of the enemy, just double the number of his original command.
On his retreat, the Chileans swarmed into Chorrillos, more intent on
plunder and wanton murder than honorable warfare, while the Chile