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Feeling that something like a mutiny was being excited, and knowing that Guise and his colleague, Spry, were at the bottom of the matter, I ordered the latter to proceed with the Galvarino to Chorillos, when he also requested leave to resign, as "his friend Captain Guise had been compelled so to do, and he had entered the Chilian navy conditionally to serve only with Captain Guise, under whose patronage he had left England."
The squadron consisted of the recently captured Spanish frigate, now named the O'Higgins, in honour of the Supreme Director; the San Martin, 56 guns, formerly the Cumberland Indiaman, which had been bought into the service; the Lautaro, 44 guns, also a purchased Indiaman; the Galvarino, 18 guns, recently the British sloop of war Hecate; the Chacabuco, 20 guns; and the Aracauno, 16 guns; a force which, though deficient in organization and equipment, was very creditable to the energy of a newly emancipated people.
On the 1st of October the Galvarino, Puyrredon, and Araucano, stood into the bay to reconnoitre, and sustained a heavy fire from the shore, upon which I ordered the Independencia to their aid; but that vessel was brought to an anchor when at the distance of several miles from them.
The squadron in my absence had, however, taken the matter into its own hands, by placing the Lautaro, with her guns loaded, in a position to sink the Galvarino if she attempted to move. The forts on shore had also loaded their guns for retaliation, though of these the squadron would have made short work.
The inhabitants of Huacho, who were well disposed to co-operate in any effort for the emancipation of Peru, afforded us every assistance in provisioning and watering the ships, for which the commandant, Cevallos, shot two influential persons who had been foremost in aiding us, and severely punished others; at the same time seizing our water casks, and sending me an insolent letter of defiance, on which a party of seamen and marines was landed and put the garrison to flight; the officer commanding the party however withdrew from pursuit at hearing salutes fired on the arrival of Admiral Blanco with the Galvarino and Puyrredon, mistaking this for an engagement with a newly-arrived enemy.
The Galvarino was now sent to sea without my permission, and without an Englishman in her. The Lautaro, the pretended store-ship, was also being got ready for sea, when I addressed the following note to Captain Worcester, who commanded her: Memo,
On the 16th, the Galvarino and Lautaro rejoined me at Santa, which place had previously been taken possession of by the marines left on board the flag-ship. On the 21st, I despatched the San Martin, Independencia, and Araucano to Valparaiso, together with a transport filled with sick an epidemic of a destructive nature having broken out on board the squadron.
After dark, an attack by rockets and shells was arranged, the Galvarino taking in tow a mortar raft, under the command of Major Miller, and placing it, under a heavy fire, within half a mile of the enemy's batteries.
Before leaving Melipuru, Don Garcia caused twelve ulmens who were found among the prisoners, to be hanged on the trees that surrounded the field of battle, and Galvarino, now again a prisoner, was condemned to the same fate.
This disease, which carried off many men, had been introduced on board by the Minister of Marine's army of ninety men, shipped at Coquimbo. I now proceeded in search of the Prueba, with the flag-ship, Lautaro, Galvarino, and Puyrredon.
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