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Updated: May 24, 2025
As I was determined not to be idle, General San Martin was with some difficulty prevailed upon to give me a division of 600 troops, under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel Miller. On the 13th of March we sailed for Pisco, of which, on its previous abandonment by the army, after a useless sojourn of fifty days, the enemy had again taken possession.
After this demonstration, the object of which was to deter them from quitting their shelter, we returned to Pisco. General San Martin having now given me discretionary power to do what I pleased with the few troops placed at my disposal, I determined on attacking Arica, the southernmost port of Peru.
If Paul had followed his own instincts, he could have knocked two or three Chilean vessels out of the water, for they landed at Pisco a few days later and no very sharp lookout being kept, he might have put torpedoes under them at night. As the enemy was gradually closing in by land and sea, Paul was ordered to Callao to take charge of a submarine boat that had been built by a Swiss engineer.
They belong to the Snake tribe, and appear to be a poor set of half-starved wretches. We pay them in provisions, and occasionally drams of pisco a spirit made from Californian grapes.
Nevertheless, on reaching Pisco, Gen. San Martin had promulgated a proclamation from the Supreme Director full of fervent appeals to God and man as regarded the good intentions of the Chilian Government: the following are extracts:
I was sure that no soldier would refuse a glass; but it was almost a sin to give such liquor to the dogs. Then we bought peasants' clothes, and a parcel of goods such as travelling hawkers carry. "You know how we succeeded. Of course we had drugged the pisco heavily, and knew that two glasses would send any man off to sleep in half an hour. As soon as it was dark, Maria went on with the mule.
All night, the people of Pisco were on the alert, continually firing guns, to give us an earnest of what we were to expect if we attempted to land, but we had no such intention. Having cleared our bark next morning, we gave her to the Spanish captain of the Jesu Maria; and as soon as the breeze sprung up, we weighed and stood to sea.
Even on arriving at Pisco, General San Martin declined to enter the town, though the Spanish forces consisted of less than three hundred men. Landing the troops under Major-General Las Heras, he went down the coast in the schooner Montezuma the inhabitants meanwhile retiring into the interior, taking with them their cattle, slaves, and even the furniture of their houses.
Day had but just broken when we rode from the valley and I turned to take a farewell glance at the place which had been my home so long. I had not been altogether unhappy there, yet I was glad to go into the world again, to take the first step on the road to Lima and my mother. The march to Pisco passed without incident.
The shore separated from the Cordillera by a plain 15 leagues in breadth, stretches from Camapo to Arica, between 27 1/2 and 18 1/2 degrees latitude north 5 degrees east; from Arica to Pisco, between 18 1/2 and 14 degrees latitude at first north 42 degrees west, afterwards north 65 degrees west; and from Pisco to Truxillo, between 14 and 8 degrees of latitude north 27 degrees west.
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