INTRODUCTION. 37 



great object. In aid of this, several privateers were fitted out, 

 which at least served to procure intelligence of the motions of the 

 enemy. But the encouragement of the privateers having been 

 found detrimental to the manning of the regular ships of war, an 

 order was published commanding them to give up their men, and 

 to return to trade some time in August, in which month also are 

 dated the first regulations for the rank of officers, and the first naval 

 appointments, the admiral being Don Manoel Blanco Encalada, an 

 artillery officer, who had many years before served as a midship- 

 man in the Spanish navy ; and the other officers were, with few 

 exceptions, nearly as little qualified by previous habits for the 

 service. During the course of the same month, a large ship, called 

 the Cumberland, laden with coals, and commanded by Mr. Wilkinson, 

 who had been first mate of an East Indiaman, arrived at Valpa- 

 raiso : she was immediately purchased, and her captain persuaded 

 to stay with her ; and by the 30th of August she was converted into 

 a ship of war, new named the San Martin, and hoisted the Chileno 

 flag. 



A singular piece of good fortune befell the Chilenos at this junc- 

 ture. The Spanish government had fitted out nine transports, 

 under the convoy of the fifty-gun frigate, the Maria Isabella, in 

 which were embarked upwards of 2000 troops, under Don Fausto 

 del Hoyo, destined to reinforce the viceroy of Peru. The crew of 

 one of the transports, the Trinidad, or rather the soldiers on board, 

 rose on the officers, seized the ship, and carried her into Buenos 

 Ayres, where they joined the patriots, and gave information of the 

 force of the rest, and their destination to the south of Chile. A 

 courier was immediately despatched across the Andes : the govern- 

 ment took its measures accordingly, and, redoubling every effort to 

 get the squadron to sea, it sailed on the 9th of October in pursuit 

 of the enemy. The force consisted of the San Martin, 64 guns, 

 commanded by Captain Wilkinson, and bearing Admiral Blanco's 

 flag ; the Lautaro, 50 guns, commanded by Captain Worcester, who 



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