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During these fifty days the squadron was also necessarily kept in inaction, having achieved nothing beyond the capture of a few merchantmen along the coast, and a fruitless chase of two Spanish frigates, the Prueba and Venganza, which I did not follow up, as involving risk to the transports during my absence.
Even the 40,000 dollars stipulated by the authorities at Guayaquil as the penalty of giving up the Venganza was never liquidated, though the frigate was delivered to Peru contrary to written stipulations previously adduced and was thus added to the Peruvian navy without cost to the State, but in reality at the expense of the Chilian squadron, which ran it down into Guayaquil.
Of the former three were frigates, the Esmeralda, of forty-four guns, the Venganza, of forty-two guns, and the Sebastiana, of twenty-eight guns; four were brigs, the Maypeu, of eighteen guns, the Pezuela, of twenty-two guns, the Potrilla, of eighteen guns, and another, whose name is not recorded, also of eighteen guns.
It was my wish that this reply should not be in writing, but personally, and with embraces of approbation for all that you have said and practised under the difficult circumstances detailed in your private and official letters; but as the great distance in which you are from this deprives me of this pleasure, and as you expect to add new glories to Chili in the seizure of the Prueba and Venganza, and to bring them to port Bernardo under your orders, I will hastily answer the principal points of your communications.
Rita noticed this, and said, scornfully: "You too weak to go one two mile on the level groun', but you strong enough to descendar and ascendar these cliff. But wait, ola man remember if you falsami I sall haf my venganza. Now you go and spik to the capitan, and you see what he sall do for you." Rita said no more, but led Russell along until they reached the castle.
We may also claim similar approbation for having repaired the squadron at Guayaquil, and for equipping and provisioning it for the pursuit of the enemy's frigates, Prueba and Venganza, which we drove from the shores of Mexico in a state of destitution to the shores of Peru; and if they were not actually brought to Chili, it was because they were seized by our late General and Commander-in-Chief, and appropriated in the same manner as he had previously intended with respect to the Chilian squadron itself.
"I was compelled to quit Chili," he wrote at a later date, "without any of the emoluments due to my position as Commander-in-Chief of the Navy, or any share of the sums belonging to myself and the officers and seamen; which sums, on the faith of repayment, had, at my solicitation, been appropriated to the repairs and maintenance of the squadron generally, but more especially at Guayaquil and Acapulco, when in pursuit of the Prueba and the Venganza.
Callao Roads, May 2, 1822. Most Excellent Sir, You will perceive by my public despatches the points of most interest as regards the proceedings of the squadron, and the result of our pursuit of the enemy's frigates, Prueba and Venganza, both of which I have embargoed, the one at Guayaquil and the other here, until your pleasure shall be known, whatever that may be, whether to give up the squadron of Chili, or to bring those vessels to you, shall be alike obeyed.
Prueba, 50 guns; Esmeralda, 44; Venganza, 44; Resolution, 34; Sebastiana, 34; Pesuela, 18; Potrillo, 16; Prosperina 14; Arausasu; seventeen gun-boats; the armed ships Aguila and Begonia; the block ships at Callao; and many merchantmen.
Lord Cochrane left Guayaquil on the 3rd of December, and cruised northwards in search of the Prueba and the Venganza, the only two remaining Spanish frigates, which had made their escape from Callao and gone in the direction of Mexico. He sailed along the Colombian and Mexican coasts as far as Acapulco, where he called on the 29th of January, 1822, without finding the objects of his search.
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