charge of one of the lieutenants.
The lieutenant thought he should like a snooze, so he turned in and left
a midshipman in charge of the ship. The midshipman went to sleep, and
when he awoke he found the ship all aback. In trying to box her off he
ran her on shore, on the sharp edge of a rock, where, if there had been
any swell, she would have beaten her bottom in. Many of the people
wanted to abandon the ship; but the admiral was not a man to allow such
a thing while there was a hope of getting her off; and telling them that
they would be all murdered by the savages on the coast if they landed,
he set all hands to work at the pumps. When they came to be examined,
they were all out of repair; and as the carpenter could make no hand at
mending them, what does the admiral do but whip off his coat and set to
work with his own hands. Didn't we feel that he was a man we'd follow
through thick and thin, though we knew that pretty well before then. At
last, what with pumping and bailing, we found that the water did not
gain on us, so the stream anchor was got, and heaving on it with a will,
we once more set the old ship afloat. `Never mind, my lads,' says the
admiral; `if we can but make her swim as far as Valdivia, we shall do
very well without a ship for a time.' By that we knew he intended to
take and occupy the place. The admiral wanted to take the Spaniards by
surprise, so he shifted his flag aboard the _Intrepedo_ brig-of-war,
taking with him the _Montezuma_, a man-of-war schooner, and, in spite of
a high sea, all the troops were put on board the two vessels. You
should just see what sort of a place Valdivia is, with strong forts on
both sides of a channel not three-quarters of a mile wide. There is
only one small landing-place, called the Aquada del Ingles, with a fort
protecting it. Towards that we stood, for the surf sets so heavily on
the shore, that a boat attempting to land anywhere else would be knocked
to pieces. We had a gallant English officer in command of the troops,
Major Miller. I never saw such a fire-eater. His body was almost
riddled with shot, but he never seemed to mind; nothing sickened him of
fighting; and as soon as he got well he was as ready for work as ever.
So, as I was saying, the brig and schooner ran in and anchored close to
Fort Ingles, keeping the boats on the other side of the vessels, out of
sight. The admiral hailed the fort, and said we had lost our boats
coming round Cap