all the varied uniforms of the Liberating Army, including those of the division left behind under Arenales. The walls of the city and the heights behind were crowded with spectators. One of these spectators, who has described the scene, says: "The Liberating expedition and the capital of Peru were on mutual exhibition."
A part of the squadron remained to blockade Callao, the rest, with the transports, sailed on to the Bay of Ancon, twenty-two miles to the north of Lima. Two hundred infantry and forty of the grenadiers, under Captain Brandzen, landed, under command of Major Reyes, a Peruvian, with the object of occupying the village of Chancay, and collecting horses and provisions.
The Royalist army, encamped at Asnapuquio, six miles from Lima, sent against them a column of 600 men, under Colonel Valdés, upon which Reyes retired. Brandzen, who brought up the rear with his forty horsemen, turned upon the enemy as they passed a narrow defile, and charged with such impetuosity that he drove their cavalry back in confusion upon the infantry, and gained time for Reyes to make good his retreat with all the cattle he had collected.
Meantime two important events had occurred. Guayaquil had pronounced in favour of the Revolution, and Cochrane had cut out the frigate Esmeralda from under the guns of Callao.
The province of Guayaquil, once a dependency of Peru, now formed part of the Viceroyalty of New Granada, being attached to the district governed by the Captain-General of Quito, but from the exigencies of the moment was for a time again under the rule of the Viceroy of Peru. The port of Guayaquil was the arsenal of Spain on the Pacific, and, Callao being blockaded, was now the last refuge of the navy dispersed by Cochrane, and was garrisoned by a strong battalion of Spanish infantry.
Quito had remained quiet since the outbreak of 1809, but the advance of Bolívar on the north, the invasion of Peru by San Martin, and the victories of Cochrane on the
