athletic and powerful man, and led him captive to the boat. For this service, and for his conduct in a campaign against the fierce Araucanians, whom the Spaniards had never been able to subjugate, he was made in January, 1823, over the heads of all the lieutenants, captain of the grenadier company of battalion No. 8, commanded by the same gallant Frenchman, Colonel Beauchef. This company con- sisted of upwards of one hundred exceedingly fine men, and accompanying the battalion shortly after in an expedition to Arica, it excited the surprise of the comparatively diminutive Peruvians, and to which its captain appears not a little to have contributed. This expedition was soon recalled from Peru to proceed under the director, General Ramon Freire, against the island of Chiloe,* so long and so bravely defended by the Spanish Governor Quintanilla. On the return voy- age from Arica to Coquimbo the vessel, which conveyed the grenadiers of No. 8, was short of both provisions and water, and of the latter only a wine glass full was at last served out in twenty-four hours to each indi- vidual. Although the heat was intense, and two of the grenadiers died, the company, when drawn up to receive the scanty draught, invariably refused to touch it until their captain had tasted of each glass, and one dying soldier would confess himself to no one but his captain, so strong a hold had he already gained on the affections of those he commanded.
We have already said that an attempt was about to be made to wrest the island of Chiloe from the
- Lord Cochrane's next attempt was upon the island of Chiloe, the largest
of an archipelago of seventy-two islands, stretching along the inhospitable coast between Valdivia and the straits of Magellan. The navigation is very intricate, on account of eddies, currents, and whirlpools; and a tremendous surf renders the coast almost every where unapproachable. — Modern Tra- veller, Peru, Citik, 1829.
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