him, and he fell, shouting, "Stick to her, boys! The ship's ours."
But while the fighting went on the ships had separated. Turner, thinking the enemy was captured, sent off a boat with eighteen men to assist, and sailed off in the Lautaro against the Pezuela, which hauled down her flag without firing a shot. Meantime Coig, commander of the Esmeralda, had rallied his men, recaptured the upper deck, drove the rest of the assailants overboard, and on the return of the Lautaro made off, accompanied by the Pezuela, for Talcahuano, both of them being swifter ships than the Lautaro. On their way back to port the Chilian vessels captured a Spanish brig, whose value more than covered the cost of the Lautaro.
Government then bought an American privateer mounting 20 guns, and named her the Chacabuco. Soon afterwards an American brig mounting 16 guns was purchased, and named the Araucano. In August the ship Cumberland, purchased by Condarco in London, arrived, and was named the San Martin.
Chile had thus rapidly acquired a small fleet of her own, and, looking about for an admiral, she chose Don Manuel Blanco Encalada, a young officer of artillery. Born in Buenos Ayres of a Chilian mother, Encalada had adopted Chile as his country; he had held a separate command before the disaster of Rancagua, was among the Patriot prisoners rescued by the Pueyrredon from the island of Juan Fernandez, was present at Cancha-Rayada, and had distinguished himself at Maipó. He had previously served in the Spanish navy as a junior officer, and was at this time twenty-eight years of age.
On the 21st May a Spanish expedition of eleven transports, two of which were armed vessels, under convoy of the 50-gun ship Maria Isabel, sailed from Cadiz for the Pacific, carrying two battalions of the regiment of Cantabria, 1,600 strong, a regiment of cavalry of 300 sabres, 180 artillerymen and pioneers, with 8,000 spare muskets.
