ent, Lord Cochrane left
the three smaller vessels to complete their equipment under Admiral
Blanco's direction, and passed out of port on the 16th of January,
with the O'Higgins, the San Martin, the Lautaro, and the Chacabuco. He
had hardly started before a mutiny broke out on board the last-named
vessel, which compelled him to halt at Coquimbo long enough to try
and punish the mutineers. Resuming the voyage, he proceeded along the
Chilian and Peruvian coast as far northward as Callao Bay, where he
cruised about for some days, awaiting an opportunity of attacking the
Spanish shipping there collected in considerable force.

While thus waiting he employed his leisure in observations, great and
small, of the sort and in the way characteristic of him all through
life. One of his rough notes runs thus:--"Cormorants resort in
enormous nights, coming in the morning from the northward to Callao
Bay, and proceeding along shore to the southward, diving in regular
succession one after another on the fish which, driven at the same
time from below by shoals of porpoises, seem to have no chance but to
be devoured under water or scooped up in the large bags pendent from
the enormous bills of the cormorants." "Prodigious seals," we read in
another note, "inhabit the rocks, whose grave faces and grey beards
look more like the human countenance than the faces of most other
animals. They are very unwieldy in their movements when on shore, but
most expert in the water. There is a small kind of duck in the bay,
which, from the clearness of the water, can be seen flying with its
wings under water in chase of small fry, which it speedily overtakes
from its prodigious speed."

From note-making of that sort, Lord Cochrane turned to more serious
business. The batteries of Callao and of San Lorenzo, a little island
in the bay which helped to form the port, mounted one hundred and
sixty guns, and more than twice as many were at the command of vessels
there lying-to. Direct attack of a force so very much superior to
that of the Chilian fleet seemed out of the question. Therefore
Lord Cochrane bethought him of a subterfuge. Learning that two North
American war-ships were expected at Callao, he determined to personate
them with the _O'Higgins_ and _Lautaro_, and so enter the port under
alien colours. It was then carnival-time, and on the 21st of February,
deeming that the Spaniards were more likely to be off their guard, he
proposed "to make a fein