as returning; and in this way, in less
than an hour, three hundred men had made good their footing on shore.

"The most difficult task, the capture of the forts, was to come. The
only way in which the first, Fort Ingles, could be approached, was
by a precipitous path, along which the men could only pass in single
file, the fort itself being inaccessible except by a ladder, which the
enemy, after being routed by Major Miller, had drawn up.

"As soon as it was dark, a picked party, under the guidance of one
of the Spanish prisoners, silently advanced to the attack. This party
having taken up its position, the main body moved forward, cheering
and firing in the air, to intimate to the Spaniards that their
chief reliance was on the bayonet. The enemy, meanwhile, kept up
an incessant fire of artillery and musketry in the direction of the
shouts, but without effect, as no aim could be taken in the dark.

"Whilst the patriots were thus noisily advancing, a gallant young
officer, Ensign Vidal, got under the inland flank of the fort, and,
with a few men, contrived to tear up some pallisades, by which a
bridge was made across the ditch. In that way he and his small party
entered and formed noiselessly under cover of some branches of trees,
while the garrison, numbering about eight hundred soldiers, were
directing their whole attention in an opposite direction.

"A volley from Vidal's party convinced the Spaniards that they had
been taken in flank. Without waiting to ascertain the number of those
who had outflanked them, they instantly took to flight, filling with a
like panic a column of three hundred men drawn up behind the fort.
The Chilians, who were now well up, bayoneted them by dozens as they
attempted to gain the forts; and when the forts were opened to receive
them the patriots entered at the same time, and thus drove them from
fort to fort into the Castle of Corral, together with two hundred more
who had abandoned some guns advantageously placed on a height at Fort
Chorocomayo. The Corral was stormed with equal rapidity, a number
of the enemy escaping in boats to Valdivia, others plunging into the
forest. Upwards of a hundred fell into our hands, and on the following
morning the like number were found to have been bayoneted. Our loss
was seven men killed and nineteen wounded.

"On the 5th, the _Intrepido_ and _Montezuma_, which had been left near
Fort Ingles, entered the harbour, being fired at in their passage by
F