cutlasses of the Chilenos before they could stand to their arms. Greater
bravery I never saw displayed than that of our gallant fellows. Before
boarding, the duties of all had been appointed, and a party was told off
to take possession of the tops. We had not been on deck a minute, when I
hailed the foretop, and was instantly answered by our own men, an
equally prompt answer being returned from the frigate's maintop. No
British man-of-war's crew could have excelled this minute attention to
orders.

The uproar speedily alarmed the garrison, who, hastening to their guns,
opened fire on their own frigate, thus paying us the compliment of
having taken it; though, even in this case, their own men must still
have been on board, so that firing on them was a wanton proceeding, as
several Spaniards were killed or wounded by the shot of the fortress,
and amongst the wounded was Captain Coig, the commander of the
_Esmeralda_--who, after he was made prisoner, received a severe
contusion by a shot from his own party.

The fire from the fortress was, however, neutralised by a successful
expedient. There were two foreign ships of war present during the
contest--the United States frigate _Macedonian_, and the British frigate
_Hyperion_; and these, as previously agreed on with the Spanish
authorities in case of a night attack--hoisted peculiar lights as
signals, to prevent being fired upon. This contingency being provided
for by us--as soon as the fortress commenced its fire on the
_Esmeralda_, we also ran up similar lights, so that the garrison became
puzzled which vessel to fire at; the intended mischief thus involving
the _Hyperion_ and _Macedonian_, which were several times struck, the
_Esmeralda_ being comparatively untouched. Upon this the neutral
frigates cut their cables and moved away; whilst Captain Guise, contrary