d
Cochrane was to pursue his work as chief admiral of the fleet.
San Martin had fought worthily in La Plata, and he had earned the
gratitude of the Chilians by winning back their freedom in conjunction
with O'Higgins in 1817. Vanity and ambition, however, had since
unhinged him, and he now proved himself a champion of liberty very
inferior, both in prowess and in honesty, to Bolivar.

His army, numbering four thousand two hundred men, was collected by
the 21st of August, and on that day it was embarked at Valparaiso in
the whole Chilian squadron. Lord Cochrane proposed to go at once to
Chilca, the nearest point both to Lima and to Callao. San Martin,
however, decided upon Pisco as a safer landing-place, and there the
troops were deposited on the 8th of September. For fifty days they
were detained there, and the fleet was forced to share their idleness,
capturing only a few passing merchantmen. On the 28th of October they
were re-embarked, and Lord Cochrane again urged a vigorous attack on
the capital and its port. Again he was thwarted by San Martin, who
requested to be landed at Ancon, considerably to the north of Callao,
and as unsuitable a halting-place as was the southerly town of Pisco.
Lord Cochrane had to comply; but he bethought him of a plan for
achieving a great work, in spite of San Martin. Sending the main body
of his fleet to Ancon with the troops, no the 20th, he retained
the _O'Higgins_, the _Independencia_, and the _Lautaro_, with the
professed object of merely blockading Callao at a safe distance.
"The fact was," he said, "that, annoyed, in common with the whole
expedition, at this irresolution on the part of General San Martin, I
determined that the means of Chili, furnished with great difficulty,
should not be wholly wasted, without some attempt at accomplishing the
object of the expedition. I accordingly formed a plan of attack with
the three ships which I had kept back, though, being apprehensive
that my design would be opposed by General San Martin, I had not
even mentioned to him my intentions. This design was, to cut out the
_Esmeralda_ frigate from under the fortifications, and also to get
possession of another ship, on board of which we had learned that a
million of dollars was embarked."

The plan was certainly a bold one. The _Esmeralda_, of forty-four
guns, was the finest Spanish ship in the Pacific Ocean. Now especially
well armed and manned, in readiness for any work that had to be done,