Chapter Four.

Chapter Four.The Chilians bombard Iquique.Shortly after the occupation of Antofagasta, a Chilian force under Colonel Sotomayor—who was in command of the troops landed from the squadron—advanced to Caracoles, to protect the mines there; and on March 23, 1879, defeated at Calama a body of Bolivians under Dr Ladislas Cabrera, who was compelled to retire, with a loss of twenty killed and wounded, and thirty prisoners. The losses of the Chilians numbered only twelve.Peru thereupon made certain precautionary preparations, and sent envoys to both Chili and Bolivia; although, as a matter of fact, she had already mobilised her navy, and was quite prepared to take the offensive at any moment. Indeed it was perfectly well known in Chilian official circles that the Peruvian fleet was actually at this time at sea, seeking, if possible, to deal her opponent a crippling blow even before war had been formally declared.Chili thereupon demanded the reasons for her preparations, as indeed she was fully entitled to do, and required that they should cease. Then, receiving no satisfactory reply, she announced her knowledge of a secret treaty, dated the 6th of February 1873, between Bolivia and Peru, and at once declared war against the latter as well as the former.Immediately following this, Chili increased her navy by repurchasing the corvetteAbtao—a sister ship to the famousAlabamaof American Civil War times—built in 1864, of 1050 tons displacement, 300 horse-power, and with a nominal sea-speed of 6 knots. This ship was armed with three 150-pounder muzzle-loading guns and three 30-pounder muzzle-loaders; and she played almost as important a part in the war between Chili and Peru as did theAlabamain the American Civil War.Chili also bought from the Pacific Steam Navigation Company the screw steamerAmazonas, for use as a transport; and by chartering theRimac, Itata, Lamar, Loa, andLimarifrom the Chilian Steam Navigation Company, and theMathias Cousinoand other steamers from the Cousino estate, she strengthened the effectiveness of her fleet to a very great extent. All the upper spars of these craft were sent ashore, and their lower yards, where they were retained to serve as derricks, were cock-billed. The head-booms were unrigged, and all but the standing bowsprits of the wooden vessels were landed.The senior Peruvian naval officer afloat was at this time Captain Don Miguel Grau, a native of Piura, and a man of about forty-five years of age. He is spoken of as “an officer of the highest capacity and bravery, remarkably quiet and unassuming, and an excellent seaman. His people worshipped him, and all who knew him honoured him.” In 1868 he had been given command of theHuascar, an ironclad monitor of 1130 tons displacement, 1200 horse-power, and with a nominal sea-speed of 11 knots. She was armed with two 10-inch 21-ton muzzle-loading guns (both in the same turret), two 40-pounder muzzle-loaders, one 12-pounder muzzle-loader, and one Gatling gun. This ship distinguished herself more than any other of the Peruvian fleet; and in her subsequent bloody battle with the Chilian warships,Blanco EncaladaandAlmirante Cochrane, in which her gallant commander lost his life, she behaved herself with such gallantry that her name will go down to history as one of the epoch-making ships of the world.From 1873 to 1879 Admiral Grau was a member of the Peruvian Congress for Paita, but on the outbreak of the war he successfully applied to be reinstated in his former command of theHuascar. By him the Peruvian squadron was arranged as follows: The first division, under Admiral Grau himself, consisted of theHuascar;Independencia, armoured frigate; and theOroya, a paddle-transport of 1597 tons. The second division was placed under the orders of Captain Carillo, and consisted of the monitorsManco CapacandAtahualpa, bought from the United States, each of 2100 tons; and theChalaco, a transport of 1000 tons displacement. The third division, under Captain Garcia y Garcia, comprised theUnion, a wooden corvette of 1150 tons, and a very famous ship; thePilcomayo, gunboat; and theLimena, a paddle-transport.Such was the Peruvian navy at the commencement of the war; and the whole fleet, in three divisions, as above, was under the command of Admiral Grau.The port of Antofagasta having been occupied by Chilian troops, the squadron under Admiral Williams left the place and commenced a patrol of the coast, with a view to enforcing a blockade. On the 5th of April the fleet appeared off Iquique, in Peru, and the admiral announced that a blockade of that port would begin on the 15th of April following, thus allowing ten days for the Chilian inhabitants of the place to leave and carry with them all their belongings.Up to this time no naval action had been fought at sea; and it was, even yet, a moot point whether Peru would not “climb down,” and back out of her alliance with Bolivia. But, all unknown to the Chilians, the Peruvian warshipsUnionandPilcomayowere cruising up and down the coast for the purpose of snapping up any small Chilian craft that they might happen to sight, and to do as much damage to the Chilians as they possibly could.Now, it happened that, shortly after the Chilian squadron had invested Antofagasta, the small corvetteMagellanesarrived at Valparaiso, having returned from police duty in Tierra del Fuego. She was thereupon immediately ordered by the Chilian authorities to proceed northward and join Admiral Williams’s fleet. But on her way, while off the mouth of the river Loa, she fell in with the Peruvian shipsUnionandPilcomayo, with which she fought a running action for over two hours, when, owing to her superior speed, she effected her escape. The carnage on both sides was terrible, and theUnion, although much the larger ship, was so seriously damaged that she was obliged to return to Callao, the principal seaport of Peru, in order to be drydocked and repaired. TheMagellanesthen fell in with the main Chilian squadron, off Iquique, and made her report of the occurrence.It was at first intended that Iquique should merely be bombarded; but to render the attendant conditions as stringent as possible, Admiral Williams strictly forbade the condensation of fresh water on shore, a prohibition that would naturally cause very great inconvenience to the inhabitants, since fresh water, either from springs, wells, or streams, was almost unobtainable in the town. On several occasions, however, smoke was observed to be rising from the spot where the condensing apparatus was located, indicating an apparent disposition on the part of the inhabitants to disregard the prohibition; and this so incensed the Chilian admiral that he determined to send Douglas on shore with a message to the effect that if the offence were persisted in, he would be compelled to bombard.The steam-launch was accordingly lowered away from theBlanco Encalada, and manned; and presently Jim, in full uniform, took his seat in the stern-sheets of the craft, which immediately steamed away to carry the admiral’s protest and message to theIntendénteof Iquique.In about half an hour the launch ran alongside the quay at Iquique, and Jim sprang ashore, declining the offer of the coxswain to accompany him and show him the way to theintendénte’squarters.Jim, whose knowledge of Spanish was by this time nearly perfect, made inquiries at the pier for the office of theintendénte, and a man, in a uniform with which the lad was not acquainted, immediately offered to conduct him thither. Jim, suspecting no treachery, unhesitatingly accepted this individual’s services, and the pair, entering into an animated conversation, left the pier and turned their steps townward.For some distance their way led along a sandy road, paved here and there with cobblestones, and fronted by buildings which seemed to be hotels or inns of the cheaper kind, probably intended for the accommodation of seamen from foreign ships which used the port. They followed this road, which ran along the sea-front, for about a mile and a half; and Jim was just about to pass some comment on the distance when his guide turned to the right and plunged into a narrow and gloomy side-street, the appearance of which filled Douglas with aversion, although at that time no suspicion of treachery entered his mind. He soon noticed, however, that his guide, whose name, it transpired, was Manuel Lopés, was taking him up one narrow street and down another in a most extraordinary fashion, and that they seemed to be getting into a particularly low quarter of the town.Jim had just made up his mind to question Lopés as to whether he was quite sure of the way, when the latter stopped before a large white-painted building with green shutters, and led his companion in through a high and wide archway into a kind of courtyard, the like of which is nearly always to be found in large houses in both Old and New Spain.“This looks as though it might be the residence of some official or other,” mused Jim; “but what an extraordinary quarter of the town the governor seems to have selected for his dwelling! However, I suppose he knows his own business best, and—”“Will you be pleased to follow me, señor?” here broke in the guide Lopés, bowing in an obsequious manner, and leading the way across thepatioto where a heavy door gave entrance into a part of the building which overlooked the courtyard.Jim tucked his sword under his arm and followed the fellow into a room which seemed, to him coming out of the brilliant sunlight, to be shrouded in darkness.“Have the goodness to take a chair, señor,” smiled Lopés, pushing one of those articles forward for Jim, “while I go and ascertain whether His Excellency will see you.”Jim accepted the proffered chair but, somewhat nettled by a certain curious change in the man’s voice, remarked: “But, señor, I have come ashore expressly to see theintendénte; and see him I must; my orders are imperative!”“Oh, I assure you there will be no difficulty whatever on that score,” replied Lopés. “Kindly excuse me for a few minutes while I announce your arrival.”Jim bowed; and his guide walked quickly out of the room, slamming the heavy door somewhat sharply behind him. Douglas heard him pause for a few seconds, and then step sharply across the stone-flaggedpatio, from the other side of which he fancied he heard the sound of a low laugh and some words spoken in an undertone. But he paid no particular attention to the matter and, in order to pass the time, rose from his seat and began to move round the room. The apartment was so extremely dark, however, that he presently walked over to the window, in order to pull aside the curtains which he supposed, were excluding the light.Greatly to his surprise, however, he found that there were no curtains before the window, but that the gloom was caused by the fact that a kind of iron shutter was securely fastened across the outside. This was indeed a curious sort of waiting room, and—A sudden thought flashed across Jim’s mind, and he darted quickly to the door and turned the handle, pulling it toward him as he did so.It was as he had surmised; the door had been locked or bolted on the outside; and he knew now why Lopés had paused those few seconds before crossing thepatio. Jim was a prisoner, and he had walked into the trap with his eyes open. Oh! what a fool he had been! He might have known that a person of importance such as theintendénteof Iquique would not have had his residence among the slums of the city. But what on earth, he wondered, had been their object in making a prisoner of him? How came it about that he had been expected, and that a man had been posted at the pier, ready to receive him and lead him into this ambush?Then he suddenly remembered the dispatches he carried from the Admiral; and he realised that a person on shore with a telescope could have seen him put off from the flagship, and have observed his progress the whole way from her to the quay. What, too, more natural than that the Peruvians should be anxious to get a Chilian officer into their hands, especially a flag-officer, who would be almost certain to have a very considerable knowledge of the Chilian admiral’s plans? There were many ways by which that information could be extracted by unscrupulous and desperate men, and Jim shuddered as he realised the danger in which he stood. The first thing that he now did was to take the dispatches from his inner breast pocket, and secrete them, as well as he could under the circumstances, next his skin, resolving at the same time that he would give up his life rather than part with them, or disclose to the Peruvians any of the admiral’s plans.The only weapon which Jim had brought ashore was, of course, his dress sword; but he resolved that he would make some use of that before they should place him in any closer confinement, or lay hands on his papers.The next thing to be done was to examine the room, to see whether any means of escape presented itself; and in the first place he scrutinised the window which was secured with the iron shutters outside. But a very few seconds sufficed to show him that there was no possibility of getting out by that way, and he looked round for a second door to the apartment. The walls were, however, lined with massive bookshelves, and there was no trace of any door save that by which he had entered. Strangely enough, there was not even so much as a fireplace to the room; and after half an hour’s careful search Douglas was reluctantly compelled to acknowledge that he was helpless to do anything further at present, and that he would have to await developments before taking any action.He therefore made himself as comfortable as possible in an easy-chair, keeping his ears open at the same time, so that he might have due warning of the approach of an enemy. The house was so silent that, so far as any sound was concerned, it might have been uninhabited. Douglas had been waiting for half an hour, when he discovered that he was becoming exceedingly drowsy, and that the air of the room seemed not only to be unaccountably close but also to have a rather queer new odour in it. Jim yawned portentously several times, and at length moved over to the window to try whether the air would be any fresher there, for he put down its oppressiveness to the fact that there was no chimney in the room. But, so far as he could ascertain, the window seemed to be hermetically sealed; and upon inspection he found that the glass in it was so abnormally thick that to break it would be practically an impossibility.Douglas now began to find that his breathing was becoming distinctly difficult and, seized with a vague sense of new danger, he ran to the door and hammered vigorously upon it, shouting at the same time for some one to come and release him. But his blows and shouts only echoed emptily round thepatio, and not a soul put in an appearance. He felt as though all the strength were going out of his limbs, and he presently staggered to a sofa, upon which he flung himself, powerless to stand upon his feet any longer. Strange visions began to float before him, and curious fancies flitted through his brain, which felt as though some one had bound an iron strap round it and was gradually increasing the pressure until it seemed as though his head must split asunder.How much longer would it be, he wondered dully, before the coxswain in charge of theBlanco Encalada’ssteam-launch became anxious about his long absence, and instituted inquiries, or returned to the flagship with the news? Admiral Williams was certainly not the man to allow to pass unchallenged such a gross violation of International Law as the seizure and imprisonment of a properly accredited envoy; but then, the people who had been guilty of this outrage had doubtless acted unofficially, and theintendéntewould consequently deny all knowledge of the business. Surely, though—But by this time Jim’s thoughts had become more and more confused, and his brain was refusing to act coherently. Flashes of lurid light passed before his eyes, and the horrible feeling of suffocation became ever more and more acute. Finally, with what he fancied was a shout for assistance, but it was, in reality, only a weak whisper, Jim lost consciousness altogether, and rolled from his couch on to the floor, where he lay like a log, breathing stertorously.Almost at the same moment a section of the book-case surrounding the room moved inward, apparently of its own volition, and two men, one of whom was the man Lopés, crept cautiously into the apartment. Hastily seizing Jim’s inanimate body by the arms and legs, they dragged him out of the room, carried him down a long narrow passage and, opening the door of another room, took him inside and placed him on a bed which it contained.“What a time the youngster took to go off, Manuel!” said the second fellow, addressing Lopés while he industriously searched Jim’s pockets. “I hope we have not given him an overdose, and killed him; for I expect the information that we shall extract from him will be worth a great deal more than that contained in the papers which he is sure to carry. By the way, I wonder where they can be? They are certainly not in his pockets. You are certain you have not made a mistake,amigo mio, and got hold of the wrong man?”“Carrajo! no,” exclaimed Lopés testily. “This is the fellow, without doubt; I watched him all the way from the ship. Here, lend me your knife, and I will rip up his clothes; he is certain to have suspected treachery after I locked him in, and will have secreted the documents somewhere. Ah! here they are. Now, read them out to me, Carlos, while I try to bring thehijoround.”There was silence for a few minutes, broken only by the rustle of paper; then, with an oath, the man called Carlos dashed the packet down, saying, in a voice hoarse with excitement and rage: “Carramba, Lopés you are a fool! you have made a mistake somewhere. This is not the man at all! I suspected as much when I saw that it was only a boy that you had captured. These papers are simply a notification from the admiral of the Chilians that the condensation of water is to cease! While we have been wasting time here the other fellow will have come ashore and returned again, with the papers still in his possession! Oh! Lopés, you are a mule,cabeza de porco! All our trouble has been in vain.”“Softly, softly, my friend,” replied Manuel. “Even if we have, as you say, secured the wrong messenger, all our trouble willnothave been useless. You may have observed,caro mio, that this is a flag-officer, and he will be certain to have knowledge of a great many of Rebolledo Williams’s plans. Very well; when he recovers we will take measures to induce him—ha! ha!—to tell us all he knows. After the attention of an hour or so which we will give him, and with the assistance of certain little instruments which we possess, we will get out of him all the information he has. It is wonderful,” he went on musingly, “how communicative a man will become—under certain circumstances.”The man Carlos looked at his fellow-scoundrel for a few moments, and then broke out into a hoarse chuckle.“All right,querido; I understand,” he laughed. “We will remove him, however, for the present, to less comfortable quarters, as he seems to be on the point of recovery. Lift up his feet,mi amigo, while I take his arms as before.” Suiting the action to the word, the two men seized Jim’s body and carried it away down another passage, until they came to a flight of stone stairs, down which they went into the very bowels of the earth, as it seemed. Presently they encountered a massive stone door which, on being opened, disclosed a damp and unspeakably filthy cell. Into this they tossed the unfortunate officer, and, without caring, apparently, whether they broke every bone in his body or not, kicked him unmercifully into the centre of the dungeon, and then turned and left him.Although the two scoundrels had been under the impression that Jim Douglas was on the point of recovery from unconsciousness when they thus callously tossed him into the cell, they were mistaken; for they found, upon revisiting him several hours later, that he was still in a state of insensibility. The two rascals then became not a little alarmed for the success of their scheme, and they at once did all in their power to revive their victim, with the result that, late that same evening, he recovered his senses, although he was much too dazed to answer the questions which they tried to put to him. The men therefore gave up their attempt for that night, and left Jim in peace, handing him a little bread and water, and promising themselves that they would return early the next morning.Douglas recovered his faculties soon after Carlos and Lopés had left him, and while eating his frugal meal tried to unravel the mystery of his capture, and to calculate how long it would probably be before Admiral Williams should take any steps to find him. He was, however, still very dull and heavy, and presently dropped into a deep sleep, from which he was awakened, just as dawn was breaking, by the entrance of his captors. They immediately began to interrogate him about the number of men in the fleet, the condition of the ships, the number of their guns, and, above all, as to the plans which Admiral Williams had formed for the forthcoming attack on Peruvian ports.Jim, of course, firmly refused to give them any information whatever upon the matters in question, but loudly denounced the way in which he had been treated, and demanded to be set at liberty immediately. Carlos and his accomplice merely laughed, and Lopés remarked: “So you refuse to tell us anything, do you, my young cockerel? Well, we shall see, we shall see. I will wager that you change your mind within the next half-hour; what say you, Carlos, eh? Now, once more will you tell me what—”“No!” roared Douglas, in a fit of exasperation, “I will tell younothing! and you may do what you please, I will still keep silent. My captain will know how to avenge me if you offer me any injury.”“Hark how loudly it crows, Manuel,” laughed Carlos, showing all his teeth. “However, I think we had better not waste any more time; bring in the playthings, Lopés, my brave.”The latter went out of the cell, and presently returned, carrying an iron brazier filled with glowing charcoal, and bearing under his left arm a cloth which, when unrolled, disclosed to Jim’s horrified gaze a glittering array of instruments, the suggestiveness of the shapes of which left little doubt as to what was their ghastly use. The poor lad turned sick and faint, and the sweat began to pour off him at the mere sight of those fearful appliances. Still, he did not falter, and he swore to himself that not all their tortures should make a traitor of him.“Now, Carlos!” exclaimed Lopés, throwing himself upon Jim, who struggled vainly to free himself from the clutches of the two powerful men who held him. In a few moments he was bound hand and foot, and Carlos removed the naval sword which they had not, as yet, taken from the young Chilian officer. Douglas was then flung on his back, and both arms and legs were lashed securely to iron rings cemented into the floor of the cell. This done, with a sardonic laugh, the two men stood upright and looked at the recumbent form of their prisoner. Then Carlos stepped across the dungeon and, chuckling all the while, thrust several of the steel instruments of torture in among the glowing charcoal of the brazier.Half-fainting, and with every nerve and sense strained to its utmost, Jim suddenly fancied that he heard a faint sound, coming apparently from a great distance. It sounded, to his fevered imagination, almost like a bugle call, but it was so exceedingly faint that he thought his ears must have deceived him. He looked at the two rascals above him, but they were talking, and had evidently heard nothing. Carlos drew out from the brazier a long, curved piece of steel, but it was not yet red-hot and he replaced it, with a malevolent glance at Douglas.Then suddenly there rang out, high, clear, and quite unmistakable, the sound of a trumpet; and it was blown at no very great distance away, either! Jim recognised it immediately; it was the alarm, and he felt that some crisis was at hand.“Carrajo!” exclaimed the man Lopés, turning a pale face to his confederate, “what does that mean? Run up above, man, quickly, and find out. Surely it cannot be that—” He broke off, as a dull boom rumbled through the stagnant air and made the very stone cell quiver. “Quick, Carlos; quick, man, and see what is the matter.”Without further bidding Carlos opened the door and sprang up the stairs, just as an appalling crash was heard, apparently quite close at hand, even if not in the very building itself. Then there was another rending explosion, and another, not quite so close at hand this time. Lopés, quivering with fear, glanced at Douglas, and then at the open door, as though meditating flight, and he had evidently just made up his mind to decamp when Carlos came plunging down the stone steps.“Amigo mio!” he gasped hoarsely, “something has gone terribly wrong somewhere, for the Chilian squadron is bombarding Iquique; and what is more, all the shells are falling in this quarter. The streets are full of dead, and a man I saw flying past just now says that a body of marines is already on shore, and coming this way. We must fly at once, or we shall be too late! Can it be that this is in return for our having seized this youngster? Come along, my friend, quickly; and it would be well to give the boy a tap on the head and thus spare his countrymen the trouble of carrying him away, if they find him. But, come quickly man, or we are both lost. Those cursed shells are beginning to fall in this direction again!”And indeed he was right; the dungeon fairly rocked under the hideous concussion of the bursting missiles, while the roar of falling masonry could plainly be heard above, mingled with shrieks which came to their ears, strangely muffled by the distance.“I don’t like to leave that boy,” muttered Lopés, who seemed much the cooler of the two men, “but if I stay here we shall both be buried alive. No, Mr Officer, I will not kill you,” he said, drawing back his lips from his teeth with an evil smile; “I will leave you here, so that your friends may have the satisfaction of killing you themselves!”Then, as another fearful crash sounded above, he kicked the brazier of coal over so that the glowing embers scattered themselves over Jim’s body, and, calling to his friend, exclaimed, “Adios, señor!” as the two men ran up the stone stairs. Jim suffered excruciating pain as the embers burnt their way through his clothes and ate into his flesh; but at length he contrived to roll and shake himself free of them. Meanwhile, his two enemies could hardly have gone a dozen steps upward when there came a most deafening concussion close by, and a shower of dust and flying fragments of masonry scattered itself round Douglas, nearly blinding him. He felt that he was lost; for, bound as he was, he could do nothing to help himself; but as he lay there waiting for death he was astonished to find that one of the cords confining his wrists was slackening, and the next moment it had parted; a fragment of glowing charcoal had providentially fallen upon it and burnt it through. With one hand free, he found himself able, with some difficulty, to release the other; after which a few seconds were sufficient to enable him to cast loose the lashings from his feet. He then stumbled and groped his way up the steps, passing, as he did so, the mangled bodies of Lopés and of Carlos, who had been literally blown to pieces. The house above was a mere shapeless mass of wreckage, and Jim had little difficulty in clambering over the débris into the street. As he emerged from the wrecked building there was a rattling volley, and a shower of bullets whistled past the young officer’s head. His own men were firing at him, under the impression that he was one of the enemy! He snatched a handkerchief from his pocket and waved it, just in time to avoid being riddled by a second discharge.A moment later Douglas was shaking hands with his rescuers, who had so nearly escaped being merely his avengers. It now appeared that the coxswain of the launch, suspecting treachery, had followed Jim and his guide to the house, outside which he had waited for some time in the hope that he was mistaken, and that Jim would presently make his appearance. But when an hour had passed, the man felt convinced that something was wrong, and hurried back to the ship to report. Admiral Williams had thereupon sent an ultimatum to theintendéntethat, unless Señor Douglas was returned to theBlanco Encaladaby daybreak, he would bombard.The unfortunate official, knowing nothing of the occurrence complained of, had failed, of course, to produce the young man; and Rebolledo Williams had carried out his threat, very nearly destroying the man whom he wished to save in so doing. Under cover of the heavy gun-fire a party of marines had been landed, and, under guidance of the coxswain, had gone toward the house where Jim was known to be. The men, seeing the place in ruins, naturally concluded that Jim was dead, and were on the point of retreating when the lad put in an appearance among the ruins.Having happily accomplished their errand, the detachment now returned to the ships, having to fight their way back through the streets in the face of an almost overwhelming Peruvian force. But they won through eventually, and regained their boats without great loss. That afternoon Jim reported to the admiral, who thereupon determined to bombard in grim earnest on the following morning. Needless to say Jim slept sounder that night than he had done in the dungeon on the previous evening.

Shortly after the occupation of Antofagasta, a Chilian force under Colonel Sotomayor—who was in command of the troops landed from the squadron—advanced to Caracoles, to protect the mines there; and on March 23, 1879, defeated at Calama a body of Bolivians under Dr Ladislas Cabrera, who was compelled to retire, with a loss of twenty killed and wounded, and thirty prisoners. The losses of the Chilians numbered only twelve.

Peru thereupon made certain precautionary preparations, and sent envoys to both Chili and Bolivia; although, as a matter of fact, she had already mobilised her navy, and was quite prepared to take the offensive at any moment. Indeed it was perfectly well known in Chilian official circles that the Peruvian fleet was actually at this time at sea, seeking, if possible, to deal her opponent a crippling blow even before war had been formally declared.

Chili thereupon demanded the reasons for her preparations, as indeed she was fully entitled to do, and required that they should cease. Then, receiving no satisfactory reply, she announced her knowledge of a secret treaty, dated the 6th of February 1873, between Bolivia and Peru, and at once declared war against the latter as well as the former.

Immediately following this, Chili increased her navy by repurchasing the corvetteAbtao—a sister ship to the famousAlabamaof American Civil War times—built in 1864, of 1050 tons displacement, 300 horse-power, and with a nominal sea-speed of 6 knots. This ship was armed with three 150-pounder muzzle-loading guns and three 30-pounder muzzle-loaders; and she played almost as important a part in the war between Chili and Peru as did theAlabamain the American Civil War.

Chili also bought from the Pacific Steam Navigation Company the screw steamerAmazonas, for use as a transport; and by chartering theRimac, Itata, Lamar, Loa, andLimarifrom the Chilian Steam Navigation Company, and theMathias Cousinoand other steamers from the Cousino estate, she strengthened the effectiveness of her fleet to a very great extent. All the upper spars of these craft were sent ashore, and their lower yards, where they were retained to serve as derricks, were cock-billed. The head-booms were unrigged, and all but the standing bowsprits of the wooden vessels were landed.

The senior Peruvian naval officer afloat was at this time Captain Don Miguel Grau, a native of Piura, and a man of about forty-five years of age. He is spoken of as “an officer of the highest capacity and bravery, remarkably quiet and unassuming, and an excellent seaman. His people worshipped him, and all who knew him honoured him.” In 1868 he had been given command of theHuascar, an ironclad monitor of 1130 tons displacement, 1200 horse-power, and with a nominal sea-speed of 11 knots. She was armed with two 10-inch 21-ton muzzle-loading guns (both in the same turret), two 40-pounder muzzle-loaders, one 12-pounder muzzle-loader, and one Gatling gun. This ship distinguished herself more than any other of the Peruvian fleet; and in her subsequent bloody battle with the Chilian warships,Blanco EncaladaandAlmirante Cochrane, in which her gallant commander lost his life, she behaved herself with such gallantry that her name will go down to history as one of the epoch-making ships of the world.

From 1873 to 1879 Admiral Grau was a member of the Peruvian Congress for Paita, but on the outbreak of the war he successfully applied to be reinstated in his former command of theHuascar. By him the Peruvian squadron was arranged as follows: The first division, under Admiral Grau himself, consisted of theHuascar;Independencia, armoured frigate; and theOroya, a paddle-transport of 1597 tons. The second division was placed under the orders of Captain Carillo, and consisted of the monitorsManco CapacandAtahualpa, bought from the United States, each of 2100 tons; and theChalaco, a transport of 1000 tons displacement. The third division, under Captain Garcia y Garcia, comprised theUnion, a wooden corvette of 1150 tons, and a very famous ship; thePilcomayo, gunboat; and theLimena, a paddle-transport.

Such was the Peruvian navy at the commencement of the war; and the whole fleet, in three divisions, as above, was under the command of Admiral Grau.

The port of Antofagasta having been occupied by Chilian troops, the squadron under Admiral Williams left the place and commenced a patrol of the coast, with a view to enforcing a blockade. On the 5th of April the fleet appeared off Iquique, in Peru, and the admiral announced that a blockade of that port would begin on the 15th of April following, thus allowing ten days for the Chilian inhabitants of the place to leave and carry with them all their belongings.

Up to this time no naval action had been fought at sea; and it was, even yet, a moot point whether Peru would not “climb down,” and back out of her alliance with Bolivia. But, all unknown to the Chilians, the Peruvian warshipsUnionandPilcomayowere cruising up and down the coast for the purpose of snapping up any small Chilian craft that they might happen to sight, and to do as much damage to the Chilians as they possibly could.

Now, it happened that, shortly after the Chilian squadron had invested Antofagasta, the small corvetteMagellanesarrived at Valparaiso, having returned from police duty in Tierra del Fuego. She was thereupon immediately ordered by the Chilian authorities to proceed northward and join Admiral Williams’s fleet. But on her way, while off the mouth of the river Loa, she fell in with the Peruvian shipsUnionandPilcomayo, with which she fought a running action for over two hours, when, owing to her superior speed, she effected her escape. The carnage on both sides was terrible, and theUnion, although much the larger ship, was so seriously damaged that she was obliged to return to Callao, the principal seaport of Peru, in order to be drydocked and repaired. TheMagellanesthen fell in with the main Chilian squadron, off Iquique, and made her report of the occurrence.

It was at first intended that Iquique should merely be bombarded; but to render the attendant conditions as stringent as possible, Admiral Williams strictly forbade the condensation of fresh water on shore, a prohibition that would naturally cause very great inconvenience to the inhabitants, since fresh water, either from springs, wells, or streams, was almost unobtainable in the town. On several occasions, however, smoke was observed to be rising from the spot where the condensing apparatus was located, indicating an apparent disposition on the part of the inhabitants to disregard the prohibition; and this so incensed the Chilian admiral that he determined to send Douglas on shore with a message to the effect that if the offence were persisted in, he would be compelled to bombard.

The steam-launch was accordingly lowered away from theBlanco Encalada, and manned; and presently Jim, in full uniform, took his seat in the stern-sheets of the craft, which immediately steamed away to carry the admiral’s protest and message to theIntendénteof Iquique.

In about half an hour the launch ran alongside the quay at Iquique, and Jim sprang ashore, declining the offer of the coxswain to accompany him and show him the way to theintendénte’squarters.

Jim, whose knowledge of Spanish was by this time nearly perfect, made inquiries at the pier for the office of theintendénte, and a man, in a uniform with which the lad was not acquainted, immediately offered to conduct him thither. Jim, suspecting no treachery, unhesitatingly accepted this individual’s services, and the pair, entering into an animated conversation, left the pier and turned their steps townward.

For some distance their way led along a sandy road, paved here and there with cobblestones, and fronted by buildings which seemed to be hotels or inns of the cheaper kind, probably intended for the accommodation of seamen from foreign ships which used the port. They followed this road, which ran along the sea-front, for about a mile and a half; and Jim was just about to pass some comment on the distance when his guide turned to the right and plunged into a narrow and gloomy side-street, the appearance of which filled Douglas with aversion, although at that time no suspicion of treachery entered his mind. He soon noticed, however, that his guide, whose name, it transpired, was Manuel Lopés, was taking him up one narrow street and down another in a most extraordinary fashion, and that they seemed to be getting into a particularly low quarter of the town.

Jim had just made up his mind to question Lopés as to whether he was quite sure of the way, when the latter stopped before a large white-painted building with green shutters, and led his companion in through a high and wide archway into a kind of courtyard, the like of which is nearly always to be found in large houses in both Old and New Spain.

“This looks as though it might be the residence of some official or other,” mused Jim; “but what an extraordinary quarter of the town the governor seems to have selected for his dwelling! However, I suppose he knows his own business best, and—”

“Will you be pleased to follow me, señor?” here broke in the guide Lopés, bowing in an obsequious manner, and leading the way across thepatioto where a heavy door gave entrance into a part of the building which overlooked the courtyard.

Jim tucked his sword under his arm and followed the fellow into a room which seemed, to him coming out of the brilliant sunlight, to be shrouded in darkness.

“Have the goodness to take a chair, señor,” smiled Lopés, pushing one of those articles forward for Jim, “while I go and ascertain whether His Excellency will see you.”

Jim accepted the proffered chair but, somewhat nettled by a certain curious change in the man’s voice, remarked: “But, señor, I have come ashore expressly to see theintendénte; and see him I must; my orders are imperative!”

“Oh, I assure you there will be no difficulty whatever on that score,” replied Lopés. “Kindly excuse me for a few minutes while I announce your arrival.”

Jim bowed; and his guide walked quickly out of the room, slamming the heavy door somewhat sharply behind him. Douglas heard him pause for a few seconds, and then step sharply across the stone-flaggedpatio, from the other side of which he fancied he heard the sound of a low laugh and some words spoken in an undertone. But he paid no particular attention to the matter and, in order to pass the time, rose from his seat and began to move round the room. The apartment was so extremely dark, however, that he presently walked over to the window, in order to pull aside the curtains which he supposed, were excluding the light.

Greatly to his surprise, however, he found that there were no curtains before the window, but that the gloom was caused by the fact that a kind of iron shutter was securely fastened across the outside. This was indeed a curious sort of waiting room, and—

A sudden thought flashed across Jim’s mind, and he darted quickly to the door and turned the handle, pulling it toward him as he did so.

It was as he had surmised; the door had been locked or bolted on the outside; and he knew now why Lopés had paused those few seconds before crossing thepatio. Jim was a prisoner, and he had walked into the trap with his eyes open. Oh! what a fool he had been! He might have known that a person of importance such as theintendénteof Iquique would not have had his residence among the slums of the city. But what on earth, he wondered, had been their object in making a prisoner of him? How came it about that he had been expected, and that a man had been posted at the pier, ready to receive him and lead him into this ambush?

Then he suddenly remembered the dispatches he carried from the Admiral; and he realised that a person on shore with a telescope could have seen him put off from the flagship, and have observed his progress the whole way from her to the quay. What, too, more natural than that the Peruvians should be anxious to get a Chilian officer into their hands, especially a flag-officer, who would be almost certain to have a very considerable knowledge of the Chilian admiral’s plans? There were many ways by which that information could be extracted by unscrupulous and desperate men, and Jim shuddered as he realised the danger in which he stood. The first thing that he now did was to take the dispatches from his inner breast pocket, and secrete them, as well as he could under the circumstances, next his skin, resolving at the same time that he would give up his life rather than part with them, or disclose to the Peruvians any of the admiral’s plans.

The only weapon which Jim had brought ashore was, of course, his dress sword; but he resolved that he would make some use of that before they should place him in any closer confinement, or lay hands on his papers.

The next thing to be done was to examine the room, to see whether any means of escape presented itself; and in the first place he scrutinised the window which was secured with the iron shutters outside. But a very few seconds sufficed to show him that there was no possibility of getting out by that way, and he looked round for a second door to the apartment. The walls were, however, lined with massive bookshelves, and there was no trace of any door save that by which he had entered. Strangely enough, there was not even so much as a fireplace to the room; and after half an hour’s careful search Douglas was reluctantly compelled to acknowledge that he was helpless to do anything further at present, and that he would have to await developments before taking any action.

He therefore made himself as comfortable as possible in an easy-chair, keeping his ears open at the same time, so that he might have due warning of the approach of an enemy. The house was so silent that, so far as any sound was concerned, it might have been uninhabited. Douglas had been waiting for half an hour, when he discovered that he was becoming exceedingly drowsy, and that the air of the room seemed not only to be unaccountably close but also to have a rather queer new odour in it. Jim yawned portentously several times, and at length moved over to the window to try whether the air would be any fresher there, for he put down its oppressiveness to the fact that there was no chimney in the room. But, so far as he could ascertain, the window seemed to be hermetically sealed; and upon inspection he found that the glass in it was so abnormally thick that to break it would be practically an impossibility.

Douglas now began to find that his breathing was becoming distinctly difficult and, seized with a vague sense of new danger, he ran to the door and hammered vigorously upon it, shouting at the same time for some one to come and release him. But his blows and shouts only echoed emptily round thepatio, and not a soul put in an appearance. He felt as though all the strength were going out of his limbs, and he presently staggered to a sofa, upon which he flung himself, powerless to stand upon his feet any longer. Strange visions began to float before him, and curious fancies flitted through his brain, which felt as though some one had bound an iron strap round it and was gradually increasing the pressure until it seemed as though his head must split asunder.

How much longer would it be, he wondered dully, before the coxswain in charge of theBlanco Encalada’ssteam-launch became anxious about his long absence, and instituted inquiries, or returned to the flagship with the news? Admiral Williams was certainly not the man to allow to pass unchallenged such a gross violation of International Law as the seizure and imprisonment of a properly accredited envoy; but then, the people who had been guilty of this outrage had doubtless acted unofficially, and theintendéntewould consequently deny all knowledge of the business. Surely, though—

But by this time Jim’s thoughts had become more and more confused, and his brain was refusing to act coherently. Flashes of lurid light passed before his eyes, and the horrible feeling of suffocation became ever more and more acute. Finally, with what he fancied was a shout for assistance, but it was, in reality, only a weak whisper, Jim lost consciousness altogether, and rolled from his couch on to the floor, where he lay like a log, breathing stertorously.

Almost at the same moment a section of the book-case surrounding the room moved inward, apparently of its own volition, and two men, one of whom was the man Lopés, crept cautiously into the apartment. Hastily seizing Jim’s inanimate body by the arms and legs, they dragged him out of the room, carried him down a long narrow passage and, opening the door of another room, took him inside and placed him on a bed which it contained.

“What a time the youngster took to go off, Manuel!” said the second fellow, addressing Lopés while he industriously searched Jim’s pockets. “I hope we have not given him an overdose, and killed him; for I expect the information that we shall extract from him will be worth a great deal more than that contained in the papers which he is sure to carry. By the way, I wonder where they can be? They are certainly not in his pockets. You are certain you have not made a mistake,amigo mio, and got hold of the wrong man?”

“Carrajo! no,” exclaimed Lopés testily. “This is the fellow, without doubt; I watched him all the way from the ship. Here, lend me your knife, and I will rip up his clothes; he is certain to have suspected treachery after I locked him in, and will have secreted the documents somewhere. Ah! here they are. Now, read them out to me, Carlos, while I try to bring thehijoround.”

There was silence for a few minutes, broken only by the rustle of paper; then, with an oath, the man called Carlos dashed the packet down, saying, in a voice hoarse with excitement and rage: “Carramba, Lopés you are a fool! you have made a mistake somewhere. This is not the man at all! I suspected as much when I saw that it was only a boy that you had captured. These papers are simply a notification from the admiral of the Chilians that the condensation of water is to cease! While we have been wasting time here the other fellow will have come ashore and returned again, with the papers still in his possession! Oh! Lopés, you are a mule,cabeza de porco! All our trouble has been in vain.”

“Softly, softly, my friend,” replied Manuel. “Even if we have, as you say, secured the wrong messenger, all our trouble willnothave been useless. You may have observed,caro mio, that this is a flag-officer, and he will be certain to have knowledge of a great many of Rebolledo Williams’s plans. Very well; when he recovers we will take measures to induce him—ha! ha!—to tell us all he knows. After the attention of an hour or so which we will give him, and with the assistance of certain little instruments which we possess, we will get out of him all the information he has. It is wonderful,” he went on musingly, “how communicative a man will become—under certain circumstances.”

The man Carlos looked at his fellow-scoundrel for a few moments, and then broke out into a hoarse chuckle.

“All right,querido; I understand,” he laughed. “We will remove him, however, for the present, to less comfortable quarters, as he seems to be on the point of recovery. Lift up his feet,mi amigo, while I take his arms as before.” Suiting the action to the word, the two men seized Jim’s body and carried it away down another passage, until they came to a flight of stone stairs, down which they went into the very bowels of the earth, as it seemed. Presently they encountered a massive stone door which, on being opened, disclosed a damp and unspeakably filthy cell. Into this they tossed the unfortunate officer, and, without caring, apparently, whether they broke every bone in his body or not, kicked him unmercifully into the centre of the dungeon, and then turned and left him.

Although the two scoundrels had been under the impression that Jim Douglas was on the point of recovery from unconsciousness when they thus callously tossed him into the cell, they were mistaken; for they found, upon revisiting him several hours later, that he was still in a state of insensibility. The two rascals then became not a little alarmed for the success of their scheme, and they at once did all in their power to revive their victim, with the result that, late that same evening, he recovered his senses, although he was much too dazed to answer the questions which they tried to put to him. The men therefore gave up their attempt for that night, and left Jim in peace, handing him a little bread and water, and promising themselves that they would return early the next morning.

Douglas recovered his faculties soon after Carlos and Lopés had left him, and while eating his frugal meal tried to unravel the mystery of his capture, and to calculate how long it would probably be before Admiral Williams should take any steps to find him. He was, however, still very dull and heavy, and presently dropped into a deep sleep, from which he was awakened, just as dawn was breaking, by the entrance of his captors. They immediately began to interrogate him about the number of men in the fleet, the condition of the ships, the number of their guns, and, above all, as to the plans which Admiral Williams had formed for the forthcoming attack on Peruvian ports.

Jim, of course, firmly refused to give them any information whatever upon the matters in question, but loudly denounced the way in which he had been treated, and demanded to be set at liberty immediately. Carlos and his accomplice merely laughed, and Lopés remarked: “So you refuse to tell us anything, do you, my young cockerel? Well, we shall see, we shall see. I will wager that you change your mind within the next half-hour; what say you, Carlos, eh? Now, once more will you tell me what—”

“No!” roared Douglas, in a fit of exasperation, “I will tell younothing! and you may do what you please, I will still keep silent. My captain will know how to avenge me if you offer me any injury.”

“Hark how loudly it crows, Manuel,” laughed Carlos, showing all his teeth. “However, I think we had better not waste any more time; bring in the playthings, Lopés, my brave.”

The latter went out of the cell, and presently returned, carrying an iron brazier filled with glowing charcoal, and bearing under his left arm a cloth which, when unrolled, disclosed to Jim’s horrified gaze a glittering array of instruments, the suggestiveness of the shapes of which left little doubt as to what was their ghastly use. The poor lad turned sick and faint, and the sweat began to pour off him at the mere sight of those fearful appliances. Still, he did not falter, and he swore to himself that not all their tortures should make a traitor of him.

“Now, Carlos!” exclaimed Lopés, throwing himself upon Jim, who struggled vainly to free himself from the clutches of the two powerful men who held him. In a few moments he was bound hand and foot, and Carlos removed the naval sword which they had not, as yet, taken from the young Chilian officer. Douglas was then flung on his back, and both arms and legs were lashed securely to iron rings cemented into the floor of the cell. This done, with a sardonic laugh, the two men stood upright and looked at the recumbent form of their prisoner. Then Carlos stepped across the dungeon and, chuckling all the while, thrust several of the steel instruments of torture in among the glowing charcoal of the brazier.

Half-fainting, and with every nerve and sense strained to its utmost, Jim suddenly fancied that he heard a faint sound, coming apparently from a great distance. It sounded, to his fevered imagination, almost like a bugle call, but it was so exceedingly faint that he thought his ears must have deceived him. He looked at the two rascals above him, but they were talking, and had evidently heard nothing. Carlos drew out from the brazier a long, curved piece of steel, but it was not yet red-hot and he replaced it, with a malevolent glance at Douglas.

Then suddenly there rang out, high, clear, and quite unmistakable, the sound of a trumpet; and it was blown at no very great distance away, either! Jim recognised it immediately; it was the alarm, and he felt that some crisis was at hand.

“Carrajo!” exclaimed the man Lopés, turning a pale face to his confederate, “what does that mean? Run up above, man, quickly, and find out. Surely it cannot be that—” He broke off, as a dull boom rumbled through the stagnant air and made the very stone cell quiver. “Quick, Carlos; quick, man, and see what is the matter.”

Without further bidding Carlos opened the door and sprang up the stairs, just as an appalling crash was heard, apparently quite close at hand, even if not in the very building itself. Then there was another rending explosion, and another, not quite so close at hand this time. Lopés, quivering with fear, glanced at Douglas, and then at the open door, as though meditating flight, and he had evidently just made up his mind to decamp when Carlos came plunging down the stone steps.

“Amigo mio!” he gasped hoarsely, “something has gone terribly wrong somewhere, for the Chilian squadron is bombarding Iquique; and what is more, all the shells are falling in this quarter. The streets are full of dead, and a man I saw flying past just now says that a body of marines is already on shore, and coming this way. We must fly at once, or we shall be too late! Can it be that this is in return for our having seized this youngster? Come along, my friend, quickly; and it would be well to give the boy a tap on the head and thus spare his countrymen the trouble of carrying him away, if they find him. But, come quickly man, or we are both lost. Those cursed shells are beginning to fall in this direction again!”

And indeed he was right; the dungeon fairly rocked under the hideous concussion of the bursting missiles, while the roar of falling masonry could plainly be heard above, mingled with shrieks which came to their ears, strangely muffled by the distance.

“I don’t like to leave that boy,” muttered Lopés, who seemed much the cooler of the two men, “but if I stay here we shall both be buried alive. No, Mr Officer, I will not kill you,” he said, drawing back his lips from his teeth with an evil smile; “I will leave you here, so that your friends may have the satisfaction of killing you themselves!”

Then, as another fearful crash sounded above, he kicked the brazier of coal over so that the glowing embers scattered themselves over Jim’s body, and, calling to his friend, exclaimed, “Adios, señor!” as the two men ran up the stone stairs. Jim suffered excruciating pain as the embers burnt their way through his clothes and ate into his flesh; but at length he contrived to roll and shake himself free of them. Meanwhile, his two enemies could hardly have gone a dozen steps upward when there came a most deafening concussion close by, and a shower of dust and flying fragments of masonry scattered itself round Douglas, nearly blinding him. He felt that he was lost; for, bound as he was, he could do nothing to help himself; but as he lay there waiting for death he was astonished to find that one of the cords confining his wrists was slackening, and the next moment it had parted; a fragment of glowing charcoal had providentially fallen upon it and burnt it through. With one hand free, he found himself able, with some difficulty, to release the other; after which a few seconds were sufficient to enable him to cast loose the lashings from his feet. He then stumbled and groped his way up the steps, passing, as he did so, the mangled bodies of Lopés and of Carlos, who had been literally blown to pieces. The house above was a mere shapeless mass of wreckage, and Jim had little difficulty in clambering over the débris into the street. As he emerged from the wrecked building there was a rattling volley, and a shower of bullets whistled past the young officer’s head. His own men were firing at him, under the impression that he was one of the enemy! He snatched a handkerchief from his pocket and waved it, just in time to avoid being riddled by a second discharge.

A moment later Douglas was shaking hands with his rescuers, who had so nearly escaped being merely his avengers. It now appeared that the coxswain of the launch, suspecting treachery, had followed Jim and his guide to the house, outside which he had waited for some time in the hope that he was mistaken, and that Jim would presently make his appearance. But when an hour had passed, the man felt convinced that something was wrong, and hurried back to the ship to report. Admiral Williams had thereupon sent an ultimatum to theintendéntethat, unless Señor Douglas was returned to theBlanco Encaladaby daybreak, he would bombard.

The unfortunate official, knowing nothing of the occurrence complained of, had failed, of course, to produce the young man; and Rebolledo Williams had carried out his threat, very nearly destroying the man whom he wished to save in so doing. Under cover of the heavy gun-fire a party of marines had been landed, and, under guidance of the coxswain, had gone toward the house where Jim was known to be. The men, seeing the place in ruins, naturally concluded that Jim was dead, and were on the point of retreating when the lad put in an appearance among the ruins.

Having happily accomplished their errand, the detachment now returned to the ships, having to fight their way back through the streets in the face of an almost overwhelming Peruvian force. But they won through eventually, and regained their boats without great loss. That afternoon Jim reported to the admiral, who thereupon determined to bombard in grim earnest on the following morning. Needless to say Jim slept sounder that night than he had done in the dungeon on the previous evening.

Chapter Five.The Battle between the Esmeralda and the Huascar.On the following morning, shortly after daybreak, Rebolledo Williams began his preparations for a further bombardment of Iquique; but, just as he was on the point of opening fire, theBlanco Encalada’syeoman of signals presented himself with a report that the Chilian gunboatMagellanes—a vessel of 772 tons displacement and of eleven knots speed—had just made her appearance in the bay, coming up from the southward, and flying the signal, “Have important news to communicate.” The admiral therefore ordered operations to be suspended for the moment, and waited impatiently for the captain of theMagellanesto come aboard and make his report. The little vessel was evidently in a hurry, for she steamed in at full speed, and did not bring up until close alongside the flagship. The anchor then splashed down to the accompaniment of a roar of chain-cable through the hawse-pipe the captain’s gig was lowered away; and a few minutes later that individual was being pulled across the short space of water between his own ship and theBlanco Encalada.Captain Simpson was closeted for over an hour with his admiral; at the end of which time the signal was made for the whole fleet to heave short in readiness for an early departure. TheMagellaneswas also ordered to accompany the squadron. As the ships were to go northward at top speed it was impossible to take theEsmeraldaalong as well, in consequence of her phenomenally low rate of speed. But as she herself would be at the mercy of almost any hostile ship that might happen to heave in sight while the main body of the fleet was absent, it was decided to leave with her the gunboatCovadonga; and these two vessels were ordered to continue the blockade of the port to the best of their ability.The news brought by theMagellanesvery soon filtered through the fleet, and was to the effect that her skipper had been sent from Valparaiso to inform the admiral that the Peruvian President Prado intended to leave Callao, on the night of May 16, for Arica, in the paddle-transportOroya; and that he was to be accompanied by theIndependencia, Huascar, Chalaco, andLimena. Admiral Williams was therefore ordered to abandon the blockade of Iquique, and, proceeding northward immediately, was to endeavour to intercept the squadron and, by forcing a fleet action, to destroy it, and so deal a fatal blow at the naval power of Peru. Simpson also reported that while on his way to join the flag he had fallen in, off the mouth of the river Loa, with the Peruvian warshipsUnionandPilcomayo, and that he had fought a running action of over two hours with them; his final escape being entirely due to his superior speed; as either of the Peruvian vessels would alone have been more than a match for his own little ship.This news occasioned the utmost bustle and activity among the Chilians. Every man was most eager to be off, for the prospect of a decisive action appealed irresistibly to all, both officers and men.Jim Douglas, however, was found by the ship’s surgeon to be suffering from a very severe attack of prostration, which had doubtless been brought on by his recent experiences ashore at Iquique. Sorely against his will, he was removed aboard the littleEsmeralda, together with a number of other sick men, the admiral having decided that since he was almost certain to be obliged to fight a severe battle, he would take with him no men save such as were absolutely sound.Amid the commiseration of his friends, among whom was, of course, Terence O’Meara, Jim, together with other sick men from the flagship’s crew, was put into a steam-launch and conveyed to the gunboat, from the deck of which he watched, half an hour later, while comfortably seated in a deck-chair, the departure of the Chilian squadron, consisting of theBlanco Encalada, Almirante Cochrane, O’Higgins, Chacabuco, Magellanes, andAbtao, the last-named being filled with combustibles so that she might serve, if necessary, as a fire-ship.The poor lad felt very keenly disappointed at being unable to accompany the fleet and take part in the action which everybody confidently looked forward to as being inevitable; but, had he only known it, fortune was at that moment about to smile on him, for Rebolledo Williams did not catch a glimpse of the Peruvians, while theEsmeraldaandCovadongawere presently to take part in a fight which has since become world-famous, by reason of the dauntless bravery which was exhibited by the Chilians in the face of overwhelming odds.Commander Arturo Prat, the captain of theEsmeralda, was at this time only thirty-one years of age, but was the senior officer of the two ships; theCovadongawas commanded by Carlos Condell, whose name has also passed into history. As has been said, Admiral Williams, having kept too close in under the land, altogether missed the Peruvian fleet, which escorted President Prado safely into Arica. TheHuascar, Captain Grau, and theIndependencia, Captain J.G. Moore, thereupon proceeded southward in the hope of falling in with some of the Chilian ships, and, having looked into Pisagua to make sure that the squadron of Rebolledo Williams was not lurking there, went on again toward Iquique, off which port they appeared at daybreak on the morning of May 21.Jim, having had nearly a week in which to recover from his attack of prostration, was by this time quite himself again; and it was with keen satisfaction that he reported himself to the commander as fit for duty, upon the appearance of the two Peruvian warships. The lion-hearted captain, when he saw the enormous superiority of the vessels opposed to him, recognised at once that he would have no chance in the coming encounter; but, quite undaunted, prepared at once for action, and signalled to theCovadongato do the same. Both gunboats were fortunately under steam at the time, although the littleEsmeralda’sboilers were in such a shocking condition that she could muster only sufficient power to move herself as fast as a man could walk. In a few minutes both vessels were as completely prepared for action as it was possible for them to be, and, calling aft his crew, many of whom were invalids, Prat made a short speech to them, which exhibited the lion courage of the man who has been called “the hero of Chili.” He said:“Children, the odds are against us, but our flag has thus far never been lowered in the presence of the enemy, and I hope that it will not be to-day. As long as I live that flag shall fly in its place; and if I die, my officers will know how to do their duty.”The men were then dismissed to their quarters, and almost immediately afterwards—at eight o’clock in the morning—theHuascarfired the first shot, which fell right between the two Chilian ships, and then began one of the most memorable sea-fights that have ever been recorded in history. The Chilians at once replied with every available gun, and the action instantly became fierce, theHuascarsingling out theEsmeraldaas her antagonist, while theCovadongawas attacked by theIndependencia.The Peruvian ironclads steamed slowly along toward their prey, theHuascarfiring her two 10-inch turret-guns as she came, but she was somewhat handicapped by the circumstance that there was great risk of her shot striking the town, which was, of course, still in Peruvian hands. But each of these shells weighed as much as 300 pounds; and whenever they hit the unfortunate sloop at which they were aimed, the effect was terrible. One of them pierced her thin side, and penetrating to the engine-room, burst there, killing every one of the engineers, and partially disabling the crazy engines. Arturo Prat, however, immediately detached from among the invalids a squad of men to do duty in the engine-room, and redoubled his fire upon his opponent, keeping up such a furious fusillade with his small-arms that Captain Grau of theHuascarmistook it for machine-gun fire; and so excellent was the aim of the marksmen that it destroyed the Peruvians who were working the unprotected guns, and prevented them from being replaced.Jim was here, there, and everywhere, encouraging and cheering on his men, both with voice and example; but the odds were most fearfully against the Chilians. Shot fell upon the unfortunateEsmeraldalike hail, and one of them shivered Douglas’s sword in his hand as he waved it above his head. The undaunted crew of the sloop were too fully occupied with the work of fighting theHuascarto take any notice of what was happening in the town behind them, and suddenly a shower of shells began to hurtle over the devoted craft from shoreward. The Peruvians there had dragged down to the beach a battery of field-pieces, with which they now opened a galling fire upon theEsmeralda. Her present berth at once became untenable, for she had not enough men left to work the guns on both broadsides, and Commander Prat at once rang down to his engine-room for “full speed ahead,” the anchor having been raised at the beginning of the action; and the doomed vessel’s engines began the last revolutions that they were ever to make.As soon as she was seen to be slowly steaming farther out into the bay, the captain of theHuascardetermined to try to ram his opponent, and thus end the fight at once. He accordingly steamed for theEsmeraldaat a speed of about eight knots, steering north-east, while the sloop was steering due north but was only just moving through the water.Douglas at once divined the intention of the Peruvian and shouted a warning to Prat, who had left the bridge for a few moments in order to assist with the repairing of a gun, the mechanism of which had become jammed, and the gallant commander immediately sprang to his bridge-telegraph, and rang for all the steam his boilers could give him. But the engineers were already getting every possible ounce of work out of the crazy machinery, and the sloop’s speed could not be increased! For two dreadful minutes the combatants paused, as if by mutual consent, while theHuascarrushed onward, like some fearful sea-monster, at its prey.But Captain Grau stopped his engines just a few seconds too soon, and theEsmeraldawas within an ace of scraping clear. She was nearly past—only a few yards more and she would be in safety—but her wretched engines chose just that precise moment to break down, and the sloop at once lost her way. The next second the Peruvian monitor struck her with a concussion that threw every man to the deck; but the blow was fortunately a glancing one, and theHuascarrubbed harmlessly along the sides of the sloop, coming to a standstill alongside her in consequence of the entanglement of some raised port-shutters.Now was the Chilian’s last opportunity to snatch success out of the jaws of failure, and Captain Prat immediately seized it.Waving his sword above his head, he shouted: “Boarders, away! Follow me all who are able!” And he sprang over the side of his ship on to the decks of theHuascar.Douglas was the second man aboard the Peruvian monitor, and he raced along her deck, followed by only twelve men, in the wake of his gallant commander. The Peruvians were not prepared for the attack, as they had quite expected to sink the little sloop with the first blow of theHuascar’sram; but they quickly recovered from their surprise and swarmed out of the turret, and up from below, charging furiously upon the boarders, with drawn cutlasses and revolvers. Scarcely a man, it appeared, had been touched aboard the Peruvian, owing to the great thickness of her armour-plating, and her crew, being practically intact, brought an overwhelming force to bear upon the handful of invaders, who were instantly surrounded by their enemies.There were but fourteen of them, all told, against quite a hundred of theHuascar’speople, but they fought like the heroes they were, and repeatedly charged home with their cutlasses, into the thick of the foe. Prat, still at the head of his men, laid about him with his red-stained sword, and encouraged them, both by voice and example, in the which he was ably seconded by Douglas, who took upon himself the task of guarding his captain’s rear. Cut and thrust, cut and thrust, the little band raged at the Peruvians; and for a few seconds it really seemed as though their desperate valour would prevail. But, alas, they had all long since emptied their revolvers, and only their blades remained to them, many of which had been broken by the delivery and warding of furious blows, so that many of the men were obliged to use their bare fists, or their pistols held club-wise.Such an unequal conflict could not long endure; the Chilians were falling, man after man, but all fighting desperately to the very last. Then, from somewhere up aloft, rifle-bullets began to hurtle among them, and then the end was very near. Looking upward, Douglas saw that a number of Peruvians, armed with rifles, had clambered up on the roof of the turret, and up into theHuascar’slow fighting-tops, and were firing directly downward into them.It was one of these bullets that put an end to the career of the gallant Chilian commander. He and Jim were fighting, shoulder to shoulder, and, at the head of only five men, were endeavouring to cut a way through their foes in order to regain their own ship. Indeed, their desperate valour had nearly carried them through when Prat, suddenly dropping his reeking sword, put both hands up to his face, and, after swaying on his feet for a second, fell into Jim’s arms. His face, as Douglas saw when the dead hands fell away, was literally shot to pieces by at least half a dozen bullets which must have struck simultaneously. Nothing could be done for the gallant sailor, for he must have died instantaneously, so Jim allowed him to sink gently to the deck, and took up his own defence again. There were only two men now left, beside himself, and escape seemed absolutely hopeless, when a volley of rifle-bullets plumped into the circle of Peruvians, evidently fired by some of the few remaining members of the sloop’s crew. Taken by surprise, the Peruvians scattered for a moment; and Jim, with the two Chilian seamen, took advantage of the opening and dashed through the crowd, gaining theHuascar’sside in safety. But to his horror he found that the two ships had drifted apart, and that theEsmeraldawas even now steaming away, at a very slow speed, certainly, but still far beyond the reach of the three deserted men on theHuascar!Jim took one hasty look round and then, putting his hands above his head, plunged downward into the sea, and began to strike out after his own ship. A few bullets splashed harmlessly into the water alongside him, and then the Peruvians turned their attention to other and larger prey. TheHuascarwent ahead once more and, taking a wide circle, presented her stem once more at the unfortunateEsmeralda. Jim then recognised that the sloop was doomed, and that it would be of no use for him to strive to regain her. It would be better to endeavour to reach theCovadonga, should she still be afloat, and he looked round to see whether he could see her.To his great surprise, even as he was looking for her, he heard a shout and saw the gunboat heading directly for him, with theIndependenciain hot pursuit. Carlos Condell, seeing the fate of his consort, and realising that he was hopelessly outmatched, had evidently determined to retreat while his engines were still intact; and theCovadongawas now heading out of the bay at full speed to the southward.For a moment Douglas thought that the ship would run over him, but a second glance showed him that it was evidently Condell’s intention to try to pick him up. As theCovadongaapproached, her captain sent his engines hard astern, checking the vessel’s speed sufficiently to allow of Jim being picked up by a rope which, already noosed, was cleverly thrown to him.Although the lad thought that his body must certainly be torn in half by the strain upon the rope, he was safely hauled aboard and deposited on deck, whereupon Captain Condell again sent his engines ahead at full speed and resumed his flight. Jim was soon upon his feet again, and almost before he had fully recovered his breath an officer came up to him to tell him that Commander Condell wished to see him, in order to receive a report from him as to what had, up to now, occurred aboard theEsmeralda. Jim therefore made his way to the little conning-tower where Carlos Condell was directing the fighting of his ship; but before he had time to enter he saw the final act in the fight between theHuascarand theEsmeralda.The Peruvian had dashed straight at the sloop and, stopping his engines when only eighty feet away from her, had struck her fairly on the starboard broadside, piercing a huge hole in her side, through which the water poured in cataracts. That finished the fight; and at ten minutes after twelve o’clock mid-day the gallant littleEsmeralda, with her colours still flying, and guns still firing, plunged downward out of sight into the deep blue waters of Iquique bay, having fought a most heroic battle against overwhelming odds.Jim was not long in making his report to Captain Condell, and with a glance at theIndependencia, which was hard upon theCovadonga’sheels, firing as she came, he now ran down below to change into dry clothes and equip himself with another sword and revolver; having, of course, lost his own when he jumped into the sea.TheIndependenciawas a slightly faster craft than theCovadonga, but she drew a good deal more water; and Captain Condell, with masterly skill, availed himself of this circumstance to the full, by running across shoals over which the Peruvian ship dared not follow him, and by keeping quite close in to the shore where she could not approach. Luckily, too, theIndependencia’sgunners were raw, and found great difficulty in hitting the little gunboat; but whenever they did the execution on board the small craft was tremendous, by reason of the huge size of the projectiles.At last, finding that he could not hit theCovadongain a vital spot, or bring her to a standstill, Captain Moore, the Peruvian captain, determined to risk his own ship in an endeavour to bring the running fight to a close. The combatants were now off Punto Gruesos, where the shore was steeper, and the water consequently of greater depth, and Moore decided to ram his opponent. He gradually edged closer and closer to theCovadonga—continually firing his heavy guns, to which the Chilian replied with a withering small-arm fire—until he was separated by only about a cable’s-length from the gunboat.He now suddenly changed his course from south to south-south-east and steered straight for theCovadonga, which was within a hundred yards of the beach, and had herself just touched a rock in her passage over it. But alas for the Peruvian, she missed her blow, and struck immediately upon the rock over which the gunboat had a moment before passed, becoming immovably fixed there.“Now,” roared Condell to the helmsman, “up with the helm, and we will go about and destroy that fellow completely. Señor Douglas,” he continued, to Jim, “kindly go down and superintend the working of that forward 70-pounder gun; I am told that the lieutenant in charge has been killed by theIndependencia’slast shot.”Jim ran off, as requested, and took charge of the weapon, while theCovadonga, describing a wide curve, wheeled round until she presented her bow to the wrecked Peruvian, and at a distance of about half a mile, began to plump shell right into her stern. Jim made excellent practice with the gun, and put shot after shot into the hapless vessel, each of which, entering her stern, passed through the whole length of the ship, finally setting her on fire in several places. Then, theIndependencia’shull having very nearly filled with water, she fell over on her side and became a complete wreck. Jim, however, still continued his firing until a man on board the Peruvian crawled aft and, hauling down the colours, hoisted a white flag in its place. TheCovadongathen, and only then, ceased firing.But unfortunately she could not enjoy the fruits of her victory, for, at the very moment when the Peruvian surrendered, theHuascar, having picked up the survivors of theEsmeralda’screw, made her appearance beyond the western end of the island which forms the south side of the bay of Iquique. The gunboat was, of course, no match for the monitor; and Condell was therefore reluctantly compelled to abandon theIndependenciaand seek his own safety in flight to the southward.Jim therefore fired a gun in defiance at theHuascar, which immediately took up the pursuit, and theCovadongasteamed away toward Antofagasta, which she reached on the following day, having run theHuascarout of sight; that ship being unable to steam very fast in consequence of an injury to her bow, caused by the ramming of theEsmeralda.

On the following morning, shortly after daybreak, Rebolledo Williams began his preparations for a further bombardment of Iquique; but, just as he was on the point of opening fire, theBlanco Encalada’syeoman of signals presented himself with a report that the Chilian gunboatMagellanes—a vessel of 772 tons displacement and of eleven knots speed—had just made her appearance in the bay, coming up from the southward, and flying the signal, “Have important news to communicate.” The admiral therefore ordered operations to be suspended for the moment, and waited impatiently for the captain of theMagellanesto come aboard and make his report. The little vessel was evidently in a hurry, for she steamed in at full speed, and did not bring up until close alongside the flagship. The anchor then splashed down to the accompaniment of a roar of chain-cable through the hawse-pipe the captain’s gig was lowered away; and a few minutes later that individual was being pulled across the short space of water between his own ship and theBlanco Encalada.

Captain Simpson was closeted for over an hour with his admiral; at the end of which time the signal was made for the whole fleet to heave short in readiness for an early departure. TheMagellaneswas also ordered to accompany the squadron. As the ships were to go northward at top speed it was impossible to take theEsmeraldaalong as well, in consequence of her phenomenally low rate of speed. But as she herself would be at the mercy of almost any hostile ship that might happen to heave in sight while the main body of the fleet was absent, it was decided to leave with her the gunboatCovadonga; and these two vessels were ordered to continue the blockade of the port to the best of their ability.

The news brought by theMagellanesvery soon filtered through the fleet, and was to the effect that her skipper had been sent from Valparaiso to inform the admiral that the Peruvian President Prado intended to leave Callao, on the night of May 16, for Arica, in the paddle-transportOroya; and that he was to be accompanied by theIndependencia, Huascar, Chalaco, andLimena. Admiral Williams was therefore ordered to abandon the blockade of Iquique, and, proceeding northward immediately, was to endeavour to intercept the squadron and, by forcing a fleet action, to destroy it, and so deal a fatal blow at the naval power of Peru. Simpson also reported that while on his way to join the flag he had fallen in, off the mouth of the river Loa, with the Peruvian warshipsUnionandPilcomayo, and that he had fought a running action of over two hours with them; his final escape being entirely due to his superior speed; as either of the Peruvian vessels would alone have been more than a match for his own little ship.

This news occasioned the utmost bustle and activity among the Chilians. Every man was most eager to be off, for the prospect of a decisive action appealed irresistibly to all, both officers and men.

Jim Douglas, however, was found by the ship’s surgeon to be suffering from a very severe attack of prostration, which had doubtless been brought on by his recent experiences ashore at Iquique. Sorely against his will, he was removed aboard the littleEsmeralda, together with a number of other sick men, the admiral having decided that since he was almost certain to be obliged to fight a severe battle, he would take with him no men save such as were absolutely sound.

Amid the commiseration of his friends, among whom was, of course, Terence O’Meara, Jim, together with other sick men from the flagship’s crew, was put into a steam-launch and conveyed to the gunboat, from the deck of which he watched, half an hour later, while comfortably seated in a deck-chair, the departure of the Chilian squadron, consisting of theBlanco Encalada, Almirante Cochrane, O’Higgins, Chacabuco, Magellanes, andAbtao, the last-named being filled with combustibles so that she might serve, if necessary, as a fire-ship.

The poor lad felt very keenly disappointed at being unable to accompany the fleet and take part in the action which everybody confidently looked forward to as being inevitable; but, had he only known it, fortune was at that moment about to smile on him, for Rebolledo Williams did not catch a glimpse of the Peruvians, while theEsmeraldaandCovadongawere presently to take part in a fight which has since become world-famous, by reason of the dauntless bravery which was exhibited by the Chilians in the face of overwhelming odds.

Commander Arturo Prat, the captain of theEsmeralda, was at this time only thirty-one years of age, but was the senior officer of the two ships; theCovadongawas commanded by Carlos Condell, whose name has also passed into history. As has been said, Admiral Williams, having kept too close in under the land, altogether missed the Peruvian fleet, which escorted President Prado safely into Arica. TheHuascar, Captain Grau, and theIndependencia, Captain J.G. Moore, thereupon proceeded southward in the hope of falling in with some of the Chilian ships, and, having looked into Pisagua to make sure that the squadron of Rebolledo Williams was not lurking there, went on again toward Iquique, off which port they appeared at daybreak on the morning of May 21.

Jim, having had nearly a week in which to recover from his attack of prostration, was by this time quite himself again; and it was with keen satisfaction that he reported himself to the commander as fit for duty, upon the appearance of the two Peruvian warships. The lion-hearted captain, when he saw the enormous superiority of the vessels opposed to him, recognised at once that he would have no chance in the coming encounter; but, quite undaunted, prepared at once for action, and signalled to theCovadongato do the same. Both gunboats were fortunately under steam at the time, although the littleEsmeralda’sboilers were in such a shocking condition that she could muster only sufficient power to move herself as fast as a man could walk. In a few minutes both vessels were as completely prepared for action as it was possible for them to be, and, calling aft his crew, many of whom were invalids, Prat made a short speech to them, which exhibited the lion courage of the man who has been called “the hero of Chili.” He said:

“Children, the odds are against us, but our flag has thus far never been lowered in the presence of the enemy, and I hope that it will not be to-day. As long as I live that flag shall fly in its place; and if I die, my officers will know how to do their duty.”

The men were then dismissed to their quarters, and almost immediately afterwards—at eight o’clock in the morning—theHuascarfired the first shot, which fell right between the two Chilian ships, and then began one of the most memorable sea-fights that have ever been recorded in history. The Chilians at once replied with every available gun, and the action instantly became fierce, theHuascarsingling out theEsmeraldaas her antagonist, while theCovadongawas attacked by theIndependencia.

The Peruvian ironclads steamed slowly along toward their prey, theHuascarfiring her two 10-inch turret-guns as she came, but she was somewhat handicapped by the circumstance that there was great risk of her shot striking the town, which was, of course, still in Peruvian hands. But each of these shells weighed as much as 300 pounds; and whenever they hit the unfortunate sloop at which they were aimed, the effect was terrible. One of them pierced her thin side, and penetrating to the engine-room, burst there, killing every one of the engineers, and partially disabling the crazy engines. Arturo Prat, however, immediately detached from among the invalids a squad of men to do duty in the engine-room, and redoubled his fire upon his opponent, keeping up such a furious fusillade with his small-arms that Captain Grau of theHuascarmistook it for machine-gun fire; and so excellent was the aim of the marksmen that it destroyed the Peruvians who were working the unprotected guns, and prevented them from being replaced.

Jim was here, there, and everywhere, encouraging and cheering on his men, both with voice and example; but the odds were most fearfully against the Chilians. Shot fell upon the unfortunateEsmeraldalike hail, and one of them shivered Douglas’s sword in his hand as he waved it above his head. The undaunted crew of the sloop were too fully occupied with the work of fighting theHuascarto take any notice of what was happening in the town behind them, and suddenly a shower of shells began to hurtle over the devoted craft from shoreward. The Peruvians there had dragged down to the beach a battery of field-pieces, with which they now opened a galling fire upon theEsmeralda. Her present berth at once became untenable, for she had not enough men left to work the guns on both broadsides, and Commander Prat at once rang down to his engine-room for “full speed ahead,” the anchor having been raised at the beginning of the action; and the doomed vessel’s engines began the last revolutions that they were ever to make.

As soon as she was seen to be slowly steaming farther out into the bay, the captain of theHuascardetermined to try to ram his opponent, and thus end the fight at once. He accordingly steamed for theEsmeraldaat a speed of about eight knots, steering north-east, while the sloop was steering due north but was only just moving through the water.

Douglas at once divined the intention of the Peruvian and shouted a warning to Prat, who had left the bridge for a few moments in order to assist with the repairing of a gun, the mechanism of which had become jammed, and the gallant commander immediately sprang to his bridge-telegraph, and rang for all the steam his boilers could give him. But the engineers were already getting every possible ounce of work out of the crazy machinery, and the sloop’s speed could not be increased! For two dreadful minutes the combatants paused, as if by mutual consent, while theHuascarrushed onward, like some fearful sea-monster, at its prey.

But Captain Grau stopped his engines just a few seconds too soon, and theEsmeraldawas within an ace of scraping clear. She was nearly past—only a few yards more and she would be in safety—but her wretched engines chose just that precise moment to break down, and the sloop at once lost her way. The next second the Peruvian monitor struck her with a concussion that threw every man to the deck; but the blow was fortunately a glancing one, and theHuascarrubbed harmlessly along the sides of the sloop, coming to a standstill alongside her in consequence of the entanglement of some raised port-shutters.

Now was the Chilian’s last opportunity to snatch success out of the jaws of failure, and Captain Prat immediately seized it.

Waving his sword above his head, he shouted: “Boarders, away! Follow me all who are able!” And he sprang over the side of his ship on to the decks of theHuascar.

Douglas was the second man aboard the Peruvian monitor, and he raced along her deck, followed by only twelve men, in the wake of his gallant commander. The Peruvians were not prepared for the attack, as they had quite expected to sink the little sloop with the first blow of theHuascar’sram; but they quickly recovered from their surprise and swarmed out of the turret, and up from below, charging furiously upon the boarders, with drawn cutlasses and revolvers. Scarcely a man, it appeared, had been touched aboard the Peruvian, owing to the great thickness of her armour-plating, and her crew, being practically intact, brought an overwhelming force to bear upon the handful of invaders, who were instantly surrounded by their enemies.

There were but fourteen of them, all told, against quite a hundred of theHuascar’speople, but they fought like the heroes they were, and repeatedly charged home with their cutlasses, into the thick of the foe. Prat, still at the head of his men, laid about him with his red-stained sword, and encouraged them, both by voice and example, in the which he was ably seconded by Douglas, who took upon himself the task of guarding his captain’s rear. Cut and thrust, cut and thrust, the little band raged at the Peruvians; and for a few seconds it really seemed as though their desperate valour would prevail. But, alas, they had all long since emptied their revolvers, and only their blades remained to them, many of which had been broken by the delivery and warding of furious blows, so that many of the men were obliged to use their bare fists, or their pistols held club-wise.

Such an unequal conflict could not long endure; the Chilians were falling, man after man, but all fighting desperately to the very last. Then, from somewhere up aloft, rifle-bullets began to hurtle among them, and then the end was very near. Looking upward, Douglas saw that a number of Peruvians, armed with rifles, had clambered up on the roof of the turret, and up into theHuascar’slow fighting-tops, and were firing directly downward into them.

It was one of these bullets that put an end to the career of the gallant Chilian commander. He and Jim were fighting, shoulder to shoulder, and, at the head of only five men, were endeavouring to cut a way through their foes in order to regain their own ship. Indeed, their desperate valour had nearly carried them through when Prat, suddenly dropping his reeking sword, put both hands up to his face, and, after swaying on his feet for a second, fell into Jim’s arms. His face, as Douglas saw when the dead hands fell away, was literally shot to pieces by at least half a dozen bullets which must have struck simultaneously. Nothing could be done for the gallant sailor, for he must have died instantaneously, so Jim allowed him to sink gently to the deck, and took up his own defence again. There were only two men now left, beside himself, and escape seemed absolutely hopeless, when a volley of rifle-bullets plumped into the circle of Peruvians, evidently fired by some of the few remaining members of the sloop’s crew. Taken by surprise, the Peruvians scattered for a moment; and Jim, with the two Chilian seamen, took advantage of the opening and dashed through the crowd, gaining theHuascar’sside in safety. But to his horror he found that the two ships had drifted apart, and that theEsmeraldawas even now steaming away, at a very slow speed, certainly, but still far beyond the reach of the three deserted men on theHuascar!

Jim took one hasty look round and then, putting his hands above his head, plunged downward into the sea, and began to strike out after his own ship. A few bullets splashed harmlessly into the water alongside him, and then the Peruvians turned their attention to other and larger prey. TheHuascarwent ahead once more and, taking a wide circle, presented her stem once more at the unfortunateEsmeralda. Jim then recognised that the sloop was doomed, and that it would be of no use for him to strive to regain her. It would be better to endeavour to reach theCovadonga, should she still be afloat, and he looked round to see whether he could see her.

To his great surprise, even as he was looking for her, he heard a shout and saw the gunboat heading directly for him, with theIndependenciain hot pursuit. Carlos Condell, seeing the fate of his consort, and realising that he was hopelessly outmatched, had evidently determined to retreat while his engines were still intact; and theCovadongawas now heading out of the bay at full speed to the southward.

For a moment Douglas thought that the ship would run over him, but a second glance showed him that it was evidently Condell’s intention to try to pick him up. As theCovadongaapproached, her captain sent his engines hard astern, checking the vessel’s speed sufficiently to allow of Jim being picked up by a rope which, already noosed, was cleverly thrown to him.

Although the lad thought that his body must certainly be torn in half by the strain upon the rope, he was safely hauled aboard and deposited on deck, whereupon Captain Condell again sent his engines ahead at full speed and resumed his flight. Jim was soon upon his feet again, and almost before he had fully recovered his breath an officer came up to him to tell him that Commander Condell wished to see him, in order to receive a report from him as to what had, up to now, occurred aboard theEsmeralda. Jim therefore made his way to the little conning-tower where Carlos Condell was directing the fighting of his ship; but before he had time to enter he saw the final act in the fight between theHuascarand theEsmeralda.

The Peruvian had dashed straight at the sloop and, stopping his engines when only eighty feet away from her, had struck her fairly on the starboard broadside, piercing a huge hole in her side, through which the water poured in cataracts. That finished the fight; and at ten minutes after twelve o’clock mid-day the gallant littleEsmeralda, with her colours still flying, and guns still firing, plunged downward out of sight into the deep blue waters of Iquique bay, having fought a most heroic battle against overwhelming odds.

Jim was not long in making his report to Captain Condell, and with a glance at theIndependencia, which was hard upon theCovadonga’sheels, firing as she came, he now ran down below to change into dry clothes and equip himself with another sword and revolver; having, of course, lost his own when he jumped into the sea.

TheIndependenciawas a slightly faster craft than theCovadonga, but she drew a good deal more water; and Captain Condell, with masterly skill, availed himself of this circumstance to the full, by running across shoals over which the Peruvian ship dared not follow him, and by keeping quite close in to the shore where she could not approach. Luckily, too, theIndependencia’sgunners were raw, and found great difficulty in hitting the little gunboat; but whenever they did the execution on board the small craft was tremendous, by reason of the huge size of the projectiles.

At last, finding that he could not hit theCovadongain a vital spot, or bring her to a standstill, Captain Moore, the Peruvian captain, determined to risk his own ship in an endeavour to bring the running fight to a close. The combatants were now off Punto Gruesos, where the shore was steeper, and the water consequently of greater depth, and Moore decided to ram his opponent. He gradually edged closer and closer to theCovadonga—continually firing his heavy guns, to which the Chilian replied with a withering small-arm fire—until he was separated by only about a cable’s-length from the gunboat.

He now suddenly changed his course from south to south-south-east and steered straight for theCovadonga, which was within a hundred yards of the beach, and had herself just touched a rock in her passage over it. But alas for the Peruvian, she missed her blow, and struck immediately upon the rock over which the gunboat had a moment before passed, becoming immovably fixed there.

“Now,” roared Condell to the helmsman, “up with the helm, and we will go about and destroy that fellow completely. Señor Douglas,” he continued, to Jim, “kindly go down and superintend the working of that forward 70-pounder gun; I am told that the lieutenant in charge has been killed by theIndependencia’slast shot.”

Jim ran off, as requested, and took charge of the weapon, while theCovadonga, describing a wide curve, wheeled round until she presented her bow to the wrecked Peruvian, and at a distance of about half a mile, began to plump shell right into her stern. Jim made excellent practice with the gun, and put shot after shot into the hapless vessel, each of which, entering her stern, passed through the whole length of the ship, finally setting her on fire in several places. Then, theIndependencia’shull having very nearly filled with water, she fell over on her side and became a complete wreck. Jim, however, still continued his firing until a man on board the Peruvian crawled aft and, hauling down the colours, hoisted a white flag in its place. TheCovadongathen, and only then, ceased firing.

But unfortunately she could not enjoy the fruits of her victory, for, at the very moment when the Peruvian surrendered, theHuascar, having picked up the survivors of theEsmeralda’screw, made her appearance beyond the western end of the island which forms the south side of the bay of Iquique. The gunboat was, of course, no match for the monitor; and Condell was therefore reluctantly compelled to abandon theIndependenciaand seek his own safety in flight to the southward.

Jim therefore fired a gun in defiance at theHuascar, which immediately took up the pursuit, and theCovadongasteamed away toward Antofagasta, which she reached on the following day, having run theHuascarout of sight; that ship being unable to steam very fast in consequence of an injury to her bow, caused by the ramming of theEsmeralda.

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