d. The
rockets, on which he had chiefly relied, had proved worthless, and,
one fireship having been wasted, he did not care to risk the loss of
the other. He found too that the Spaniards, profiting by the warning
which he had previously given, had so strengthened their booms that it
was quite impossible, with the small force at his command, to get at
them or to reach the port. His store of provisions, also, was nearly
exhausted, and the fresh supply promised from Chili had not arrived.
He therefore reluctantly, for the time, abandoned his project for
taking Callao.

He continued to watch the port for a few weeks, however, hoping for
some chance opportunity of injuring it; and, in the interval, sent
three hundred and fifty soldiers and marines, under Lieutenant-Colonel
Charles and Major Miller, in the _Lautaro_, the _Galvarino_, and the
remaining fireship, commanded by Captain Guise, to attack Pisco and
procure from it and the neighbourhood the requisite provisions. This
was satisfactorily done; but the sickness of many of his men caused
his further detention at Santa, whither he had gone from Callao. On
the 21st of November the sick were sent to Valparaiso, in the charge
of the _San Martin_, the _Independencia_, and the _Araucano_. With the
remaining ships, the _O'Higgins_, the _Lautaro_, the _Galvarino_, and
the _Puyrredon_, Lord Cochrane proceeded to the mouth of the River
Guayaquil. There, on the 28th of the month, he captured two large
Spanish vessels, one of twenty and the other of sixteen guns, laden
with timber, and took possession of the village of Puna. At Guayaquil
there was another delay of a fortnight, owing to a mutiny attempted
by Captains Guise and Spry, whose treacherous disposition has already
been mentioned.

Not till the middle of December was he able to escape from the
troubles brought upon him by others, and to return to work worthy of
his great name and character. Then, however, sending one of his ships,
with the prizes, to Valparaiso, and leaving two others to watch
the Peruvian coast, he started, with only his flag-ship, upon an
enterprise as brilliant in conception and execution as any in his
whole eventful history. "The Chilian people," he said, "expected
impossibilities; and I. had for some time been revolving in my mind
a plan to achieve one which should gratify them, and allay my own
wounded feelings. I had now only one ship, so that there were no
other inclinations to consult; and I felt