_Puyrredon_. A mutiny having broken out on board the _Chacabuco_, it
became necessary to enter Coquimbo, where the leading mutineers were
landed, tried, and punished.

I shall here narrate an incident which occurred on our departure. Lady
Cochrane, with her children, had returned from Santiago to Valparaiso,
to take leave of me on embarkation. She had just gone ashore, and the
last gun had been fired to summon all hands on board, when, hearing a
loud _hurrah_ near the house where she resided, she went to the window,
and saw our little boy--now Lord Cochrane, but then scarcely more than
five years old--mounted on the shoulders of my flag-lieutenant, waving
his tiny cap over the heads of the people, and crying out with all his
might, _"Viva la patria!"_ the mob being in a frenzied state of
excitement.

The child had slipped out of Lady Cochrane's house with the officer,
insisting on being carried to his father; with which request the
lieutenant, nothing loth, complied. To the horror of Lady Cochrane, she
saw her boy hurried down to the beach amidst the shouts of the
multitude, and, before she could interfere, placed in a boat and rowed
off to the flag-ship, which was at the time under weigh, so that he
could not be sent ashore again; there being no alternative but to take
him with us, though without clothes--which were afterwards made for him
by the sailors--and with no other attendance save that which their rough
but kindly natures could administer.

On our way along the coast we received information that the _Antonio_
was about to sail from Callao for Cadiz, with a considerable amount of
treasure, so that, in the hope of intercepting her, we cruized just out
of sight of the port till the 21st of February. As she did not make her