the impending attack.

It was just upon midnight when we neared the small opening left in the
boom, our plan being well-nigh frustrated by the vigilance of a
guard-boat, upon which my launch had luckily stumbled. The challenge was
given, upon which, in an under-tone, I threatened the occupants of the
boat with instant death if they made the least alarm. No reply was made
to the threat, and in a few minutes our gallant fellows were alongside
the frigate in line, boarding at several points simultaneously.

The Spaniards were completely taken by surprise--the whole, with the
exception of the sentries, being asleep at their quarters--and great was
the havoc made amongst them by the Chileno cutlasses whilst they were
recovering themselves. Retreating to the forecastle, they there made a
gallant stand, and it was not until the third charge that the position
was carried. The fight was for a short time renewed on the
quarter-deck, where the Spanish marines fell to a man, the rest of the
enemy leaping overboard and into the hold to escape slaughter.

On boarding the ship by the main chains, I was knocked back by the butt
end of the sentry's musket, and falling on a thole pin of the boat, it
entered my back near the spine, inflicting a severe injury, which caused
me many years of subsequent suffering. Immediately regaining my footing,
I reascended the side, and when on deck, was shot through the thigh, but
binding a handkerchief tightly round the wound, managed, though with
great difficulty, to direct the contest to its close.

The whole affair, from beginning to end, occupied only a quarter of an
hour, our loss being eleven killed and thirty wounded, whilst that of
the Spaniards was a hundred and sixty, many of whom fell under the